Chapter 94: Scouting Part 5

Deep Space, January 28th, 1999 (Earth Time)

"...and so the ship can be restored to a state where it should be able to safely travel through hyperspace. The hyperdrive is easily fixable, as I've reported before, but the reactor needs more extensive repairs."

Adora nodded as Sam finished her report. That wasn't really a surprise.

"Their fault for placing the main reactor close to the magazines." Catra leaned back on her chair and stretched her arms over her head.

"It also served as a fuel tank. Well, sort of - it's not exactly as if they would just shovel Naquadah into their reactors like we've seen in some movies, but the material serves as a base for both their weapons and propulsion. And power supply. And it's a tiny bit volatile if you nudge it just enough with the right kind of stimulus, so it makes sense to keep it all in one place," Entrapta said. "Because if your Naquadah storage gets hit by a blaster cannon… Boom!" She puffed up her cheeks and mimed an explosion with her hands. "That way, you only have one such weakness instead of two. Or more. It's just good engineering."

"Well, it's still not my fault." Catra shrugged. "We had to keep them from blowing us up."

Adora nodded again. The others had told them about the Jaffa suiciding when they were boarded. If they hadn't secured the magazines… She shuddered.

"Yes, but that still means our shiny, almost new spaceship isn't so shiny any more," Jack said.

"It's actually an old ship, sir," Sam told him. "It was maintained well, and there were some revisions and upgrades compared to the original design, but it was built before Sokar's disappearance. The logs have been tampered with, so we can't pin down where it was built, but we could determine its age."

"Well, it makes sense that Sokar wouldn't use newer ships on a false flag mission. They were probably expendable, seeing as how his Jaffa blew them up so quickly," Glimmer commented.

"Yeah," Catra chimed in. "You don't use your best material for that. Or your best troops. Unless it's so important, you can't risk failure. Or you can't trust your expendable troops to suicide before capture." She narrowed her eyes at the others, who were glancing at her, Adora saw. "I didn't make troops suicide. But in a war, you have to sacrifice soldiers sometimes."

Not if I can help it, Adora thought.

"That's why princesses lead from the front," Glimmer said.

Bow nodded, as did Teal'c, but Adora could see that Jack looked… well, he wasn't frowning, but he was doing that expression as if he had bit on something sour and was trying not to show it. And Sam was a bit too busy looking at her computer.

Daniel cleared his throat. "But sacrificing yourself might lead to more people dying in the long run."

"Whatever," Jack spoke up before Adora could reply. "The question is: do we have time to repair the ship to take with us, or not? Carter?"

Sam pressed her lips together. "I am sorry, sir, but fixing the reactor will take more than a few hours. A straight replacement would be possible, but we don't have a spare reactor with the output needed to power a Ha'tak's system. We could use a frigate's reactor, but that would mean we'd sacrifice a massively more capable ship for a ship that needs extensive upgrades to be competitive. And hooking up several smaller power sources, such as shuttle reactors, would require replacing the power lines or minor fluctuations could wreck the entire setup."

Glimmer shook her head. "Since we have to assume that this location is known to Sokar's forces, the longer we stay, the higher the chance that he will send more forces - including scouting vessels."

Jack nodded slowly. "And that would risk ruining the surprise." He shrugged. "Well, bringing a prize ship back would probably just have led to a huge argument over who got to keep it. It's still a shame we can't take it with us after all the trouble we went through to get it."

Adora nodded in agreement, even though she thought this sounded a bit like… 'sour grapes', Daniel had called it.

Catra scoffed. "It's a broken piece of crap. Even if it were brand new, Entrapta and Sam would have to spend weeks upgrading it so it wouldn't be a liability in a battle."

"It could have served as a training ship for Earth troops," Sam pointed out.

Entrapta nodded. "And it looks cool. Do we really have to destroy it?" She looked at them with wide eyes.

Adora nodded, if a bit reluctantly.

"We have to destroy all traces of our presence," Catra told their friend. "And there'll be more ships we can board and take."

"But they all kept blowing up!"

"We'll solve that issue." Catra grinned. "And you can probably build a training ship."

"Oh, right! I have a few ideas about that already. We could crew it with bots that can show people how to handle it!" Entrapta nodded. "We can even make it look like a pyramid!"

Adora winced. "Ah, I think it would be better if it didn't look like a Goa'uld ship."

"I think it would be better if its design were, ah, inspired by Earth prototypes," Sam added.

"Right!" Entrapta nodded. "Or we could take one of the prototypes and modify it."

Jack cleared his throat. "Anyway, before we go into spaceship design, let's blow up the ship and all the evidence and leave?"

"Yes." Glimmer nodded.

"Let me call Priest," Adora said, trying not to wince. Priest's reaction to some of the Jaffa converting to worshipping She-Ra had been… enthusiastic.

"Of course, Your Divine Highness! Your word is our holy command! Your will shall be done! None of Your faithful shall be harmed by those who still scorn Your divine guidance and wisdom despite the evidence of Your grace and divine blessing. We will not falter in our vigil over the prisoners and do our best to turn them to Your divine light! Without violating their rights, of course - participation in prayers will be purely voluntary, as Your holy decree demands!"

"Thank you, Priest."

Samantha Carter slightly grimaced in sympathy as she watched Adora close the connection to the bridge again. And to think she had wondered why Priest wasn't taking part in their conference…

"Ah… as you heard, the prisoners are ready for transport back to Earth." Adora winced. "They've been separated and will be monitored."

"And preached at," the Colonel added.

Adora winced again. "If they want to, ah, take part in, ah..."

"Worshipping you?" Catra raised her eyebrows with a smirk, seemingly unimpressed by her lover's scowl. Sam had wondered more than once about the dynamics of their relationship. Sometimes, it seemed as if Catra would do anything Adora wanted, no matter the cost, and sometimes, she acted… well, like this, teasing even though she knew her lover hated the situation.

Then Catra's expression changed as she leaned forward, looking straight at her lover and breathed more than said: "Well, who wouldn't want to worship you?"

Adora blushed terribly. "Ah…"

And sometimes, a bit too often for Sam's sense of professionalism and her slight envy, they acted like that.

"Well, worshipping voluntarily or not, this could set a bad precedent. You betcha that if we let one, ah, church convert our prisoners, every other church will want to do the same," the Colonel pointed out.

Daniel replied as Sam had known he would: "Actually, Jack, not all, not even most Christian churches are sending out missionaries. And that goes for many other religions as well - outside the Christian and Muslim faith, few religions focus on converting others." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "And even amongst those churches that emphasise converting others, there's a debate whether or not aliens actually would be, ah, suitable targets."

"You mean, they haven't yet decided if aliens have souls," the Colonel commented. "But enough of them have decided that aliens are people too that we'll get trouble from them."

Sam had to agree with that assessment. The religious right in America had lost some of their influence in the wake of the rush to join the Alliance, but they remained an important factor in national politics. If they pressed for 'equal opportunities' to convert aliens, a number of politicians might see this as an easy concession.

"Why would there be trouble?" Teal'c calmly asked. "If more Jaffa break with their faith in false gods, that will help our struggle to end the Goa'uld."

"Earth's history is full of trouble related to religious differences," the Colonel replied. "Usually bloody ones."

"That's a bit simplified," Daniel said. "Religion has been, and continues to be, an important factor in society - and conflicts - but it's merely one factor amongst many and often subsumed or instrumentalised by other interests. Granted, sometimes, that relationship changes, and religious interests and motivations might take over, but we cannot simply assume that letting missionaries talk to captured Jaffa will be harmful. And, of course, there's the principle of the thing - it would be unjust and unfair if we favoured one religion above the others. It's in the constitution, after all - well the constitution of the United States."

"I'm no goddess," Sam heard Adora mutter. "I don't want a religion."

"But you have one," Catra said.

Glimmer nodded - at Daniel. "Yes. We have to treat everyone equally. But we also have to ensure that the war effort won't be endangered by this. So, only those, ah, missionaries we can trust, those with sufficient security clearances, as you call it, can be granted access to the prisoners."

That was an aspect Sam hadn't considered yet - such missionaries would make perfect spies. Or saboteurs.

"They won't like that," the Colonel said. But he was grinning. "But we can excuse a lot with the war. It's even tradition."

Daniel, of course, pouted at that but didn't disagree.

"And I bet the other religions aren't a competition for the Church of the Holy She-Ra," Catra commented with a wide grin. "The prisoners have seen and felt your holy touch, Adora. That's a huge advantage compared to some preacher with a book full of weird stories. Don't worry - you won't lose any worshippers."

She was obviously joking - even Adora was pouting and half-heartedly protesting that it wasn't funny instead of scowling at her lover - but Sam caught Teal'c nodding in agreement.

And while her friend was hard to read, she couldn't help feeling that he was more serious than Catra about that. And he had proposed trying to convince Sokar's Jaffa that Adora was a goddess in the first place.

Hyperspace, January 29th, 1999 (Earth Time)

Catra finished skimming the preliminary report covering the loot from the Ha'tak - mostly anything that had decent amounts of Naquadah in it and all the weapons they had found - and leaned back, craning her neck to look at the desk behind her. Adora was dutifully writing a report.

"You're the Supreme Commander. People report to you, not the other way around," Catra reminded her idiot.

"I have to set an example for the rest. We need the best intel we can get - and that means collecting all information we gathered," Adora told her without looking up from her work.

"And writing all the boring reports?" Catra snorted.

"Yes." Glimmer, of course, had to butt in. "Have you even started on your reports?"

"Already finished them." Catra flashed her fangs in a wide grin. Then she rolled her eyes at the apparent surprise on Glimmer's face. "I've run the Horde for years; I know how to do reports."

"You never liked doing it as a cadet." Adora had put her pad down and was frowning at her.

"That was just busywork," Catra retorted. "Actually important reports are something else."

"So, why are you teasing me about doing this?" Adora pouted.

"Because you're overdoing it, of course. And I wasn't kidding when I said you should be reading reports more than writing them. Then you'd have known I already finished my part." Catra grinned as she saw her lover starting to scroll through menus on her pad.

"Ah… there is your report."

"Yes." Focused on the important parts.

While Adora - and Glimmer, from the looks of it - went over her report, Catra shifted on her seat. "We really need a Stargate for the fleet. Or a couple of them. Enough so we can assign one to any task force we send out. Then we could use them to get to the fleet once it arrives at its destination and later return to Etheria or Earth instead of travelling through hyperspace for weeks both ways. Or having to find a planet with a Stargate we can use in the vicinity for the return trip."

"It's not quite that long," Adora half-heartedly replied.

"Maybe not this time, but what about next time?" Catra shook her head.

Glimmer agreed. "I would allow us to keep up a greater operational tempo if we could move princesses through a Stargate from one task force to another."

"We can do that by flying to an empty system and using the Stargate there," Adora said. "If time is of the essence. And even if we have a Stargate on a ship, we still need to be in a system for the coordinates to work."

"And that might get noticed." Bow apparently had decided to enter the conversation as well. "But if we use existing Stargates, then someone might be able to track us - or at least gather intel that way."

Catra nodded. Like knowing where their task forces were. Or just realising that someone was sending people through those Stargates. Someone with a fleet. It wouldn't take much to place surveillance near such gates - and even taking them out would reveal something. "It would be better to just grab a few Stargates and use them - we can use a stealth ship if we have to go near an inhabited system."

"Yes, that would work," Adora agreed. She was still frowning, though. "But it would also remove the Stargate from a world."

"An empty world," Glimmer shrugged. "No big loss."

"It still feels wrong…" Adora trailed off.

"It's not like stealing the galaxy's magic to win a war," Catra said. "No one is using those gates anyway."

Adora flushed. "It still feels like it. Those Stargates don't belong to us. They were placed on those planets for a reason."

"Five million years ago," Glimmer objected. "Whatever reasons they had, odds are the reasons for those Stargates are long gone."

"They probably seeded every planet that might develop intelligent life," Bow said. "Or this was part of a galaxy-wide colonisation program." Adora winced at that. Which prompted Bow to wince as well, Catra noticed. "Sorry," he added.

"It's not…" Adora shook her head.

"Anyway," Catra spoke up, "we're not going to rob people of their Stargates - unless they're Goa'uld - but no one will miss a Stargate in an empty system. And we can put them back once we've won the war if you really want to." Which would be stupid, but Adora did a lot of stupid things. And now for the killing blow. "And it means you won't have to stay on a ship with Priest for weeks."

Glimmer snickered, and even Bow chuckled at that. Adora blinked, then flushed again. "Don't remind me!" she blurted out. Then she sighed. "Though it hasn't been bad. Not as bad as I expected. I thought he'd ask me to make regular appearances with the prisoners, but he didn't."

"Why would he, when you have to heal that prisoner without his larva every day?" Catra snorted. Priest was far sneakier than some people thought.

"His name is Haken," Adora reported. Then she blinked again. "Oh. I should have realised…"

"The humble, caring goddess, coming by daily to ensure a single Jaffa prisoner doesn't die…" Catra trailed off with a shrug. "It certainly shows that you aren't like the Goa'uld."

Adora shook her head. "But that's…"

"...just the truth," Glimmer cut her off. "We aren't like the Goa'uld. And we care about others - even about prisoners."

Adora frowned for a few seconds, then sighed. "I'm just doing what's right. I'm not doing this to manipulate anyone."

"And that's why it works." Catra snorted. "Anyway, are we passing by some empty systems on the way back?"

"Let me check the charts!" Bow replied. "But we could make a small detour - especially if we can get the Stargate to work on the ship; then we could easily make up the time spent on that. And if we can't move the Stargate, we might still use it on the planet to return home faster. Though we would have to take Haken with us in that case."

Catra leaned over and squeezed Adora's thigh as Bow started to look through his pad's data.

"I don't want to be worshipped," Adora said.

Catra nodded. "I know."

But Adora also didn't want to tell others what - and whom - they could worship and not. So, in a way, it was her own fault.

Not that Catra would blame her for it. Never.

PZ-825, January 30th, 1999 (Earth Time)

"Stay sharp, folks! You never know what might be hiding on a planet!" Jack O'Neill announced as the shuttle set down on the alien planet.

"Do you think that there's something on the planet that can fool our scanner? Or someone? An advanced civilisation? No, remnants of an advanced civilisation, maybe? Or First Ones? We should be able to detect First Ones technology that we know of, but they should have lots of technology that we don't know of, and they weren't limited to magic-less technology for a thousand years - not that the Goa'uld made a lot of progress even before the First Ones started taking all the magic, but that's probably because they don't have the talent to use magic, so the basic hypothesis is sound. I think." Entrapta sounded eager rather than miffed at the idea that Jack was doubting her and Carter's scanner. She hopped off the ramp before it was fully lowered and looked around.

Jack forced himself to smile as he stepped off the ramp, carbine ready. He didn't really doubt the scanner's reliability, but complacency killed. Soldiers should never blindly trust their tech or intel. Not that he thought SG-1 or the Etherians would grow complacent. But others would, and reminding your team to be wary on alien planets was standard procedure for good officers. A least in his opinion.

"We haven't detected any signs of a civilisation," Carter said, joining Entrapta on the ground. "And we scanned the surrounding area thoroughly."

"We wouldn't be here if there was a sign of people," Adora added.

"We would have ignored a new civilisation?" Entrapta gasped. "But think of the data we could gather and share! The technology they might have!"

Adora grimaced. "I meant we wouldn't be here to take the Stargate if we had detected a civilisation. We would have contacted them directly."

Jack snorted. If the planet was settled, that would have complicated things. This world was far too close to Sokar's fleet, as far as they knew, to just leave it at the mercy of a snake who thought Hell on Earth was a goal instead of a warning.

But unless there was some vast civilisation hiding underground, shielded from the best scanners Entrapta and Carter could cook up, this planet was empty of people. The perfect target for a grab-and-run. "Well, let's go and nab us a Stargate before the planet's animals evolve into people or something and demand to keep it."

For some reason, Carter frowned at him for that. Daniel as well. Oh! Jack winced. The Ancients had crossed animals with people on Etheria.

Catra snorted, probably at his reaction instead of his joke. "Yeah, let's go and grab the gate. Adora needs some exercise."

"I don't!" Adora blinked, then looked down at her body. "Do I?"

"No, you don't," Glimmer said. "But some people need to learn to make better jokes."

Jack was pretty sure that included him. He shrugged - guilty as charged. But he was a little too old to change too much. "Unfortunately, stand-up comedy courses were already closed when I was at the Airforce Academy."

Daniel, at least, chuckled at that.

"Whatever. Let's go!" Glimmer said.

They marched up the hill that separated them from the Stargate's location. They could have landed directly at the gate, but… Even with a fleet in orbit, ready to blow the slightest threat to their goddess to smithereens, you didn't want to risk your shuttle. Especially not an expensive prototype stealth shuttle.

When they reached the top of the hill, Jack dropped prone and crawled the last few yards through the tall grass until he could look at the Stargate in the valley below with his binocs.

"Looks deserted," Catra commented next to him.

"Looks can be deceiving," Jack retorted. Mostly to be contrarian, if he was honest.

"Let's not be paranoid," Glimmer said behind them. "We can just go down, check it out, then call the transport shuttle in and load it up."

The princess was correct. Jack got up. "Alright, let's go."

They moved down the hill in patrol formation, Catra in front, followed by Jack, Adora, Carter, Entrapta, Daniel, Emily, Glimmer, Bow and Teal'c bringing up the rear. Good practice, again.

But nothing jumped at them until they reached the Stargate. No one discovered a pit trap by falling into it, either.

And the Stargate looked fine as well. Everything was where it should be, the D.H.D. was next to it, the ramp was covered in grass, and… Jack frowned and knelt down. "Someone's used the gate recently," he announced, pointing at the ramp. "All the grass has been cut off at the same height relative to the Stargate."

"The vortex would have disintegrated all plants in its path," Carter said, joining him. She looked at the grass, then at the Stargate. "Some time has passed, though - the tips of the grass have grown beyond the vortex's limit."

"Let's check the data logs!" Entrapta walked over to the D.H.D.

Jack, meanwhile, looked at the overgrown ramp again. He couldn't see any tracks. So, either the grass trampled down had recovered, the travellers had left no tracks - or they hadn't come through the gate in the first place. At least not on foot.

But whatever actually had happened didn't change the fact that the planet might be deserted, but someone had shown an interest in it recently. And they would notice that the Stargate was missing if they tried to dial it again.

That slightly complicated things.

"So… someone used the gate a few weeks ago?" Adora asked, looking at the Stargate's ramp. As Jack had pointed out, there were no tracks. Bow had confirmed it - and Bow was the best tracker she knew.

"If the rate of growth of this grass is comparable to the average rate of growth of Earth species under similar circumstances, yes," Sam said.

Perfuma would probably be able to confirm that if she were here. But…

"I'm trying to access the gate's logs," Entrapta said. "Shouldn't take much longer."

"It would be funny if it turns out that this was just a mistaken address and no one actually arrived," Catra commented, stretching her arms over her head and twisting her hips.

Adora pursed her lips. That would be a plausible explanation if no one actually had travelled through the gate. If it was a check to see if the Stargate was still working, whoever was doing this would have sent someone or something through to ensure the location wasn't dangerous. At least Adora would have done so in their place - a working gate was useless if you died upon stepping through it.

"Got it!" Entrapta beamed. "Alright, there was a matter transfer. So, someone got through the gate and back. The memory banks didn't log too many details, though - whoever created them really should have cared a tiny bit more about proper documentation! You can't really check experiments if you don't log everything!"

"What did you find out?" Glimmer asked.

"Oh! Well, I got the address of the Stargate that connected to this Stargate. They dialled in and then dialled out about… three weeks ago." Entrapta smiled. "With an hour between."

"A quick trip to check something," Jack said. "In and out before anyone notices. When was the trip before that?"

"No logs about that, sorry." Entrapta shrugged. "So, it must have been a pretty long time ago."

"There are limits to the device's logs," Sam explained before Adora could ask. "After a certain time, logs will be deleted. And the buffer only stores a set number of trips. We think it might be related to a window during which the original data is still viable for compensating for stellar drift."

"Where did those visitors come from?" Jack asked.

"We don't have any information about the system they used, sir," Sam told him. "Except for its coordinates."

"It's a mystery!" Entrapta beamed. "But a mystery we can solve just by dialling and checking ourselves!"

"And then we find out it was a recon team from Sokar when we walk into his throne room." Jack shook his head.

"We can send a spy bot through before we use the gate," Entrapta retorted.

"That would connect us to the disappearance of his fleet," Catra pointed out. "Sokar won't be able to identify us, but he would know it was someone with different technology. And if he is familiar with Horde technology…" She inclined her head.

Adora winced. That would expose them. Sure, no one expected their cover to last forever, but the longer they could keep the Goa'uld guessing, and suspecting their rivals, the better.

"We can build a spy bot based on Goa'uld technology! They wouldn't know it was us, then!" Entrapta was looking at her with pleading eyes, Adora realised.

"They would suspect a rival, then," Daniel said.

"They would also attempt to copy the bot," Jack objected.

"If it's Sokar," Glimmer said. "It could be anyone else."

"Right. But if we dial in from here, whoever it is will be able to connect us to the recent battle in the vicinity. So, we aren't going to do that," Jack said.

Adora caught Catra glancing at her. She knew what her lover was thinking - this wasn't Jack's decision. As the Supreme Commander, it was ultimately up to her. But Jack was right. "Yes," Adora said. "We'll check up on this a bit later. And in a way that won't expose us."

"I guess we could send in spy bots through the network…" Entrapta sounded disappointed, but there was no helping it. They couldn't risk being exposed just to satisfy their curiosity.

"Let's call the shuttle then," Catra said.

"Yes." Adora looked at the Stargate. "And let's prepare the gate for travel." The chance that someone would dial in while the gate was in the shuttle but still close enough to the planet so the address would be working was low, but if it happened and the vortex formed, it could destroy the entire shuttle. Best to block the gate for transport.

While Jack called the transport shuttle and the stealth shuttle, Adora looked at the Stargate, then at the area around them.

It still felt as if she was robbing the world of its birthright. Without the Stargate, the planet would probably never get more visitors. On the other hand, it might develop without interference then. Who knew what the visitors had done… She blinked. "Oh." Turning to her friends, she asked: "What if the visitors left something on this world?"

"We should have detected any advanced technology with our scanner," Sam said.

"First Ones, Horde or Goa'uld," Entrapta added. "Although…" She looked at Sam. "Unknown technology might not have been detected. Especially if it doesn't use Naquadah."

"The basic principles remain the same for all technology," Sam retorted. "Any technology needs a power source, which we would have detected. Although… there are systems that do not have an internal power source. They are powered from the outside. Or by what they are observing."

"Oh! Like a passive detector? Maybe based on chemical reactions to a certain waveform?" Entrapta beamed.

"That would be one possibility." Sam nodded.

"Let's check once the shuttle arrives!"

Samantha Carter didn't really expect their search to produce results. Passive detectors were tools for spies infiltrating a hostile planet, not an empty world devoid of any sapient life, much less an advanced civilisation. And, lacking internal power sources - which their scanner would have picked up - they would need to be visited regularly to get the results read out. Not something really suitable to catch enemy troop movements on a deserted planet - not in time to react to them, at least; the logs didn't show such regular visits.

But Sam had been wrong before, and such a detector would explain the visit by the unknown party. It would also grant them some clues about the identity of the travellers - the only alternatives were a gate mission or sending a spy bot or scout ship to the system. The far simpler explanation, of course, was that someone was exploring the Stargate network, like Stargate Command had been doing and still was doing, although severely constrained for security reasons. A Stargate team arriving here would have taken a look around and would have left again after finding nothing. If there were no obvious depots of valuable resources - and there weren't; they had scanned for that already - then Stargate Command wouldn't have bothered with a follow-up mission unless to provide new members with an easy and safe task to get them used to gate travel.

"Ah, there it is!" Entrapta waved as the stealth shuttle set down. "I think we should scan for all amounts of metal and crystal so we don't miss tiny detectors!"

"We need a minimum amount, though, or we'll be flooded with hits for all the trace amounts in the environment," Sam pointed out. "That's why we filter the data."

"Right! But we can lower that amount! Oh! We could also use a filter to check for trace amounts of foreign substances in the air!"

"Something with a finer filter than our standard sensors." Sam nodded. She still didn't think this would lead to much, but it was a good way to refine standard operating procedures and think about improvements.

They entered the shuttle and headed to their 'travelling lab'. It was, to quote Entrapta, 'time to do science'.

"Look at that! It's a tiny bit of metal - of an alloy!" Entrapta's head bopped up and down as she pointed at the screen with her finger and hair.

Sam checked the readings. Indeed, there, about one kilometre from the Stargate, in the middle of a rock formation laced with iron ore, was an object made from an advanced steel alloy. Very advanced. Too small to be considered a threat, no sign of any advanced power supply - or any power at all. "We'll have to adjust the scanner for such devices," she said.

"And we have to examine it!" Entrapta beamed before she blinked and frowned. "Or would that be rude? It would be rude to sabotage the experiment of someone else, wouldn't it?"

"Yes. But people doing experiments don't hide their sensors like that," Sam pointed out. "We can and should examine this - it could be the work of our enemies."

"Really? There's no Naquadah in the alloy. The Goa'uld use it for everything."

"Exactly. So, if a Goa'uld wanted to remain secret, avoiding technology that used Naquadah would help them," Sam explained.

"Oh, right." Entrapta nodded. "And if they actually have alternatives to their technology, that would be interesting! And bad, of course. But very interesting!"

Sam had to agree - someone had gone to great lengths to hide this object. It could be a passive detector, but it could also be data storage. Maybe a dead drop - but then, the Stargate logs should show more activity. Unless it was meant as a sort of dead man's switch, to be discovered in case the one who left it died.

Sam smiled. It was indeed interesting. "Let's go and take a closer look."

It didn't take them long to reach the location, just twenty minutes - and that included the Colonel and Catra combing the area for ambushes and traps, even though they had scanned for either thoroughly.

But they could, finally, examine the object. It was not a box - it was a network of very thin threads, laid into solid rock. And linked to tiny crystal structures. Something about the array… Sam frowned as she took a closer look at the intricate design.

"Oh! All the crystals are attuned the same way! Definitely artificial!" Entrapta exclaimed.

They already knew that since alloys such as the one here didn't occur naturally, but confirmation was always good. But the array… Oh! "It's an antenna!" Sam blurted out.

"Yes, that's it," Bow agreed. "And if we examine the crystals, we can find out what kind of waveform it's meant for!"

"And we can replicate it and see what happens!" Entrapta added.

With their scanner, it didn't take them long to find out what the antenna reacted to. It was a form of FtL wave - which meant communication or sensors. Or both.

"It's not a standard frequency, but I think we can replicate a signal with our communicator," Entrapta said. "Shouldn't take long…"

Replicate it? Without further study of the array? "I don't think…" Sam started to say.

Entrapta, unfortunately, was quicker. "Ah! Here we go!" She pushed a button on the communicator she had fiddled with.

A moment later, the entire array, threads and crystals, lit up.

Literally.

Sam managed to look away a moment before the thing melted.

Catra was already halfway to the ground when the thing Entrapta, Sam and Bow had been fawning over began to melt. Whatever it was, if something started glowing so brightly, it hurt to look at, you took cover. Even Kyle had learned that.

But the thing didn't explode - it just sort of flowed out of the rock as a small stream of melted metal, leaving a tiny, sizzling puddle on the ground.

As far as self-destruct devices went, this was one of the tamer ones. It hadn't even blown up the rock and anyone tampering with it. Of course, if that light show had involved harmful radiation… "What was that?" Catra asked. Loudly.

"Bow!" Glimmer rushed towards him.

"I'm OK!" He got up.

As did Entrapta, rubbing her eyes as her hair pulled out her recorder. "Note: Add an automatic polarising response to my visor in case of too bright light."

"Is everyone alright?" Adora looked almost frantic as she hovered over the others. "What was that?"

"We found the frequency that the device reacted to," Entrapta said, blinking heavily.

"And then we tested it a bit hastily," Bow added.

"Sorry!" Entrapta didn't look sorry. She was already peering at her recorder. "Oh, look at that! The crystals all burned out!"

That wasn't a surprise, seeing as the metal had melted. Catra walked over to the others. "So, what does that mean?" she asked.

"Other than we should have some remedial 'don't trigger alien devices without checking first' lessons?" O'Neill added.

That earned him a glare from Sam, Catra noted with some amusement. Not a big glare, though - if the device had blown up instead of melting, things could have been rather bad, even with She-Ra around and ready to restore the planet's magic for an extra boost in power.

Entrapta, on the other hand, nodded, eyes glued to her tools. "It looks like the crystals served not only as a calibrating device but also to supply the antenna with power. The crystals' structural integrity was used up for that - almost like splitting atoms, but with quite a bit less power, of course, since we're still alive and not vaporised."

Now that sounded concerning. "What about radiation?" Catra asked.

"Radiation? Oh, there was tons of that! And focused through the antenna!" Entrapta beamed.

"It wasn't harmful radiation," Sam quickly added. "The bright light was the only part of it that actually reached us."

"Yes! The rest all went into a faster-than-light impulse. Like a one-time-use relay!" Entrapta explained.

"Or an alert," O'Neill said with a grim expression.

"Or an alert," Entrapta agreed. "Primed for a specific hyperspace frequency. Or for a set of hyperspace frequencies, to be more precise - there was some variation."

An FtL alert beacon. Catra snorted. "So, we might get visitors as soon as they notice the alert. Visitors who might use the Stargate to check up on the planet."

"Yes. Unless we secure the Stargate for transport before that," Sam said.

Catra mentally calculated the distance to the Stargate. It wasn't too far, but running all the way... "We better call the shuttle to pick us up." That would be faster than running back. Even with the autopilot.

"Yes," O'Neill agreed. "I already did my PT for the week."

"You did?" Daniel asked. "Oh."

Catra snorted as Bow called the shuttle, and Entrapta and Sam gathered the remains of the device.

A few minutes later, they were taking off again - just in time to see the Stargate activate and the vortex form. Bow brought the stealth shuttle to a stop at once. "Activating stealth system!" he announced.

That would keep them from being spotted but wouldn't do anything about the regular transport shuttle waiting near the Stargate.

Before they could order the shuttle to take off, someone stepped through the gate. No, something floated through the gate.

"Oh! It's an alien bot!" Entrapta beamed at the screen, her hair touching several buttons to zoom in.

The thing was about the size of a human torso. Entrapta was correct - it was a dull grey, with manipulator arms that almost reached the ground, a couple of what were probably sensors mounted in a band around its 'head' and what looked like a weapon in its rear. Catra had never seen it before, but it looked a little familiar. She had seen that style before…

"The Asgard?" Daniel asked.

"The technology and design don't perfectly match what we observed from them," Entrapta said, "but there are similarities that our scanner picked up."

"Some of them quite distinct from the Horde technology that was a derivate of Asgard technology, but consistent with the expected variation from a similar base," Sam added. "I agree - this is probably Asgard technology."

"Well, let's go say hello, then," O'Neill commented. "Before the thing takes our transport apart trying to find out what happened."

As Catra could see, the bot was already floating towards the parked shuttle. "Better hurry, Bow," she said.