Chapter 169: Ba'al's Machinations Part 1

Earth Orbit, Solar System, May 19th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"We'll do our best to welcome the lost fleet into our ranks, Your Divine Highness! We will also teach them how to think for themselves and make decisions about their own lives, of course - to prevent them from falling for the lies of the Goa'uld or anyone else." Priest bowed deeply. "And I offer you the thanks of everyone in the fleet for saving them before it was too late."

Adora suppressed a grimace. "We were too late and couldn't save everyone," she said. Like the clones that the Commander had had grown and mistaken for braindead out of ignorance. And Adora and her friends had personally killed several clones in the attack on Ba'al.

"If you couldn't have saved them, no one could have, Your Divine Highness." Priest smiled at her.

Well, that might be true for the Clones, but if Adora had been a bit more cautious, held back a bit, she might have saved the Commander's guards - though she would have risked them hurting her friends, or worse. She could do better, though, and so she nodded without actually acknowledging the point.

"We've also been making some progress with the other fleets we have been reaching out to," Priest went on. "Incidentally, the ability to create more of us has been a decisive factor for some of them - those who had resigned, thinking they would be the last of us. Knowing our people won't disappear but have a bright future ahead of us has saved them."

"That is good to hear, Priest," Adora told him. She was quite aware that Priest's people would also work on converting them to their faith, but if the alternative was to see entire fleets simply give up and wait to die… Adora didn't like being worshipped - who, except the Goa'uld, did? - but she would hate it if people died when they could have been saved.

"We live to follow your example, Your Divine Highness. Although we still need to find the rest of the Lost Fleet and save them from serving as Baal's unwitting puppets."

"Yes." They had not reacted to FTL-communication requests, and the ships sent to the known positions of the fleet had not found the - they had moved away. Now, there should be confusion after their Commander had been captured along with Ba'al, but Adora would have expected whoever was now in charge of the Lost Fleet to at least answer calls. "We're keeping up our efforts."

"After Ba'al's capture, his command structure should have been disrupted, causing friction or outright chaos in his forces," Priest commented. "Underlings fighting to take over or trying to carve out their own realm with whatever resources they can lay claim to. But we haven't found any evidence of that."

"We don't know the extent of his realm," Adora pointed out. "Only the bases the Commander was aware of." Which had been emptied and often razed to the ground before they arrived.

"We will find them, Your Divine Highness, and we will free all of Ba'al's slaves!"

Adora nodded again. They would indeed. Still, she had a bad feeling about this. Ba'al had been transferred to the Goa'uld holding facility on Earth and interrogation specialists were already talking to him, but the System Lord had, so far, proven completely uncooperative - and quite smug.

Something was up. Adora didn't know what, but she knew this.

And she was pretty sure that they had to find out what was going on, and as soon as possible, or the consequences would be grave. "How are the new trainees doing?"

"Oh, they are very motivated! We might have to slow down the training schedule to keep them from overworking themselves, but…"

Adora nodded as Priest started to detail the state of the new Clones training program. At least that was working as planned.

Alliance Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, May 19th, 2000

"...so we are in agreement. The Alliance will hold the base taken from Ba'al and keep the shipyards running while using the base to supply operations in the area."

Adora sighed under her breath as everyone sitting at the conference table nodded. It had taken too long for her taste, but the Command Council had finally agreed on a course of action.

"We'll need to move in reinforcements and fortify the base," she said.

"We already have a task force there to guard it," the American Secretary of Defense said.

"That won't be enough," she pointed out. "And the base's current security and fortifications aren't sufficient to protect it against infiltration attempts or large ground-based attacks. We also need a larger garrison and more infrastructure to supply the fleet."

"We can send one of the new units that have been raised to take over the garrison - it will allow them to keep working up while freeing the combat unit currently stationed there for other duties," his British colleague said.

"Two birds with one stone. Although we will need a Stargate that we can move there," the German minister added.

"We've contacted the Tok'ra to see if they know a Stargate that's not known to the Goa'uld so it can be moved there without them noticing," Adora said. Of course, the Tok'ra also had asked to get some of the ships that would be built there. Which led to another decision they had to make. "Also, we need to decide if we convert the shipyard to build Alliance designs or keep producing Goa'uld ships," she said.

As Catra and Glimmer - and Sha're - had predicted, everyone agreed to convert them to produce alliance designs. But everyone disagreed about which designs should be built there and by whom.

Adora sighed, more audibly now. This would take a long while.

Research base Alpha, First Moon of Enchantment, May 20th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"I have finished the analysis of the sample you brought."

Samantha Carter looked up from her computer screen upon hearing Loki's announcement. That had been faster than she had expected from him. And he wasn't complaining about the analysis having been a waste of time. "Thank you," she told him as she opened the file on her computer.

After a few seconds of skimming the data, she nodded. "So, it was a clone." All their efforts, and it was just a body double. Worse, now the real Ba'al would be warned and might change his plans. Unless the clone never knew his actual plans.

"Yes. Whoever did the work tried to hide the signs - they probably did use a sarcophagus in the attempt - but for a scientist like me, it was obvious."

For you when using Alpha's instruments. I'd like to see you do better in the field with only a portable computer, Sam thought with some annoyance. However… "Wouldn't the sarcophagus have rejuvenated the body?"

"In the default setting, yes. But even such a crude tool could be adapted and used more creatively." Loki cocked his head in what was probably a shrug for the Asgard. "I assume they tampered with the radiation until it reversed some of its effects; the tissue showed signs of degradation that were similar to but incompatible with ageing effects."

It was just a theory, but it seemed sound. And now Sam had another nightmare-inducing scenario to ponder: the threat of being aged in such a sarcophagus. Granted, compared to being possessed by a symbiont, it would be a mercy, and you could probably use a sarcophagus to undo such an effect, but to feel your body decay like that… She shuddered.

"I also analysed the samples from the human clones," Loki went on.

"Ah?" Sam looked at him.

"I was looking for signs of what kind of research Ba'al might be doing on the Horde Clones."

That explained his interest: Loki was hoping to find data he could use for his own project. "What did you find out?"

Loki's mouth twitched in an Asgard frown. "The genetic code was left unchanged."

"Ba'al doesn't have to use genetic engineering on humans to get hosts," Sam pointed out. Unlike Asgard, humans didn't reject symbionts.

Loki frowned at her. "I had the hope that Ba'al would have used his test subjects more efficiently. But as was to be expected, the Goa'uld prefer to waste resources."

Or they didn't want to have others find out what they were doing by adding more secrets to clones planned to be expendable. But Loki was too focused on his own desires to consider this. "That's the least of their sins," Sam commented.

"Waste is one of the worst sins," Loki, of course, had to disagree. "In any case, I request all the data you can gather from his research sites. It might prove useful for my task."

"Of course." Sam rolled her eyes, but Loki had already turned away. The arrogance of that scientist… Well, she had worked with worse on Earth, but it was still very annoying.

"Will we be duplicating this experiment?"

Sam didn't jerk at Alpha's sudden question. She wouldn't give the bot the satisfaction. Instead, she slowly turned to look at the holoprojection. "There are currently no plans to clone humans," she told them.

"Why not? Using an alien symbiont to implant pre-selected memories into clones is a very original way to make cloning more efficient. If we can duplicate the way memories are passed on, we could avoid having to spend so many resources on training new scientists up to an acceptable level to do more ground-breaking research, freeing up more resources for other projects."

Sam narrowed her eyes. She knew very well that the only reason Alpha pretended to care about anything not directly related to the research done in this base was that the bot hoped to sway her into allowing her latest thoroughly unethical project. "That violates several fundamental principles of the Alliance." Not that Alpha cared about that. "And it also would cause a very high single failure point. If the memories passed on were to develop faults - or were faulty to begin with - the consequences would be dire. The Asgard are the best example for a similar result."

The holoprojection frowned but slowly nodded. "That is an argument I have not yet considered. I will now do so. Thank you." Alpha faded from view.

"I'm surrounded by single-tracked minds," Sam muttered under her breath - and made a mental note to check up on Beta's research. The other First Ones bot running a research base controlled by the Alliance had similar views on ethics and morality, namely that they were in the way of advancing science. And it fell to Sam to supervise both. Maybe she should…

Entrapta appearing in the door to Sam's office interrupted her thoughts. "Sam! Anise just called! She's coming over with her latest project! Oh, and she also has some data on Ba'al, I think."

That was good news - or so Sam hoped. After receiving confirmation that they had only captured a clone and dealing with both Loki and Alpha, Sam could use something uplifting. And Anise's latest project did sound intriguing.

Bright Moon, Etheria, May 21st, 2000 (Earth Time)

Catra stopped on the way through Bright Moon's market street. Another shop had opened up with products from Earth - or inspired by Earth products; she could tell with a glance that a lot of the merchandise were imitations. Ironically, in some cases because the quality was too good for the mass-produced wares common on Earth.

Acting on impulse, she entered the shop - maybe she'd find a gag gift for Adora or something to annoy Glimmer with. She ignored the display cases with bootlegged TV shows and movies she already knew or didn't want to know and skimmed the board games and other toys. Nothing interesting there, and the clothes seemed rather boring as well. Then again, she was used to the real thing, and once you learned to ignore the advertising that bombarded you everywhere on Earth, you soon stopped caring about most of the products as well.

Or, she added with a glance at the posters and framed pictures of various Earth actors and singers, about most of their stars. Especially those who just didn't get that they couldn't block the Stargates on both Earth and Etheria for hours to ship through a small train of tour material including their personal mobile home… The Alliance was fighting a war and needed the gates.

Whatever, it didn't look like she'd find anything that caught her fancy here. Maybe she should…

"Look, it's here!"

That voice sounded familiar… Yes, she saw two Clones approaching the shop.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes! Look, there in the back!"

"In the back? That sounds disrespectful!"

Disrespectful? Catra frowned. What were they talking about? Oh! She grinned when she saw the two making a beeline for the toys in the back which prominently featured a local copy of an Earth-made 'Sword of She-Ra' toy.

"See? I told you we would find one!"

"Yes! Oh, and look - there's a set of figurines of Her Divine Highness as well!"

"That wasn't here yesterday! What a find!"

Catra watched as the two bought every scrap of She-Ra merchandise for frankly inflated prices, and again when the clerk replaced the stuff with more of the same from the back. The goat-man didn't quite meet her eyes while working, probably worried about her reaction.

She didn't yet know if he had a reason to worry, but she'd find out soon - it was almost time to head back to the Palace for dinner.

Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, May 21st, 2000 (Earth Time)

"...so things have been going well here in our absence. Mom's helping Dad run the kingdom."

"How is she doing?" Catra asked, cocking her head at Glimmer while she cut into her second serving of fried ice fish. She wasn't quite sure if Angella getting involved too deeply in the kingdom's politics was a good thing or not, but it was certainly important.

"Oh, she's doing…" Glimmer sighed. "...well."

Catra raised her eyebrows, then glanced at Bow, who looked amused instead of concerned. So, it wasn't anything serious but probably embarrassing. Not that he would tell.

"That's good!" Adora, of course, beamed.

"Yes." Glimmer bit a bit too forcefully in her bread roll, practically tearing a bite off with her teeth. Definitely embarrassing. And that was good. The last thing the Alliance needed was a power struggle between the two queens. Well, time to broach another topic.

"Did you know there's a significant market for She-Ra merchandise in the Horde?" Catra asked as casually as she could.

"What?" Adora stared at her.

"I saw two Clones buying every She-Ra toy in the market," Catra explained. "Overpriced or not."

"But I thought we… Oh, right. That's only Earth," Adora said. "We didn't make any agreements for Etheria."

"People are fleecing the Clones with She-Ra toys?" Glimmer asked. "In Bright Moon?"

"And probably elsewhere," Catra added. "Looked like they have a good supply of the stuff." She might ask Scorpia if she had any idea - it was one thing if the toys were made by hand, another if someone was using a factory.

"But… those are toys?" Adora shook her head. "Are they playing with them?"

"Many people collect toys," Bow said. "It's a nice hobby."

And you're one of them, Catra thought. Though he probably didn't collect She-Ra toys - he was already spending a lot on genuine Earth figurines and 'simulation games'. "They probably put them up on their shrines," she said.

And now Adora looked queasy.

"Do you want me to ban the sales?" Glimmer asked. "It's your, ah, likeness they're abusing. And they're exploiting the Clones."

"No." Adora shook her head. "No, that would be unfair."

"You could start up a line of official merchandise," Catra suggested. "Approved by you and with the profits going to charity or so." The Clones in her church would probably consider the stuff blessed.

Adora stared at her. "I'm not going to profit from people who worship me! That would be… disgusting!"

"That's why you'd use the profits for charity," Catra said. "If you don't do it, others will keep the profits for themselves."

Adora pouted. "It's still wrong! I'd feel dirty doing that. Like ordering people to donate money - donations should be voluntary!"

She had a point, but it still meant others would profit from her followers. Maybe Catra should have a talk with Priest. If he wasn't already aware of it, he would like to know this.

"So… how are relations with the other kingdoms?" Adora asked in a transparent attempt to change the subject.

"Ah, nothing's much changed." Glimmer shrugged. "Sweet Bee is still trying to get control of the Stargate, but her coalition is too divided to do anything."

And too weak even if they were united. Especially during the war.

Catra nodded. It looked like things were well enough at home.

Alliance Base Lübtheen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, May 22nd, 2000

"...and this, General O'Neill, is our prototype of the Composite Vision Enhancer and Protector System."

Jack O'Neill could hear the 'trademarked' added to the name as the salesman - sure, his official title was 'something-manager', but he was here to sell something - gestured at a man dressed in bulkier combat fatigues including gloves and what looked like a standard Kevlar helmet with a diving mask and a gas mask attached. He made a noncommittal noise and circled the man while the salesman prattled on.

"As you can see…" The Salesman gestured to the model, who reached up, fiddled with the edges of the mask, and then pulled it off. "...it's based on modularity. You can detach the BC-protector for missions that do not need it and keep the Vision Enhancer, greatly improving the user's experience. The same goes for the gloves."

The man stashed the gas mask - Jack wasn't going to call it a 'BC-Protector', trademarked - in a familiar-looking pouch at his belt and then pulled off the gloves and stuffed them in the same pouch.

"So, Mr Delgado… you basically added an NBC suit to the fatigues and a seal to the helmet?" Jack raised his eyebrows at the salesman.

The man didn't even blush. "The suit including the boots and the helmet were designed from the ground up; you can't just add a protector system to the current fatigues or helmet."

"Actually, you can," Jack told him. "It's just that it comes as an outer suit you wear over your uniform. Like our old NBC suits."

"But that would add more weight to a soldier and would take more time to put on in an emergency. With our system, they already wear the suit and sealed boots and can quickly protect themselves against attacks by biological or chemical agents without significantly reducing their effectiveness in the field. Not to mention that the integrated NV-goggles offer superior performance compared to the current technology."

Jack doubted that - the suit did look a little cumbersome, probably barely any less restrictive than the old NBC suit he was used to. "Still looks like you just moved some parts around and called it a day."

"We've been developing the system for some time, General. The recent submission request from the Alliance for an advanced combat uniform that included NBC protection was merely a coincidence. Unlike our competitor, we have a finished product."

That was probably true. Jack doubted even a scummy company could have thrown together such a proposal in that time. Still… it looked a lot like the suits they already had. Since the Cold War, actually. Jack doubted that it offered enough of an upgrade to justify the cost of replacing the current gear. And it made you look like some overweight German soldier from World War I.

But it was the first proposal the Alliance had received, and Jack knew better than to dismiss it without testing it. "So, let's see how my troops do with it!"

"We're ready for a field test, General." Delgado smiled.

A few hours later, after the sales delegation had left and his soldiers were back at base cleaning up, Jack O'Neill was typing up his preliminary report. The suit had actually performed pretty decently. Better than he had expected. The seals had held up to testing, you could move around better than in the old suits - though you still felt the weight, and it got more than a little hot in the whole getup if you were out through your paces - and his troops had quickly gotten the hang of it, including the night-vision mask and the radio attachment. 'Usability', as Delgado had called it, had been improved indeed. The whole system, except for the stupid name, was a solid product that was a distinct improvement over the current NBC gear.

Unfortunately, that was all it was. Anyone could see that it had been developed before the arrival of the Etherians. It didn't integrate magitech or advanced technology, it wasn't rated for space or low-atmosphere conditions - it wasn't rated for amphibian operations, either - and while it was laced with Kevlar, it didn't offer any better protection than the current vests, and if you added the optional 'Hard Protector', which was the new fancy name for a vest with ceramic plates, the weight increased considerably. And Jack had no doubt that if they managed to increase protection to the point the vest could withstand a staff blast, it would weigh even more.

No, in his honest opinion, the thing simply wasn't offering enough of an improvement over the current NBC suits the Alliance used. And compared to the Horde uniforms, it was clearly inferior.

And, while not official, Jack had asked Delgado about production capacity. It would take years to deliver enough of the suits to equip the US forces, much less the entire Alliance. Even just equipping Jack's special forces would take until the end of the year since the factories had yet to gear up for a production run. If they wanted it faster, the Alliance would have to build more factories and license production. In short, they would be paying a fortune for a suit that would be obsolete when it reached the troops.

Too bad for Mr Delgado, but the Alliance wouldn't buy his company's product. Jack added his conclusion to the end of the report, checked that the videos and pictures were attached properly, and sent the thing to Alliance Headquarters.

With that done, he could return to trying to figure out how to deal with Ba'al.

Royal Palace, Bright Moon, Etheria, May 23rd, 2000 (Earth Time)

"...and I was shocked, shocked beyond belief when I discovered how my brethren are treated on Earth. Raised to be enslaved and abused their entire lives, then slaughtered to feed dogs when they are too old to work! How can you people allow this crime? Even worse, some humans eat horses! That's cannibalism! I must…"

Adora turned the tablet off and sighed. Swift Wind's interview on Earth had caused quite a few issues. Well, his interview paired with a report about horse slaughterhouses… Who had thought that it was a good idea to allow that?

Right, freedom of the press, she reminded herself. Earth people could be so stupid at times! Well, they had to deal with the mess now. Adora wasn't going to tell a bunch of mostly girls that eating horses was fine and not cannibalism, or that using horses for anything but riding them wasn't slavery. That was their problem, not hers.

"And if they continue to bother me with their requests, I'm going to give an interview and tell them that it is cannibalism and slavery!" she muttered as she lay back on the bed.

"Hm?" Catra stepped out of the bathroom with a towel on her head… and nothing else.

"Adora?"

"What? Sorry!" Adora blurted out, blushing a little. And a bit more at Catra's smirk. "Just venting about the horse issue."

"You mean the Crusade Against Cannibalism?" Catra sat down on the bed and stretched.

"They're really calling it that?"

"Brown said something about 'alliteration gone wrong', but apparently, PETA is known for such stuff and was pretty effective." Catra shrugged. "He also said that the 'agro lobby' was being idiots for trying to counter it with the claim that it isn't cannibalism if it is a different species was making things worse for them instead of better even though it was technically correct." She snorted.

Adora frowned. "You talked to Mister Brown about that?"

Catra gave her a look. "I had to know how bad it was before the Alliance drags you into this mess."

Ah. Adora smiled at that. "Thank you."

"Someone has to shield you from trying to solve every problem," Catra replied with a snort. "Anyway, it's not our problem. We don't eat horses in Bright Moon. And we don't use them to pull wagons or ploughs either."

Well, Adora remembered Micah commenting about the costs of sheltering much of Etheria's horse population, but it hadn't seemed to be a real problem either. And it wasn't her problem.

Though without She-Ra, Swift Wind wouldn't exist, she reminded herself. In a way, she had caused all of this… "Ow!" She jerked and glared at Catra, who was slowly retracting the claw that had been poking Adora's calf.

"You were blaming yourself for this," Catra told her with a frown.

"I…" Adora sighed, and Catra snorted again.

"It's not your fault, you idiot."

Adora sighed. Catra meant well, but… Hm. Maybe this was the time to address it. "You know, you don't have to keep blaming yourself, either."

Catra tensed. "I'm not blaming myself for things that weren't my fault," she said, turning her head away.

Adora sighed once more. "Not everything you did was, well…"

"I had a choice!" Catra snapped. "I know what I did. And why."

"And you changed," Adora replied.

Catra didn't answer and hugged herself, pulling her knees to her chest.

Adora wanted to reach out and hug her, but… her lover was still too tense. "You changed to do the right thing," she said instead. Damn, that sounded stupid!

"It doesn't make up for what I did wrong."

"That's not how it works," Adora objected.

"You have to right what you did wrong. That's how it works." Catra turned her head slightly to look at her from the corners of her eye. "And I broke too much to fix it."

"That's not how it works! It's not some…" Adora shook her head. "If you do something nice for someone, it's not OK to hurt them afterwards, is it?"

Catra blinked. "That's… what?"

Adora bit her lower lip, feeling her cheeks heat up a little. She hadn't really thought this through. She shouldn't have started this without being prepared. But she couldn't stop now. "It's not a question of… balancing things. It's about changing so you aren't the person who did all this any more." She stopped herself before she said 'growing up'.

"That doesn't help the people I hurt."

"Someone told me we can't help everyone," Adora said.

"But we should help those we hurt," Catra shot back.

"We are. We're fighting the Goa'uld to protect everyone," Adora pointed out. "And we saved everyone when we stopped the Heart of Etheria. We are helping," she repeated herself.

"It's not the same," Catra protested.

This time, Adora reached out and pulled Catra into a hug. Her lover squirmed some, still tense, but didn't really resist. And Adora could feel her relax a little once she was in her lap. "You aren't the same either. Not any more."

Catra sighed deeply - Adora could feel her shiver, could feel her muscles tense and relax again - but didn't object.

Adora counted that as a win.

After a moment, Catra said: "That doesn't mean you can keep blaming yourself for everything."

Adora snorted softly and hugged her more tightly.

Royal Palace, Dryl, Etheria, May 24th, 2000 (Earth Time)

"So, this is my home. Kinda - I don't really spend that much time here, actually - well, not the majority of my time, if you tally everything. I'm still here a lot of time, relatively. It's just that the Spacelab is more modern, and Alpha has more First Ones technology and that fascinating data bank, and you said we need to keep an eye on Loki, and I can't neglect Darla or she'll think I don't like her any more, and every time I'm here I need to deal with the ruling things… But! The kitchen here makes the best tiny food! And I have all my first bots here! Well, those that survived that tiny little First Ones virus accident."

Samantha Carter nodded as she looked around. She had been here before, but not very often, though nothing seemed to have changed.

Anise, though, was visiting for the first time. And she seemed a little apprehensive. "Virus accident?"

"Oh, don't worry - it was a computer virus that made all my bots - well, all with First Ones technology, which were all of them - attack me and my friends. Perfectly harmless for people. Except for if you're a First One, I guess, though that was just the one time."

Anise nodded. She was taking Entrapta's explanation better than Sam had, back when she had first visited. She didn't seem to question the safety of the lab here, what with what looked like two dozen bots in various states of repair lining the walls, and more parts stacked on shelves.

Hordak, on the other hand, had ignored the whole discussion and gone straight to one of the consoles at the wall, next to the fabber.

"So… let's do science!" Entrapta beamed.

Sam nodded. The Alliance had to deal with Ba'al before he could create an army of loyal and skilled clones, but there was nothing Sam and her friends could do about that at the moment; they were waiting for the spy bot network and the interrogation of Ba'al's clone to get results. So, they were free to use their time to pursue other projects. Such as Anise's proposal.

"You brought the prototypes?" Entrapta asked, craning her neck to look at the bag Anise carried with her.

"They're not exactly prototypes. I didn't design them - I found them."

"But they could be prototypes, just made by someone else!"

Anise blinked, then nodded. "I don't know enough to disprove that theory." She reached into the bag and pulled out several devices.

Sam took a closer look while Entrapta reached out with her hair and grabbed one. They were roughly shaped like cylinders, a bit too large to easily fit Sam's palm, with several buttons and a large crystal set into one end. If the General were here, he'd joke about lightsabers. They did look a little bit like… She frowned. They looked familiar.

"We recovered them from a fallen civilisation. We don't know if they were designed as tools or weapons," Anise explained, "but they allow you to manipulate gravity. Let me demonstrate."

She grabbed one of the cylinders and pushed a button, causing the crystal to light up. Then she pointed it at one of the bots in a corner and pressed another button. A moment later, the bot began to float. And so did the tools next to it.

"You can reduce or increase gravity in its area of effect. You narrow or widen the area of effect, but that affects the strength of the field," Anise went on, showing the controls.

"Oh! It's much more compact than our own technology!" Entrapta beamed. "If we can adapt that, we could enhance all our vehicles!"

"We haven't been able to decipher the technology," Anise said with a frown. "We do know it's powered by magic; the device doesn't work unless it's on a planet where magic has been restored."

"Oh! It's a magic device?" Entrapta beamed. "That would explain its size!" Then she frowned. "But that would also mean we can't use it in space… Unless we adapt it to magitech!"

"That was what we were hoping for," Anise said with a smile.

Sam blinked. She had seen some of those symbols before… "The cube!" she blurted out.

"The cube?" Anise frowned.

"Oh, the cube!" Entrapta gasped. "You're right!"

"The cube?" Anise repeated herself.

"Yes. The design elements do match some of the cube's," Hordak agreed.

"We found an alien data cube some time ago," Sam said. "Our attempts to decipher it haven't been successful."

"Well, we haven't really focused on it - there was so much else to do," Entrapta added. "But! If you found those devices in the ruins of their makers, we could probably find more clues about their civilisation to help with that!"

Sam nodded. If they had more examples of the unknown aliens' technology to study, they should be able to crack the encryption.

"I see." Anise nodded. "Unfortunately, we recovered the devices from a Goa'uld's vault. There were no clues about their origin."

"And the Goa'uld?" Hordak asked.

"Dead." Anise sounded slightly sorry.

"Well… maybe we can find out more through analysing the devices," Entrapta said.

Sam nodded, though she wasn't very hopeful.

"And we can work on that armour project," Hordak added.

Right. The other reason they visited Entrapta's palace.

Above the Atlantic, Earth, May 25th, 2000

"...and asked to comment on the fact that several Senators have proposed bills to enshrine the use of horses on farms and for other purposes as part of America's cultural heritage, Swift Wind stated that he wouldn't expect anything else from people who celebrated human slavery as their cultural heritage but expressed his hope that the rest of America would have moved past that dark time of their country's history…"

Sitting in a window seat on the shuttle to Greenland, Catra snorted at the outrage Swift Wind's statement had caused in the United States. "Gotta hand it to him; he did his homework."

"...although he also rebuked the claim from a PETA spokesperson that animals who could not live in the wild should be euthanised, stating that 'murdering those who have been forced to depend on you is even worse than forcing them to depend on you in the first place', and firmly denied that he supported PETA's proposal to cull most livestock animals, so..."

Catra shook her head. Whenever she thought Earth's people couldn't surprise her any more, they went and did something she wouldn't have thought possible.

"Meanwhile, the French Parliament is still debating whether or not horse meat should be considered part of the cultural and gastronomical heritage of France. While some representatives from rural areas supported the notion and planned to add more controversial food to a proposed law, others denied that horse meat was a traditional French dish and decried it as a stereotype…"

"Do you have to watch that?"

Catra looked up from her tablet and grinned at Adora. "We have to keep informed of Earth's political movements."

"It's not a political movement!" her lover insisted. "It's just a… Jack called it a 'flash in a pan'."

Catra made a sceptical noise. "Have you seen the clips of little girls protesting against the 'enslavement and eating of horses'? How many Earth politicians do you think will jump at the chance to get their support?"

Adora frowned at her. "I got a ton of letters asking me to 'smite the bad horse murderers'."

"You're their champion - you ride Swift Wind." Catra shrugged. "At least it has drowned out the 'Clones have no souls' campaign the religious fanatics launched."

Adora didn't look happy about that. Catra cocked her head to the side and looked at her.

Her lover sighed. "Priest is already looking for a planet to settle 'homeless horses' on, and for bot designs to take care of them. Because that supposedly is 'the least we can do for the sacred steed' of She-Ra."

Catra chuckled at that - until she remembered how many horses were on Earth, and how much such a move would strain the Alliance's logistics. "Let's hope he's waiting with that until after the war."

Adora nodded.

Catra went back to skimming the news on her tablet. They would soon arrive at Thule base.

Thule Air Force Base, Greenland, Earth, May 25th, 2000

"...and all our specialists agree that this Ba'al honestly believes that he is the original Ba'al and not a clone," Major Bradbeck explained.

Catra frowned. "He tried to kill himself." She didn't think Ba'al would do that.

"We think that this was the result of a mental conditioning he was subjected to, to ensure he wouldn't be caught - or to ensure he would not attempt to usurp the original. However, that is mere speculation; even with the new intel from the Tok'ra, we have not been able to confirm that. It would also be possible that Ba'al, the original, given his age, is or was slightly delusional, and that was passed on to his clones," Bradbeck went on.

"Delusional?" Adora asked.

"None of the other Goa'uld prisoners have attempted suicide," Bradbeck replied. "Ba'al's clone might honestly believe that by killing himself, he will return somehow. Or that might be part of the suspected mental conditioning. Even after his poison glands were surgically removed, we had to place him on a suicide watch to keep him from attempting to end his life in his habitat by other means."

Catra pressed her lips together. She was far too familiar with that kind of mental conditioning. She had almost succeeded, too. If not for Adora… She felt a hand close around hers and squeeze, and glanced to her side.

Adora smiled gently at her, Catra nodded, taking a deep breath.

"What can we do about that?" Adora asked. "We can't let him kill himself because he's forced to by Ba'al."

Bradbeck grimaced for a moment. "We've started therapy for him, but…" He spread his hands as if it was his fault. "...none of our psychologists and psychiatrists has much if any experience with Goa'uld patients."

"And you've been focusing on gaining actionable intel," Catra added.

"Yes. Our orders made finding out where Ba'al and his bases are a priority."

"Did you have any success so far?" Adora asked.

"We think we're making progress, but as I said, so far, we have not gained any confirmed intel. We have several theories based on a few comments of his that need to be investigated, and we hope the Tok'ra's efforts will bear fruit in that area, but the special conditions under which we operate - the lack of direct contact, the fact he's an alien and has to use a keyboard to communicate - make it a challenge to gain any intel from the subject."

Catra was aware of that. And she didn't expect much, anyway. Not at this point. Not until they could break down whatever mind control Ba'al had used on the clone.

"We'll bring in more people to work on this. People familiar with similar cases," Adora said. "Can we see him now?"

"Ah, yes, of course. But I have to warn you - he's very uncooperative."

"We know," Adora said, and Catra chuckled despite the situation. That was putting it mildly.