Chapter 140: Holiday Season Part 4
Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, January 4th, 2000
Jack O'Neill frowned at the 'no plants allowed' sticker on the door to his office. "Someone's trying to be funny," he muttered while he ripped it off. He wasn't planning to have plants in his office - he wasn't the kind of officer who would have his aide water his plants as part of their duties, and he couldn't bother with caring for plants himself. But this was about the Stargate Command New Year's Eve Party.
Shaking his head, he entered.
"Good morning, sir!" His aide nodded at him.
"Morning, Brown."
"The urgent paperwork is on your desk, sir."
Jack frowned and suppressed a sigh. "Anything important?"
"General Naird wanted to know what measures are being taken to, I quote, 'prevent another drug-fuelled diplomatic incident'," Brown went on.
"Tell him that that is up to Stargate Command. The Alliance isn't responsible for the Stargate."
"Yes, sir. Admiral Kearsy filed a complaint about the incident as well."
The jerk was probably just jealous that he hadn't been invited to the party. Jack knew those hypocrites too well. "So, he's even dumber than I thought."
"Sir." Brown's slow nod showed he didn't quite agree with Jack's comment.
"I am aware that he's trying to save his butt by blaming me for everything that went wrong, Lieutenant," Jack told him. "But this is stupid. I am not a member of Stargate Command any more. I was just a guest at their party."
"He is blaming Major Carter, sir."
"What?" Jack narrowed his eyes. That idiot was going after Carter? Jack would bury him. Alive, if he could pull it off.
"He claims she was present in an official capacity since she was helping with their computer systems, temporarily dispatched, and so should have upheld regulations." Brown handed him a file.
"The guy's losing it. Blaming a major for not doing a general's job?" Jack shook his head. "That's not how we do things in the Alliance."
"Should I schedule a meeting with the Supreme Commander?"
"What? No, no! I'll handle that myself." They couldn't have Adora squash every petty officer plotting against them. That would only give more ammunition to such people. And she was busy supporting her friends with that copyright stuff. No, Jack would have to do a little character assassination himself. Fortunately, he knew where a number of bodies were buried. "Hold my calls for a while unless it's an emergency."
"Yes, sir."
Jack nodded again and entered his office. The coffee maker was, as expected, running already, courtesy of Brown. Jack took a cup and sat down at his desk. First, do the urgent paperwork so his people were taken care of. Then he'd deal with Kearsy.
"...and yes, I agree that Admiral Kearsy's behaviour has cast doubt on his ability to fulfil his duties," Jack said. "Though I wouldn't presume to judge the impact of his appalling attitude on our diplomatic relations with our allies, I can say that he seems to have trouble respecting our chain of command," Jack said.
"I see. I'll look into this. We can't have our officers overreaching like that - it's already incredibly difficult to run the Alliance! Thank you, General."
"Yes, sir."
"Have a nice day, General."
"You too, sir."
Jack leaned back and stretched his arms while he sighed. That had taken longer than expected. Mostly because everyone he had called had used the opportunity to discuss something else. But between the brawl incident and Kearsy's doubling down on his religious attitude and the recent attempt to attack Carter - Earth's best scientist, which meant the moment she quit the service, she could write her own ticket pretty much everywhere, including Etheria - the idiot's career should be done for. And Jack hadn't even had to use some of his blackmail material.
He grabbed a soda from his fridge and switched his TV on - he had earned a break before he dealt with the regular paperwork.
"...and, and I am just speculating here, mind you, but… What if the pagan religions weren't the only religions founded by aliens, Joe?"
"Ah, Frank, I don't think it was established that the Goa'uld founded the Egyptian religion. Dr Jackson was clear about that - they might have impersonated native gods; we just lack documentation of that time period."
"We can ask the Goa'uld who were around back then."
"I don't think we can trust them."
"Good point. Anyway, it doesn't matter since we have records going back two thousand years. And we know there's some Goa'uld masquerading as the devil out there. So, what if Jesus was a Goa'uld as well? What he did in the Bible could have been replicated by alien technology.
"But the Goa'uld were driven out thousands of years before Christ, Frank!"
"I guess the snakes that were captured on Earth didn't get the memo, then, Joe."
"Those are rumours, Frank."
"They were confirmed by our Supreme Commander, She-Ra."
"She said she couldn't comment."
"Exactly! If there were no snakes captured on Earth, wouldn't she have said that? You think that woman can lie worth a damn?"
"Well…"
Jack turned the TV off and cursed. He really didn't want to deal with this right now. Or ever.
Before he could finish his soda, someone knocked on the door. "Yes?" Jack asked. This better be good.
Brown stuck his head inside. "General, the Tok'ra have contacted us. They claim to have crucial information that requires urgent action."
Jack blinked before he grinned. If the Tok'ra wanted urgent action, then it had to be good.
Stargate Command, CFB Goose Bay, Newfoundland, Canada, January 4th, 2000
The soldiers standing guard in the gate room snapped to attention when Adora walked down the ramp, and General Hammond saluted her. "Supreme Commander, welcome to Earth."
"General." She returned the salute. The troops guarding the Stargate were not in her chain of command, but that was rapidly becoming a technicality, now that they were exclusively made up of American, British and French forces - all members of the Alliance. "Have the Tok'ra arrived yet?"
"Not yet," he replied as he fell in at her side. "It seems you've beaten them here."
"Hah!" Catra snorted behind her.
"We can't exactly start without them, so it's meaningless if we're here first," Glimmer said.
"But they could start without us. Don't tell me you'd like that," Catra retorted.
"If they're early, Anise will just spend the time trying to convince Jack to donate his genes," Glimmer shot back.
General Hammond looked surprised - and perhaps concerned; Adora didn't know him well enough to tell. She cleared her throat. "They're joking about that. Anise has accepted that Jack doesn't want to, ah…"
"...make a baby with her," Catra finished for her.
"That's not an euphemism for sex, by the way!" Entrapta chimed in. "They could have a baby with one of our artificial wombs if they wanted. Which Jack doesn't."
"And Anise does," Catra added.
They reached the meeting room reserved for the Alliance. Isa and Campbell were standing guard outside, Adora noted. Both stood at attention as well, though Isa's stinger almost scratched the ceiling as she did so - the base wasn't really built for people her size.
Inside, Jack and the others - Daniel, Sha're, Teal'c and Sam - were already seated at the table, together with General Naird and Admiral Brown-Emerson. There was no sign of Admiral Kearsy, even though Adora hadn't spoken to anyone yet about the man.
"Sam!" Entrapta pushed past her and beamed at her friend.
"Supreme Commander." Naird nodded at her. "We've received a message from the Tok'ra about wanting to meet us earlier today for an urgent matter. They didn't choose to add any specifics."
Adora knew that already. And she had received the message on Etheria through the network, probably before Naird had. But it would be rude to point that out.
"Yeah, we've already been informed." Catra, of course, had no such qualms. She sat down in her usual chair next to Adora while Naird seemed to deflate.
"Yep," Jack added. "So, anyone want to bet on what it is? Rescue op, sabotage or planetary invasion? I've got five bucks and a jello riding on rescue op."
"General!" Sam hissed.
He grinned in response while Naird looked shocked, and Brown-Emerson… barely reacted. The British officer remained unflappable.
"Whatever it is, the Alliance Navy is ready to do its duty," he said. "Though if it's a planetary invasion, we will have to do with repurposed Horde frigates as transports since our dedicated transports are not yet ready."
"We'll manage," Jack replied.
He was pretty optimistic, Adora thought. Then again, they had liberated one planet already, so they had done this before. Still… She couldn't help worrying a little. They were still building up various units and weapon systems. They could launch an offensive, of course, but they would have to rely on the Horde fleets and NATO ground forces almost exclusively. And that would mean more weaknesses to cover. More casualties being taken.
"I think it's a sabotage mission," Glimmer said. "Probably another research station we need to take out and blame someone else for."
That sounded plausible as well.
"Naw. They could do that themselves," Catra disagreed.
"Do you think it's going to be a bigger operation?" Bow asked. "An invasion?"
Catra shrugged. "Could be anything - the Tok'ra are good at spying, but they don't have the numbers for anything bigger. But if it's urgent, I think it's not going to be an invasion. On the other hand, any raid runs the risk of exposing the Alliance, and the Tok'ra are big on secrecy."
"We don't have enough data to tell!" Entrapta piped up.
"Whatever it is, we can handle it," Glimmer said.
"And it's going to be easier than dealing with copyright and media corporations," Catra added with a snort.
"Whoever gave businesses the same rights as people made a huge mistake!" Glimmer muttered.
"Well, it's actually…" Daniel began before he was interrupted by General Hammond escorting the Tok'ra into the room.
Garshaw of Belote/Yosuf, Anise/Freya, Lantash/Martouf and Jakar/Mats.
Yes, this was going to be big, Adora knew.
"After his humiliation at the hands of the Alliance, Apophis is trying to recover his standing - but so many rivals are moving against him, his forces are stretched thin. And the loss of his queen has hurt his reputation even more, as he needs a new source of Prim'tas for his Jaffa."
Samantha Carter glanced at Sha're when Garshaw mentioned Amauntet. The woman was staring straight at the screen in the meeting room, but Sam could see that Daniel was squeezing her hand. Sam knew exactly how the other woman was feeling - Lantash/Martouf's presence reminded her of her own possession.
"And to snack on," the General added with a scoff.
Sam didn't know if he had said that to draw attention from Sha're - Sam hadn't been the only one looking at her - but if he had, he had succeeded; most of the room was frowning at him.
And Catra made a retching noise.
Garshaw cleared her throat and continued the briefing. "Yet, according to our best operatives, Apophis has already managed to replace his queen. He struck a deal with the Goa'uld queen Taweret."
Sam clenched her teeth. That was bad news - she had hoped that Apophis would take longer to replace his queen.
"What kind of deal did he offer her?" the General asked. "Did he make her an offer she couldn't refuse?"
"We don't know the details - that was between him and her, apparently," Garshaw replied. "But we do know that he has, despite the pressure on his realm, dispatched a sizeable part of his reserves to serve and protect her while she is building a new base in secret."
"And you found the secret base?" Glimmer sounded eager.
"We have operatives in that fleet. As soon as they manage to report back, we'll know where Tawaret is hiding. We do know the general area in which they departed, though."
A map appeared floating above the table with a highlighted section near Apophis's realm.
"That could be a ruse, though," Catra said.
"Yes, it could. But Apophis is under great pressure. He cannot waste too much travel time."
"It seems strange that he would send so many of his ships to protect a secret base," Teal'c commented. "It would be more effective to keep her at his side and have his personal guard protect both of them. Doubly so with his rivals coming at him from all sides."
"Exactly," Garshaw said. "While this could be an attempt of Tawaret to emphasise her worth to him, she would be aware of his current circumstances and know that those would weaken her new partner. So, whatever they are planning likely goes beyond mere protection and is worth the risk of losing more worlds."
"He could be using this to make his rivals fear a deep strike into their territory," Adora pointed out.
"That is a possibility, but given his enemies' past behaviour, they are more likely to retaliate with such strikes themselves. And some might think it's a bluff and test him if they hear about it. Our operatives believe that we cannot ignore the potential threat of this secret operation."
"Great. Even when he's losing, he's making trouble," the General muttered.
"Do you have an estimate on the composition of this force?" Adora asked.
"Predominantly Ha'taks in sizeable numbers," Garshaw said. A moment later, more data appeared on the screen.
Catra whistled. "That's enough to take a planet."
"Indeed. But it is not a raiding force," Teal'c added.
"Yep. So… we need a bigger task force. Just in case," the General said.
"We don't need to match them ship for ship, though, not with the gap in capability," Admiral Brown-Emerson pointed out.
"Overwhelming force reduces our own casualties, though," Naird objected.
"That depends on the operation's goal," Garshaw said. "Each world we liberate risks exposing the Alliance to the Goa'uld Empire."
"And you just want to wreck whatever they are planning and take out Taweret," Catra said.
"Yes. If we can destroy both the fleet and the queen, Apophis might not recover from the blow," Garshaw said. "And if he loses a costly project…"
Catra flashed her teeth in a grin. As did the General, Sam noted.
"Unless it's a bluff, and he's just setting up his new queen on a deserted planet in the middle of nowhere while everyone prepares for a sneak attack that never launches," Glimmer said. "How many of his rivals will risk being left open to such an attack by striking first?"
"Heru'ur would," Jakar cut in.
"Indeed. Though since he would be leading the attack, he would not be at as much risk as a System Lord staying in his capital," Teal'c added. "Something Apophis will take into account."
"And their shared defeat during their false flag operation has made all System Lords involved more cautious," Anise added.
"So, we need to send a task force to Apophis's realm so it's ready to strike as soon as we get the word," the General summed up.
"Yes," Garshaw said. "The sooner it's in position, the smaller the chance that we lose our window of opportunity. Our people are risking their lives for this."
"And we won't let them down," Adora said, nodding firmly.
Earth Orbit, January 7th, 2000 (Earth Time)
"I feel guilty for not helping with the Earth media companies. If only the cultural exchange program weren't stalled! The artists we contacted must feel so disappointed by us; all that talk and planning, and now it's not going forward until we've sorted out the copyright issue."
Looking through the shuttle window down at Earth below them, Catra rolled her eyes at Adora's comment. Leaving that mess to others - not that it was Adora's mess to begin with, anyway; she wasn't a ruling princess - was a great thing in Catra's opinion. "You've slept maybe ten hours in the last three days organising this deployment," she pointed out. "If anyone has no right to feel guilty, it's you."
"I wasn't alone!" Adora protested. "Jack and the others worked as hard! You didn't sleep much either!"
Catra shrugged. "I could take naps anytime I wanted." One of the perks of being a cat. Next to looking hot, being agile, flexible and graceful, and having claws to rip anything short of a spaceship to shreds.
"That's not enough to replace a good night's sleep," Adora retorted. Catra lifted her eyebrows at her lover, and Adora blushed in embarrassment in return. "I'm the Supreme Commander. The buck stops with me, as Jack said."
"He said that about himself when you asked him to take a break," Catra corrected her.
"The principle is the same!"
Catra snorted. Adora was a work in progress. Too responsible for her own good. At least Catra had had the good sense not to take an official position in the Alliance. She could help out where she was needed without being bogged down by duties.
And she had had to help out a lot during the last three days. Moving an entire landing division's worth of troops and Jack's Special Forces on a moment's notice had thrown the Alliance staff into chaos. For all the Earth armies' training, they hadn't been quite ready for such a move. Jack had called it a 'learning experience'. Next time, things would be better - provided they could keep a reaction force ready to get going at all times. That kind of readiness would tie up a decent chunk of their forces, including logistics, and affect training times as well - the time a unit spent getting ready for instant deployment to relieve the current reaction force was time spent not training other things, after all. On the other hand, it was good training for their logistics…
Adora was pouting, Catra noticed. "Hm?" she asked her lover as innocently as she could - some lessons had to be driven home, after all, if she was to keep Adora from working herself sick.
Adora frowned at her in return. "I also feel it's a bit unfair that we won't be travelling with the task force."
"We'll join them through the closest Stargate once they are in the area of operations," Catra pointed out. As they had agreed to days ago.
"But the entire force will be stuck in the ships for weeks while we just… skip it all."
"And we worry about the war, politics and the economy while they get to laze around in their transports," Catra shot back. Then she cocked her head to the side and grinned. "You know what? Going along with the force sounds like a great idea!"
"Catra!" Adora frowned at her. "It's not about that! We can't just leave for weeks. But those people won't be able to visit their families for months!"
"They knew that when they signed up for this." And the soldiers were volunteers. At least the American and British troops. The French and Germans still had conscription, but they were still better motivated than the average Horde troops, in Catra's experience.
Meanwhile, their shuttle had reached the task force gathered in orbit and was flying past the rows of frigates towards their flagship.
"Still…" Adora glanced at the pad in her hand.
"You don't have to read the whole speech," Catra told her. "Just tell them to do their best or something." Adora was best when speaking honestly, anyway.
"But my staff worked hard on this."
"And you don't feel comfortable reading it. So don't." Catra shrugged. Adora needed to be more selfish - and more honest - to be happy.
Adora frowned some more, then slowly nodded. "You're right."
"Just blame me when the paper pushers complain," Catra told her with a grin.
"Catra! I won't let you take the blame for my decisions!"
"I told you to do it, didn't I?"
"But it was still my decision! My responsibility."
Never change, Adora, Catra thought as they set down in the frigate's hangar, where the commanders of the various units making up the task force were already waiting for them. Well, for the Supreme Commander of the Alliance.
Catra thought about taking a nap in the shuttle, but only for a moment. She wasn't going to leave Adora alone here.
Besides, hearing her improvised speech should be interesting.
Stargate Command, CFB Goose Bay, Newfoundland, Canada, January 15th, 2000
As he stood in the lift carrying him down inside Stargate Command, Jack O'Neill couldn't help feeling a little conflicted about the whole situation he found himself in. On the one hand, it was a good thing that the Tok'ra had come through with more intel - an actual breakthrough - so quickly, barely a week after their first revelation about Apophis's mysterious troop and queen movement. Thanks to some careless Goa'uld underling in charge of logistics who had been a bit too clever with anticipating supply runs and had tried to pre-position a freighter for the fleet before Apophis had squashed that and the underling, they now knew the task force's destination: PU-9624. Apparently, not even the Goa'uld had named the system yet.
On the other hand, the Alliance task force would take a few more weeks until it could reach the planet. Jack would have really preferred if they could actually act on the so conveniently actionable intel they got. They didn't even have spy bots in the system yet, though those little buggers were closer than the flotilla and should make contact in ten days.
Then there was the fact that the system wasn't as close to Apophis's realm as they had expected - it was pretty far away, actually. Past the fringes of the Goa'uld Empire, in what had been a buffer zone between the snakes and Horde Prime. There was nothing about it in the data banks of all three former Horde fleets in the Alliance, but that didn't have to mean anything; Horde Prime apparently kept far too much information to himself. For a ruthless dictator with an army of clones made in his image and conditioned from birth - if you could call popping out of a pod birth - to be utterly loyal to him, the man had been very paranoid. Not unjustified, given Hordak's example, but still.
In any case, it meant that the closest Alliance assets to PU-9623 were actually the combined First and Second Fleet forces on Etheria, a mere two weeks away from the system. Which was good for a rapid reaction, but entirely too close to Etheria for Jack's comfort.
However, that also meant that they could wipe out the entire snake force and have decent odds that Apophis would blame it on some Horde attack and not the Alliance and hopefully stay away from the former Horde Empire, which was good news. And yet, that the damn snake risked a sizeable part of his fleet in what the analysts agreed was an area of space the snakes generally avoided was not good - Jack wasn't an analyst, but he was sure the snake hadn't picked the system just because it was obscure and his rivals might be scared off.
There was something there. Something important. But not important enough to have a Stargate, apparently - Carter had looked through all their data and hadn't found an address. So, the Alliance scouting force would have to travel to the system by ship from Etheria.
And without much ground support. In theory, they could send another division through the Stargate to Etheria and load it up in the frigates there. But just transporting everything to and through the gate and then loading it all up in ships and flying to another planet would take so long, the force already underway would reach the system faster than that.
The Alliance really needs more fast reaction forces at brigade or division size, Jack thought as he stepped out of the lift and saluted the guards there. The Navy pukes had been quick to propose stationing marines on all ships for such situations, but Jack had managed to shoot that stupidity down. This wasn't 1812 any more; soldiers needed far more supplies and support on the ground to be effective in war. Light infantry wouldn't cut it - and for situations where light infantry was good enough, they already had Jack's people who could be deployed through the Stargate and on any ship that could carry them. All the Navy's proposal would do was waste manpower by having marines twiddle their thumbs on Horde frigates on the off-chance that they might be needed one day.
He entered the gate room. The sight of the Stargate brought back memories. Once more, Jack and his friends would step through the gate and risk their lives scouting alien planets and foiling the plans of snakes. But this time, it wouldn't just be SG-1.
"Jack!" Daniel smiled at him. Sha're and Teal'c both merely nodded. "We're ready. Sam's already on Etheria."
He knew that already. Carter was helping to set up the transports on Etheria - and, most importantly, the stealth shuttle they would need for the final leg of the mission.
"General." Burke's grin turned the rank into a slight tease. He was standing with his team - Jones, Müller and a new guy, Dupont. Good people. Jack had trained them personally. They would do well.
But Jack wasn't quite so sure about the other addition to this mission. "Jakar." He nodded at the Tok'ra spy.
"General O'Neill." The snake smiled at him and nodded back.
At least Jakar wasn't Anise. That would have been creepy.
Jack looked at everyone, then nodded once again. "Alright! Dial Etheria! We've got a mission to run for the Alliance."
Outside the PU-9623 System, January 28th, 2000
"...and our spy bots have tracked the enemy ships. Their numbers closely match up with our intel, though we're missing one Ha'tak in the system - it's not on the planet, either."
Adora nodded at Sam's explanation as she looked at the holoprojection floating in the middle of the briefing room in WrongHordak's flagship. It was a simple system, as Entrapta called it - three planets, one of them habitable, the other two gas giants. No pretty rings around either of them, though they were useful to gather resources to build spy bots here
"But! There are a few debris fields in the system," Entrapta cut in. "We haven't run detailed scans yet to check if one of them matches the missing ship's mass since the spy bots couldn't get close enough without showing up on the Goa'uld sensors. We really should have covered this with stealth bots, but they wouldn't have arrived before us, so it was deemed pointless to re-route the closest ones."
"Debris fields?" Jack asked with a frown. "Multiple ones?"
"Yes!"
"Potential remains of a space battle, General," Sam said. "Though we don't have enough data yet to tell how old they are."
"We have no records of this system in our memory banks," WrongHordak said. "But it's close to the border of Horde Prime's old empire, so it should have been visited at least once by a scouting force."
Adora nodded. And couldn't help thinking that it was nice to talk to Clones who didn't literally worship her.
"Yes," Entrapta said, frowning. "Horde Prime really should have shared all his data with all of you. That was very inconsiderate of him!"
"Never expect your enemy to be stupid," Jack commented. "So… any signs of battle damage on the rest of the fleet?"
"Nothing that we could detect, sir," Sam replied. "Although there seems to be exotic radiation in the system that degrades the performance of our long-range sensors."
"That might be the reason - or one reason - that Apophis picked this system," Bow speculated. "It would make detecting his fleet even harder."
"It also makes detecting enemy scouts harder since his sensors would be affected as well," Sam objected.
"What kind of exotic radiation, Carter? I am not looking forward to becoming a mutant," Jack joked. Probably joked.
"We have yet to identify the radiation, sir."
"It's a mystery!" Entrapta beamed. "We need to get closer to get better readings, anyway - of the ships and the radiation. So far, we've only managed to confirm that it exists because of its effect on our sensors, but no direct readings."
"So, we could develop mutant powers if we fly into the system?" Jack asked, raising his eyebrows. He was still looking serious, Adroa noted.
"That is very unlikely," Sam told him. "Apophis's fleet would have been exposed for weeks, and his Jaffa should have been affected by it."
"Maybe that's why he sent them here." Jack grinned. "Create mutant super-Jaffa."
"Apophis would not risk a sizeable part of his fleet for such an experiment, though," Teal'c spoke up. "He would send chosen volunteers to be exposed and withdraw his ships to wait for the results."
"And he wouldn't risk his new queen like that," Sha're added. "He would not want to have offspring with mutations."
"We'll still proceed slowly and carefully," Adora said. "Send in a stealth shuttle with more sensors first to take detailed scans. Without a crew," she added. WrongHordak's fleet wasn't worshipping her, but she wouldn't put it past some of them to volunteer as test subjects, so to speak, if it meant they could distinguish themselves.
"Yes!" Entrapta nodded. "The stealth system will affect the readings, but we're still going to have more data!"
Everyone seemed to agree, so Adora finished the meeting and let her friends work. Or nap, in Catra's case.
An hour later, the stealth shuttle was approaching the first gas giant with its scanners primed and its stealth system active. Bow, Sam and Entrapta were practically glued to the screens linked to the sensors while everyone else watched on the big screen in the briefing room.
"Still no sign of the missing ship. But we're closing on the first debris field! Scanning!"
"It looks like… Yes. Those are processed materials. Although they do not match a Ha'tak's hull - they match a Horde frigate's hull."
"So… how old are they?" Jack asked.
"Several hundred years at least. With the system's background radiation, anything more precise will require physical samples," Sam said.
"And what about the radiation?"
"Checking!" Entrapta grinned. "Oh… interesting readings! Very interesting. Oh! We've got a match! A partial match! It's…" She trailed off, and Adora saw that she was biting her lower lip.
"What's it?" Catra asked.
Entrapta looked actually embarrassed. Or guilty. "It's the same, well, same-ish, kinda, radiation left behind by the portal experiment we kinda tried back in the Horde."
Oh.
Adora heard Catra hiss under her breath.
And Glimmer had grown very tense.
The portal experiment that had almost destroyed Etheria, back in the war. The experiment that had needed Queen Angella's sacrifice to stop.
"It looks like this was the site of an interdimensional displacement," Sam said, breaking the sudden silence.
Samantha Carter focused on the screen in front of her. She didn't have to glance at the others in the briefing room to read the mood. She wasn't privy to every detail involving that particular incident, but she had caught enough from Entrapta's casual remarks, and from her friend's silences and changes of topics following any such remark, to know the gist of it.
Queen Angella, Glimmer's mother, had sacrificed herself to seal a dimensional portal that had been meant to reshape reality and had ended up threatening to destroy it. It had been a Horde Wunderwaffe, not quite a Hail Mary attempt to win the war - the Horde's position hadn't been that bad yet back then - initiated by Hordak, finished by Entrapta and pushed ahead by Catra, who had been so fixated on it that she banished Entrapta to some death prison island for refusing to continue.
Catra very obviously blamed herself for it, but Entrapta blamed herself for not stopping it (or managing to convince Catra that it was too dangerous), and Sam suspected even Hordak felt guilty about starting the whole project to contact Horde Prime, at least in hindsight.
But she was sure that Adora blamed herself for not stopping the project before someone had to sacrifice themselves to seal the dimensional rift. Even though she probably hadn't had any realistic chance to know, much less reach it in time. Sam hadn't asked - she knew better than poking at such topics - but she was also sure that Adora felt guilty for not sacrificing herself in Angella's place.
And Sam knew that Glimmer's relationship with her mother had been what most people would call 'complicated'. Not too unusual for a teenager, but add the war and survivor's guilt to it…
It was a huge mess, and Sam really didn't want to discuss it. But there was no choice - they couldn't continue with the mission without talking about this. And leaving Apophis to dabble with such forces was entirely out of the question.
She cleared her throat. "We have no idea yet what kind of dimensional displacement, and if successful, took place here. The readings are similar to those gathered by Entrapta in the past, but this might be typical for any such event."
"It doesn't matter," Adora said. "Just the risk that Apophis is building a reality-altering portal is too much. We have to stop him."
"Yeah," the General agreed.
Neither Catra nor Glimmer said anything, nor did Entrapta comment on the science involved - she must be feeling even worse than Sam expected about this. Suppressing a sigh, Sam went on: "We need to gather more data to pinpoint potential sources of this radiation."
"Can this dimensional radiation thingie affect combat operations in the system?" the General asked.
"Not the residue we're picking up," Sam replied. "But if Apophis's forces are running an experiment that tampers with dimensions, then they might attempt to use that in battle."
"Like we did," Catra muttered.
"So, we need to wipe them out before they have the chance to do that - or anything like it," Glimmer said with a grim expression. "Attack them with overwhelming force."
Bow cleared his throat, then smiled almost sheepishly. "We should gather more intel first, I think. So we know more about, ah, our targets."
Glimmer glared at him. "We just crush everything."
"We should at least find out where Taweret is before we launch an attack," Sha're added. "We came here to deal with her."
"That was before we found out that Apophis is trying to mess with dimensions," Glimmer retorted. "This is more important."
"We, ah, don't know yet if he's actually experimenting with that technology," Daniel pointed out. "This might have been an accident or just a coincidence."
An accident wasn't impossible - hyperspace travel was distantly related to dimensional displacement technology - but unlikely. And the odds of a naturally occurring event that spawned such radiation? Sam wouldn't bet on that, either. Though it would be a fascinating discovery - akin to a weakened spot in the dimensional fabric some people had speculated might exist.
She nodded. "I think we should gather more data before we proceed with any action. We have the enemy fleet under surveillance, and I believe that with the sensors we have in place now, we should detect any dangerous experiments in time to intervene." Probably.
Glimmer didn't look convinced. "It's still a dangerous risk."
Catra nodded.
But Adora shook her head. "We can't just rush in. We might make things worse by accident. Let's gather more data."
"Alright," Entrapta said. She didn't sound as enthusiastic as she usually did, though, and Sam bit her lower lip.
Outside the PU-9623 System, January 29th, 2000
Samantha Carter glanced at the clock on her screen. It was past midnight. Technically, a new day. And they were still at work. If they were back on Earth, at Stargate Command, the General would check in and tell her to get to bed.
But they were on a mission. A mission that had turned out to be a bit more dangerous, at least potentially dangerous, than they had expected.
And also far more personal than they had expected.
Sam glanced at Entrapta, who was still uncharacteristically silent and serious. She clenched her teeth—she couldn't let this go on.
"So…" she started to say, then trailed off for a second when Entrapta didn't react. "You know it wasn't your fault, right?"
"What wasn't my fault?" Entrapta asked without taking her eyes off the screen.
"The portal on Etheria."
"I built it - well, I finished it after Hordak designed the concept. But I made it work."
Sam shook her head. "But you realised the danger and tried to stop… others from using it."
"But I failed! I couldn't convince Catra how dangerous it was."
"I don't think anyone could have," Sam said. Not according to what she had heard.
"I should have sabotaged the portal in advance! I should have considered this!" Entrapta finally turned to look at Sam, blinking rapidly. "It was my fault."
You didn't understand people well enough to know that. Sam didn't say that. That would be unfair. That wasn't Entrapta's fault either. People without her… issues… were routinely fooled by unhinged but charismatic leaders. That was a common foible of humans. "You did what you could. I doubt anyone else could have managed it either," she said instead.
Entrapta shook her head. "I'm still responsible! I…"
A beep interrupted her.
Both of them turned to look at the display. New data from a stealth shuttle. Flagged as important.
Sam quickly checked it - and drew a sharp breath. There were large concentrations of Naquadah on the planet. A ship that had landed or crashed? No - all of them were underground. A hidden gate site? But the amount of Naquadah was far too large for a gate.
Sam pressed her lips together and quickly checked other sensors. Power readings. Ground density.
The data matched.
"There's a base on the planet. A large one. And it's active."