SG1-24 Two Roads

by Cannon, Geonn

  Despite being closed, the kitchen was open in order to provide Siero and his men with plates full of something so pungent that Vala regretted not asking Siero to meet them at the ship. Siero saw them approach and laughed, waving them closer.

  “My girls, my girls, my wily girls! You have come back. At long last, we are together again.” He sniffed and pushed his opticals up with the knuckle of one finger, gesturing to his guards. “Formalities, you understand, one can’t be too careful in one’s position, hm?”

  Vala and Tanis held their arms out to either side so they could be patted down for weapons. She kept a mental count of what was taken from her, happy to see that their unnecessarily thorough search managed to miss two of her weapons. Still, the guard nodded to Siero that the ladies were unarmed and he pointed them to the seats in front of him. Vala sat down directly across from him while Tanis took a chair and sat a few paces away from the table so she had a better view of the room.

  “Always a pleasure to see you, Vala. Mostly because it means more money for me! None of those greedy upper-ups getting their cuts.”

  “Hello to you as well, Siero. As much as it pained us to be away so long, I think you’ll find our absence could be very lucrative to you.” She leaned forward to drop the bag on the table. “Just a sampling of what we’re offering.”

  Siero snatched it up, bounced the weight in his palm, and then untied the top. He peered inside and turned it one way and then the other to watch the coins within sliding over each other. “Oh, yes, yes, yes. This is quite lovely. Direfs, if I’m not mistaken. From the kingdom of Selos.” He took out one of the coins and examined the profile etched onto it. “New issue currency at that. Hm, yes. And you have more? This is just a small sample?”

  “Oh, just a fraction of the wealth we’re offering.”

  “Excellent!” He grinned revealing a row of sharp reptilian teeth. “It just so happens we are in the need of funds. The Lucian Alliance is ready to start making its name known throughout the galaxy.”

  Tanis said, “Finally ready to try your hand in the big leagues, huh?”

  “The wheels are in motion, my lovely. We’re reaching out all over everywhere. People were so quick to boot the Goa’uld out, now they’re starting to think… well, what’s next? Now who is going to be in charge? I’ll tell you who… us! The little guys, the ones who have been doing all the grunt work making this galaxy run smoothly while the snakebrains sat in their golden thrones and zipped around in their pyramids. They’re gone and we’re still around. So it’s our turn to reap some of the benefits. So I think we can negotiate a fair price for your loot. Typical exchange rate?”

  “Not this time, Siero,” Vala said. “We’re going to skip the laundering and get right to what we actually want. We’re giving you this money in payment for naquadah. What would you say to ten direfs for eight ounces?”

  Siero snorted. “I would say robbery!”

  “You might want to think before you start throwing that word around, Siero. None of us here is a saint. But we can negotiate! That’s what we’re good at. What would you consider reasonable?”

  “Fine, negotiation… instead of eight ounces for every ten direfs, you just give us everything you brought with you from Selos in exchange for walking from this building under your own power?”

  Tanis glanced toward the door and saw the guards from outside had reappeared. This time they brought a couple of friends.

  “Vala?”

  “Mm-hmm.” Vala kept her eyes locked on Siero, but there was no doubt she knew what was happening behind her. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned forward. “I am very disappointed, Siero. I thought we had a good thing going here.”

  “Business! It’s just business! I’m terribly sorry to do this to you ladies, really I am. But the Lucian Alliance needs money in its coffers if we’re going to thrive, and we can’t do that by paying for every little thing that crosses our table. But surely you must have expected this. You knew who you were dealing with when you walked in here.”

  “You have a point. But you also knew who you were dealing with. Tanis?”

  Tanis reached into her jacket and withdrew four long silver bars. Siero’s eyes widened at the sight of them, but she wasn’t offering the bribe to him. She reached back without looking and waved the shesh’ta at the guards. “I don’t know how much of a cut he’s offering you,” she said, “but I’d like to make a side offer. Will this buy your guns, gentlemen?”

  The guards looked at each other, then at the money they were being offered. It was more than a years’ wages for them both. After a long and tense moment, the guards took the deal. Tanis took their guns and handed one to Vala. They both trained their weapons on Siero as he tried to protect his face with his chubby arms.

  “Wait! Don’t! This… You don’t understand! This was just business!”

  “It was business,” Vala said, “but then you made it personal.”

  Siero whimpered. “Do you have any idea how expensive it is to take the place of the System Lords in the universe? We are bleeding funds, Vala! I couldn’t even come up with enough naquadah for what you have in that baggie, let alone an entire cargo hold full of it.”

  Vala was livid. “I wasted months on this job on the promise your little Alliance would make it worth my while in the end. And this is my repayment? You try to rob me, and when that fails, you stiff me?”

  “A mo-moment of desperation and weakness, I assure you. Please! Please, show mercy to a poor and desperate man.”

  “Poor being the operative word,” Tanis said. “We should kill him on principle.”

  Siero squeaked. “No! Wait! What if I did have something of use? Something of, of value in exchange? What if I could tell you about a job that would make you rich beyond your wildest imaginations?”

  “Sounds like another desperate and weak moment to me,” Tanis muttered.

  “Might as well hear him out.”

  Siero swallowed the lump in his throat. “You can use the direfs to fund another job. It’s a treasure hunt. It would make all your past jobs look like chicken feed.”

  Vala said, “Why aren’t you going after it? Or one of your other Lucian Alliance cronies?”

  “Who has the time? And like I said, if certain wheels have to be greased for information, the Alliance doesn’t have the liquidity to make that happen. But you… if anyone can find it, you ladies can.”

  “Go on,” Vala said.

  “It’s a treasure. A vast fortune just lying around waiting to be snatched up by the first person to get their hands on it. You don’t have to worry about fencing what you steal because it belonged to a Goa’uld. All their stuff is a free for all right now. No one is asking for provenance on Goa’uld riches these days. All ‘look the other way’ and cash under the table. If you find it, it’s yours. Every coin, every gem, every last piece. You could buy a planet with that wealth. I can tell you exactly where to start looking for it.”

  Vala looked at Tanis and saw she was intrigued by the prospect. “Which Goa’uld?”

  “Does that matter?”

  “Not all of them are entirely gone. You could be sending us into a trap.”

  “No, trust me, this lady isn’t in any shape to come after you. The treasure belonged to Kali, all right?”

  Vala’s expression wavered. The wealth of a deposed female Goa’uld… it could be exactly the score she had been looking for.

  Siero misread her internal debate for uncertainty. “She sided with Anubis when he came lumbering back, okay? Now that he’s been defeated, even the other Go’aulds want nothing to do with her. You go after Kali’s treasure, I promise you’re gonna be the only ones looking.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Jack was waiting at the base of the ramp, arms folded casually over his chest, when SG-9 returned. They had radioed ahead to inform him of their findings, and his eyes locked onto Daniel as the Stargate disengaged. Jack raised his eyebrows at Colonel Getty. “I thought I told you not to let him t
ouch anything.”

  “My apologies, sir. I turned my back for one minute, suddenly it’s the end of the world.”

  “I won’t judge you too harshly. I’ve been on the receiving end of that myself.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Jack glared at Daniel. “First mission after defeating the Goa’uld.”

  “I’m aware.”

  “A nice leisurely temple to explore, nothing to get excited about except a few dusty carvings.”

  “I know.”

  Jack thumped the back of his hand against Daniel’s chest. “First time leaving your office in weeks, you go and find a doomsday weapon.”

  Daniel said, “Don’t blame me. I was more than happy down in my office with my books and my journals. In the words of another SG team member: I retired. You wanted me back. Now that you’re in charge, the shoe is on the other foot.”

  “Hm,” Jack said. “Okay. Briefing room.”

  They handed off their gear to the SFs guarding the ramp. Daniel gave up his digital camera to an airman and instructed him to set it up so he could display the images during the briefing. As they climbed the stairs out of the control room, Daniel was distracted by thoughts of what he’d discovered. He was trying to figure out how to succinctly explain it all to Jack so that he could convey just how monumentally bad the situation really was.

  As he entered the briefing room, movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. The Replicator version of Samantha Carter turned toward him, eyes cold and dark, the overhead lights shining along the blade of her right hand. Daniel recoiled at the sight, tripping back a step and colliding with Jack. He brought his hands up in a defensive pose, already feeling ridiculous as the vision faded.

  “Daniel?” Sam asked.

  He relaxed and lowered his arms, anxiety giving way to embarrassment as he realized what he’d done. The person standing a few feet away was Sam, the real Sam, and the glint of light had reflected off the water carafe she was using to pour herself a drink. She had paused mid-pour, concern written across her face, and Daniel looked over his shoulder to see Jack watching him with the same concern. He coughed into his fist and straightened his jacket.

  “Everything okay?” Jack said.

  “Fine,” Daniel said. “Sorry. I just… I didn’t know you were already back.”

  Sam nodded, obviously still concerned. “I got in this morning. General O’Neill said you’d found something interesting and suggested I sit in on the briefing.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you sure you’re okay? You look a little pale.”

  Jack seemed to sense Daniel wanted to drop it. “Oh, that’s just from hiding down in his office all the live-long day. The poor boy hasn’t seen the sun in weeks.”

  Daniel nodded and accepted the out. “Not to mention what we discovered on the planet.” He put down his notebook and glanced at the airman, who nodded that the digital camera was set up. The rest of SG-9 took their seats at the table, leaving the two seats on either side of Jack’s position empty for the members of his team. Daniel retrieved the clicker for the projection screen that had just been lowered over the window to Jack’s office. The lights went down and Daniel clicked to the first image. It had been taken from the DHD and showed the painting of Kali that would have greeted every visitor to the planet.

  “This is Kali, the Hindu goddess of death and darkness. This is a portrait that was painted on the wall facing the Stargate as you arrive in her temple.”

  “Heck of a welcome mat,” Jack said.

  “Yes, despite appearances, Kali was not an aggressive or violent Goa’uld. At first I thought this was meant simply as a warning, marking her territory so she wouldn’t have to fight. Now, she was far from being a pacifist, but if there was a way to avoid all-out war she usually took it.

  “Kali originally came to Earth as a follower of Shiva. She was one of the first Goa’uld to take a human host while others, including Shiva, were mostly still using the Unas. Now, the people they were attempting to rule didn’t look at Unas and see ‘god.’ They saw Shiva as a demonic entity. Kali begged him to take a human host, but Shiva refused. He saw us as inferior in terms of longevity, strength, ah… well. He was losing control of his followers, and Kali went to Ra for help. She wanted Ra to convince Shiva to take a human host. Ra had other ideas. He ordered Kali to murder Shiva and take his place. After a bit of soul-searching, Kali did just that. She figured Ra would have him killed one way or another, so why not benefit from the murder?”

  Colonel Getty said, “Sounds like snakehead politics as usual.”

  Daniel nodded. “Yes. Well, afterward, Kali obviously didn’t want anyone hanging around who was still loyal to Shiva. According to the histories we’ve found, she managed to quickly and decisively kill anyone who refused to denounce their former god and accept her as his replacement. She wiped out all of Shiva’s followers without harming those who had declared loyalty to her.”

  Jack said, “Neat trick.”

  “Yes, and for the most part no one’s really bothered to worry about how exactly she pulled it off. That brings us to the device I discovered off-world.”

  He clicked a button to change the image to the table he and Morello had discovered.

  “We found this in a hidden chamber off the Stargate room.” He clicked another button to show a detailed picture of the carvings. “I was able to translate most of this. It definitely is as old as it looks, but I think it was moved here fairly recently. It seems to be a more modern marriage of Goa’uld and Ancient technologies. Using modern in a relative sense here, of course…”

  “You think this was a perk of throwing her hat in the ring with old Anubis,” Jack said.

  “Yes. Now, the carving starts out with the typical Goa’uld puff and ruffle, but around the second paragraph it starts to get a little more specific. It speaks of a potential uprising of the Jaffa or, as they put it, a blasphemous rebellion of the lower castes but I think we can all read between the lines. It goes through the party lines… foolishness of their hubris, the consequences of incurring the wrath of their god. But here at the bottom is where things start getting more interesting.” He stepped closer to the screen so he could point out the pertinent sections, even though he was the only one present who could read it. “‘Those heretics who stand against their god Kali shall suffer grave consequences for their sin of blasphemy… cast into the pit…’ so on and so on.”

  Sam said, “The Goa’uld are known for talking a big game. You said yourself the artwork was most likely meant as a deterrent rather than an actual threat.”

  “Right, but that was directly in front of the Stargate and impossible to miss. This was hidden in a secondary chamber that we would never have found if we hadn’t been looking for it. Besides, while Kali may have been all about diplomacy, this device was given to her by Anubis.”

  Jack said, “And we know he wouldn’t be above the whole ‘weapons of mass destruction’ route if it was available to him.”

  Morello said, “He already tried to eliminate the Jaffa once before, when he bred the Kull warriors. That could have been a precursor to using this device to kill them all. It would explain how Kali managed to kill all of Shiva’s followers and leave all of her own alive. She just found a way to target the right people and flipped a switch. Anubis gave her a means to do it on a much larger scale.”

  Getty said, “Are we sure she actually pulled that off? I mean, ‘worship me or I’ll kill you’ would go a long way toward making someone switch churches. Maybe they decided it was good enough to just pay lip service to the new boss.”

  “No. A Goa’uld would want to know,” Jack said.

  Daniel nodded. “Yes, and she had a way to make sure.” He moved to the next photo. “This carving indicates that a failsafe device to ensure that even if Kali isn’t around to make her followers pay, they’ll still suffer for rising up. In the event of her Jaffa rising up against her, it would dial the Stargate and deliver a potent virus to a series of random address
es. And that’s not the worst part. This, the device we found, doesn’t have the apparatus necessary to set off a chain of events like the one it describes. This is just one domino in a much larger series. If the threat is credible, and we have to believe it is, I believe she has more of these devices on other planets in her realm.”

  Jack said, “Including Earth?”

  Daniel shook his head. “No, Anubis would have only been able to give her the technology to go universal within the past few years. Long after she left Earth behind.”

  Getty said, “Seems like a long way to go just to get revenge.”

  Sam shrugged. “Maybe the inroads Teal’c and Bra’tac made the past few years scared her into taking drastic measures.”

  “Right,” Daniel said. “It’s been only recently that the Jaffa have even managed to gain a foothold against the Goa’uld. For the first time in history, Jaffa have been turning against their so-called gods in unprecedented numbers. It makes sense one of them would take measures like this.”

  Jack said, “Why do you think this is only a problem for Jaffa? How do we know this thing won’t go off and kill everybody?”

  “The engraving specifically mentions Jaffa, saying they will be struck down for their disloyalty. Now, it’s not unheard of for the Goa’uld to take out their anger on innocent bystanders, but in this case I think only striking the Jaffa would be a more potent demonstration of their power. The Jaffa were genetically engineered to serve as the perfect hosts. It stands to reason that there’s something specific about their DNA that can be targeted by these devices. The good news is that there seems to be a way to shut the devices off. Kali obviously had to have a way of deactivating it while her Jaffa were still behaving themselves. And if they did rise up against her, she couldn’t guarantee she would be able to get to the machine in order to enable it.”