SG1-24 Two Roads

by Cannon, Geonn

  Daniel said, “You’re… welcome?”

  “He means thank you,” Sam said. “Thank you for your help, despite our recent problems.”

  Sina didn’t acknowledge either of them. “It is in everyone’s best interest that this device be deactivated as quickly as possible. If the Jaffa were victims of a genocide, it would throw the entire galaxy into even further chaos. We cannot allow devastation of that magnitude. That is why the High Council has agreed to help you on this matter, but after this we will part ways. I apologize if that sounds cold, but there are many other pressing matters which must be dealt with.”

  “We understand,” Sam said, hoping to push the conversation back toward amicable diplomacy. “We appreciate you getting us this far.”

  Sina was obviously appeased. She looked out at the street again, motioned for them to follow, and stepped out into the flow of pedestrians again.

  Sam lowered her voice and leaned toward him. “I think you’ve been hanging around General O’Neill too much.”

  Daniel sighed. “I just get a little sick of the holier-than-thou. But she is doing us a favor, so I’ll try to control my inner O’Neill.”

  Sam grinned and moved through the crowd as it parted in Sina’s wake. The Tok’ra only glanced back once to make sure they were following her. “We inquired to several of our operatives as soon as we received your warning, and we have begun to spread word to any Jaffa settlements we are in contact with. There are whispers among Bastet’s people regarding the devices of which you speak.”

  Daniel said, “That makes sense. Kali and Bastet had a coalition, of sorts. Kali might have shared with her the means to stop the devices from activating.”

  “It is unlikely. Bastet merely allied herself with whichever System Lord would offer her the most protection from the others. Kali would not have entrusted her with anything quite so important. But because of her inferior status, Bastet sought favor wherever she could find it. Often she bought allegiance by trading secrets. The information she learned from Kali was shared with Bastet’s lieutenants, who shared it with someone else, on down the line until it landed in the hands of a well-known thief named Siero. He’s aware of a treasure trove stolen from Kali’s palaces, and we have reason to believe the dead man’s switch you seek is among the items he can point us toward.”

  “Let’s hope,” Sam said.

  Sina led them down a short alley to the back door of a pub. Sam was sometimes amazed at how similar alien worlds could be to Earth. The languages and culture might be different, but wherever humanoid people gathered there were bound to be slums, red-light districts, and seedy bars. A man wearing a plastic bib moved to stop them as they passed through the kitchen, but Sina sketched out a quick hand signal that held him off.

  “Friend of yours?”

  “No. But he believes I am a friend of his.”

  In the main room of the restaurant they found Siero seated on a raised platform speaking angrily at two men who had apparently done something to irritate him. Sam was startled by his piscine appearance, the shoulders of his suit draped by twin tentacles that hung from the top of his head. She had gotten so used to encountering displaced humans from Earth that sometimes she forgot there were truly alien aliens out there in the galaxy.

  Daniel tensed slightly as they approached. She looked at him and he leaned close to answer her unspoken question. “He’s Oranian. A couple of them wanted to buy the Prometheus when it was stolen a few months ago.”

  As they approached, Sam heard one of the men complain, “She took my gun, Siero!” The other man started to say something as well, but Siero cut him off when he spotted the new arrivals.

  “Who are you? What do you want?”

  Sina responded in her human voice. “We wish to speak to you about Kali’s treasure.”

  The men glanced at their boss, who waved them away. Once they were alone Siero gestured at the seats across from him. “Kali… Kali, yes, the name is familiar. The System Lord. Cast her lot with the losing team, and we all know how that turns out.” His shoulders hunched as he laughed. “But treasure? Well, all Goa’uld have a treasure, but I’m certain I don’t know anything about any specific treasure…”

  Sina was suddenly on her feet, one arm extended across the table to grab Siero’s right tentacle. The two men from earlier rushed to their employer’s aid, but Sam and Daniel stood up to block them from getting close. Daniel held up his hands to prevent anyone from pulling any weapons.

  “There’s no need for violence,” he said. “Right? Sina?”

  The Tok’ra kept her grip on Siero’s appendage. “That all depends on what this worm has to say. Kali’s treasure.”

  “Okay! Yes, there are rumors of a treasure. Kali’s palaces were wiped out after the Jaffa decided it was time for a change. What they didn’t blow up, they stole. A lot of it has already been scattered through every inhabited world. Barter system is back in a big way these days. Passage from one planet to another, weapons, it’s all getting paid for with thieved Goa’uld baubles. I get the impression you’re looking for something specific? You’re looking for a needle in a haystack, but hey, I’m not here to judge.”

  Daniel said, “Kali had devices in her temples that were set to be activated in the event of a Jaffa uprising. We’re looking for a way to stop them from going off.”

  Siero’s expression changed slightly. “Oh. You’re looking for a way to stop the Purge. I always thought that was just a rumor.”

  “Believe me, we’ve seen the devices and they’re primed to go.”

  Sam said, “Is there a way to disable the entire network?”

  “Sure. Kali didn’t want to spend all her time going around shutting the things off, and she didn’t want to risk losing her army just because she happened to forget one. There was a device that she kept in her main chambers. All she had to do was input a code and the devices went to sleep.”

  Daniel said, “What did it look like?”

  “I don’t know, I’m not her architect. Everything I’m telling you is just what I know through rumor and second-hand knowledge. But I swear I’m telling you everything I know. Keep this criniscao away from me.”

  Daniel mentally translated the insult to something along the lines of ‘tentacle-less,’ but he had a feeling it was much more vulgar in the original tongue. “Okay, so you don’t know what it looks like or where it ended up. Do you know anyone who might know?”

  Siero sighed and Sino tightened her grip on his tentacle. He yelped and rose slightly from his seat before he whimpered and glared at her. “Yeah, yes, fine. The switch was installed in Kali’s main palace so she would always have it handy. Understandably, that was one of the first places looted. Anything that was there has already been snatched up and tossed to the seven winds. But that was the really choice stuff. No one was using it for simple exchanges. You want to find something that big and that expensive, you should look on Teunus. They got the really choice pickings.”

  Sam said, “Do you have a gate address?”

  Siero shook his head. “You’re not setting foot on that planet, lady. It was neutral before the System Lords got the boot, but now it’s been annexed by the Free Jaffa Nation. They’re the ones gathering up the most expensive junk so they can auction it off. Trying to fund their freedom, you know. And you’re not getting in the door unless you have a Jaffa to vouch for you.”

  Daniel looked at Sam. “Oh, I… I think we know someone who would lend a hand.”

  Vala couldn’t help but think how easy it would be if they could just go straight to Teunus and start asking about Kali’s treasure, but without a Jaffa to lead the way she doubted they would get far. She had worked with a few Jaffa in the past and tried to think of any that she could contact to get them in. Inago… no. Definitely not Inago. Better to leave that bridge burnt. But if the Jaffa were hoarding Kali’s treasures in order to raise funds, it stood to reason they were selling things to people who weren’t Jaffa. And where vast amounts of gold finery had to
be moved, there was skimming. Vala had no doubt a good chunk of what she wanted was being moved out the back door under the table on the sly.

  Tanis and Vala brainstormed about the possibilities. Teunus was in a relatively isolated part of space, and there was really only one person who operated in that area: a woman named Baleya. Neither of them had worked with her before, which was as beneficial as it was detrimental. They didn’t have a personal relationship with her, but neither had they double-crossed her or stolen from her.

  They had just left Lucia’s solar system when Tanis picked up another ship on their sensors. “Looks like Siero’s people have already slipped their leash around our necks.”

  Vala said, “Hm. Well, no sense in dragging them all over the galaxy just to prolong the inevitable. If we’re going to send them in circles it would be kind to do it while they’re still close to home.” Earlier they had prepared two of the escape pods to use as a diversion once Siero’s tagalongs made their presence known. She slowed the tel’tak just a bit to close the distance and then ejected the rigged pods on a trajectory that brought them back around to the other ship from behind. The pods could be manually controlled from her heads-up display panel, and she closed one eye to focus on the energy signature of their pursuers.

  “Now,” Tanis said.

  “Not quite yet…”

  Tanis checked her own display. “If you wait too long, it’s going to be useless.”

  “Patience…”

  Each escape pod held half of a malfunctioning generator. When she activated it, an electromagnetic pulse would pass between the two and knock out the electronics of anything in its path. She just had to wait until the pods were perfectly aligned on either side of their tail. She watched the little lights on the screen and, just when she feared they had passed the point of no return, flipped the switch. The blip representing Siero’s men flickered and went out.

  Vala whooped and clapped her hands together. “There we go! It’ll only knock out their systems for a few minutes, so we should be gone by the time they’re back up and running. If you would be so kind as to set the course for Baleya’s planet…”

  “Of course.” She eyed the course and calculated the travel time. “Momma always said to grab all the sleep you can when you can. I’m going to go catch a nap.”

  “Pleasant dreams,” Vala said.

  After Tanis was gone, Vala decided she had the right idea. She leaned back in her seat and placed her boots on the console. Might as well get some shut-eye while they were en route. Tanis had slung up a hammock in the cargo hold, but Vala preferred catching her sleep in the pilot’s chair. If an alarm went off she could be awake and working on a solution within seconds. It also gave her the chance to watch the lights streaking past the ship as she fell asleep. That was one thing about traveling everywhere by Stargate; one never got the opportunity to just sit back and relax in the in-betweens.

  Vala was still surprised by how quickly and easily she and Tanis got along. In the past, anyone Vala teamed up with was just an eventual patsy, a fall-guy she could cut loose to take the blame while she made a hasty getaway. She got the feeling Tanis treated her partners the same way. They met when they were both targeting a collector of rare art. Vala had a buyer and Tanis had the security codes. Rather than compete, they decided to join forces and split the reward. Afterward Vala recalled a few jobs she’d put on the backburner because they required a partner, and she suggested a temporary partnership in order to pull them off. Tanis was amenable, and their crime spree began.

  Vala kept thinking the current job would be their last one together, but something kept bringing them together. They would part ways only to circle back around with a can’t-miss score that required an extra set of hands or some skill the other possessed. As long as their relationship continued to be mutually beneficial, Vala saw no reason to cut Tanis loose.

  Well… that wasn’t exactly true. She didn’t wholly approve of Tanis’ approach to confrontation. Most of her tales about past jobs included off-hand mentions of “the surviving guards” and “while they were still dealing with the victims,” indicating Tanis was a bit more violent than Vala was entirely comfortable with. Still, she was canny and clever, and Vala could rein in some of her bloodlust when they were working together. And just because her first instinct was to kill anyone who saw their faces didn’t mean she was unreasonable. Still, Vala knew there might come a day when Tanis would go too far and she would have to cut ties with her. With any luck, that day would come after she helped Vala secure Kali’s treasure but before they divvied it up.

  At the moment she had a long trip and nothing to do but think. She came up with some of her best scams while en route from one place to another. Currently she had to think of the right approach to a fence neither she nor Tanis had met before. They needed a foolproof plan to gain the woman’s confidence and convince her to hand over some very valuable information to complete strangers. She was confident she would come up with something brilliant.

  She always did, after all.

  Tanis climbed into her hammock, bumped the side of her foot off the hull to start herself swinging, and laced her fingers over her stomach as she settled in. There were pros and cons to working with a partner, and she had a tendency to focus on the cons. Splitting the take was a huge downside and more than enough for her to prefer working alone. But there was a reason she kept saying yes every time Vala showed up with another hair-brained scheme that required a shill or an inside woman. She didn’t trust Vala any more than she trusted the majority of people she encountered but it was easy to tell when betrayal wasn’t in her best interest. She doubted Vala would turn on her while they were in hyperspace en route to a meeting with a contact, so she let down her guard just a touch.

  Trust. It was an odd feeling for Tanis, one she didn’t claim to recognize when it first reared its unwelcome head. At first she thought she simply had a crush on the exciting, exotic pirate. Vala was indeed one of the most creative and successful confidence artists Tanis had ever come across. She respected someone who was good at their jobs. And Vala was beautiful. But after a while she realized it was something else. Tanis wasn’t trying to find an angle… at least not always. She would feign independence and threaten to turn against Vala if the score was big enough, but in the end she knew that their partnership was worth more to her than almost any treasure. Getting on Vala’s bad side would be as idiotic as trying to rob the central law enforcement evidence depository.

  Her life was a string of betrayals, either by her or against her. She was taught by her school that the Serrakin were their saviors in lessons and histories that revealed that Hebridan was enslaved by the Goa’uld before the Serrakin arrived and saved them all. Her family taught her that their salvation came at a cost. The Serrakin needed a place to live, and Hebridan could hardly refuse. Thus begun their endless subjugation and their slow evolution into second-class citizens on their own homeworld. As a little girl Tanis dreamed of flying, of being the pilot of her own ship, seeing the stars. Her parents had gently and sadly told her that she should give up that dream before her heart was broken. Flight schools were very exclusive, and an applicant without Serrakin blood would be refused outright.

  Tanis did change her dreams, but not quite how her parents might have expected. She got her hands on flight manuals by less than legal means and spent time in junkyards learning the controls of salvaged vessels. She used simulators and games to hone her skills at the controls of a variety of ships before she started looking to get hired on the real thing. She couldn’t offer her services to legitimate flight services without evidence of education so she went to the bad part of town and asked if anyone needed a pilot. When she finally strapped in to her first ship to take her first extra-system flight, she ironically knew more than most pedigreed pilots in the air.

  In the end, she managed to get herself to the stars. The route didn’t matter, and she didn’t give a damn that her course had made her a criminal. Criminals had much mor
e fun than anyone who followed the rules. She opened her eyes and looked toward the front of the ship where Vala was keeping them on course toward their promised treasure. Tanis knew she would tease and threaten to turn against her. She would pretend to have designs on making away with the whole thing, but she would never make good on those threats. Throwing away someone as valuable as Vala would be ridiculous.

  Besides, crime was more fun when she had someone to share the spoils with. She smiled and closed her eyes, swinging the hammock again in the hopes of getting some refreshing sleep before they arrived at their destination.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Sam and Daniel left Sina outside of Siero’s pub after she assured them she’d arranged for alternative methods of travel and didn’t need the Stargate. They once again braved the gauntlet of shops to reach the DHD. Daniel hung back to look longingly at the display of books for sale before he followed her up the steps and through the event horizon. Occasionally Sam felt cheated by how quickly transport was between Stargates. They were travelling across galaxies and she didn’t even get to feel the wind in her hair. Three-point-two seconds after leaving Lucia, her boot dropped down on the ramp. Sam took a moment to run a hand through her hair and noticed that Daniel stopped short so that he wouldn’t advance ahead of her. She thought it was a bit odd, but didn’t mention it as she continued forward.

  General O’Neill came into the room and rubbed his hands together. “Tell me you have good news, kids.”

  Sam put Daniel’s odd behavior out of her mind. “Hopeful news may be more accurate, sir. We have a promising lead on where to find Kali’s treasure. We have the address, but we need a Jaffa to help us get through the door.”

  Jack raised an eyebrow and held back his smile. “Got one in mind?”