SGC – Earth…
Harry walked into a surprisingly very crowded briefing room. It seemed as if almost every CO of every SG team and backup personnel of Army Rangers and Marines was squeezed into the room, awaiting General Hammond who was busy talking to Colonel O'Neill in his office.
He had not thought much of the general announcement that came over the base PA system that all senior personnel had to have this apparent emergency meeting. He had been busy over the past few weeks giving a select group of CO's and training instructors a hands on course in the PR7s; so that they could in turn train others in their commands. Over the weeks the shooting range had had an almost constant presence as the SGC combat personnel qualified themselves to carry the weapon.
The various Majors and Captains closest to the door that spotted Harry nodded in greeting. If there was one thing Harry had achieved these past few weeks besides the rollout of the PR7, it was that he had come to know a good majority of the officers in the room; and they had come to know him to some degree in return.
The General's door opened and everyone stood to attention.
"At ease," said Hammond, sitting down, the assembled senior officers and SG-1 doing the same, while the lower ranks had to content themselves with standing. "Four hours ago, an incoming wormhole from Abydos delivered an automated distress beacon and a message from one of the Abydonians. Now, they were given the beacon and radio and instructed to use it only in the event that they were to come under attack from hostile forces. The message details that a large contingent of Jaffa has invaded Abydos, the estimated number is over a hundred enemy troops."
The General paused for a moment, then continued, "Given the special relationship we have with the people of Abydos the President has authorized a full liberation effort to be undertaken." The assembled officers looked at each other seriously and with wide eyes at that. "I want a full mobilization of SG teams one through eight, eleven through fifteen, and half our contingent of Marines. Gear up and be ready in the embarkation room in two hours…Ambassador?"
Harry looked up.
"Is the Darkstar operational?"
"It is," confirmed Harry, but then frowned. "But it's never been tested under even simulated battle conditions."
"Darkstar, sir?" asked one of the younger officers in the room.
"I'll let the Ambassador explain," said the General and gestured for Harry to come to the front of the room. Harry threaded himself through the clogged briefing room to the front and stood calmly poised with his hands behind his back.
"Darkstar is a more advanced variant of the UAV you all know," said Harry. "It was recently developed by Boeing and I was approached by one of the engineers who also moonlights as an civilian consultant for the SGC. He was interested if it could be adopted for use by the SGC."
"The Darkstar is a partially self-guided drone that flies and can hover at fifty-thousand feet over any theater of operations. It's made of radar absorbent stealth material and is painted to match the sky. Using multiple high resolution imaging sensors it provides up to the second tactical intelligence on enemy movement and general disposition of friendly forces and objectives."
"Now, since the Goa'uld use subspace sensors, it's quite pointless to think that the stealth aspect of the drone will work, so I incorporated the phase shifting device that I confiscated from Nirtii a few months ago into the drone. The drone, once airborne will send live images to a controller on the ground, who will have an ergonomic laptop computer attached to him or her."
Everyone looked suitably impressed. O'Neill raised his hand.
"And just who is going to be carrying the ergo laptop thing?"
"I'll volunteer for that," said Carter, raising her hand. "I'm pretty familiar with the software. The Darkstar directs itself and hovers unless you give it a command to do something. I can relay the tactical intelligence to Colonel O'Neill as it comes in."
"Anymore questions?" asked the General. There were none. "Dismissed!"
The assembled officers stood and filed out of the briefing room. The General approached Harry.
"Ambassador, while I'm sure you would be an asset to this mission, there is no guarantee that it will succeed," said the General gravely.
"Since when in life is anything certain, General?" said Harry in return.
"Never," said Hammond with a sigh. "However, I feel that your future contributions to this command and to Earth as a whole would be for naught if you were to die on a mission of…this nature."
"Saving the Abydonians from the oppression of the Goa'uld is unimportant?"
"No," conceded the General. "But in the grand scheme of things…" he trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence.
"Very well," said Harry. "Then perhaps I will take over the operation of the Darkstar from Major Carter, I can relay the proper intelligence to the them via radio from inside the Abydonian pyramid and if things should go badly I can help with a retreat…should it come to that."
"Very well, dismissed," nodded the General.
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Two hours later a wormhole was established to Abydos. The first thing go through the Stargate was a disposable remote camera contained within a circular transparent ball about a foot in diameter that was tossed though the event horizon. It was balanced so that it would land and come to a stop and give a wide angled view of the surroundings.
The tech sergeant in the control room monitoring the feed from this camera spotted several figures hurrying behind the pillars in the Abydos arrival room…not a few seconds later the distinctive orange blasts of Staff weapon fire hit the camera ball and destroyed it; but it had performed its only task perfectly, which was to give a tactical picture of the situation.
The sergeant spoke into the microphone next to him, which was addressing the assembled troops in the embarkation room.
"Be advised, arrival room has a hot reception," echoed into the gate room.
"You heard the man folks," said O'Neill. SG1 and SG2 were standing halfway up the ramp, fully geared and ready. "Let's give them a flash." All of them except for Teal'C and Daniel pulled out a phosphorous grenade or flashbang, the arming pins on the weapons were removed and hurled into the event horizon.
"Objects are en route," reported the sergeant, a few moments later, "objects have fallen through the gate."
"GO!" ordered O'Neill and the initial eight strong assault team rushed through the gate, their PR7s and the single Staff weapon up and ready to fire the instant a target was perceived. The flashbang's had gone off and stunned and disorientated every enemy Jaffa in the arrival room when the assault team emerged from the event horizon.
Blue plasma bolts spat out of the PR7s with sharp low whines as the air was displaced around the energy projectiles. Not five seconds later the contingent of Jaffa guarding the gate were dead.
"Secure the room," ordered O'Neill, the two teams spread out, their weapons sweeping the room wearily. After another ten seconds of making sure of enemy casualties, O'Neill thumbed his radio. "Arrival room is secure, proceed."
A few moments later, SG3, 4 and a grouping of marines came through, in similar ready-to-fire postures and headed down the stairs away from the Stargate. In this manner, the entire assault force arrived until finally a large flatbed all terrain vehicle emerged through the gate, guided by Harry. On it was the secured Darkstar drone; it was just over three meters in height when upright and one meter in width, and was shaped almost like a honeycomb with angles similar to what you would expect to see on any stealth aircraft. Its flight was powered by variable geometry jet propulsion that would allow it to fly at just below the speed of sound and hover to give the imaging array of sensors a real time top down view of the terrain below.
"Sierra Golf Charlie, this is Sierra Golf One, we are clear and all accounted for," said O'Neill into his radio, "you may cut power to the gate."
"Roger that, Godspeed," crackled the voice of Hammond over the radio, before the event horizon flashed brilliantly and the subspace path collapsed.
Now, SG3, 4 and 5 led the way and secured the long stone stairs and walkway out of the pyramid into the blistering hot sands and dunes of Abydos that went as far as the eye could see. Harry felt the heat was quite blistering but it was easier to adapt to than Seaworld's summers on the islands, where the heat was just as high but added to it was the humidity factor. Using the attached control stick, Harry maneuvered the flatbed ATV just outside the pyramid, as they didn't want to waste time getting the Darkstar into the air, in case of a counter-attack.
SG12 had been assigned to assist him in deployment of the drone and they unlatched the heavy belts that had been keeping the Darkstar secure. The drone would use the ATV itself as a vertical take off and landing position, and articulated struts rising from the flatbed kept the Darkstar from tipping over.
Harry lifted the ergonomic controls, (which was essentially a modified combat vest that held the touch sensitive plasma screen of a laptop facing the user at about chest level, while the 'guts' of the laptop was mounted vertically on his back) and donned it. Harry's fingers danced over the screen, doing a quick systems check and verifying that the link to the Darkstar was holding.
"Colonel, everyone needs to be at least fifty meters away from this thing when it takes off," advised Harry.
"You heard the Ambassador, get moving," ordered O'Neill. Everyone in close proximity to the ATV retreated. Harry was the last to get safely clear, and he joined SG1 who was taking cover just inside the pyramid.
"OK," sighed Harry nervously. "Here we go," he tapped a button on the screen at his chest and the distinctive whine of a jet engine could be heard starting and getting steadily stronger, until the noise was almost deafening.
"Should have brought earplugs!" shouted O'Neill to no one in particular, holding his hands over his ears.
Harry instructed the drone to take off and hover at five meters. He heard the throttling up of the engines and dust was blown into pyramid as the thrust pushed the air around the Darkstar into a strong wind…the drone registered on the screen as hovering at five meters. Satisfied with the performance, Harry touched the phase shift control…a few nervous moments later, the Darkstar confirmed that it was out of phase.
He next told the drone to execute its primary mission, which was to hover at fifty thousand feet using the Abydos pyramid as a reference point.
The variable geometry jet engines shifted slightly and went to full throttle…the sound of the drone soon faded and all was relatively quiet again.
"I take it, it worked?" asked O'Neill.
"As expected," nodded Harry. "The drone is passing five thousand feet and should begin to relay images to me in about eight minutes."
"This is Sierra Golf Leader to all Sierra Golf personnel," spoke O'Neill, thumbing the radio attached to combat vest, "keep your heads up people, that launch most definitely was heard for a long way in all directions."
When the drone finally reached target altitude Harry brought up the real time visual feed. A huge wide angled top down view of Abydos appeared, the kilometers long lines of sand dunes reduced to the size of less than a few millimeters on the screen. He zoomed the image until a clear picture of the pyramid was just visible.
The Colonel and Major crowded over the display, studying it intently.
"Ok, we are here," said Harry, tapping the tiny pyramid on his screen. "There is an enclosure of sort a few kilometers north-east of us with a rather luxurious looking tent not a few meters away from it. No doubt where the captured Abydonians are being held, the tent being for the Goa'uld."
"What's this dark line here just a few hundred meters west of the enclosure? It doesn't look natural," mentioned Carter, drawing her finger across the stippled dark line. Harry isolated the section and zoomed in. Carter gasped at what she was seeing.
"That is way more than a hundred Jaffa," said the Major.
"The Darkstar image interpolation software counts at least two hundred and fifty," supplied Harry grimly.
"I thought you taught these kids how to count?" groused the Colonel at Daniel, who shrugged sheepishly.
"Some were better than others," he admitted.
"All right our PR7s and the fifty cals we brought along should go a long way to evening the odds, Ambassador, SG12, you're our fall back position should this thing go Fubar. So keep our backs clear and keep in touch with that intel."
"Yes sir," said SG12 in unison, while Harry nodded, emotion gone from his face and his eyes. The assault force left and headed east initially and soon it was only SG12 and Harry left in the arrival room. SG12's commander was a Major Everson who was standing near the exit, binoculars out and scanning the horizon. A wise thing in Harry's opinion, for all that technology advanced, it was only a fool who forgot the less sophisticated ways of doing things.
They waited.
Despite the fact that Harry could clearly track the assault forces' progress, which was quite slow due to the soft desert sand and high dunes, he could feel the now familiar lull in which time seemed to stretch interminably before battle was joined.
Harry had in the guise of the Norse God Tyr, assisted a number of primitive and more advanced civilizations battle against the Goa'uld. The most notable among them being the Tollan and the Tok'ra, (among whom very few knew his true identity) and of course, the Spartans, from whom he had met his wife. The wait before a battle was not a time Harry liked, but the sheer silence that reigns before it happens was oddly enough the most peaceful, like the proverbial calm before a storm.
Harry now felt a long culmination coming to bear on him. Despite helping defend so many civilizations…it was now that he helped the forces of his homeworld battle the Goa'uld, and it was quite literally…sink or swim…failure was not an option.
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Harry looked down into the Darkstar feed as the assault force finally reached the primary objective. There was a token defense of Horus Jaffa around the encampment, which was easily dispatched with overwhelming fire from the assault force. Harry immediately saw O'Neill begin to deploy his men along a low lying dune facing west, the direction they knew the Jaffa would come from.
He watched the tiny figure of O'Neill head toward the enclosure and set a small charge, which blew the lock.
And immediately, the entire area exploded with motion.
"Sierra Golf Leader, this is Delta Omicron (Harry had been designated Darkstar Oversight as his radio callsign for this mission), enemy is advancing on your position rapidly, distance two hundred meters."
"Roger," came O'Neill's reply.
Harry briefly saw the figure of what had to be Daniel firing at two Horus Jaffa that had emerged from the Goa'uld tent, both went down, and Daniel charged into the tent, Teal'C a few meters behind.
The now free Abydonians were retreating to the relative safety of the east, with a single SG team as escort.
Harry refocused the Darkstar and saw what was happening just in time.
"Sierra Golf Leader, Delta Omicron, there are detachments of Jaffa circling your line on either side trying to outflank you!"
"Got it!"
Harry saw O'Neill had just enough time for a quick reshuffle of his forces to counter the move and just when they were in position…the first enemy Jaffa crested the ridge overlooking the encampment. A veritable storm of yellow staff weapon energy and blue plasma bolts were now being exchanged. The fifty caliber machine guns also made their heavy presence felt along the flanks of the assault forces' line, cutting down the Jaffa that had been trying to outflank them. Casualties were not one sided however, Harry could already count eight dead on the SGC side.
Movement at the bottom of his Darkstar feed caught his eye and he panned down…
"Major!" said Harry towards the commander of SG12. "We have twenty enemy Jaffa coming our way! Two minutes out!"
"Two minutes?" said the Major exasperatedly, his team getting into position behind the cover of the large ATV. "I thought we would have more warning than that!"
"The Jaffa were concealing themselves in the shadow of large dune and its pointless to use heat sensors in this climate," stated Harry irritably, closing the control screen of the Darkstar against his chest and checking the charge on his PR7, powering it up. "They should crest over that large dune to the north."
Harry went down to a prone position to fire from underneath the ATV and sighted on the dune in question.
It was evident soon that the attacking Jaffa had increased their pace significantly, as it took a mere thirty seconds for them to crest over the dune. Orange blasts immediately started coming their way and slamming into the side of the ATV.
"FIRE!" screamed Major Everson.
Harry let loose with his PR7. A three shot burst, which felled a Jaffa in leg at first and then in the chest. At this long range though, Harry's comrades in arms, still not that used to the PR7 sent a few shots to left and right of their rapidly advancing targets; causing sand to explode in large plumes around the attacking Jaffa.
"Delta Omicron, sitrep?" came the Colonel's voice over the radio.
"Under attack here! I can't give you intel now, a little busy!" shouted Harry, slapping his radio to transmit and fired a stream of blue plasma to fell another Jaffa.
Nine Jaffa had survived the charge despite Harry and SG12's best efforts, and the survivors had found cover of their own along the sides of the long stone walkway that led up into the pyramid. The two warring groups traded ineffectual fire for a few seconds until Major Everson pulled out a fragmentation grenade. Harry and the rest knew without being ordered that he would need cover to fling the grenade, as such they began to send continuous streams of plasma bolts at the Jaffa to keep their heads down. Harry reloaded his PR7 just as Major Everson lobbed his grenade and a few moments later there was a deafening explosion that made his ears ring.
Four Jaffa were flung from their positions of like limp rag dolls while the rest were stunned off their feet, Harry and the soldier next to him rolled out of cover to the left and aimed at the remaining Jaffa from a crouch. Harry and his attacking partner (a Captain) managed to take out four in quick succession while the last remaining Jaffa managed got off a shot from his staff weapon that missed woefully due to his disorientation. The Captain felled the last attacker.
"Is everyone OK?" asked Major Everson; he got terse nods from everyone; due to the adrenaline in their systems. "Ambassador what's the status of the assault force?"
Harry wearily walked to behind the cover of the ATV before opening the Darkstar control interface and consulting the feed. Everyone waited with baited breath for his answer.
"We are victorious," said Harry droningly, his emotions seemingly suppressed. "No enemy Jaffa have survived from what I can see. The line of defense held. The Abydonians are still heading east."
"Sierra Gold Leader, this is Sierra Golf Twelve, the Stargate is secure," reported Major Everson into his radio.
"Roger that," reported O'Neill. "The Goa'uld is dead as well."
"Colonel, this is Delta Omicron," said Harry. "Who was our snakehead?"
"Amonet," said O'Neill shortly. Harry's eyes widened at the implication. Amonet had possession of Sha're…Dr Jackson's wife…it meant that she was dead as well. Harry couldn't imagine how the poor archeologist must be feeling now. But then Harry's mind happened on the question…why?
Why would Amonet go through all the trouble of capturing the Abydonians and remain here? Why spend all of her remaining Jaffa in such a way? Harry knew that she had fallen from grace due to the defeat and death of Apophis, her husband. It made no sense…the typical Goa'uld reaction would be to go into hiding or align herself with another System Lord receptive to her.
Harry learned the answer to this question during the post battle mop up operation.
"Harsissus?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes," said Dr Jackson grimly, staring at the ancient stone of the walkway into the pyrimand that he was standing on. Harry admired the man's emotional strength to talk about this not a few hours after the death of his wife. "Apparently, Apophis wanted the perfect host, so he fathered a child with Sha're. Amonet took the Abydonians merely as a show to Hero'ur, so she could send the Harsissus boy into hiding with her closest aid."
"Amazing that Apophis would risk the wrath of the others by fathering a Harsissus," said Harry with a frown. A Harsissus was the human offspring of two Goa'uld hosts; due to the interaction of host and symbiote, the chromosomes of any sperm or ova made by the hosts are slightly altered with Goa'uld chromosomes, and the culmination of both male and female genetic material would mean such a child would have enough Goa'uld DNA inside of them of carry the genetic memory of the Goa'uld before them…as such, all the secrets and knowledge that the Goa'uld had would be accessible to the human offspring. "The strategic benefit of the knowledge the boy possesses is astronomical."
Daniel only nodded. "But I have to find the boy, to take care of him, Sha're…would've wanted it."
"You would make a good father by my reckoning," said Harry with a grin. Daniel only nodded at the compliment, too distracted apparently by the task and responsibility of finding the boy.
"Finding him will be another story," said Daniel, "how to find a supposedly mythical place? Keb is merely a legend after all this time."
"If Keb is where Amonet sent the boy, then there has be a relevant Stargate address, and she would send him to a place where a Goa'uld would never think to look, or would never go."
"Makes sense," said Daniel with a sigh. "But where do the Goa'uld never go for any reason?"
"Any Asgard protected planet," suggested Harry.
"Possibly," said Daniel, "but I don't think Amonet would allow the Harsissus to fall into the hands of the Asgard."
"Then what about…a Stargate that the rest of the Goa'uld don't know about? I mean, the Goa'uld only know about three quarters of the gate network."
"Seems like I'll be spending the coming weeks in front of the dialing computer."
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Harry stood across from Doctor Lee with an exasperated look on his face. The reason for this emotion was lying on the table between them. A large set of plans and blueprints was rolled out and prominently displayed across the large planning table.
Dr Lee was a short man with balding brown hair and thick glasses, dressed in a lab coat he looked like your stereotypical scientist. However, Harry found that Dr Lee was almost the only other scientist on the base he could work with somewhat efficiently (the other being Major Carter of course); the others were so stuck in their preconceived mindsets of scientific theory about what can be done and what can't, that it sorely tested Harry's patience not to throttle them senseless sometimes.
Lee had brought the plans to Harry to get his opinion on their viability. There were three large A1 size pages with schematics and diagrams on them; each was marked with a codename…X301…X302 and X303.
The cause of Harry's exasperation however, was the X301 plans. Harry lifted the relevant page and showed it to Lee.
"This is the most absurd design I have ever seen."
"Well," said Dr Lee uncomfortably. "I've also questioned whether its wise to attempt such a hybridizing of technologies, but the rest of the team at Area 51 are confident they can pull it off."
"There's no point to the X301, it's a waste of effort!" said Harry, throwing the plans to the floor. "There's no way it can be a long term platform to launch an attack from. Unless they plan on getting us to steal a squadron's worth of Death Gliders for them to modify!" Dr Lee raised his hands uncomfortably in mock surrender, apparently conceding the point.
"Now…this one," said Harry, pulling the X302 plans up. "Is promising, there's just one problem."
"And that is?"
"Power," said Harry shortly. "It's ambitious I'll give them that. If they think they can build a Hyperspace Window Generator that small they'll need a lot more power than a standard engine does, due to the shortcuts they're taking in the emitter stages."
"How much more power?" asked Dr Lee wearily.
"You'll need to double the power reserves available to the X302, at the very least."
"Double," said Dr Lee with a tired sigh and rubbed his hands over his face.
"And if you're seriously considering mounting a fighter sized version of the PR7 on this thing you'll need another increase in stable power output, unless you want the fighter pilots to come out of hyperspace with powerless weapons…"
"…well aren't missiles usually used first in an engagement anyway?"
"Normally, yes," conceded Harry. "But you never know what circumstances there are in a battle."
"True," said Dr Lee. "And what about the X303?"
"Also promising," allowed Harry. "But the design needs to be refined further. Using a single fusion reactor is a bad idea, if it goes offline for some reason you need a backup. So the ship needs a primary and secondary reactor."
"Then we're talking about quite a large increase in the size of the vessel itself," said Dr Lee.
"Yes, at least four hundred meters in length," said Harry, Dr Lee's eyes widened.
"I don't know if we have the capability to build something that large."
"If you want the X303 to stand a chance against a Goa'uld mothership, there's no other choice," said Harry grimly. "The secondary reactor would power critical systems; life support, weapons, shields…though I have yet to see you come up with any designs for that. Main reactor would be tied to the Hyperdrive and the remaining systems."
The conversation was interrupted with a knock on the door. A freshly showered looking Colonel O'Neill stood smirking in the doorway, looking like the proverbial cat who ate the canary.
"Greetings Colonel," said Harry with a grin. "I take it you were successful in your mission to Natu, or as it's known to most of the people on Earth…hell."
"Oh yeah," said O'Neill, "Got Jacob Carter out of there just fine, and I think we can cross two System Lords off our list of snakeheads to worry about."
"Two?" asked Harry, rather astonished. "Who?"
"Apophis and Sokar," said O'Neill. "We got Jacob to a set of concealed transporter rings where Teal'C beamed us up just in time. The Tok'ra can take the credit for the kills though. They shot a bomb into the core of Natu, and the mothership in orbit…with our two snakeheads aboard…became a pretty big firework along with Natu itself."
"Good news," said Harry with a grin, Sokar was a major headache to the System Lord collective. With Sokar gone it would cause them to turn their attentions back to their individual struggles for power, which was exactly what Harry and the rest of the galaxy, preferred them doing.
"As Teal'C would say…indeed," said O'Neill, lowering his voice deeply to mimic the voice of the strong former First Prime of Apophis. "So what are you two up to?" Harry and Dr Lee stared at each other for a moment.
"I'm reviewing the X-project. The Pentagon has finally agreed to let me see what Area 51 has come up with to defend my lovely home planet from the Goa'uld," said Harry a big fake smile on his face that didn't come near his eyes.
"And?"
"Well, let's just say that we have a long way to go," said Harry with a sigh, looking at the plans.
Any further conversation was interrupted when the base alarm flared and the PA system announced an unscheduled incoming subspace path.
"Gotta go!" said O'Neill, hurrying back out of the lab they were in.
"We'll sort this out later," said Harry to Dr Lee, who nodded.
Harry caught up to O'Neill just as they both entered the control room. General Hammond and the rest of SG1 also entered the bustling room, as personnel scrambled to man their stations.
"Still no incoming signal," said the sergeant monitoring the gate screen. The gunmetal gray iris covering the mouth of the Stargate was naturally shut for this occasion, and extra defense teams appeared in the gate room itself, training their PR7s on the gate.
"All units are earthside," said the General, implying that there obviously wouldn't be a signal.
Harry narrowed his eyes at what he was seeing and sensing. The iris began to slightly flutter, as if the metal had suddenly become a curtain.
"Is it my imagination or is the iris…kinda…" said Daniel, wobbling his hand.
"It's losing integrity," said Major Carter in alarm.
"No…it's being subjected to a phased distortion field," said Harry his eyebrows contracting into an unpleasant frown. He knew of only one race that could do this. There was a slight discoloration of the iris itself quite close to the floor and of all the things to walk right through the now distorted iris…a ginger colored cat stalked onto the embarkation ramp.
"Hold your fire!" ordered the Major into the PA system, and hurried off into the gate room. Harry watched as Sam picked up the cat, which had stretched out luxuriantly onto the ramp, and cradled it to her chest. "It's Schrodinger," she announced, "it's the cat I gave to Narim of the Tollan."
"The Tollan possess the technology to walk through solid matter," stated Teal'C helpfully.
"Something, you recall, they refused to share with us," said O'Neill flatly.
The iris again became stained, but this time it was shaped distinctly as a human, and a few moments later with a hollow rippling sound, a tall man walked through; styled dark black hair and wearing gray blue pants and an elegant curved jacket with light blue shirt underneath. Harry knew Narim only as the Tollan High Councilor Omoc's apprentice; he had always followed the councilor as Harry met with Omoc a few years ago, and had often spoken in favor of Omoc's policies to Harry.
Narim pressed a button on a gauntlet around his arm and the distortion field shut down, returning the iris to normal. He looked to the control room and said, "General Hammond, I am unfamiliar with Earth protocol in these matters, so I sent Schrodinger ahead to let you know a friend was coming."
"It's all right, Narim," said the General into the PA, "the Tollan are welcome here. Units…stand down." The assembled defense teams lowered their PR7s.
The General and SG1 went down to meet with Narim, but Harry firmly remained standing where he was, observing.
"What can we do for you Narim?" asked General Hammond, breaking the man away from his cozy conversation with Major Carter.
"I am here to bring a message to you from our highest governing body, the Curia," said Narim he turned to O'Neill. "Colonel O'Neill, the Tollan Curia, request the presence of you and your team for triad." He held out a small silver information device that glowed with blue light and handed it to the Colonel.
"I feel like I'm being served," said O'Neill wearily.
The General ordered everyone to the briefing room and Harry consciously kept his expression inscrutable as Narim caught sight of him.
"Harry?" he said in surprise.
"Greetings, Narim," said Harry turning to face the Tollan. "It's been a while."
"That it has," he said shortly. "I must say, I am surprised to see you back on Earth."
"Did you really think I was going to take Omoc's advise to heart?" Harry raised a sardonic eyebrow.
"I had hoped you would see the wisdom in it," said Narim with a frown.
"Then you are as naïve as the rest of your people," said Harry narrowing his eyes. "I had hoped that you would wise up, but clearly that is not the case…"
"Whoah, whoah, easy folks," said O'Neill warily, "back to your corners."
"Is there a problem, Ambassador?" asked General Hammond with a frown, showing his displeasure at Harry's hostility toward Narim.
"None from my end, General," said Harry strongly. "I wish to hear what would cause the Tollan to come off their lofty pedestal and visit my home." He turned and walked up the steep rotary staircase that led directly into the briefing room and a few moments later everyone was seated the chairs around the table.
Narim got right to business. It was also visibly apparent that he was uncomfortable in Harry's presence.
"First let me explain what triad is," he said, "it's an ancient ceremony of justice, where matters of law are argued and resolved."
"So it's like a trial?" asked Daniel.
"If a tria-l is where you apply the scales of justice, then yes," nodded Narim.
"So who's on trail…I mean, triad?" asked O'Neill.
"The decision the triad must reach is of great concern to an old friend of yours, he's an Abydonian by the name of Skaara." Skaara was the host to the Goa'uld Klorel, the son of Apophis.
"What?" said Daniel and O'Neill in chorus, looking astonished.
"It is he who requested your presence," said Narim.
"He's alive? He's OK?" said Daniel.
"He is well, but he does need your help for triad."
"Where's this taking place?" asked O'Neill.
"On the new homeworld, Tollana."
"But we sent you to the Nox homeworld after we rescued you," said Samantha, "and there was no Stargate on Tollana."
"The Nox and the Tollan were able to devise a way to get us there," said Narim neutrally.
"Of course you were," said O'Neill sarcastically.
"Way, way smarter than we are," said Daniel distractedly.
"Triad will begin as soon as all interested parties can be there," said Narim, "General with your permission?"
"This is really up to SG1 themselves, as this is more of a personal matter, but you'll hear no objections from me on their participation in this triad," said the General.
"Just give us a chance to gear up and we'll meet in the gate room in thirty minutes?" asked O'Neill.
"Very well," nodded Narim. SG1 stood and walked out of the briefing room to prepare. "General, the new Stargate on Tollana was built by my people and requires a special procedure to allow for incoming subspace paths to connect. If you would allow me access to your equipment I can duplicate the procedure."
"Very well, speak to the gate technician behind the dialing computer, he'll give you any help you need," said Hammond, lifting the phone and spoke briefly into it, he replaced it and said, "you may proceed."
"Thank you, General," said Narim, bowing slightly and walked down the steep stairs.
"Ambassador, a moment in my office," said Hammond, walking into his adjoining private office, Harry following in his wake, closing the door. "What was that in the control room?"
"Forgive me, General Hammond, if I seemed rather…displeased with Narim," said Harry levelly. "But the Tollan and I have a rather weighty past."
"Would you care to enlighten me as to why? Since it seems your presence here has for some reason disturbed Narim."
"The reason why Narim is disturbed, is because when I was still a friend to the Tollan, he and Omoc believed it unwise for me to ever return to Earth, fearing that I would cause the destruction of my home by sharing technology with you, and they endeavored to convince me never to return," explained Harry, his voice growing harder.
"I can imagine how I would feel," said the General.
"I also once enlisted the aid of the Tollan, this was before their original homeworld was destroyed, in defending a human civilization, the Katati, from the Goa'uld. This particular civilization had only just perfected mechanical flight, and had an Earth equivalent to circa World War One level of technology. But just as I was about to head off I received a message from the Tollan…can you guess what the message said?"
"They pulled back, and left you hanging," said the General after a while.
"You seem to have the measure of them," nodded Harry. "They withdrew their ships, stating in all their enlightened wisdom that bloodshed would not be the answer. They had adopted a non-aggression policy toward such situations. The said the Goa'uld would just come back in greater numbers to claim the planet, that it was better to let the locals become slaves…at least they would be alive that way. But the Katati refused to go quietly into the night…and they resisted as best they could. A year later the Goa'uld lost their patience with the resistance and decided it was easier to sterilize the planet from orbit."
General Hammond winced.
"Though I do admit that some of the Tollan argument has merit, the approach of keeping the peace by rolling over on your back and letting the Goa'uld walk over you is idiotic at best. If the Tollan had at least come to the defense of the Katati it would have given the Goa'uld pause in their efforts. And there is another reason why I…dislike the Tollan. For all their technology and power they are content to sit back and do nothing on their homeworld. If they were ever to put their efforts into offensive weapons and vessels then the Goa'uld would have been at least half of what they are today, and the Galaxy wouldn't be overrun with them."
"Be that as it may," said the General thoughtfully, "and I can somewhat understand your feelings in the matter, I don't want diplomatic relations between us and the Tollan to be strained."
"Don't worry, General," said Harry emphatically, "I would not do anything to jeopardize that. Though personally I feel any diplomatic relationship with the Tollan is in essence useless. They are content to sit behind their mighty ion cannons and let the rest of the Galaxy burn or be enslaved around them." Harry stood from the chair in front of the General's desk. "May I be excused General, Dr Lee is waiting for me…I'm still going over the X project with him."
"Dismissed," nodded the General, looking thoughtful.
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The next day Harry received the satisfying news he had had in a long time, in the form of the post mission debrief of SG1 after the conclusion of the Tollan triad. Harry knew he shouldn't be feeling this vindictive, but he would have given a lot to have seen the faces of the Tollan as they Goa'uld destroyed all their ion cannon emplacements simultaneously, thereby preventing the cannons from firing a single shot. It felt satisfying to know that the Tollan had just experienced a small taste of how the Katati felt.
And of all things it was the 'primitive Earthlings' that saved them. Or to be more accurate, Teal'C.
He had seen the Jaffa begin walking around and subtly inspecting the Tollan ion cannon installations, and knew instantly what was going to happen. He had even tried to warn the Tollan, who refused to think that it was possible. He then disobeyed an order from O'Neill to leave it alone (an order given under pressure from the Tollan) and approached Lya of the Nox.
Harry hardly believed that a Nox was capable of bending their own rules or 'way' as they put it. The Nox were the most fervent pacifists in the Galaxy and they were a very old race, though they were slightly younger than Harry's own race. The Nox liked everybody and wouldn't allow harm to come to any sentient life, be they evil or good, if it was within their power to prevent it.
As Harry listened to the story, he surmised that Lya must have cast a disillusionment matrix over the single ion cannon, at Teal'C's urging. The single cannon was enough. It destroyed the Death Gliders that had penetrated the atmosphere and with just two shots made the Goa'uld Ha'tak mothership in orbit (and moments from attacking the planet) become a brilliant fireball in the sky.
The other good news was that Skaara was now free from the Goa'uld Klorel. The triad was held mostly to determine who would have priority over the body of Skaara, Skaara himself or Klorel. And since Klorel needed a human host to survive, it was a sticky issue regarding Tollan law, since they did not have capital punishment.
Harry hoped the whole affair would make the Tollan come round to the reality of the Galaxy around them.
Though his pessimistic side knew that it would take a lot more than the destruction of a few ion cannons to make them see the light.
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