9th October 1999
13:18 MDT
"Are you seriously doing good-soldier bad-soldier? Because if so I've got tens of thousands of years of memories of-."
Teal'c sits down one table away from us, staring at me challengingly.
"Interrogation, and I thought when the
shol'va wasn't in the room during negotiations that was because you had the sense to realise that would be
unproductive." I make the expected expression of distaste, grudgingly glancing at him before returning my attention to O'Neil.
"For me to betray a god they would have to
be a god."
Now I turn my body towards him, meeting his eyes directly.
"Tell that to the jaffa who served under you who you shot in the
back during your betrayal." I get up and walk across the room until I'm standing opposite him with the table between us. "Do you remember their names? Their faces? You must have trained with them, served with them for years. Their
families? Your wife and son lived in that area, didn't they? Kill any family
friends? No regrets there,
murdering men who trusted you, you miserable backstabbing shol'va?"
I
let my eyes flare, though
his face remains impassive.
"I regret that I could not turn them away from the cause of the false gods."
O'Neil follows me over, sitting sideways on the seat next to me. It seems that they've been authorised to put me under a little pressure and see how I react. Alright, not unreasonable.
"And what being above us would you worship in our place?"
"I would not. I would have the jaffa stand on our own."
"You literally can't. You have one of us in your body now. Without us you die in a few hours, as we intended when we raised the jaffa up to be our most favoured servants."
"When you send us to die by the thousands for the sake of your vanity, it does not feel like we are being favoured."
"Try living like a human and then compare the two existences." I snort.
"And I note that you say nothing of the fate of the humans living under goa'uld. Are they not relevant to you, shol'va? Do you consider them beneath you, as we goa'uld taught you they are? Do you believe yourself to be a warrior by divine providence?"
"No."
I allow my eyes to dim. "Then what's the plan? How do you intend to be free of us?"
"In each jaffa settlement we will have a pool where a goa'uld queen exists to breed prim'ta, who will be discarded when they reach maturity. We will use you as you use us."
"We make you our most favoured servants, and you will make our children your slaves. It is almost a shame that you haven't used your time away from Lord Apophis to learn actual morals."
His face hardens ever so slightly.
"And in answer to your question, Colonel O'Neil, as far as I'm concerned 'god' is the label applied to us by
your ancestors. If you want to apply another one now, I won't be offended."
"I like goold."
"Then I shall call you 'Jon On'el', because I can be just as petty-" Major Carter marches back into the canteen, a thin binder in hand. "-as… You?"
She puts it down in front of me. There's a State Department seal on the cover, and the title… 'Opinion of the Office of the Attorney General on Off-World Warfare'.
O'Neil looks at her. "Carter?"
"He asked why we were fighting them, sir. It's not classified. I checked."
Hopefully this one did a little better than Bush's 'torture is totally legal, guys' Attorney General. I open it-. Hague Convention, there we go. Flip through a few pages-.
'Elimination of threats to the US and its interests', not helpful. That covers the elimination of literally every weapon in the universe not controlled by the US or its allies. In fact, according to
Project for the New American Century,
including its allies, as well as economic threats. Technically a car being driven legally that could in theory hit a US citizen is covered. Is there more detail..? No. 'Protection of allies and non-combatants'… So they're taking the position that they need to actively intervene anywhere where anyone fighting could endanger non-combatants. It also means that an ally could start a fight, start losing, and expect the US to fully commit to bailing them out. 'Recovery of US personnel and equipment', there's the Space
Hague Invasion Act. Nothing about it being legitimate for us to invade them to take our stargate back.
I shake my head. "This is a terribly drafted legal opinion. Was your Attorney General not fully briefed, or were they instructed to give you loosely-worded legal cover for anything you felt like doing?"
O'Neil looks unmoved. "Isn't that his.. job?"
"Put it this way. If the System Lords wanted to surrender tomorrow, how does
this-" I tap the page. "-tell them what that involves? What are your concrete demands? If your enemy doesn't know what you're fighting for, they can't give it to you. Honestly,
we have better documents than this."
Or we
did, until Ra died. Now the interstellar order has rather fallen apart, without a top level power to stamp on flagrant breaches of protocol. Bastet would enforce treaties between her underlords but that's the most I've got.
O'Neil flicks his right hand to the side. "We'd quite like it if you gave up slavery."
"I don't own any slaves. Slavery is actually illegal in Bastet's domain."
"Uh-huh."
"Yuh-huh." I
raise my right hand and create a full copy of Bastet's Maat Code, putting it on the table. "There you go. Most places have a primary industry and it would be
difficult for a person born there to work anywhere else, but they're not property. They get paid and have protection under the law."
O'Neil raises his right hand as Teal'c takes the book. He extends his right index finger and moves it towards me, stopping with it an inch from my forehead.
"You got
one slave right there."
"I-. O
oh, you want to talk to my
host." I shrug. "Okay. Just a moment."
I
create a large vase and
fill it with water, then
create a pillow on the table in front of me and take a seat before leaning forwards and resting my head on it. I turn my head to the side so that my mouth is facing the vase.
"Just stick me back in when you're done."
O'Neil looks at Carter in confusion while Teal'c looks on impassively. Right.
Mask brain activity,
minimise heartbeat and
breathing while
perceiving the world through Am-heh who
climbs out of my mouth and
slivers towards the jar before climbing into it and coiling up in the bottom to watch me.
They look cautiously at Am-heh for a moment, then give my body their full attention as they wait for the 'host' to wake up.
Naturally, nothing happens.
After a moment, O'Neil pokes me.
"Sir, I wouldn't-."
"Shouldn't he.. wake up?"
Teal'c frowns
very slightly. "In every incidence I have seen of a goa'uld abandoning their host, the host either recovers swiftly or dies swiftly."
Carter
immediately checks my pulse. "His pulse is weak, but it's there. Breathing too. Sir, I think we should get him to the infirmary."
What?