Raiders of the Seven Systems by ltlj, commentary by teenygozer 5/7
Title: Raiders of the Seven Systems
Author: ltlj
Fandom: SGA
Commentator: teenygozer
Story without DVD commentary: Right here!
Rot7S Commentary Part 4
Sorry these latter chapters are being posted so slowly: I found myself writing fanfic, and since it's been about 13 years since I was last moved to write fanfic, I went with the flow. It's an SGA/Eureka crossover. Hopefully I'll even finish it eventually. On with the commentary!
John POV… John has a plan. He's more dangerous than Col. John "Hannibal" Smith when he has a plan, and he has the team to back it up! The A Team never seemed to actually *kill* anyone; John's A team doesn't have that problem:
The Vengeance of Athos had landed on an uninhabited planet, in a barren desert useful only for its stargate. Outside the bulkheads, the wind whipped dust over the hull, and two figures stood near the DHD, ready to dial the gate. Another dramatic setting, a lonely world drawn beautifully with an economy of words.
John was watching the cockpit on a screen in the aft communications compartment. On the small screen, Ronon was being unwillingly prodded into the pilot's seat. Ronon growled, "Why does it have to be me?" We're in Chuck Jones territory here, for I am put to mind of a huge lion being forced to sit on a teensy bar stool by some little fellow snapping a tiny whip.
John rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure whether the core of Ronon's objection was the appearance of betrayal, or that he thought his acting skills weren't up to it, or both. On the screen, Teyla came into frame, reaching past Ronon to adjust the controls on the console. She said, not patiently, "Because Kolya has seen glimpses of you, but will have no notion of who you are, or how close you are to us. He will only know you are not Athosian."
John clicked on the comm to add, "And because I say so." HA! Soccer-mom!John puts his bratty kid in his place!
Ronon slumped into the chair, and sulked threateningly, which was pretty much the look they were going for. Obviously a method actor.
John and Teyla had debated this, trying to decide between Ronon and Zoe, right up until the last moment. I have to say, what I like about this is that John & Teyla are working together; it's their plan and their execution. We don't really get to see John & Teyla plot together a lot on the show, mostly it's John & Rodney plotting things out. I'd have liked to have seen more canonical John & Teyla plotting. But in the end they had decided that Zoe's cool competence might make Kolya wary, where Ronon would look and sound more like the kind of man Kolya would expect, the kind he could manipulate. The fact that Ronon wasn't manipulable wasn't something Kolya would find out until it was far too late. If the plan worked.
Zoe stepped into the compartment and took the seat next to John, the cracked leather creaking. "Deona's dialing the gate."
"Good." They were going to send the transmission through the wormhole, then lift off before the Genii could dial back. John kept his attention on the screen, where Teyla was setting up the communications console for the transmission. He meant to ask Zoe something else, but what came out was, "Do you ever want to go back to your world?" What Zoe doesn't realize is that he's not so much asking her, it's more like he's in the middle of a conversation with himself and he's looking for fuel for that conversation--because otherwise, he just would not have tasked her with any personal questions at all.
Zoe's brows lifted in surprise, either at the question or at the fact that it was John asking it. He was even more reluctant to ask personal questions than he was to answer them. But after a moment, she said, slowly, "Not the world, so much, as the people. I wonder what they're up to, if they're well. But I left them because I lost someone, and it sent me out of my head, and I'd become more harm than help to them." This beautifully captures the melancholy world of Firefly: that one could show love for one's friends and family best by the act of going away from them. But I note that at no time does she mention the loss of her husband, Wash, specifically -- like John, she doesn't seem to be able to share anything too personal, too raw. She's as damaged as he is, kindred souls. A little ruefully, she admitted, "Didn't intend to come quite so far." She thought about it for a long moment, then shook her head. "I'm not sure if anything would be different, if I went back now." Really, she's found the same sort of family she had in the Firefly 'verse in this AU SGA-verse. She carefully watched them on Sere, and she saw that they were regular folks, that in fact they were pretty much what she was used to, and was able to allow herself to go to them for help.
John could understand that.
Teyla slipped into the compartment, stepping past them to take the other chair. "We are ready."
They watched as Ronon opened the comm channel, and said into the pick-up, "I need to talk to Kolya. I've got information for him."
***
Meanwhile, somewhere in the cosmos, at the card table of doom… Rodney POV!
"I've tried to tell you all," Zelenka said. "Rodney is terrible, evil man." He frowned at his cards. "Pass."
"Will you shut up?" Rodney said in exasperation. They were in the Daedalus' galley playing bridge. Or rather Zelenka, Carter, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c were playing bridge, COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE DRAW OR MANIP THIS FOR ME US? Rodney was pacing and shouting, to the point where the other off-duty crew and scientists had all left the tables in the main compartment and were huddled in the smaller lounge down the corridor. It's only the alpha-dogs of SG-1 who have what it takes to stake their claim on the territory even in the face of non-stop whinging. And Zelenka, who's used to the non-stop whinging. Rodney had noticed he was having this effect a lot lately. He added, pointedly, "As I've told you people before, I was going to explain to him that I only did it because I thought he would be better off with us." Rodney is, of course, in complete denial: not just that what he did made any sense, but that the reason he did it was for John's sake.
Jackson, not looking up from his hand, lifted a skeptical brow. "You were going to explain this while you were standing outside the cell he was locked in?" "HOW ELSE WAS I GOING TO GET HIM TO STOP MOVING AROUND AND TRYING TO KILL ME?"
Rodney gritted his teeth. "It was a misunderstanding."
Carter just said, "Two no trump." Rodney suspected she was no longer speaking to him.
"Misunderstanding. There's a word that covers a multitude of sins." Jackson studied his cards. "Pass."
"Yes," Zelenka seconded, carefully rearranging his hand. "This Sheppard misunderstood the fact that he was expected to submit meekly to Rodney's unprovoked attack."
Jackson eyed him. "You have issues, don't you?"
"I have a subscription," Zelenka admitted.
Still pacing, Rodney rounded on him. "Oh, what's that supposed to mean?"
His eyes on his hand, Teal'c said, calmly, "It means that if you spoke to me the way you speak to him, I would put you through that bulkhead." Eek! I don't think that's quite what it means, but anything you say, Teal'c. Hey, I wonder if some of that anger comes from the fact that Rodney almost got Teal'c killed in this universe, too? He added, "Four no trump." Also, much love for a bridge-playing Teal'c!
Rodney shouted, "This is why I wanted some new people!" You'll just break your new toys the way you did your old ones, Rodney!
Carter rolled her eyes. Jackson propped his chin on his hand, and said, as if honestly curious, "And you thought you'd get them by kidnapping? That seemed rational to you?"
Rodney rubbed his temple. "Look, we're going to get this straightened out, as soon as O'Neill agrees to go to their system." O'Neill had decided to wait ten days before attempting to approach the Athosians' base camp, hoping to give them time to cool down. Rodney had grudgingly agreed that waiting a while was probably a good idea. From personal experience, I can tell you that giving people time to "cool down" is almost never a good idea and usually just makes things worse. Hurts become set in stone; time passing makes it more difficult to undo whatever might have caused the problem in the first place. Choosing to do nothing isn't doing nothing; it's an active choice, and it's almost always a bad one. Though in this particular instance, there do not appear to be any good choices.
Some of the crew thought that they shouldn't try to contact the Athosians at all, that they should wait for the Athosians to contact them. Rodney had been arguing against this and found an unexpected ally in O'Neill. But then O'Neill was the only one who could initialize the higher-level Ancient technology, the only one who could use the weapons chair. It had occurred to Rodney that O'Neill might want a back-up as much as Rodney did. He attributes his own semi-craven desires to O'Neill, and I'm sure Jack wants a back up, but if he wants back up, it's for the added safety of his people, not for his own sake. And really, for Jack, I think it's more that "never leave a man behind" thing than anything else. "Once they see the supplies and resources we can offer them, they'll get over it." It occurs to me that, cut off from Earth as our guys are, the Athosians can offer the Milky Way contingent a good deal in the way of supplies and resources, too. Earlier in the story, we had Zoe restocking the sick bay with Charin's homemade medicines -- I'm sure Doctors Beckett and Keller would be interested in those, for instance, since convenient deliveries of Tylenol, etc., are going to be few and far between.
Jackson looked at Carter. "You think so, Sam?"
"I wish I thought so," she said, glumly, and threw her cards down.
Rodney folded his arms and lifted his chin. "When this works out, you people will owe me an apology." Yeah, he's just floating along on a royal barge on the river called de Nile.
Teal'c lifted a brow, watching Rodney skeptically. "What would you like to wager on that?"
***
But when they came out of hyperdrive in the system where the Athosians had their base camp and sent a transmission asking for a meeting, there was no response. O'Neill ordered the Daedalus into orbit around the planet, and Mitchell did a flyover in an F-302. He found the camp evacuated, so they beamed a team down to investigate.
It was a cool clear day, the sun gleaming off the white stone of the Ancient ruin that surrounded the camp area. Standing in the remains of what had been the thriving little Athosian village, Rodney felt terrible. It was described in such idyllic terms at the beginning of Part 3--a little safe haven of peace; a home, even if only a temporary home.
The place looked like a hurricane had hit it. Most of the tent-huts were gone, but some had been left behind, with a lot of other things. Shoved out of the way or just left where they had fallen were pottery, rugs, painted hangings, carved furniture and toys, even some of the heavy fur bedcovers. Just about everything that had made the place seem homey and comfortable. There's that "loss of home" theme again. He asked, thickly, "There was an attack?" How sad is it that one gets the feeling that Rodney sorta hopes the explanation is that there was an attack, even though he already knows there wasn't one?
Surveying the scene grimly, Teal'c said, "There is no sign of blast impacts, or gunfire. The tracks suggest the inhabitants left both through the stargate and in the ships that lifted off from the platforms of the ruin. They left in haste, taking only the most necessary supplies, because they believed they would come under attack at any moment."
Carter nodded, looking around wearily. "They had their kids here, and the older people. They must not have wanted to take any chances." The fact that they didn't send a small group back for the rest of their stuff once they'd settled elsewhere, that they completely wrote it all off, tells me that they pretty much assumed the people who grabbed John would immediately track them down, and would probably be in control of the campsite by the time anyone went back.
"They thought we were coming after them." Rodney winced. That part was obvious. "Why? Why would they think that?"
Carter sighed. "We lied to them, we set a tracer beacon in their cloak, used the ATA transmitter we gave Sheppard to capture him. Even though we let him go, it must have looked like we were trying to prove that we had complete control over them, that we could do anything we wanted." Hey, at least she's talking to him again.
Teal'c clarified, "By 'we,' she is indicating 'you.'" Carter is just so *nice*--as angry at Rodney as she is, she stilled went with "we" instead of "you." Teal'c's not as nice as her. With his boot, he pushed at a sack that had been dropped on the path. It fell open, showing that it was full of dried fruit. The Athosians had fled so quickly that they hadn't bothered to take all their food supplies. "They know nothing of us," he said. "The only way to prove to them that we are not as the Genii is by our actions, and I do not think we will have that opportunity."
Carter made a helpless gesture, and asked Rodney, "How would you feel if they had done this to us?"
Angry, terrified, Rodney admitted reluctantly. Wow, for perhaps the very first time, Rodney is putting himself into another person's shoes. He had known what he was doing would make Sheppard and the Athosians angry, at least for a while, but he somehow hadn't realized it would also make them afraid. And the haste with which this camp had been evacuated spoke strongly of fear.
He had tried to tell himself that Sheppard's attempt to shoot himself in the head rather than live in what he had thought would be captivity was just PTSD. But the other Athosians had reacted the same way, willing to leave most of their possessions and vital supplies behind, because they thought they were about to be wiped out or taken captive. He said, "This was not what I meant to..." Teal'c's concentrated stare defeated his last attempt to avoid the real issue. Rodney flung his arms in the air. "All right, fine! You're right, it's my fault!" Rodney's had his epiphany, but at this point, nobody gives a damn.
O'Neill walked past, trailed by Mitchell and Jackson. He didn't look angry; anger Rodney could have handled. He just looked tired. And all he said was, "We're leaving." It is the touch of OCD inside me that makes me want Jack to leave a small contingent behind to tidy up the place and store the food and sundries in the tents the Athosians left behind, so that everything will still be usable when the owners come back for them.
But when they beamed back up to the Daedalus, Harriman was on the comm system, saying, "General O'Neill? We're receiving that signal from the Athosian ship. They must be using their cloak again, and it's broadcasting their location."
***
We neatly segue into Jack POV for a bit:
Everybody gathered on the bridge, staring at the screens. As Harriman and Novak explained the readings, Jack's first thought was that it was too good to be true because it is.
Sam apparently agreed. She said, "This doesn't make sense. The Athosians must have found the booby trap signal Rodney installed in the cloak's energy signature."
"It wasn't a booby trap!" McKay insisted.
Ignoring him, Daniel said, "But what if they didn't find it?"
"No, they would have found it." Sam folded her arms, frowning. "They would have known that something gave you their location, and the systems Rodney and I worked on were the first things they would check."
Mitchell shook his head, looking worried. "Or what if they're in trouble, and had to use the cloak, even knowing it was going to tell us where they were."
"Or it is a trap," Teal'c added.
"Maybe." Jack had to admit that all the possibilities were likely, especially the last one.
When he had had a chance to look at the sensor images of the Athosian ship, the Jolly Roger painted on the side had been a pointed reminder of home. And a pointed reminder that there was another Earth-human survivor in Pegasus, someone that Jack hadn't brought here personally. I think Jack's gotta have a lot of respect for John's cockroach-like ability to survive everything the Pegasus galaxy has thrown at him, especially considering he started out with no knowledge whatsoever of stargates and planet-hopping at all.
After Jack had let Sheppard go, Beckett had showed them his medical scans, saying, "The poor lad has an absolutely brilliant expression of the Ancient gene, and it's from a completely different line of descent than you or I or anyone else in our group, General. I've never had any idea this line even existed. This could be the key we've been missing."
"And he was stationed at McMurdo?" That was what Jack couldn't get over. Sheppard had practically been within spitting distance of the Ancient outpost, of the weapons chair. And he had almost managed to bring them Janet Fraiser, though at least now they knew what had happened to her. "How the hell did we miss this guy?"
"However it happened, it's a damn shame," Beckett continued. "The evidence of recent physical trauma, extreme physical trauma..." He winced sympathetically. "He's lucky to be alive." Considering the probable parting gift of an infusion of life and healing that John got from Todd before John put him out of his misery, I'd say Beckett isn't necessarily referring to torture John endured in the hands of the Genii, but is referring to the wounds John incurred between his escape and that previously-mentioned fight where he discovered the Genii attacking the Athosians and was injured defending them. He spent that time looking for fights, throwing himself into the fray against any Genii he could find, possibly even something of an attempt to commit "suicide-by-Genii." The Athosians rescued him from himself.
Now Jack thought about leaving it alone. That would be the easy way out. Except they owed the Athosians for the loss of their camp, and they owed them a working cloak that wasn't booby trapped. That was the deal the Athosians had made with McKay and Carter, and McKay had reneged on his part of it.
And Jack had no intention of leaving Sheppard behind again. SO MUCH LOVE FOR JACK!!! He said, "Whatever, we're going to check it out."
Teal'c gave him that look. "Even if it is a trap?"
Jack gave it right back. "Especially if it's a trap."
Jack's not stupid. He knows it's a trap. But taking outrageous chances is *what he does!* [/Wormhole Extreme]
***
Back to John POV, worrying about the execution of his scathingly brilliant idea:
The Vengeance was drifting in an uninhabited system, cloaked and waiting silently, when a Genii cruiser came out of hyper. It passed through the system, scanning unsuccessfully, then moved off to skulk in the shadow of the outermost planet's moon.
Watching the screens from the cockpit, John identified the ship by its energy signature, and felt a rush of pure homicidal fury. This was one of the top ships of the Genii fleet. He pushed the emotion down, conquered the urge to fire the weapons. John had come to take a ship to replace the trap-riddled Vengeance, not just blow up another Genii cruiser. He said, "They're early. I guess they don't trust Ronon."
Ronon, sitting behind John at the comm suite, just snorted derisively. "They're right about that."
The Genii were coming to the rendezvous point because they thought Ronon was betraying John. Ronon's transmission to Kolya had included the information that the Daedalus was actually a new Athosian ship, and that John was aboard. There had also been a lot of stuff about how Ronon was going to get paid for his betrayal, which Teyla and Zoe had worked out very carefully for verisimilitude's sake, even though none of it really mattered.
From the other chair, Teyla gave John a thoughtful look. "If the Daedalus is allied with the Genii, this may become a trap for us."
"At least then we'll know," John said. But if this worked like it was meant to, the Genii would attack the Daedalus. John intended to let them fight it out and take the survivor.
He didn't care who it was. It's a vicious little plan, beautiful in its simplicity. I like it. I wonder what's going to go wrong? ;)
***
A few days later, they were sitting in the galley, eating fried toba root chips, and John was starting to worry. They had known it would take time for the cloak's signal to reach the Daedalus, but he hadn't thought it would take this long. And they were starting to run short on food. Before coming here to bait the trap, they had been reluctant to hit any of their regular supply ports; McKay and Carter had had too many chances to find out what they were, and John didn't want to walk into another trap. They had resupplied by sending parties through the stargates to some of the big trading markets, but with no cargo to trade, they hadn't been able to afford much. The Genii had to be getting restless, too. If this doesn't work... I've noticed of the three POVs we've been treated to (John, Jack, and Rodney), John's POV is the POViest. We are given glimpses of actual thoughts in his mind, per the italics, which we don't quite get with the others. I hope I caught them all, I had to put in the code for italics myself for each one. He didn't know what they were going to do.
Then the comm system buzzed to life and Deona's voice shouted excitedly. "They are here! Everyone, come quickly!"
John beat Ronon to the cockpit by a length, dropping into the pilot's seat.
Teyla, Ronon, Zoe, Halling, Selana and everybody else who could cram into the cockpit gathered behind him. On the longrange screens he could see that the Daedalus had come out of hyper and was moving further into the system. The Genii ship had already left its concealment and was moving toward it. "Here we go," Zoe murmured. She loves it when a plan comes together.
"This is probably going to take a while," John said, slumping down in the seat and trying to make himself relax. A long nerve-wracking while, since he didn't expect either ship would go down easy. "So--"
Then the Genii ship fired a weapon, a weird energy pulse that the sensors didn't recognize.
John sat bolt upright. "What the hell was that?"
"A new weapon." Halling stepped to the console, looking over Selana's shoulder as she frantically scanned the sensor data. "It has disrupted their drive, their weapons, shields." He looked up, worried. "If they had used it on one of our ships, we would be helpless." Good thing it happened to Jack's ship instead of yours, huh?
Teyla looked out the viewport. "Is the Earth ship helpless?"
Selana gave her a sharp nod. "Yes. The Genii ship is moving in to board them."
Urgently, Teyla turned to John. "We cannot let the Genii have this new weapon! Every ship they encountered would be powerless against them."
Halling nodded sharply. "We must take the Genii ship."
"Right," John said. "We'll let the Genii do the work for us, then we'll take the Daedalus too. Boarding party to the jumper." The essence of good nefarious planning is to have your basic plan laid out, but be flexible enough to make corrections for errors as well as take advantage of unexpected beneficial occurrences that might crop up.
***
The Genii cruiser had had to open its bay doors to extend the umbilical used to board another ship; a design flaw they were going to regret.
The cloaked jumper slid into the open bay, passing through the energy shield that held in the atmosphere. Within moments the jumper had landed in the bay, and they were out and through the hatch into the ship's inner corridor. Taking point, John shot the first three Genii to run at them, then checked the life-signs detector. "Looks like they didn't leave many crew aboard," he told Teyla.
"That was foolish," she said, and pegged the next Genii to come around the corner. Foolish, *and* (more to the point) over-confident. The Genii cannot conceive of losing this sort of fight, they've been Alpha dog in this galaxy for too long.
They went through the corridors straight up to the bridge, meeting little resistance. Ronon and Zoe took out the three Genii on the bridge, then Selana and Itasa ran to man the stations. John sent Zoe and Ronon and their group to secure the rest of the ship. He wanted to make sure that was done before they followed the Genii boarding parties over to the Daedalus. And the more time he gave the Genii over there, the less resistance there would be when the Athosians followed them to take the Earth ship --whoa, bloodthirsty!John… also, kinda greedy. He seems to think he's going to get both ships. Then Selana shouted, "John!"
He turned back to see her hitting the controls urgently, and the screen fizzled into a sensor schematic. Another ship was approaching their position, a Genii ship. That was to be expected, and for a heartbeat he didn't see what the problem was. The Genii newcomer wouldn't know the other Genii ship it was going to assist had been boarded by Athosians until it was too late.
Then John realized he could see something he shouldn't be seeing on these screens: the sensor signature of the Vengeance. Oh hell no, he thought in horror. Not now. John had left his blood for the ATA, and the cloak should have had a good twelve hours without him, but they had never managed to fix that intermittent failure.
Itasa said, "Another Genii ship comes, and the Vengeance has lost its cloak!"
John lunged for the weapons station, hit the control to bring up the firing screen -- and nothing happened. "The controls are locked-- Halling!"
Halling flung himself down, ripping a panel off the console as Selana and Itasa worked frantically over the main controls. They won't be in time, John thought, watching the shapes on the sensor screen. Vengeance was moving, but not fast enough to get out of range before the incoming Genii ship destroyed it. He heard Teyla make a choked noise, but he couldn't look at her. All the platitudes about revenge being a lousy idea should have come to mind, but all he could think was You're an idiot, John.
Then energy bursts struck one of the shapes, but it wasn't the Vengeance under fire, it was the incoming Genii ship. Selana looked up from the console, as Halling pushed to his feet. Incredulous with hope, Teyla said, "Who is firing? The Daedalus?"
Selana nodded anxiously. "Yes, a powerful weapon, not Ancient--"
"The rail gun," John said, just as the Genii ship dissolved into debris. "They must have gotten it working again." Vengeance would be destroyed next, but John was helpless to stop it; even if Halling could unlock this weapons console, they couldn't fire on the Daedalus from this angle.
But as the Vengeance turned to flee out of range, the Daedalus didn't fire on it.
"They could have destroyed it," Teyla said, looking to John. "They must realize by now that we led them into this trap." The first glimmer that they may have been wrong about the crew of the Daedalus.
Yeah, they could have, and they hadn't. John shook his head. He didn't get it.
Teyla was still watching him. "We have our new ship, and the new Genii weapon. And we have our revenge."
So John should leave the Daedalus to its fate, let them have a fighting chance against the Genii boarding parties. I believe the Athosian expression was, "Vengeance with responsibility." She's right. "Get those controls unlocked, and cast off."
"John, we are receiving a transmission." Selana looked up, her face hard with tension. "It is Daedalus, they are trying to contact the Vengeance."
Teyla frowned. "Open the channel."
"This is Daniel Jackson, aboard the Daedalus, to the Athosian ship, please come in!"
Teyla threw a startled look at John, and said, "We are receiving you. What do you have to say to us?"
"You have to help us."
Teyla arched a brow. "I do not have to do anything," she said, pointedly.
"There are hundreds of civilians, scientists, support personnel, their families, children, Jaffa and human, that depend on this ship--"
He's lying. John interrupted, "There's no way you could have gotten that many people through the supergate on one BC303--"
As if knowing his time was limited, Jackson spoke rapidly, "We didn't come through the supergate. We evacuated as many people as we could through the stargate from Earth to the Alpha site. When the Trust followed us, we used the gate on that planet to escape to a stargate in Pegasus, and before you say that's impossible, it is. But the gate we connected to is not an ordinary stargate, it was inside an intact Ancient site and designed to connect across galaxies. The Daedalus-- This ship has an Asgard hyperdrive, it's capable of the trip between galaxies, and followed us here. It's a long story, and I don't have a lot of time here--" The words ended in a burst of static. It's a good thing Daniel learned how to talk fast so that he could get his ideas out before Jack could yell, "DANIEL!" and stop his flow of words. Daniel is one of the few characters who can rival Rodney in WPM.
"He is cut off," Selana said. She turned to face them, bewildered. "John, can it be true?"
Everybody was looking at him. He wanted to say no, he wanted to say it was a lie. But Jackson's story was too complicated to make up in a hurry.
At the Antarctic base John had heard rumors about aliens called Asgard. And Jaffa were the aliens who had rebelled and turned on the Goa'uld; why mention them in a lie? He said, reluctantly, "It could be true."
"Our quarrel is not with children," Itasa said, watching John worriedly.
Selana added, "They are fighting Genii. We do not have to ally with them--" Oddly, Selana seems to be contradicting herself here. I would have thought "We should ally with them (because they are fighting our sworn enemy)" would follow "They are fighting the Genii." I had wondered if this might a bit of a typo.
Teyla and Halling were just staring at him. John thought, Oh, the hell with it. He said, "Fine. Let's go save the damn Daedalus."
The thing is, you just know that John has one of his "I'm a bratty 14-year-old girl" pouts on his face, like he's just been strong-armed into doing someone a grudging favor, or lost a bet and has to wash someone's damned car now. It's the same look he had on his face when tossed into a cell by Larrin in Travelers after his initial escape attempt, which tipped her off that he'd set off a rescue beacon.
***
Is your Roger naturally Jolly, or are you just glad to see John? The craziest and best Jack vs. John conversation ever written, next, so full speed ahead!
Rot7S Commentary Part 6
***
Author: ltlj
Fandom: SGA
Commentator: teenygozer
Story without DVD commentary: Right here!
Rot7S Commentary Part 4
Sorry these latter chapters are being posted so slowly: I found myself writing fanfic, and since it's been about 13 years since I was last moved to write fanfic, I went with the flow. It's an SGA/Eureka crossover. Hopefully I'll even finish it eventually. On with the commentary!
John POV… John has a plan. He's more dangerous than Col. John "Hannibal" Smith when he has a plan, and he has the team to back it up! The A Team never seemed to actually *kill* anyone; John's A team doesn't have that problem:
The Vengeance of Athos had landed on an uninhabited planet, in a barren desert useful only for its stargate. Outside the bulkheads, the wind whipped dust over the hull, and two figures stood near the DHD, ready to dial the gate. Another dramatic setting, a lonely world drawn beautifully with an economy of words.
John was watching the cockpit on a screen in the aft communications compartment. On the small screen, Ronon was being unwillingly prodded into the pilot's seat. Ronon growled, "Why does it have to be me?" We're in Chuck Jones territory here, for I am put to mind of a huge lion being forced to sit on a teensy bar stool by some little fellow snapping a tiny whip.
John rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure whether the core of Ronon's objection was the appearance of betrayal, or that he thought his acting skills weren't up to it, or both. On the screen, Teyla came into frame, reaching past Ronon to adjust the controls on the console. She said, not patiently, "Because Kolya has seen glimpses of you, but will have no notion of who you are, or how close you are to us. He will only know you are not Athosian."
John clicked on the comm to add, "And because I say so." HA! Soccer-mom!John puts his bratty kid in his place!
Ronon slumped into the chair, and sulked threateningly, which was pretty much the look they were going for. Obviously a method actor.
John and Teyla had debated this, trying to decide between Ronon and Zoe, right up until the last moment. I have to say, what I like about this is that John & Teyla are working together; it's their plan and their execution. We don't really get to see John & Teyla plot together a lot on the show, mostly it's John & Rodney plotting things out. I'd have liked to have seen more canonical John & Teyla plotting. But in the end they had decided that Zoe's cool competence might make Kolya wary, where Ronon would look and sound more like the kind of man Kolya would expect, the kind he could manipulate. The fact that Ronon wasn't manipulable wasn't something Kolya would find out until it was far too late. If the plan worked.
Zoe stepped into the compartment and took the seat next to John, the cracked leather creaking. "Deona's dialing the gate."
"Good." They were going to send the transmission through the wormhole, then lift off before the Genii could dial back. John kept his attention on the screen, where Teyla was setting up the communications console for the transmission. He meant to ask Zoe something else, but what came out was, "Do you ever want to go back to your world?" What Zoe doesn't realize is that he's not so much asking her, it's more like he's in the middle of a conversation with himself and he's looking for fuel for that conversation--because otherwise, he just would not have tasked her with any personal questions at all.
Zoe's brows lifted in surprise, either at the question or at the fact that it was John asking it. He was even more reluctant to ask personal questions than he was to answer them. But after a moment, she said, slowly, "Not the world, so much, as the people. I wonder what they're up to, if they're well. But I left them because I lost someone, and it sent me out of my head, and I'd become more harm than help to them." This beautifully captures the melancholy world of Firefly: that one could show love for one's friends and family best by the act of going away from them. But I note that at no time does she mention the loss of her husband, Wash, specifically -- like John, she doesn't seem to be able to share anything too personal, too raw. She's as damaged as he is, kindred souls. A little ruefully, she admitted, "Didn't intend to come quite so far." She thought about it for a long moment, then shook her head. "I'm not sure if anything would be different, if I went back now." Really, she's found the same sort of family she had in the Firefly 'verse in this AU SGA-verse. She carefully watched them on Sere, and she saw that they were regular folks, that in fact they were pretty much what she was used to, and was able to allow herself to go to them for help.
John could understand that.
Teyla slipped into the compartment, stepping past them to take the other chair. "We are ready."
They watched as Ronon opened the comm channel, and said into the pick-up, "I need to talk to Kolya. I've got information for him."
***
Meanwhile, somewhere in the cosmos, at the card table of doom… Rodney POV!
"I've tried to tell you all," Zelenka said. "Rodney is terrible, evil man." He frowned at his cards. "Pass."
"Will you shut up?" Rodney said in exasperation. They were in the Daedalus' galley playing bridge. Or rather Zelenka, Carter, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c were playing bridge, COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE DRAW OR MANIP THIS FOR ME US? Rodney was pacing and shouting, to the point where the other off-duty crew and scientists had all left the tables in the main compartment and were huddled in the smaller lounge down the corridor. It's only the alpha-dogs of SG-1 who have what it takes to stake their claim on the territory even in the face of non-stop whinging. And Zelenka, who's used to the non-stop whinging. Rodney had noticed he was having this effect a lot lately. He added, pointedly, "As I've told you people before, I was going to explain to him that I only did it because I thought he would be better off with us." Rodney is, of course, in complete denial: not just that what he did made any sense, but that the reason he did it was for John's sake.
Jackson, not looking up from his hand, lifted a skeptical brow. "You were going to explain this while you were standing outside the cell he was locked in?" "HOW ELSE WAS I GOING TO GET HIM TO STOP MOVING AROUND AND TRYING TO KILL ME?"
Rodney gritted his teeth. "It was a misunderstanding."
Carter just said, "Two no trump." Rodney suspected she was no longer speaking to him.
"Misunderstanding. There's a word that covers a multitude of sins." Jackson studied his cards. "Pass."
"Yes," Zelenka seconded, carefully rearranging his hand. "This Sheppard misunderstood the fact that he was expected to submit meekly to Rodney's unprovoked attack."
Jackson eyed him. "You have issues, don't you?"
"I have a subscription," Zelenka admitted.
Still pacing, Rodney rounded on him. "Oh, what's that supposed to mean?"
His eyes on his hand, Teal'c said, calmly, "It means that if you spoke to me the way you speak to him, I would put you through that bulkhead." Eek! I don't think that's quite what it means, but anything you say, Teal'c. Hey, I wonder if some of that anger comes from the fact that Rodney almost got Teal'c killed in this universe, too? He added, "Four no trump." Also, much love for a bridge-playing Teal'c!
Rodney shouted, "This is why I wanted some new people!" You'll just break your new toys the way you did your old ones, Rodney!
Carter rolled her eyes. Jackson propped his chin on his hand, and said, as if honestly curious, "And you thought you'd get them by kidnapping? That seemed rational to you?"
Rodney rubbed his temple. "Look, we're going to get this straightened out, as soon as O'Neill agrees to go to their system." O'Neill had decided to wait ten days before attempting to approach the Athosians' base camp, hoping to give them time to cool down. Rodney had grudgingly agreed that waiting a while was probably a good idea. From personal experience, I can tell you that giving people time to "cool down" is almost never a good idea and usually just makes things worse. Hurts become set in stone; time passing makes it more difficult to undo whatever might have caused the problem in the first place. Choosing to do nothing isn't doing nothing; it's an active choice, and it's almost always a bad one. Though in this particular instance, there do not appear to be any good choices.
Some of the crew thought that they shouldn't try to contact the Athosians at all, that they should wait for the Athosians to contact them. Rodney had been arguing against this and found an unexpected ally in O'Neill. But then O'Neill was the only one who could initialize the higher-level Ancient technology, the only one who could use the weapons chair. It had occurred to Rodney that O'Neill might want a back-up as much as Rodney did. He attributes his own semi-craven desires to O'Neill, and I'm sure Jack wants a back up, but if he wants back up, it's for the added safety of his people, not for his own sake. And really, for Jack, I think it's more that "never leave a man behind" thing than anything else. "Once they see the supplies and resources we can offer them, they'll get over it." It occurs to me that, cut off from Earth as our guys are, the Athosians can offer the Milky Way contingent a good deal in the way of supplies and resources, too. Earlier in the story, we had Zoe restocking the sick bay with Charin's homemade medicines -- I'm sure Doctors Beckett and Keller would be interested in those, for instance, since convenient deliveries of Tylenol, etc., are going to be few and far between.
Jackson looked at Carter. "You think so, Sam?"
"I wish I thought so," she said, glumly, and threw her cards down.
Rodney folded his arms and lifted his chin. "When this works out, you people will owe me an apology." Yeah, he's just floating along on a royal barge on the river called de Nile.
Teal'c lifted a brow, watching Rodney skeptically. "What would you like to wager on that?"
***
But when they came out of hyperdrive in the system where the Athosians had their base camp and sent a transmission asking for a meeting, there was no response. O'Neill ordered the Daedalus into orbit around the planet, and Mitchell did a flyover in an F-302. He found the camp evacuated, so they beamed a team down to investigate.
It was a cool clear day, the sun gleaming off the white stone of the Ancient ruin that surrounded the camp area. Standing in the remains of what had been the thriving little Athosian village, Rodney felt terrible. It was described in such idyllic terms at the beginning of Part 3--a little safe haven of peace; a home, even if only a temporary home.
The place looked like a hurricane had hit it. Most of the tent-huts were gone, but some had been left behind, with a lot of other things. Shoved out of the way or just left where they had fallen were pottery, rugs, painted hangings, carved furniture and toys, even some of the heavy fur bedcovers. Just about everything that had made the place seem homey and comfortable. There's that "loss of home" theme again. He asked, thickly, "There was an attack?" How sad is it that one gets the feeling that Rodney sorta hopes the explanation is that there was an attack, even though he already knows there wasn't one?
Surveying the scene grimly, Teal'c said, "There is no sign of blast impacts, or gunfire. The tracks suggest the inhabitants left both through the stargate and in the ships that lifted off from the platforms of the ruin. They left in haste, taking only the most necessary supplies, because they believed they would come under attack at any moment."
Carter nodded, looking around wearily. "They had their kids here, and the older people. They must not have wanted to take any chances." The fact that they didn't send a small group back for the rest of their stuff once they'd settled elsewhere, that they completely wrote it all off, tells me that they pretty much assumed the people who grabbed John would immediately track them down, and would probably be in control of the campsite by the time anyone went back.
"They thought we were coming after them." Rodney winced. That part was obvious. "Why? Why would they think that?"
Carter sighed. "We lied to them, we set a tracer beacon in their cloak, used the ATA transmitter we gave Sheppard to capture him. Even though we let him go, it must have looked like we were trying to prove that we had complete control over them, that we could do anything we wanted." Hey, at least she's talking to him again.
Teal'c clarified, "By 'we,' she is indicating 'you.'" Carter is just so *nice*--as angry at Rodney as she is, she stilled went with "we" instead of "you." Teal'c's not as nice as her. With his boot, he pushed at a sack that had been dropped on the path. It fell open, showing that it was full of dried fruit. The Athosians had fled so quickly that they hadn't bothered to take all their food supplies. "They know nothing of us," he said. "The only way to prove to them that we are not as the Genii is by our actions, and I do not think we will have that opportunity."
Carter made a helpless gesture, and asked Rodney, "How would you feel if they had done this to us?"
Angry, terrified, Rodney admitted reluctantly. Wow, for perhaps the very first time, Rodney is putting himself into another person's shoes. He had known what he was doing would make Sheppard and the Athosians angry, at least for a while, but he somehow hadn't realized it would also make them afraid. And the haste with which this camp had been evacuated spoke strongly of fear.
He had tried to tell himself that Sheppard's attempt to shoot himself in the head rather than live in what he had thought would be captivity was just PTSD. But the other Athosians had reacted the same way, willing to leave most of their possessions and vital supplies behind, because they thought they were about to be wiped out or taken captive. He said, "This was not what I meant to..." Teal'c's concentrated stare defeated his last attempt to avoid the real issue. Rodney flung his arms in the air. "All right, fine! You're right, it's my fault!" Rodney's had his epiphany, but at this point, nobody gives a damn.
O'Neill walked past, trailed by Mitchell and Jackson. He didn't look angry; anger Rodney could have handled. He just looked tired. And all he said was, "We're leaving." It is the touch of OCD inside me that makes me want Jack to leave a small contingent behind to tidy up the place and store the food and sundries in the tents the Athosians left behind, so that everything will still be usable when the owners come back for them.
But when they beamed back up to the Daedalus, Harriman was on the comm system, saying, "General O'Neill? We're receiving that signal from the Athosian ship. They must be using their cloak again, and it's broadcasting their location."
***
We neatly segue into Jack POV for a bit:
Everybody gathered on the bridge, staring at the screens. As Harriman and Novak explained the readings, Jack's first thought was that it was too good to be true because it is.
Sam apparently agreed. She said, "This doesn't make sense. The Athosians must have found the booby trap signal Rodney installed in the cloak's energy signature."
"It wasn't a booby trap!" McKay insisted.
Ignoring him, Daniel said, "But what if they didn't find it?"
"No, they would have found it." Sam folded her arms, frowning. "They would have known that something gave you their location, and the systems Rodney and I worked on were the first things they would check."
Mitchell shook his head, looking worried. "Or what if they're in trouble, and had to use the cloak, even knowing it was going to tell us where they were."
"Or it is a trap," Teal'c added.
"Maybe." Jack had to admit that all the possibilities were likely, especially the last one.
When he had had a chance to look at the sensor images of the Athosian ship, the Jolly Roger painted on the side had been a pointed reminder of home. And a pointed reminder that there was another Earth-human survivor in Pegasus, someone that Jack hadn't brought here personally. I think Jack's gotta have a lot of respect for John's cockroach-like ability to survive everything the Pegasus galaxy has thrown at him, especially considering he started out with no knowledge whatsoever of stargates and planet-hopping at all.
After Jack had let Sheppard go, Beckett had showed them his medical scans, saying, "The poor lad has an absolutely brilliant expression of the Ancient gene, and it's from a completely different line of descent than you or I or anyone else in our group, General. I've never had any idea this line even existed. This could be the key we've been missing."
"And he was stationed at McMurdo?" That was what Jack couldn't get over. Sheppard had practically been within spitting distance of the Ancient outpost, of the weapons chair. And he had almost managed to bring them Janet Fraiser, though at least now they knew what had happened to her. "How the hell did we miss this guy?"
"However it happened, it's a damn shame," Beckett continued. "The evidence of recent physical trauma, extreme physical trauma..." He winced sympathetically. "He's lucky to be alive." Considering the probable parting gift of an infusion of life and healing that John got from Todd before John put him out of his misery, I'd say Beckett isn't necessarily referring to torture John endured in the hands of the Genii, but is referring to the wounds John incurred between his escape and that previously-mentioned fight where he discovered the Genii attacking the Athosians and was injured defending them. He spent that time looking for fights, throwing himself into the fray against any Genii he could find, possibly even something of an attempt to commit "suicide-by-Genii." The Athosians rescued him from himself.
Now Jack thought about leaving it alone. That would be the easy way out. Except they owed the Athosians for the loss of their camp, and they owed them a working cloak that wasn't booby trapped. That was the deal the Athosians had made with McKay and Carter, and McKay had reneged on his part of it.
And Jack had no intention of leaving Sheppard behind again. SO MUCH LOVE FOR JACK!!! He said, "Whatever, we're going to check it out."
Teal'c gave him that look. "Even if it is a trap?"
Jack gave it right back. "Especially if it's a trap."
Jack's not stupid. He knows it's a trap. But taking outrageous chances is *what he does!* [/Wormhole Extreme]
***
Back to John POV, worrying about the execution of his scathingly brilliant idea:
The Vengeance was drifting in an uninhabited system, cloaked and waiting silently, when a Genii cruiser came out of hyper. It passed through the system, scanning unsuccessfully, then moved off to skulk in the shadow of the outermost planet's moon.
Watching the screens from the cockpit, John identified the ship by its energy signature, and felt a rush of pure homicidal fury. This was one of the top ships of the Genii fleet. He pushed the emotion down, conquered the urge to fire the weapons. John had come to take a ship to replace the trap-riddled Vengeance, not just blow up another Genii cruiser. He said, "They're early. I guess they don't trust Ronon."
Ronon, sitting behind John at the comm suite, just snorted derisively. "They're right about that."
The Genii were coming to the rendezvous point because they thought Ronon was betraying John. Ronon's transmission to Kolya had included the information that the Daedalus was actually a new Athosian ship, and that John was aboard. There had also been a lot of stuff about how Ronon was going to get paid for his betrayal, which Teyla and Zoe had worked out very carefully for verisimilitude's sake, even though none of it really mattered.
From the other chair, Teyla gave John a thoughtful look. "If the Daedalus is allied with the Genii, this may become a trap for us."
"At least then we'll know," John said. But if this worked like it was meant to, the Genii would attack the Daedalus. John intended to let them fight it out and take the survivor.
He didn't care who it was. It's a vicious little plan, beautiful in its simplicity. I like it. I wonder what's going to go wrong? ;)
***
A few days later, they were sitting in the galley, eating fried toba root chips, and John was starting to worry. They had known it would take time for the cloak's signal to reach the Daedalus, but he hadn't thought it would take this long. And they were starting to run short on food. Before coming here to bait the trap, they had been reluctant to hit any of their regular supply ports; McKay and Carter had had too many chances to find out what they were, and John didn't want to walk into another trap. They had resupplied by sending parties through the stargates to some of the big trading markets, but with no cargo to trade, they hadn't been able to afford much. The Genii had to be getting restless, too. If this doesn't work... I've noticed of the three POVs we've been treated to (John, Jack, and Rodney), John's POV is the POViest. We are given glimpses of actual thoughts in his mind, per the italics, which we don't quite get with the others. I hope I caught them all, I had to put in the code for italics myself for each one. He didn't know what they were going to do.
Then the comm system buzzed to life and Deona's voice shouted excitedly. "They are here! Everyone, come quickly!"
John beat Ronon to the cockpit by a length, dropping into the pilot's seat.
Teyla, Ronon, Zoe, Halling, Selana and everybody else who could cram into the cockpit gathered behind him. On the longrange screens he could see that the Daedalus had come out of hyper and was moving further into the system. The Genii ship had already left its concealment and was moving toward it. "Here we go," Zoe murmured. She loves it when a plan comes together.
"This is probably going to take a while," John said, slumping down in the seat and trying to make himself relax. A long nerve-wracking while, since he didn't expect either ship would go down easy. "So--"
Then the Genii ship fired a weapon, a weird energy pulse that the sensors didn't recognize.
John sat bolt upright. "What the hell was that?"
"A new weapon." Halling stepped to the console, looking over Selana's shoulder as she frantically scanned the sensor data. "It has disrupted their drive, their weapons, shields." He looked up, worried. "If they had used it on one of our ships, we would be helpless." Good thing it happened to Jack's ship instead of yours, huh?
Teyla looked out the viewport. "Is the Earth ship helpless?"
Selana gave her a sharp nod. "Yes. The Genii ship is moving in to board them."
Urgently, Teyla turned to John. "We cannot let the Genii have this new weapon! Every ship they encountered would be powerless against them."
Halling nodded sharply. "We must take the Genii ship."
"Right," John said. "We'll let the Genii do the work for us, then we'll take the Daedalus too. Boarding party to the jumper." The essence of good nefarious planning is to have your basic plan laid out, but be flexible enough to make corrections for errors as well as take advantage of unexpected beneficial occurrences that might crop up.
***
The Genii cruiser had had to open its bay doors to extend the umbilical used to board another ship; a design flaw they were going to regret.
The cloaked jumper slid into the open bay, passing through the energy shield that held in the atmosphere. Within moments the jumper had landed in the bay, and they were out and through the hatch into the ship's inner corridor. Taking point, John shot the first three Genii to run at them, then checked the life-signs detector. "Looks like they didn't leave many crew aboard," he told Teyla.
"That was foolish," she said, and pegged the next Genii to come around the corner. Foolish, *and* (more to the point) over-confident. The Genii cannot conceive of losing this sort of fight, they've been Alpha dog in this galaxy for too long.
They went through the corridors straight up to the bridge, meeting little resistance. Ronon and Zoe took out the three Genii on the bridge, then Selana and Itasa ran to man the stations. John sent Zoe and Ronon and their group to secure the rest of the ship. He wanted to make sure that was done before they followed the Genii boarding parties over to the Daedalus. And the more time he gave the Genii over there, the less resistance there would be when the Athosians followed them to take the Earth ship --whoa, bloodthirsty!John… also, kinda greedy. He seems to think he's going to get both ships. Then Selana shouted, "John!"
He turned back to see her hitting the controls urgently, and the screen fizzled into a sensor schematic. Another ship was approaching their position, a Genii ship. That was to be expected, and for a heartbeat he didn't see what the problem was. The Genii newcomer wouldn't know the other Genii ship it was going to assist had been boarded by Athosians until it was too late.
Then John realized he could see something he shouldn't be seeing on these screens: the sensor signature of the Vengeance. Oh hell no, he thought in horror. Not now. John had left his blood for the ATA, and the cloak should have had a good twelve hours without him, but they had never managed to fix that intermittent failure.
Itasa said, "Another Genii ship comes, and the Vengeance has lost its cloak!"
John lunged for the weapons station, hit the control to bring up the firing screen -- and nothing happened. "The controls are locked-- Halling!"
Halling flung himself down, ripping a panel off the console as Selana and Itasa worked frantically over the main controls. They won't be in time, John thought, watching the shapes on the sensor screen. Vengeance was moving, but not fast enough to get out of range before the incoming Genii ship destroyed it. He heard Teyla make a choked noise, but he couldn't look at her. All the platitudes about revenge being a lousy idea should have come to mind, but all he could think was You're an idiot, John.
Then energy bursts struck one of the shapes, but it wasn't the Vengeance under fire, it was the incoming Genii ship. Selana looked up from the console, as Halling pushed to his feet. Incredulous with hope, Teyla said, "Who is firing? The Daedalus?"
Selana nodded anxiously. "Yes, a powerful weapon, not Ancient--"
"The rail gun," John said, just as the Genii ship dissolved into debris. "They must have gotten it working again." Vengeance would be destroyed next, but John was helpless to stop it; even if Halling could unlock this weapons console, they couldn't fire on the Daedalus from this angle.
But as the Vengeance turned to flee out of range, the Daedalus didn't fire on it.
"They could have destroyed it," Teyla said, looking to John. "They must realize by now that we led them into this trap." The first glimmer that they may have been wrong about the crew of the Daedalus.
Yeah, they could have, and they hadn't. John shook his head. He didn't get it.
Teyla was still watching him. "We have our new ship, and the new Genii weapon. And we have our revenge."
So John should leave the Daedalus to its fate, let them have a fighting chance against the Genii boarding parties. I believe the Athosian expression was, "Vengeance with responsibility." She's right. "Get those controls unlocked, and cast off."
"John, we are receiving a transmission." Selana looked up, her face hard with tension. "It is Daedalus, they are trying to contact the Vengeance."
Teyla frowned. "Open the channel."
"This is Daniel Jackson, aboard the Daedalus, to the Athosian ship, please come in!"
Teyla threw a startled look at John, and said, "We are receiving you. What do you have to say to us?"
"You have to help us."
Teyla arched a brow. "I do not have to do anything," she said, pointedly.
"There are hundreds of civilians, scientists, support personnel, their families, children, Jaffa and human, that depend on this ship--"
He's lying. John interrupted, "There's no way you could have gotten that many people through the supergate on one BC303--"
As if knowing his time was limited, Jackson spoke rapidly, "We didn't come through the supergate. We evacuated as many people as we could through the stargate from Earth to the Alpha site. When the Trust followed us, we used the gate on that planet to escape to a stargate in Pegasus, and before you say that's impossible, it is. But the gate we connected to is not an ordinary stargate, it was inside an intact Ancient site and designed to connect across galaxies. The Daedalus-- This ship has an Asgard hyperdrive, it's capable of the trip between galaxies, and followed us here. It's a long story, and I don't have a lot of time here--" The words ended in a burst of static. It's a good thing Daniel learned how to talk fast so that he could get his ideas out before Jack could yell, "DANIEL!" and stop his flow of words. Daniel is one of the few characters who can rival Rodney in WPM.
"He is cut off," Selana said. She turned to face them, bewildered. "John, can it be true?"
Everybody was looking at him. He wanted to say no, he wanted to say it was a lie. But Jackson's story was too complicated to make up in a hurry.
At the Antarctic base John had heard rumors about aliens called Asgard. And Jaffa were the aliens who had rebelled and turned on the Goa'uld; why mention them in a lie? He said, reluctantly, "It could be true."
"Our quarrel is not with children," Itasa said, watching John worriedly.
Selana added, "They are fighting Genii. We do not have to ally with them--" Oddly, Selana seems to be contradicting herself here. I would have thought "We should ally with them (because they are fighting our sworn enemy)" would follow "They are fighting the Genii." I had wondered if this might a bit of a typo.
Teyla and Halling were just staring at him. John thought, Oh, the hell with it. He said, "Fine. Let's go save the damn Daedalus."
The thing is, you just know that John has one of his "I'm a bratty 14-year-old girl" pouts on his face, like he's just been strong-armed into doing someone a grudging favor, or lost a bet and has to wash someone's damned car now. It's the same look he had on his face when tossed into a cell by Larrin in Travelers after his initial escape attempt, which tipped her off that he'd set off a rescue beacon.
***
Is your Roger naturally Jolly, or are you just glad to see John? The craziest and best Jack vs. John conversation ever written, next, so full speed ahead!
Rot7S Commentary Part 6
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