Chapter 120: Cultural Exchange Part 2
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 2nd, 1999 (Earth Time)
"So, you're an alien. But you're human." The actor peered at Teal'c like he were in a zoo, in Jack O'Neill's impression.
Teal'c, of course, was stoically ignoring that. "I am a Jaffa. The false gods altered the human slaves they brought with them from Earth to create us as warriors for their armies," he explained.
"So, you're human." The actor nodded as if he were an actual scientist instead of having played such roles.
"I am a Jaffa."
"But you are descended from humans. Can you breed with humans?"
Jack pressed his lips together. That wasn't a question you asked a stranger you had just met. He made a quick note on his Bow-made tablet - that actor wouldn't be on the delegation; Jack would rather not find out how the princesses reacted to such rude questions.
"We are too different to produce viable offspring," Teal'c replied.
Jack thought his friend had way too much self-control as he finished his note.
"But can you have sex with humans? I mean, do you find humans attractive? Or do we smell alien to you?"
OK, that was enough!
"It depends," Teal'c replied in the same polite voice. "I do not find you attractive, but that is not because of your hygiene."
The actor stared at him with his mouth half-open while Jack and Teal'c left to head to the buffet. His friend also had a very dry sense of humour, Jack reminded himself.
"Sorry about that," Jack said in a low voice while picking up some sandwiches.
"It is better if such fools reveal themselves here instead of Etheria."
"Well, yes, but it's still not nice to deal with them." Jack glanced around. One singer was staring at them and keeping her distance. That wasn't a good sign, either.
"Compared to being shot at?" Teal'c raised his eyebrow.
"Well, at least you can shoot back there. Of course, we could…" Jack trailed off as he saw one of the more famous actors approaching them.
"Ah, General O'Neill!" The man smiled at him, then nodded at Teal'c. "I was wondering about something…"
Jack smiled politely. "Yes? We're here to answer questions."
"Will we have access to magical healing on Etheria?"
"They take good care of their guests, don't worry," Jack replied. "And they won't charge you for it, either."
"Ah."
"But unless you do something stupid, you won't have to fear getting hurt any more than you have on a promo tour on Earth," Jack added.
"And if we had a lingering issue?" The man took a sip from his drink.
Something in the way he said it made Jack want to frown. He didn't recall reading about any serious health issues when he checked the candidates' files - they had screened for that. "Are you currently sick?" They wouldn't send sick people to Etheria, either.
"No, no, just wondering if, say, Etheria has a magical cure for hangovers." The man chuckled at his own joke - if it was a joke.
The man's smile was open and friendly, but it raised Jack's hackles. Half the crowd here were actors - professional liars, in a way, he reminded himself. He shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I am usually on duty when I am on Etheria."
The man frowned for a moment, then leaned a bit closer with a toothier smile. "And even if you indulged, I doubt you'd suffer - you look like you're twenty years younger."
Oh, hell! Jack didn't look twenty years younger - but he felt like it. At least when he wasn't dealing with the current generation. But that effect of Adora's healing was classified. So, why did this damn civilian know about it? "You flatter me," he told the man. He had to get to the bottom of this - they couldn't afford leaks. It had been bad enough when people had rioted about magical healing. If they thought they could grow young again with magic…
"I'm just telling the truth."
Jack wanted to have the man dragged out by two guards and thrown into an interrogation room, but that would ruin the event at the least - and probably cause a lot of problems. Especially if the man blurted out what he knew to the rest of the room. "Sounds more like a rumour," he said.
"Sometimes rumours are truthful."
Wasn't that a line from a movie? "Well, I just have to look into a mirror to know it's not true."
"Age is not just your appearance."
"Don't let Hollywood's plastic surgeons hear that!" Jack quipped. "They'd lose all clients if that were true."
The man smiled thinly. "Age is also how you move. How your body feels. Good actors - like me - know the difference between a young body and an old body moving."
Yeah, the bastard definitely knew more than he should. "I wouldn't know; I am no actor," Jack said with a shrug.
"I find that hard to believe. Soldiering is hard on a body, isn't it?"
Jack looked around. "Maybe we should talk about this later."
The man's smile made Jack want to smash his teeth in.
Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, December 2nd, 1999 (Earth Time)
"So, the talent necessary to work magic as a sorceress is genetic - you and your brother both have inherited it, and King Micah passed it on to his daughter," Freyr said.
"Yes," Castaspella replied. She didn't look annoyed at the question even though she had been telling their guests exactly that just a minute ago, Adora noted.
"And yet, all Gate Builders were able to use magic," Freyr went on, "while this is not the case on Etheria, despite you being descendants of them."
"We don't count as First Ones," Catra said. "With or without magic."
"The genetic drift is probably too much," Bow said. "It's the same for the humans from Earth. Only some amongst them are recognised as First Ones - Ancients - by Alpha's scanners."
Thor frowned. Probably because he knew Alpha was working with Loki.
"You have not researched this?" Penegal sounded surprised. "Even though you have access to the Gate Builder's research station?"
"Why would we care what kind of genes you must have to be considered a First One by an ancient laboratory?" Glimmer made a point of shrugging - quite Catra-like, Adora realised. "What matters aren't your genes but your character."
"But with a modicum of research, you could determine what makes someone a sorceress," Penegal retorted. He almost sounded scandalised.
"We probably could, yes," Micah said. "But why would we want to? We're not going to breed people like animals."
"Someone tell Anise that," Catra muttered with a snort.
"Besides," Castaspella said, "it's usually passed on to your children."
"You said usually."
"Sometimes, children of a sorceress don't have the talent. Sometimes, it skips a generation." Castaspella shrugged. "It's not like a princess's lineage."
"Have you examined those bloodlines?" Freyr asked.
"No," Glimmer said. "If any princess wants to know more, they can have their genes analysed, but so far, none have asked."
"Very curious," Freyr said.
"And dangerous. If you are breeding out those talents, you might not realise it until it's too late," Penegal added.
Catra snorted again, and Adora didn't have to glance at her lover to know she was rolling her eyes.
Glimmer shook her head. "If that should happen, we have Alpha's databanks to go back to."
"Backed up," Bow added with a smile.
The Asgard frowned again. Were they disappointed that Etheria didn't have such records?
"And does Loki have access to this data?" Thor asked.
"No," Glimmer told him. "We won't let him use our genes to experiment."
"And yet, you let him use our genes," Thor shot back.
"His genes," Glimmer's smile grew a bit toothier. "He can experiment with his own genetics as much as he wants - they're his and his alone."
Uh-oh. Adora winced. They had planned to avoid that topic.
Bow smiled widely - and a bit forcedly, if you knew him. "But that's a different topic. You're here to experience our culture. So… how about we start with the palace? It's one of the oldest structures still used for their original purpose on Etheria, dating back to the founding of the kingdom." He gestured at the main corridor behind them. "And that leads directly to the throne room, where Glimmer holds court. Or Micah, if Glimmer is away."
The Asgard nodded - less reluctantly, or so it seemed, than Glimmer's own agreement.
Micah, though, beamed at them. "Oh, yes. However, it's a bit large for daily business, so that's usually done in our offices - unless we want to make a point.
They led the Asgard through the wide corridor, but their guests didn't look impressed. They hadn't been impressed by anything at all so far, in Adora's impression. Even though the palace was one of the most beautiful buildings she had ever seen.
Of course, she might be a bit biased since she was living here, and she would never tell the other princesses that she thought Glimmer's palace was the best.
They reached the throne room. Glimmer must have noticed the Asgard's lack of a reaction as well since she opened the doors herself with a flourish. "We've gathered a delegation of Etherian's best scholars and artists and most of the members of the Princess Alliance."
The Throne room held a decent crowd. Partially because they had decided to recruit for both cultural exchanges together, Adora knew, but even so, now that the Asgard had arrived, the smiles and curious looks of the people in the room seemed genuine. At least to Adora.
George and Lance, standing in the front row next to the princesses, certainly were enthusiastic. Mainly because the Asgards were contemporaries of the First Ones, but it still counted. Or should.
As Glimmer started introducing the various people to the Asgard, who were quickly surrounded by the crowd, Adora let herself relax. Things were looking up.
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 2nd, 1999 (Earth Time)
"Where did he get classified information? And who is backing him? I need answers, folks!"
The General was furious. Samantha Carter could see that in his tight expression. The clipped sentences confirmed it. He wasn't cracking dark jokes, but that was usually a mixed sign. And he wasn't pacing in his office.
"Do you really think this is a plot, Jack?" Daniel asked. "He could just have heard a rumour and decided he wanted this for himself as well."
"Would a mere actor really challenge the military leadership like that without someone more powerful backing him?" Sha're asked.
Sam pressed her lips together for a moment. Daniel's wife had not yet fully acclimated to Earth society or she wouldn't ask that question.
"In a heartbeat," the General told her. "Those actors are all full of themselves - they think they're above everyone!"
"Not everyone, Jack!" Daniel objected. "But a fair amount of them do have a bit overblown egos, yes." He frowned. "One of them tried to argue with my thesis based on an article he read in the Rolling Stone. Not even Popular Science!"
Sam had to smile at her friend's outraged expression. She was pretty sure she knew which actor had done that - one had been asking her quite the questions, but the man had at least not tried to argue physics with her.
"See?" The General nodded sharply.
Sha're didn't look convinced, though. "You also impressed upon them that they would be under your authority during this mission, and they didn't disagree."
"Indeed." Teal'c nodded slowly.
"That's because they know we won't let them go to Etheria if they don't play nice," the General said. "But once they're there? Or back? Some of them will already be talking to a ghostwriter for their 'The Truth about Etheria' book."
"But that's why you had this meeting - to weed out those untrustworthy," Sha're pointed out.
"Yes. But we won't get all of them. At least one will have to find out the hard way that we're not joking." The General shook his head. "But that's not as serious as this. We're dealing with a leak here!" He turned to her. "Have you checked our data security?"
"I would need a thorough evaluation of the entire data traffic to find proof of illegitimate access," Sam explained. "And that wouldn't detect someone with the necessary clearance showing his screen to someone else - or just telling someone after work." Of course, if they had been sloppy, one could check if the time of access of the classified data correlated with a visitor in that office, but she doubted that anyone with the clearance for his would be that careless.
The General frowned at that, and Sam suppressed the slight guilt she felt for disappointing him. It wasn't her fault that reality worked that way.
"So, we need to start with Mr Self-Important and work backwards." He nodded. "But that will take a while. And we have to deal with the bastard soon."
"He has shown he knows classified information," Sha're said. "Can't you imprison him?" She looked at Daniel. "This seems to be a case of this 'national security' excuse you mentioned."
Daniel winced a little, but the General chuckled. "I wish! But he's very prominent and has given himself enough cover, so a decent lawyer would demolish us if we locked him up. And no, we can't just vanish him either - even if we wanted to, and I am sure the NID would love to, and even if we managed to fool the press and the cops, the Etherians would ask questions. The bastard is really popular on their planet, or so it seems."
"Well, he's the lead of a very successful TV show," Daniel pointed out. "And he plays a very nice and charming character. He's not at all like his character, of course, but…" He shrugged.
"Yeah, yeah. Maybe we can vanish him after the Etherians discover what he's like, but that won't help us now."
"What does he want?" Sha're asked.
"Access to magical healing," Sam replied.
"If he is as well-liked as you say on Etheria, couldn't he just ask for healing during his visit?"
"He could. But he'll discover that the magical treatment he might receive on Etheria won't duplicate She-Ra's healing," Sam explained.
"And then he'll want the real thing," the General finished. "And I don't like giving in to this kind of underhanded pressure. If you let them get away with this, they'll try to get more next time. So, we need to shut him down - and plug that leak."
Sam suppressed a sigh. He was right, anyway. "I'll look into his communications, sir." That was illegal, but between her advanced technology and some help from Entrapta, it was unlikely that she would be caught. And even if she did, that kind of thing could be swept under the rug, given the circumstances.
And if it couldn't, she could move to Etheria and do science with less paperwork and more freedom, a small voice in the back of her head whispered.
She ignored it.
"Good!" The General nodded. "And I'll need everyone else on the meeting with the bastard. Anything, any hint, any insight."
Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, December 2nd, 1999 (Earth Time)
"So, you actually met the First Ones - I mean, the Ancients, oh, you call them the Gate Builders, right?"
Catra had to give credit to the Asgard - they didn't react much to Lance getting so close in their face, even the French would remind him to respect personal space. On the other hand, the man's enthusiasm and cheer were obvious, and the Asgard might like that. Especially after the somewhat lukewarm reception by most of the artists in the room - they didn't think much of Asgard epics and music, although they were very polite about it. And most of the princesses weren't much better, either - though Scorpia and Perfuma were talking animatedly with Penegal right now at the buffet.
"Dear…" George put his hand on Lance's arm with a wry smile.
"Oh, I'm really sorry!" Lance bowed his head - no, his entire upper body - in apology. "The First Ones are a passion of ours, and when I heard that we would be meeting people who had actually met them…" He sighed.
Adora's a First One, too. Catra didn't say that, of course. They could use any honest enthusiasm for this visit. And it was kind of interesting to see where Bow got some of his mannerisms from. He was a bit of a mix of his two dads.
"We did not meet the Gate Builders at their peak, but we do remember them, yes," Thor said. "Though not the ones who did build the research base here, I don't think so."
Yeah, Catra didn't think the First Ones would have ignored the Asgard if they had known them during their war with the Horde - they should have known about the connection between the Horde and the Asgard once they had analysed a clone's genes. Which they had - Alpha had mentioned bioweapon research. Although… "Well, they were busy building an Empire of their own and colonising planets, so they might have hidden from you as well."
Thor frowned at that. Adora as well, of course - even if it wasn't her fault.
"That might have influenced them to keep hidden, though it seems a bit odd that they didn't reach out to us once they started losing the war against Horde Prime," the Asgard commented.
Catra shrugged. "They might have been too proud to ask for help."
"Or they feared your reaction," Glimmer added.
"But this meeting is not about Horde Prime but about a cultural exchange between Etheria and the Asgard!" Adora cut in with a wide and forced smile.
Right. No reminding, even indirectly, the Asgard of their unwanted grandkids.
"Yes!" Lance nodded enthusiastically. Very enthusiastically - Bow was wincing, Catra noted with a smirk. "And the First Ones are a very important part of Etherian culture - quite natural, of course, since they were responsible for creating so many of our ancestors."
"And are our ancestors," George added.
"Yes, yes, of course." Lance nodded again. "Their structures might lie in ruins, but their influence remains - although often in a subtle way."
"And how strong is this influence?" Freyr asked.
"That varies from kingdom to kingdom," Lance replied. "Different princesses took different aspects of the First One's culture, from what we can tell - though we are still researching this complex topic."
"And how much of their influence remains in Bright Moon?" Freyr asked, tilting his head a bit.
"Bright Moon's a special case since its founder, Queen Angella, was a direct, ah, result of the First One's genetic engineering program on Alpha and ruled the kingdom for so long. And yet, she never mentioned meeting the First Ones. So, we don't know her views of the First Ones culture. But Bright Moon doesn't share many aspects of known First Ones culture," Lance said.
"We didn't even know about the Stargate network," Glimmer added. "Mum would have told us that if she had known."
Adora nodded at that. "And she would have told me more about She-Ra if she had met Mara - my predecessor, and also a First One," she explained.
"Ah." Freyr nodded.
"And yet, you control the research base they left," Thor said.
"Yes, because we have a claim on the Moons of Enchantment," Glimmer replied a little testily.
"Even though until recently, you had no means to reach them?" Freyr looked curious.
"Yes." Glimmer looked as if she dared him to question her claim.
Which could be seen as a bit questionable from a certain point of view, Catra had to admit. Not that she cared about it - as long as Adora was fine with it, it was OK.
"This claim could be influenced by Queen Angella's history with the First Ones," Lance speculated. "We just don't know enough about her - or the First Ones. It was such a boon when Bow introduced Adora to us. We were not even able to read their language before she translated it for us!"
Adora blushed a little.
"That's why I have this tattoo," George said, pulling his left sleeve back. "I thought it meant 'love'," he explained with a wry expression.
"It means 'lunch', I believe," Freyr said.
"Yes, it does." Adora looked embarrassed, and Catra snickered with everyone else at George's expense - he took it good-naturedly.
Didn't they have a saying on Earth? That love went through your stomach or something?
"So, does your view of what are safe experiments contain some of the Gate Builder's influence?" Thor asked, and everyone grew serious again. Well, everyone who was paying attention and not raiding the buffet, like most of the others in the Throne Room were doing.
"No, they stem from our experience with dangerous experiments," Glimmer told him. "We're very familiar with such - Etheria was almost destroyed because of a First One project."
"Our culture is very safety-conscious," Adora said - with a smile that wouldn't have fooled Emily.
Catra sighed. Her love was trying way too hard.
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 2nd, 1999 (Earth Time)
"So, any new intel?" Jack O'Neill asked a last time as he checked his computer for any possible notices.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I haven't been able to find any electronic leak so far."
"Sorry, Jack, celebrities aren't exactly my, ah, speciality. I've been going over the available material, but it's a bit limited - tabloids rarely report what people celebrities talk to at parties and mixers. Unless it's about a new affair."
"Are you sure that some of this isn't deliberate disinformation, my love?."
Great. He had to go into that meeting with the bastard without intel to back him up. He didn't like that at all, but it wasn't the fault of his team. Or would that be friends now? They weren't exactly his team any more, not formally.
He pushed that thought, and also the small voice in the back of his mind that wanted to point out what not being in the same chain of command would mean, away and nodded. "It was always a slim chance," he said.
"Yes, sir." Carter pressed her lips together as she nodded, and Jack felt a bit guilty - she would still feel as if she had failed him, even though it wasn't her fault at all; not even Carter could work miracles all the time.
But the bastard was waiting, and short of an actual crisis, Jack couldn't let him wait any longer - the arrogant actor had the vibe of someone who'd take petty revenge no matter the cost if he felt slighted, and they had to assume he had contacts in the Alliance. "Alright, let's see what exactly the bastard wants. Did anyone start a betting pool?"
Daniel chuckled at that, and even Carter smiled a little. Sha're looked confused, but Daniel would explain.
Jack left his office and went to the meeting room where the blackmailing bastard was waiting.
"Sorry for the wait," he said as he entered the room. "But we're in the middle of a war, you know."
"I heard war was ninety-five per cent waiting and five per cent action," the actor replied before taking a sip from his soda. He didn't get up from his seat at the table, of course.
"It's mostly training, actually," Jack told him as he sat down opposite the bastard. "For the soldiers, anyway. Analysts and staff rarely have to wait a lot - we're buried in work."
The man shrugged, obviously not caring about any soldier or other people actually doing their thing to defend Earth. Or that was what he wanted Jack to think - he was a skilled actor, after all, Jack reminded himself. He couldn't trust anything the man said or did.
Of course, his team was watching over the cameras, and he was wearing a bud in his ear in case they found something, but Jack didn't expect them to have more success at analysing the actor.
"So… what do you want?" Jack asked, leaning forward and putting his elbows on the table.
He couldn't tell If his direct question rattled the bastard. The man smiled at him. "Direct and to the point - just as your reputation claims!"
Flattery - or had someone told him about Jack as well? Anyone who knew Jack knew he could be sneaky when he wanted to. Although most would also know that but for the Alliance with Etheria, Jack wouldn't have gotten his current rank - he had made too many enemies, and saving Earth against orders could only make up for so much in the shark pool of staff politics. But this might be an attempt at deception, to make him underestimate the man's knowledge. So Jack shrugged. "I have to. So much to do, and a day only has so many hours, so why waste it on chitchat?"
The actor chuckled. "Oh, don't I know it! Whenever I am on a set, it's always like that!"
Now, that was a lie - Daniel had discovered and confirmed that the man wasn't exactly the most stressed actor. He did his scenes and then fucked off to his trailer - or home - at the first opportunity. Sometimes with a starlet. The last thing he did was working too much. But Jack nodded as if he believed him. "So, let's not beat around the bush. What do you want?"
The man nodded. "I'm not getting any younger, and there's no cure for age. Or there wasn't until magic appeared."
Ah. So, it seemed that the man wasn't hiding some serious illness from his employers and the military doctors. He simply wanted to be twenty again - as he had hinted at during their first meeting. And without makeup, he looked his age, Jack noticed.
"The Etherians didn't find a fountain of Eternal Youth either," Jack told him. "Magic can't do everything."
The man snorted. "That's a nice story - good to keep the masses from realising what they can do - but I know better." He leaned forward as well. "You've got the body of a twenty-year-old."
Jack's classified medical report actually said 'peak health for a man his age' and 'healthy as a twenty-year-old', but this was too close to be a mere guess. The man wouldn't have gotten this from analysing She-Ra's mass-healing in India. Someone had read Jack's medical files and revealed it to a damn actor. And once Jack found out who had done it, he would nail the bastard to the wall!
But while this was bad enough, anyone who could get his medical file could also access other classified data. Even if they were limited to medical data, that was a lot. This was about as bad as Jack had feared. But it still wasn't solid enough to arrest the bastard.
He smiled, showing his teeth, and didn't try to hide his disdain. "And you want that."
The other man nodded, smiling without any shame. "Yes. Who wouldn't? Eternal youth has been a dream of humanity since forever," he added. "If this got out, it would make the First Contact riots like a kindergarten spat over the last slice of birthday cake."
"I've heard worse rumours about what magic can do," Jack replied.
"Rumours, yes. But this is the truth." The man flashed his teeth at Jack. "It can be proven."
And that was the threat. "If someone slipped, you mean."
"Or something happened to me." The man shrugged. "You have a certain reputation."
Jack nodded - and hid his grim satisfaction. The number of people who had access to his medical data and his black ops past was far smaller than those who had access to either but not both. Carter was probably already running an analysis. And Jack had a list of people who he had clashed with during his career in that field.
But that would take time. So, for now, he had to play along. But not too eagerly. "If such a magical cure for ageing existed, it would be in the hands of the Etherians."
"In the hands of She-Ra, who is your close friend - so close, she made you a general." The actor shook his head. "She'd do you a small favour like this without question."
The leak definitely was someone with a grudge against Jack, then. And either a fellow general - or someone who didn't get promoted as fast.
Good.
"It's not exactly a small favour, though…" Jack continued the act, thinking about how he would enjoy bringing down both this bastard and the leaker.
Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, December 2nd, 1999 (Earth Time)
"...and that was the first All-Princess Ball - which ended the Age of War. Well, Etheria still saw wars, but never again on the scale of that epoch until the Horde War, which dwarfed every other conflict. The All-Princess Ball…"
"Or Princess Prom."
Adora wasn't sure if Glimmer was being helpful or not, but Lance nodded at her before he smoothly continued: "...also known as Princess Prom - remains the most prestigious and most important diplomatic event of Etheria, where all Princesses, no matter if they rule a kingdom or not, are allowed entry, with strict neutrality guaranteed by their host. This tradition was upheld over centuries, even during the Horde War. In fact, except for a violent incident between the then-rulers of Plumeria and the Kingdom of Snows over a shared lover, which was, by all accounts, a private affair and only escalated to a conflict between the realms after the near-strangling respectively freezing of the involved princesses, the Horde was the only power ever to break the ancient rules of hospitality of the event."
"It seemed a good idea at the time," Catra commented with a shrug.
"You broke centuries of tradition during?" Freyr asked. He seemed more concerned about that than the fact that Catra had been a Force Captain in the Horde at the time.
"I'm not a princess, so technically, it was Scorpia, but I gave the order, yes." Catra met the Asgard's eyes.
"And we've all moved past that," Adora cut in. "The Horde War is over, and we're all friends now."
"Try telling Frosta that," Catra muttered under her breath, but the Asgard nodded.
"This event seems to have influenced your diplomatic traditions - namely, that you are willing to forge alliances with former enemies," Freyr commented.
"Yes," Lance said. "Although it was but one element of several, being able to meet other princesses in a neutral setting and socialise with them would have helped foster a culture of limited conflict where peace didn't require the complete defeat of the enemy."
"And yet, the Horde War ended with the complete defeat of Horde Prime."
Thor sounded a tad smug. At least, that was Adora's impression.
"Well…" Bow spoke up. "It depends if you consider the Horde War one conflict or two. There are arguments for both views. But even so, the only one who suffered total defeat was Horde Prime - the Clones and the Horde Soldiers were welcomed into the Princess Alliance even if they didn't defect during the conflict."
That was, perhaps, a bit generous. Technically correct, since the Horde Soldiers were pretty much all living in the reformed Scorpion Kingdom, which was a member of the Princess Alliance, but not many other kingdoms except for Plumeria had welcomed them within their borders. And the Clones pretty much stuck to their own. Except for Third Fleet's missionaries, of course.
"But do you expect to treat the Goa'uld the same?" Freyr asked. "Offer them the chance to change sides and retain their positions?"
"If they change, yes," Adora said. "They cannot keep slaves or oppress anyone. And they can't take unwilling hosts. And they have to be honest." Hadn't they told the Asgard that before?
"And, of course, if they break their word, we aren't bound to ours any more either," Glimmer added, showing her teeth. "And the same goes for Loki."
"Ah." Freyr nodded.
"We're not naive," Glimmer told him. "But we give people a chance to change."
"Laudable," Thor said. "And yet, you ignore that Loki has failed to change despite having had many such chances."
"It's never too late to change," Adora said.
"That seems to contradict Queen Glimmer's claim," Freyr pointed out.
"It doesn't." Catra was tense - her ears were laid back a little, and her tail twitched a lot - and she had crossed her arms over her chest - as she narrowed her eyes at him. "You can give people more chances if you can keep them from being a danger to you and others."
"And if you can't?" Thor asked.
"Then you do what you can to neutralise them as a threat."
"But we're talking politics again," Adora stepped in. "We're here to show our culture and traditions."
"The point of this visit is to build trust," Thor retorted. "And the biggest issue is my brother. And his plan to alter the very heart of our culture."
She pressed her lips together. Did he have to insist on this?
"You've heard about our traditions. Some of them," Glimmer said. "You know how they came to be," she added with a nod and a smile at Lance and George. "But we're a long way from finished. There are many kingdoms with their own cultures and traditions, even if we limit this visit to the Alliance."
"But you didn't come here for Etherian traditions anyway, did you?" Catra spoke. "You came here for Etherian magic."
Adora frowned. What was Catra saying? The Asgard looked… not guilty, but not surprised either, she noticed.
"It is unique to Etheria," Freyr said.
Penegal nodded. "We never used magitech much, lacking the ability to use magic, so we developed our technology without it, but the Gate Builders relied on it."
"Are you looking for a magic cure for your problems?" Bow asked, then blushed and glanced around. "Sorry."
Catra snickered, and Glimmer groaned, but Adora didn't think it was bad. They were surrounded by friends. And except for Bow's dads, the other guests didn't seem to be paying them much attention, anyway.
"We don't know if this is a feasible option," Freyr said.
"In other words: Yes, you are." Catra smirked.
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, Earth, December 3rd, 1999 (Earth Time)
"You didn't pull an all-nighter, did you, Carter?"
Samantha Carter suppressed a frown at the General's question. He couldn't know from seeing her that she had worked through the night on this - she had checked in the mirror before this meeting. And she had had a nap before this. She had done worse before, anyway. And before She-Ra had healed her during the mission on Saqqara. "I finished before bedtime, sir," she replied, a little sharper than usual. It was true, anyway - depending on which day you were talking about. And she'd had to do this - it was important. For the Alliance and for the General.
He didn't seem to believe her, but he didn't press her on this either. She had expected that, of course.
As she took her seat at the table, Daniel leaned over and whispered. "You did, didn't you?"
She rolled her eyes at him in return and took a sip from the coffee he handed her. Good.
"So!" The General sat down as well. "Now, let's see what we can do about our blackmailing problem. You've said you had something for me, Carter."
"Yes, sir." Sam switched her laptop on - this kind of thing was best done off the main computer system. "I've correlated the data Daniel and Sha're gathered through the news and the known schedules of the various people with access to our medical files." Which was technically illegal, but this wasn't a criminal investigation. And she had access to the databanks for technical reasons, so one could argue the legality of this.
"Our suspects." The General nodded.
"Yes, sir." She opened the charts she had prepared, her laptop's holoprojector displaying them floating above the table. "There's no direct correlation between them, and their itineraries - their offical ones; I haven't had access to private ones - don't match up."
"I sense a 'but' coming." The General grinned.
"Yes, sir. There are several flights of his private jet logged between Los Angeles and Washington D.C. that do not match up with any publicly known events of our… main suspect."
"I think, seeing as he admitted to blackmailing us, we can call the bastard 'culprit,' Carter."
"And those dates line up with the vacation days logged by General Smith." A four-star general. Short of the leak being a member of the Alliance High Command, this was the worst case situation. "Not all of them, but three in the time span of five years," Sam finished, highlighting the six flights. "None of them during regular holidays."
"And given how difficult it is to get leave even during major holidays as a general, as I found out…" The General bared his teeth. "That would be quite a coincidence."
"It's not proof, though," Daniel pointed out.
"It's proof enough," Sha're disagreed.
"Not for a court, my love. Or to arrest anyone."
"But it's proof enough to, ah, take a closer look at what my dear fellow general has been doing in Hollywood. It wasn't negotiating Air Force support for 'Top Gun 2 - The Air Force Strikes Back', that's for sure."
"They're making a sequel?" Daniel blinked. "And I thought Top Gun was about the Navy…?"
"That's 'No, they aren't', and 'Exactly', Daniel." The General grinned. "Which is my point. We've got our suspect. Now we just need to find enough proof to nail him."
Sam nodded. Enough proof to deal with the man. Not necessarily enough to charge him. "We should inform the Etherians, sir."
He frowned at her. "The idea is to keep this under wraps until we've dealt with it, Carter."
"They have resources that would help with this," she pointed out. And they had diplomatic immunity.
"Adora also can't act worth a damn, and Glimmer's got a temper," he objected. "We'd be blowing this wide open if we involve them. Can you imagine them playing nice with Smith while they're in a meeting that's already annoying?"
"I wasn't thinking about Adora and Glimmer, sir," she explained. "I was thinking about Catra. And Melog."
"Ah!" He smiled widely. "Yeah, that's different."