Chapter 161: The Clones Question Part 1

Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, March 3rd, 2000

"...and then we withdrew through the Stargate, using the planned destinations to return to Alliance-controlled territory," Samantha Carter finished her verbal report. Which was the same as her written report, already filed this morning, but that had never kept the brass from holding personal debriefings.

"Thank you, Major Carter." Admiral Kearsy sounded anything but grateful. Of course, he wouldn't be happy in general - the General had been pushing hard to remove him from the Alliance Command Council, and as far as Sam understood things - she didn't like to delve too much into such things, but she couldn't avoid the gossip and office politics in her position - was that Kearsy had called in every favour and used every piece of blackmail he had on influential people in Washington. Even Kinsey had put in 'a good word' for the 'hard-working Admiral'.

Even so, Sam had heard from several people that one more misstep would see the man retired - or sent to a naval station in Alaska or Antarctica, should he choose to be difficult about it. In her opinion, that couldn't happen too soon; the man wasn't just unable to keep his bigoted religious beliefs to himself; he was also not fit to design a rowboat, much less oversee the US spaceship construction effort. If she had to deal with yet another attempt to redesign the Constitution II-class while the first ships were being built, she might abuse her friendship with the Etherians and demand that he be dealt with.

The admiral cleared his throat before he continued. "We have a few questions about your decision to destroy a functional spaceship - a stealth spaceship - before using the Stargate to withdraw."

Sam had expected that. "As my report stated, the ship wasn't safe to enter hyperspace, and an attempt to salvage it would have risked exposure and capture by hostile forces."

The man's smile twisted slightly. "Your entire team took worse risks when going on this mission, I believe."

"For a much more valuable objective, sir. Capturing a System Lord would have benefited the Alliance far more than salvaging a barely spaceworthy small craft that has been rendered temporarily functional with field repairs." She tilted her head as she met the man's eyes.

"That is not your call to make, Major."

"The Supreme Commander of the Alliance made that call, sir." Sam smiled a little more sweetly than was completely professional.

"We all agreed that the mission was worth the risk," General Naird threw in. Kearsy glared at him, and he added: "Well, the majority did."

"Compared to the capabilities offered by our stealth shuttles, a Tel'tak wouldn't have added anything to our fleet," Admiral Brown-Emerson commented in his British accent.

"Do I have to remind you that we are still building up our naval forces?" Kearsy spat. "Any spaceship is needed. And unlike a shuttle, a Tel'tak is hyperspace capable!"

"Not this Tel'tak," Sam corrected him. "The hyperdrive would have needed a complete replacement." Well, that was not entirely correct. Sam was pretty sure she would have been able to repair it, but it would have taken completely rebuilding the drive, and that would have only been the start. All the other components… Sam had better things to do than repair a Goa'uld craft that was already nearing obsolescence thanks to the Alliance's magitech sensor technology.

"Even so, an enemy ship taken as a prize offers unique opportunities - especially for the kind of missions General O'Neill loves to undertake, doesn't it, Major?" Kearsy looked like he barely managed to avoid sneering when he mentioned the General's name.

"While I wouldn't presume to speak for Special Operations Command, we have allies with access to such ships if we need one, sir," Sam retorted.

Kearsy scoffed. "Allies with their own agenda! It's difficult enough to get cooperation from another branch of the service for vital tasks; relying on alien allies for critical capabilities would be foolish."

Was that a dig at her because she had insisted on realistic limitations to the US's spaceship program? Sam couldn't tell, but she wouldn't put it past Kearsy to blame her for not magically altering poorly designed frigates so they somehow made the Navy's impossible demands work.

"We haven't had any issues on that front so far," Brown-Emerson said, stressing the 'we' very slightly, before Sam could think of a good answer.

Kearsy glared at him for that, but the British officer kept his bland expression.

"Well, most Alliance operations were cooperations with the Princess Alliance, and they worked out," Naird said. "Better than our past cooperations with the Navy," he added with a brief and slightly forced chuckle. "I mean the Air Force."

Kearsy scoffed again. "The fact remains that we could have recovered a functional spaceship with a bit of an effort - and with minimal risk compared to the mission you returned from. A mission, I have to point out, that ended in dismal failure and almost led to the loss of key personnel of the Alliance! We have neither a System Lord nor a spaceship in our hands now - in fact, we built and sacrificed two functional spaceships and have nothing to show for it!"

He wasn't wrong about that - the mission had been a failure. But it had failed because of circumstances outside their control; the plan had been sound. But arguing that wasn't Sam's job. That would be up to the General, Adora and the others.

She could argue the loss of the decoy ships, though. "Those ships were built as expendable decoys for this specific mission, sir. They were never meant to be functional warships, and only one had a working hyperdrive to begin with."

"Instead of building those… decoys… the yards could have built actual spaceships!" Kearsy stood and slammed his hands on the table.

"That is correct, sir." Sam nodded, which seemed to surprise him - he blinked. Before he could say anything, she continued: "Although they were built by the fleet train of Third Fleet so this didn't cut into the yard capacity assigned to the build program on Earth." She didn't have to add that Kearsy had been one of the most vocal backers of the decision to build up a native space industry on Earth able to fabricate warships instead of relying on Horde facilities and design - Kearsy's scowl showed he understood perfectly what she meant.

Once again, Sam's smile was just a shade too sweet to be professional. Maybe the influence she had thanks to her friendship with Entrapta and the others was corrupting her.

But when she had to deal with ignorant people like Kearsy, it was worth it.

Earth Orbit, March 3rd, 2000

"I see. An unknown Horde Fleet has attacked an equally unknown Goa'uld shipyard."

Glancing away from Earth's surface visible through the fake window in the room on Priest's flagship, Catra watched him rub his chin, obviously digesting the news. Or supposed news - she was pretty sure the information about their mission would have reached him before this meeting; Priest and his followers were fixated on Adora, after all, and Catra didn't doubt that the members of the Church of She-Ra were doing their best to follow their goddess's every move.

"Yes." Adora nodded. "We haven't found any clue to either's identity, though we've contacted the Tok'ra so they can look into the Goa'uld side of the thing."

"We will search our archives again for any scrap of information about the Horde's fleets we might have missed, Your Divine Highness!" Priest announced.

Adora winced, and Catra rolled her eyes. At Adora for feeling guilty about turning Horde Prime's flagship into a plant, and at Priest for going over the same data they had gone over with a comb twice before. If there had been any information about any missing fleet, or about the system that had been attacked, they'd have found it. But if Adora's faithful wanted to waste their time on that, Catra wouldn't stop them. That way, they were less likely to get into trouble.

"We've also started extending the spy bot network in the area. If the Horde fleet is still operating in the area, we'll soon know," Adora went on.

Catra wouldn't bet on that. The bots hadn't found anything so far except some debris - from Goa'uld ships, nothing from a Horde craft - in the system. She had no proof, but the attack felt like a raid - smash the enemy, grab what resources you could loot and get the hell out of the system. Though, the fact that the Horde forces had looted the planet raised questions. The average Horde Fleet didn't need to loot their enemies; they had a fleet train to supply them with anything they needed. And Goa'uld technology wasn't as advanced as Horde technology, so… "Why would they loot the place instead of destroying everything?" she asked. "Could they be suffering from supply issues?"

Priest frowned. "They might simply have wished to analyse the technology to better understand their enemy."

That was a possibility as well. But Catra didn't think so - the Horde had been too thorough with looting. No, for some reason, they had wanted whatever Goa'uld supplies they could get.

"In any case, knowing that there is another Horde fleet fighting the Goa'uld is a great boon, Your Divine Highness. Whereas we only suspected and assumed, now we know that more of us are out there." Priest beamed at Adora.

Catra rolled her eyes again. Priest's attempt to suck up to Adora was far too blatant. They hadn't been able to take out either Apophis or Sokar and that meant the mission was a failure. That they had found some intel, and that Kul'et's fake intel must seem to have been validated by Sokar's attack and Apophis would start another purge in his court to find Sokar's spies wouldn't help much - Apophis and Sokar had already been fighting each other, and the hunt for spies endangered the Tok'ra's operatives.

"We need to contact them as soon as possible." Adora pressed her lips together. "We need to find out why they are fighting the Goa'uld."

"And we need to tell them about you, Your Divine Highness." Priest smiled widely. "Your deeds and Your wisdom will guide them to join the Alliance!"

Adora winced again, but Catra nodded. Her lover hated it, but the more clones followed her, the better for the Alliance.

"And we need to look at increasing our numbers," Priest said, bowing his head toward Adora. "We are working diligently on converting others to the Faith, of course, but we should consider building more clone pods and expanding the construction capacity of the fleets. The current cloning facilities have the capacity to sustain our numbers, especially if we leave ground combat to the Earth forces and bots, but should we suffer heavy casualties in space, they might not be sufficient. And without using the mind-imprinting devices Horde Prime used, we'll need more time to raise and train new clones so they are able to serve when needed."

Adora frowned. "We're not making Soldiers as if they were bots!"

Catra nodded. They weren't the Horde! Either Horde.

"Joining the war would be their choice, of course," Priest said.

Adora narrowed her eyes. "We won't raise people with the expectation that they will fight in the war."

"Perish the thought!" Priest bowed his head. "That would go against all the teachings of Your Divine Highness! We would never do that! All we ask is to raise our brothers to be good people. People who will follow the example you are setting, Your Divine Highness."

Adora opened her mouth, then closed it. Catra snorted. Her lover couldn't exactly argue against people following her example. Well, she could, but that would make her a hypocrite.

But all of them here knew that anyone raised to follow She-Ra would happily join the war against the Goa'uld. And Catra was also aware that a number of their allies wouldn't be happy about Priest's plan to expand both the number of the clones and their fleets. Both on Earth and Etheria. She felt a little torn about the idea herself.

And yet, with an unknown Horde fleet out and about, they might not have a choice.

Alliance Base Lübtheen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, March 4th, 2000

Jack O'Neill watched from the edge of the training field as a platoon of his soldiers struggled to clear the obstacle course they usually ran in record time. Well, they were still doing better than some regular units, but for Special Operations Command, it was not up to par.

"And this after they all had passed the zero-g assault course," Sergeant Meadows commented next to him with a deep frown.

"It's one thing to train boarding ships, it's another to spend days in the suit and fight a war in the field." And the platoon had spent more than a day in the suits already at this point, without a break. "It's still better than the old NBC drills," he added. The spacesuits were far more comfortable than those, and they didn't slow you down that much - Jack knew that from experience. But they still reduced your effectiveness in combat. Significantly in some areas, as the exercise showed, but that should be compensated for with more training and experience.

And they needed the training. The failed mission had driven that point home. Jack should have ordered everyone to keep their suits on no matter how uncomfortable it was. And he shouldn't have blindly trusted that She-Ra's magic would fix the poison. Jack should have known better than trusting a magic solution.

"I don't envy the poor bastards in the regular units," Meadows said.

Jack shrugged. They didn't have nearly enough spacesuits for every soldier - they had barely enough for his command and he had to fight with the Marines to get them and call in a favour with Entrapta - but everyone needed to be prepared for an attack with chemical weapons. Sokar's stunt had driven that lesson home. That the Jaffa would be killed as well wouldn't stop the snakes; they had no qualms about sacrificing their own troops to hurt their enemies. Especially if they were losing a battle anyway. "They're not as much at risk as our troops."

"That's true." Meadows seemed about to add something but yelled: "Jenkins! Get up and get running, or we'll do a medical evac drill!" instead.

Jack snorted and turned away. He had seen enough and had been seen enough - an officer had to keep in touch with the troops under his command. He should run the course himself, but he had already done that yesterday, and he had a mountain of paperwork to deal with; during his absence, the stuff had multiplied, and that wasn't even counting the forms and reports he had to deal with from the mission itself.

And, he added silently with a frown as he made his way back to his office, the idiots he had to deal with. He had heard about Carter's debriefing. Not from her, of course - she would never complain about such things, at least not to him. But others paid attention.

Kearsy should have been reassigned weeks ago, but the whole thing had been delayed because the idiot knew too many influential people, and the usual posts to which you could send officers like him so they couldn't do any damage to the war effort but couldn't complain either since it was nominally a promotion were already filled.

Which said something about the Armed Forces, of course. Even in the Air Force, Jack wouldn't have expected so many staff officers to be so… Well, Daniel, always diplomatic, had called them 'slow to change their convictions' when they had discussed it. Carter had used 'traditional' with that little twist to her lips that showed that it was an insult. Jack wasn't about to be polite inside his head and just called them stupid. And a few worse words.

Having faith was fine and dandy - a soldier needed to believe in something to risk their life in war, and whether you believed in your country or your god didn't really matter. Until one went against the other, of course. You didn't put your god over your country. And you didn't use your god as an excuse to attack your allies.

"Things would be so much simpler if Kearsy were a member of the Church of She-Ra - she could just tell him directly to behave," Jack muttered as he entered his office, then snorted at the thought. If Kearsy converted, his career would be over anyway. His allies and supporters would turn on him in an instant, and the enemies he had made wouldn't lift a finger for him. Well, Priest might, actually.

"Sir?" Brown asked from his desk.

"Nothing. Just a silly thought," Jack replied. "Is there anything urgent I need to deal with?"

Brown tilted his head, glancing at the sheet next to his phone, and Jack frowned. His aide knew what Jack considered urgent. Phone calls from generals and politicians generally weren't. But Brown had a habit of politely and subtly disagreeing about that. "Who called?"

"Senator Kinsey, sir. He didn't say what it was about."

Jack sighed. "I'll call him back." Once he had his next coffee.

Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, March 6th, 2000

"...and lastly, there's been concern about the proposal to clone more, ah, clones and build more Horde frigates."

Adora nodded at the Secretary of Defense's words. "Yes. Priest is concerned about suffering casualties above their capacity to replace, especially with news about another Horde Fleet operating in the sector." As soon as she finished, she pressed her lips together for a moment. She should have worded that a little better - 'capacity to replace' sounded too mechanical.

The Secretary of Defense smiled a bit weakly. "Ah, that wasn't the concern I was talking about. Our government is concerned about using cloning technology to produce soldiers."

Adora nodded again. "I share this concern."

The man blinked, apparently surprised by her words, but recovered quickly. "Indeed. The implications on how the war is seen by the civilian population, and the effects on recruiting, are potentially problematic."

"Not to mention that this will put the question of whether we should use this technology on humans on the table," the German Verteidigungsminister added.

Adora nodded once more. They had gone over that with Priest. Some wouldn't see cloned humans as people - some already didn't consider Horde clones people. And not just those who called them 'soulless abominations'.

"We're aware of that," Glimmer cut in before anyone else could speak up. "It's a difficult decision with many far-reaching consequences. I doubt any of our countries, whether on Earth or on Etheria, are ready to handle the changes such a decision would cause in society. There are many questions that need to be answered."

"Not the least the question of what you should do once your mass-produced clone soldiers have no more war to fight in," the British minister commented. "Her Majesty's Government opposes the use of cloning technology for military recruitment."

"As does France," his French colleague added.

"The United States' position is that at this point, there is no need for such drastic, unprecedented and potentially destabilising technology. The risks are far too great when compared to its moral implications and questionable military benefits."

"Brecht's saying about the Government dissolving its people and electing a new one comes to mind," the German minister commented.

Adora didn't quite get that, but the rest matched what she had heard in the leadup to this meeting after Priest's proposal had been passed on to the rest of the Alliance. And she agreed with the stance. You couldn't just let anyone, well, anyone with the technology and facilities to build and run so many cloning pods, mass-produce people as if they were bots. That went against everything the Alliance stood for. It was just wrong.

"While my government doesn't disagree," the minister from Norway spoke up, "we also cannot overlook that the Alliance is already producing bots, and some of them are sapient. The implications are the same."

"They're not the same!" the American protested.

"Morally, they are the same."

"Sapient is sapient," Entrapta commented, nodding emphatically. "No matter how you're built. Whether metal, ceramic, crystal or biological, it's all just matter, in the end, nothing more."

The Secretary of Defense looked as if he wanted to disagree but held his tongue.

"The scale is vastly different, though. As I recall, the sapient bots are only produced in tiny numbers," the British minister said.

"So far," the minister from Norway retorted. "What if we end up needing more smart combatants and turn to bots?"

That was a good question.

"We'll produce more dumb bots and put human veterans in command of their units," Catra replied. "That's more effective than producing more sapient bots who have no experience."

Entrapta nodded several times. "Yes. We found that out in the Horde War. The data is very conclusive."

Adora wasn't the only one who winced, though in her case, it was because she had torn through Horde bots without a thought.

"I think we can cross this bridge once we reach it," the French minister said.

That went against the basic principle of planning ahead, in Adora's opinion. Then again, it also wasn't smart to start trouble when you didn't need to - and they didn't need to make the problem with clones worse. Not when the real problem - one of the real problems, she corrected herself - hadn't been addressed yet. "So, we're in agreement that there won't be any cloning of humans for military reasons," she said.

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Not for any reason!"

"We didn't agree to that!"

"It's implied!"

"It's not."

"What do you need clones for?"

"There are several possible reasons for cloning people."

"None of them are valid!"

"You can't dismiss them without even hearing them!"

"We just went over the reason they are not valid!"

"It's unnatural!"

Adora cleared her throat, stopping the growing argument in its tracks. She made a mental note to ask around what this was about. "So, that's about cloning humans. But the Horde clones aren't humans. Their society is based on cloning - they do not reproduce sexually. And they are a sovereign species. If they decide to increase their numbers, that's their decision. It would be like us telling people they aren't allowed to have children." That had been an excellent argument from Priest, Adora had to admit.

"That's not the same!" the Secretary of Defense blurted out. "You can't compare individual decisions to found a family to mass cloning!"

"You can't force your family norms on aliens," his colleague from Norway retorted.

"You have to consider the impact of each decision," the American shot back. "As with the bots, numbers matter!"

"It's not our decision in the first place."

As the other ministers started to debate again, Catra, who had been uncharacteristically quiet so far, Adora realised, leaned over and whispered: "Wanna bet that this is actually about not wanting the clones to outnumber their forces if they chose to?"

Priest had mentioned that as well, Adora knew. And he might have been correct. Even though his proposal wouldn't even come close to doing that - not even if he wanted; the Horde didn't have the cloning pods for it and wouldn't have them for a long time.

Then again, it wasn't a baseless concern. There were other clones out there, after all. Clones they didn't know anything about.

Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States of America, Earth, March 7th, 2000

"Carter! Entrapta! Come in! Don't mind the neighbours - they still haven't adjusted to my new commute!"

"General." Samantha Carter nodded a greeting as she stepped into his home.

"What did the neighbours do? I didn't notice anything," Entrapta asked behind her, turning around to peer at the neighbouring houses, semi-hidden by the three shuttles parked outside.

"Nothing. The General is joking," Sam told her.

"I'm not!" he protested with a grin. "And they're watching us attentively, you can be sure of that!"

"Isn't that rude?"

"It's their job." He smiled a little wryly. "When I got promoted to General, the Air Force bought up all the lots bordering mine for security purposes. If they hadn't, the Homeowner Association would have tried to burn down my home for parking my shuttle in the driveway. The others are in the living room - make yourself at home!"

"Alright!" Entrapta nodded, and Sam caught her pulling up her multitool as they entered the General's living room. Probably to check what a Homeowner Association was.

"Sam! Entrapta!"

"Hello!"

"Greetings."

Daniel, Sha're and Teal'c were already there, occupying the couch and one seat. She had expected that - Teal'c would have flown with the General in his personal stealth shuttle while Daniel and Sha're usually took a normal shuttle from the Alliance pool when they needed to travel. For now piloted by a soldier, but Sha're was training to take over.

"Who wants a beer?" The General appeared carrying a tray filled with snacks and his favourite beer as well as some sodas.

Sam noted that the couch table was already covered with more beer bottles and bowls of food. As expected. German beer, mostly.

"It's been a while since we had a get-together here," he said as he took a seat and Sam grabbed a soda for herself.

"Your Homeowner Association sounds more dangerous than the norm," Entrapta commented while her hair grabbed two sodas and a bowl of tiny marshmallows. "I haven't found anything about other such groups using arson."

"That was a joke," Daniel said, frowning at Jack.

"Yes. Though I am sure they wished they could run me out of town when Uncle Sam took over."

"Ah." Entrapta nodded, then started munching from the bowl and occasionally taking sips from the can.

"Adora and the others were held up at headquarters but should arrive soon," the General went on after downing half his beer. "The thing about the clones really raised some hackles."

"I don't understand the problem," Entrapta said. "The clones are not subjects of any country on Earth. So, why should they listen to anyone on Earth about how they should reproduce? Also, the Alliance needs more ships, and ships need crews, and the clones have the means to provide us with both."

She wasn't technically wrong, Sam knew, but it was a very blunt way to look at it.

Daniel cleared his throat. "It's a complex issue. Leaving aside the, err, ethical and religious concerns, some people feel that the Horde is already the most powerful member of the Alliance since they control the vast majority of the Alliance's spaceships. Hearing that they plan to expand while Earth is still so far behind in building up their own ships might make them concerned about the future. And there's still lingering resentment about the changes to Earth society the Alliance caused. Some feel that if Etheria could make them adapt their way of life, they should be able to reciprocate."

"But neither Etheria nor the Horde prohibit people from having relationships and families with anyone or discriminate against it." Entrapta frowned in the slightly pouty way she usually did when struggling with an unfamiliar concept. "So, what is there to reciprocate?"

Daniel hesitated, and the General said: "For some people, not being able to tell others how to live their lives makes them feel discriminated against. You can find a lot of them in Homeowner Associations."

Entrapta blinked. "That makes no sense."

"It doesn't." The General shrugged.

"I have also heard that there is concern amongst some leaders on Earth that their population advantage might be negated by mass-cloning by the time Earth's production capacity for advanced technology would reach parity with the Horde's," Teal'c spoke up.

"But that's baseless!" Entrapta shook her head, her hair tendrils almost spilling a bowl of tiny crackers. "The resources needed for mass cloning on such a scale… Just the need to educate every clone would be beyond the means of the current population, and that's without taking all the physical resources into account! Not to mention they don't have much experience with rearing new clones. Sure, you could use Horde Prime's memory implant technology, but at that point, you might as well just build bots! And that will cripple your science research, which means you couldn't develop better technology, which means your ships - which would require tons of resources as well - would become obsolete, meaning you'd need even higher numbers to compensate… It just doesn't work that way! Not in the time projected for Earth to adapt to advanced technology, at least."

Sam nodded - she had run the numbers as well. Though longer-term, a dedicated focus on cloning and expansion could theoretically enter exponential growth.

"It's completely irrational," Entrapta huffed and sat back down, stuffing her mouth with two tendrils full of snacks.

"That's politics for you," the General commented. He leaned back. "Anyway, it's not as if anyone can stop the clones from doing what they want, so it's going to blow over."

"That's what Hordak said as well. The not being able to stop them, I mean," Entrapta said. "Earth can't dictate how the clones should live."

While correct, Sam was sure the former warlord hadn't meant the moral aspects of the question but had been talking realpolitik. Earth simply lacked the power to enforce their views, even if they wanted to stoop that low.

"Unfortunately, that doesn't mean some people won't try," Daniel said.

"And if your press gets involved, they might try to draw parallels to how the Goa'uld reproduce in large numbers," Sha're added.

Sam winced. It was likely only a question of time until the cloning plans were leaked to the public. And once the various extremists heard about it, their reactions wouldn't be pretty.

She finished her soda and grabbed a beer, but her mood had already been soured. So much for a nice evening with her friends!

"Hello, everyone!"

"Hello!"

"Hello!"

Following behind Adora, Glimmer and Bow, Catra stuck to nodding in greeting at the others already occupying the living room. At least they weren't too late - the group didn't look as if they had been having too much fun yet.

"Sorry for being late, but we had a meeting run long." Adora smiled at the others with that expression of hers that showed she felt responsible for something that wasn't her fault.

"As usual," Catra commented as she snagged a beer - one of the German ones, not the American stuff and waited for Adora to pick a seat for them.

"Not every meeting runs longer than expected," Adora retorted.

"But every meeting is expected to run long," Catra shot back. Oh, salmon rolls! She grabbed the bowl and ignored Jack's snicker.

"If every meeting is expected to run long then you need to adjust the allotted time for the meeting so it matches expectations," Entrapta said. "Data doesn't lie."

"Then they would run even longer. It's a rule," Jack said.

"But that doesn't make sense!"

Adora grabbed a beer herself and some hot chips, then sat down, and Catra first perched on the armrest before she slid onto Adora's lap, startling her lover with a grin.

"Hey!"

"That's my line," Catra said before pushing a roll into her mouth. Oh! Mh! "Good rolls," she told Jack after swallowing. "Where did you get them?"

"Brown got them for me," he admitted. "I planned to get them myself, but there was a problem with the training schedule. And he probably wanted to avoid complaints from the German police if I parked the shuttle in front of the local supermarket again," he added with a grin.

"You used a shuttle for a grocery run?" Daniel stared at him.

"I put it in stealth mode and had it hover above the ground," Jack replied. "So, I didn't break any traffic laws."

"Except for air traffic regulations, sir." Sam sounded exasperated, but Catra could spot a smile on her lips.

"I was flying too low for that to apply. And I had a flight plan filed per regulations. Not my fault that the German official thought I was joking." Jack shrugged. "Anyway, Brown had it handled like a good aide should."

"Or a lawyer," Daniel commented.

"He's too honest for a lawyer."

Catra snorted at that. The aide sounded quite sneaky to her - sneaky enough, at least, to handle Jack's antics. Of course, Jack was sneaky enough to let him do it, so… Whatever. She finished her beer, then called out: "Hand me another one, Daniel?"

"Why don't you get up and grab one yourself?" Glimmer asked.

"I'm needed here to make sure Adora relaxes," Catra told her with a grin while she took the can from Daniel. "She needs another one as well, by the way."

"I haven't finished my first yet," Adora protested.

"You can still use another," Catra retorted. The meetings had been tedious. So much posturing and horse-trading just to get things done! Almost as bad as Horde meetings, but you didn't have to fear literal backstabbers. Well, you probably didn't; there could always be some fanatic. Or someone going crazy; the stress of waging war could break people.

"So… what movie are we watching?" Adora asked.

"Well, we have watched Star Wars twice, so I was thinking something new," Jack said. "Sorry, Teal'c."

Teal'c nodded in response but didn't comment.

"And I was told by someone," Jack pointedly looked at Daniel, "that you need more exposure to movie culture to truly appreciate 'so bad they're good' movies."

"All I said was that to enjoy those sorts of movies, more context might be needed," Daniel told him with a frown. "And all the movies you suggested were just bad."

"Enough beer and every movie starts looking good," Jack shot back. "Anyway, with the classics out, I thought I'd take a page out of Etheria's book and get the latest movie." He flashed his teeth in a wide grin, reached behind his seat and pulled out a small case. "Behold the latest Hollywood blockbuster: 'Space Pirates'."

"Isn't that still in the cinemas?" Daniel asked.

"I got an Etherian bootleg," Jack said.

Glimmer groaned. "Disney will complain again if that gets out, and the negotiations about a copyright deal will stall again."

Catra shrugged. That wasn't her problem. Besides, Glimmer could always give in and bribe them with magic healing or something if things were going wrong. "Come on, put it on."

"Alright." Jack stood up and walked over to the TV.

Catra leaned back into Adora and got comfortable.

"We absolutely need to show this to Mermista!" Catra blurted out when the end credits started rolling.

"We absolutely can't show this to Mermista!" Glimmer protested.

"But they so ripped off her and Sea Hawk! Princess Siren even looks like her, and they got her attitude down to the way she rolls her eyes!" Catra giggled. "And the hero is a space smuggler named 'Falcon' with a laser cutlass whose ship gets wrecked in the very first scene and he just walks it off!"

"Exactly!" Glimmer shook her head. "She'll go ballistic."

"There are bootlegs around already. Mermista will hear about it sooner or later anyway," Catra pointed out.

"That doesn't mean we need to tell her!" Glimmer insisted.

"Of course we do! That way, we can see her reaction firsthand!" Oh, Mermista would go ballistic! Sea Hawk would probably love it - the actor playing his expy was great. "And we need to get the cast to visit Etheria!"

"You want to reward them for ripping off our history?" Glimmer sounded shocked.

"More like ripping off our stories." Catra shrugged again. She didn't care - it was a great movie. And speaking of that… "Bow! I'll need a copy for us!"

"OK."

"Bow!"

As Bow tried to placate Glimmer, Catra smiled. That had been a great movie night. Just the thing to relax and have fun.

Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, March 9th, 2000

"...and behind me, in front of the White House, a crowd has turned out to protest the production of clone soldiers. While the protesters are, so far, peaceful, the mood is quite riled up, and the police in riot gear are standing by to intervene."

Behind the reporter who was almost breathlessly narrating, Jack O'Neill could see the crowd waving various signs around. He wasn't quite sure - the cameras didn't really linger on them - but he thought he saw something about 'soulless hordes' next to the dozens of identical "Say NO! to unnatural procreation!' and 'No Kid Factories!" signs. Someone must have mass-produced them for the protest, he thought with a snort.

Then the frame froze, and Major What'shisname, Greaves, stepped up and addressed the room. "As you can see with this news clip - just a sample from various others - we're already seeing protests from the public against cloning people."

Not for the first time since he had received his personal stealth shuttle, Jack had to admit that while it was great to be able to commute to any location on Earth or the moon from his home - or any planet with a Stargate if he took a trip to Stargate Command - it came with a few drawbacks. Such as not having an excuse not to attend a stupid meeting halfway across the continent from your base because travelling there wouldn't take him much time at all.

And so he had to listen to a staff officer who must have risen through the ranks in Public Affairs without ever seeing the field, much less combat. Major Greaves certainly seemed way too concerned about this whole thing. Then again, that was his thing. Jack on the other hand.. If he ever found out who got him on this committee, someone would regret it. He was special forces, not public relations!

"Protests by fringe elements driven by religious nutcases," General Barbier said in his distinct French accent. "If we listened to them, we might as well drop any advanced technology and go back to horse and carriage."

"They're not Amish!" Greaves protested. "They have significant influence amongst the more conservative, err, conservatives."

"In the United States, maybe. I can assure you that such fringe elements do not influence French policies."

"Her Majesty's Government also isn't in the habit of listening to demands rooted in irrational beliefs or based on sensational movies," Admiral Brown-Emerson added. He wasn't a PR specialist, either. Must have annoyed someone back in Merry Old England.

"Unless they donate to your election campaigns," General Naird commented. Of course, he would jump at the chance of getting on a committee for the networking and influence. At least his background - Signals - was something slightly related to this bullshit. "Didn't one of your Lords start a petition to clone a dragon?"

"That's not a rejection of cloning technologies - quite the opposite, in fact," the British admiral retorted with a straight face.

"You can't claim that's rational, though." Naird snorted. "And I bet the guy has come up with this after watching Jurassic Park."

Brown-Emerson chuckled, conceding the point.

"Sirs?" Greaves cleared his throat. "While fascinating, this meeting is being held to discuss the potential issues the adaption of cloning technology for procreation could have for the image of the Alliance."

"It's just the Horde clones who are doing it, and they, well, are clones," Naird said. "No other country has passed legislation to allow the cloning of people." He gestured at the screen. "Those people are protesting an imaginary threat!"

"That is correct, sir. However, what people believe, regardless of its veracity, still matters," Greaves retorted. "If the population - or a part of the population - thinks the Alliance is building factories to churn out cloned soldiers, that will have repercussions."

Jack wasn't really concerned about a bunch of idiots falling for rumours. But the people using those idiots? The people politely voicing 'concerns' about the 'unprecedented expansion of what is arguably already the most powerful member of the Alliance', as one of them had put it? Those could be trouble. Even though Jack had mixed feelings himself about the Horde expanding. Still…

He scoffed, drawing the room's attention. "And even for the Horde, who have been cloning each other for centuries, it's not going to be easy to expand. This isn't a game where soldiers spawn fully trained and equipped at the push of a button."

"No one is expecting that!" Greaves protested.

Jack had a mind of showing the Major the clips from the more conservative TV channels Daniel had collected. Some idiots certainly seemed to think they were living in Starcraft. "Anyway, we're not going to get buried in clones." Carter and Entrapta, and they would know best, had run the numbers, and Jack had checked them himself.

"We can't tell people that, though," Naird pointed out. "That's a military secret!"

"We don't have to tell them that. We can simply not comment but let experts explain the truth," Barbier countered.

"That would be the same! We can't let the enemy know about our production capacity!" Naird shook his head.

"If the Goa'uld have spies on Earth, then speculation about cloning and training capacity is the least of our worries," Jack said. "We just did a dangerous mission to convince the snakes that we're at war with the Horde, remember?"

Naird glared at him. "Of course I do! But we still cannot reveal such details about our military capacity!"

"I think we should consider it if only to counter the narrative that we're on the verge of people cloning armies," Greaves cut in. "If fear of this scenario continues to spread, it's bound to do a lot more damage to the Alliance's capability to conduct this war. Not to mention the consequences if people start to suspect that friends and family could be replaced by clones."

"Surely that is not a realistic scenario!" Barbier exclaimed.

"Never underestimate the stupidity of the average man," Jack muttered.

"I suggest we create a task force for combatting disinformation and rumours," Naird said.

"Good idea," Jack said. Naird looked surprised at his support, but as long as Jack wasn't on that force, he was all for it. Maybe they could have the Department of Education do it. It certainly seemed as if the world - Jack didn't believe that America was unique in that area - was in need of better education, so people didn't believe every nonsense.