- - -
POV: Arriston Stavros. A month later.
I looked away from the documents I was reviewing as a quick series of rasps came from the other side of the door. If they were bothering me at the moment, then it must have been important.
The door flew open, and one of my aides stuck their head in. "Sir, Lady Isetri has made contact."
I was silent for several seconds as I tried to recall who that was. The Tok'ra infiltrator in Ares' court. I almost jumped to my feet. "What's the news?"
He replied as soon as I'd spoken. "She's requested a meeting. Apparently, the Tok'ra Supreme High Councilor wishes to meet Egeria."
I stood up and put my pen down. "Find Egeria and set up a meeting immediately. This takes priority over everything else."
- - -
POV: Egeria. Three hours later.
As I stepped through the gate, I was met with a bleak room. The walls were constructed of hard concrete with absolutely no obvious supports of any kind. That wasn't all that surprising given that this base was meant to be abandoned at a moment's notice. It didn't matter if the facility was compromised.
That wasn't what really captured my attention. I could feel my children from well away. Two of them. Isetri was one of them, but the other was familiar as well. I could recognize him easily. Per'sus. I had already been told that he was the leader of the Tok'ra, but it saddened me that the rest of his siblings weren't with us.
I was the only one who had come through the Stargate for this meeting. Arriston had agreed to my attending the meeting alone, something I was very thankful for.
Per'sus had not been my first child, but he was the fifth that I believed would be considered Tok'ra. The other four were all born much earlier than the Tok'ra, so I had expected one of them to be the Supreme High Councilor.
I would have chuckled had I been in control. Just the fact that they had chosen such a… gaudy name for their highest position showed that they hadn't changed.
One of the people on duty in the room walked up to us and saluted. Annelise did the same in response. "The guest room is this way, ma'am."
We nodded and followed him into the nearby room.
The guard opened the door and let me inside. I smiled as my eyes met the two who were waiting inside. "Per'sus. I hope you are doing well."
He seemed to shudder and fell to a knee; I narrowed my eyes. "I told you never to bow to me. I sincerely hope you haven't forgotten my words."
He smiled in response and stood up. "I would never dare, My Queen."
I nodded to him. "I'm glad you came alone. The people who saved me are skittish and unknown to the Goa'uld. It would do us all good to keep them hidden."
He and Isetri returned to their seats while I sat down across from the two of them. "Now, tell me what has occurred in my absence."
Per'sus spent a great deal of time explaining how the Tok'ra had fared until the modern day. Everything he told me would be common knowledge among the Goa'uld, but he offered significant insight into the events from his point of view.
There was something that Annelise noted. According to Arthur, one of the things Jolinar of Malkshur was most well known for was escaping the prison moon of Netu, something that had not yet come to pass.
That, along with the fact that Jolinar was currently missing, led us to believe that she had just been captured. Whether that was true, we would hopefully discover in a few months or weeks when she returned.
The more we spoke, the less concerned Per'sus seemed to be. A good sign that he was beginning to really believe I was who I said I was.
Finally, he spoke. "My Queen. Will you be returning with us to the Tok'ra? We would all be glad to have you return."
I smiled and shook my head. "I cannot. My saviors are valuable. Among their ranks are several free Jaffa, and they will soon run low on fresh Prim'ta. They are valuable allies, especially if we can get their aid in raising any future Tok'ra."
Per'sus' eyes widened. "Then it is true. Ares was overthrown?"
I raised an eyebrow and gazed at him. "That is an interesting idea. What do you know?"
He nodded seriously. "Athena has been preparing warriors and a fleet to defeat Ares. She's been claiming that Ares was overthrown by his own Jaffa."
We narrowed our eyes. That would be a useful piece of information later. Per'sus continued. "My Queen, when do you plan to return?"
"Not yet. You must gather everyone. I'm afraid that several of them have likely been replaced without your knowledge."
Per'sus seemed to frown. "There are many who are occupied at the moment."
I shook my head. "Just those who know of your hidden world. The rest can remain where they are. How long will it take?"
He seemed to frown. "No more than three weeks."
I smiled. "Good. I also have another request I must make of you."
He raised an eyebrow. "Name it, my queen."
I let out a deep sigh. "The people who rescued me. I owe them a great deal, but they also have a lot to provide. They started colonizing new worlds 800 years ago, and if they hadn't been so busy killing each other, they could have been a threat to Ra. They still could be."
Per'sus frowned as I continued. "They have over 2000 worlds, each with millions of inhabitants. The larger ones with billions."
Per'sus inhaled. "That much manpower… how could they possibly stay hidden for so long?"
I nodded as well. "As long as they are not discovered, they have a chance to expand and truly threaten Ra. This is a chance to finally remove the Goa'uld. It will take time, decades perhaps, but this could be the end of Ra, if we play our cards right."
Isetri and Per'sus were both silent for several long moments. "Then what do you plan to do?"
We pursed our lips. "I plan to aid them. At the moment, their legitimate government is still weak. That will not last long. If we aid them now while our assistance is still meaningful, it will mean a lot more than assisting them once they have declared war on the System Lords."
My host snorted slightly within our minds. You're hoping to get in on the ground floor, as they say.
Per'sus nodded. "Very well. I will send a message once we are ready for you."
- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair. Three days later.
I entered the president's office to find it fuller than normal. The President and Vice President were both there, of course, but so were Elder James, Ma'chello, Arktos, and a few others. The President nodded to me, and I took a seat out of the way in the back of the room.
A few more people filed in behind me, mostly aides, though there were colonials and other Dendredans among them as well. The President nodded. "Good. Lady Isetri of the Tok'ra has recently returned. The current Supreme High Councilor has stated that the Tok'ra will make formal contact with us in a few days."
He stopped for a moment. "With any luck, the Tok'ra will make excellent allies. That being said, we believe it is time that we attempted to contact the Asgard."
I blinked a few times, caught off guard. "I thought we hadn't been able to find any of the worlds of the Protected Planets Treaty."
One of the Serkha stood forward. "That was correct until yesterday. While the Protected Planets Treaty has been named in many files, the worlds that are protected by the treaty are not mentioned anywhere. In fact, we believe they have been specifically removed from the databases of most System Lords by Ra to prevent them from being attacked. When we got Ra's database, we believed the same was true, but it appears that is only partially the case."
She began passing out flexis. I took one and started looking. It displayed a world called Cimmeria. She continued. "This world is not included in Ares' database, but was included in the one taken from Ra's ship. The second database included information about the world and its people. It is inhabited by an Iron Age civilization, which worships a specific pantheon of gods, the leader of which goes by the name of Thor. Most importantly, there is a message not to visit this world unless one wishes to be abandoned by the Goa'uld."
I quickly opened the file. It was not a lot, but what was there clearly showed something. This had to be one of the worlds under the Protected Planets Treaty. The person at the front continued. "The question now is, do we really want to contact the Asgard?"
I was thrown for a loop. Arriston looked at me and nodded. I took a moment to gather my bearings before I began. "The Asgard are an incredibly advanced race. They are known for aiding those who are weaker than they are. At the moment, they should be in a war with a self-replicating swarm of robots that are intent on devouring all advanced technology. We have information on how they could defeat those robots."
The Serkha, who was announcing all this, nodded. "As Arthur has stated, the Dakara device can wipe out the Replicators if it is used, but it appears that the Asgard are unaware of it."
I coughed. "We also have information on a group of Asgard who are stuck in the Pegasus Galaxy. That information would likely be invaluable."
Arktos nodded as well. "They are enemies of the Goa'uld. They could be powerful allies, especially if they are as advanced as we have been led to believe."
It was at this point that Elder James broke in. "That's the issue, isn't it? If they are so advanced, then they should have been capable of defeating Ra. The best they could do was fight him to a standstill. There is something strange here."
At the back of the room, Egeria spoke. "The Asgard had relatively few ships. I witnessed one battle between the forces of Ra and the Asgard. Ra brought two thousand ships; the Asgard brought barely 50. Ra's entire fleet was lost, but that wasn't his main force. An Asgard vessel could fight a hundred Ha'tak to a standstill, but no more than four hundred individual vessels have ever been encountered, at least during my time. If the full force of the Asgard and all of Ra's forces were to engage in battle, Ra would have obliterated them."
She was silent for a few moments. "The reason for the stalemate was that the Asgard could strike anywhere at a moment's notice. They controlled the battlefield. In the end, Ra finally just brought all of his fleets together. After that, the smallest fleet I ever saw was 20,000 warships strong. Of course, this was all after the signing of the treaty. The Asgard sued for peace. I originally believed that it was because they had no way to defeat Ra, but I now believe it to be because of the appearance of these Replicators."
That… certainly put some things into perspective. Egeria continued once more. "I believe it would be in your best interest to contact the Asgard. I know very little about them, but they were a race of warriors. They kept their promises, even when it was not in their favor to do so."
The meeting continued for a while after that, but the encouragement from Egeria was what decided it for most of the people involved in the decision. The next day, Cimmeria was dialed. As soon as the images from the other side came through, I finally realized why the name was so familiar. There, standing just before the gate, was the Hammer of Thor.