FIC: FCGen: Balance of Power, Chs 14, 15, PG. SG-1
Title: Balance Of Power Chapters 14 and 15
Author: Alex
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Genre: FCGen
Characters: Jonathan O’Neill
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and do not profit from their use.
Warnings: None
Spoilers: For the series.
Beta: Larian Elensar, Larry
Author Note: This is my second scifibigbang story and it is again in the Stargate world.
Summary: Jack’s clone grows up and comes to Cheyenne Mountain. There’s something strange going on out there; someone is blowing up planets!
Chapter Fourteen
- Langara
“The only things missing are the blueprints from the mines. Whoever took them either wants the naquadah or wants to make us think he does,” Jonas said to Carter and Mitchell, who’d come back down to the planet to investigate. Teal’c, Jonathan and Vala were examining the council chambers for any clues.
“I’m very sorry about the guard,” Mitchell said. “The thief had to have come in something cloaked for none of our sensors or yours to see him.”
“Col. Mitchell is right,” Carter added. “We are doing a poor job of protecting your planet and catching the culprits.”
“I think they have planned it this way. Their goal is terror,” Jonas said.
“They’re doing a good job of it too,” Mitchell said.
There were no clues, nothing to be done. The clothes left on the dead guard were not of any particular make. They were from a planet that made clothing and sold it on many planets throughout the galaxy so that was no help.
He left nothing else behind. Nothing. They couldn’t even find where he’d put his ship. They couldn’t be one hundred percent sure that he’d not used the Stargate. They’d have to check to see where it had dialed last but that would take some time. Time they felt they didn’t have.
Mitchell was so frustrated that he wanted to hit something. Only their enemy was like a ghost. He seemed to disappear into thin air. He knew that eventually the person behind this would show himself. It was too personal for him to remain in the shadows forever. But how much havoc was he going to wreak first?
*
- P3X-403
The Unas came for Jackson. They told Col. Edwards in their odd halting words that they wanted to talk to Daniel. Edwards sent for him immediately. After Daniel met with them for several hours, they finally returned to their home ground.
“What did they want?” Edwards had been curious when they asked for Jackson and the seriousness with which both the Unas and Jackson spoke told him that it was not good news.
“They say there was a human here. They did not see him but they smelled him. They say he left into the sky.”
“Our heat sensors picked up an extra person yesterday. We couldn’t find him though. Then there was nothing. We decided that it was some sort of malfunction,” Col. Edwards told Daniel.
“The Unas say there was someone here. We need to find out if he took anything. We just got a report from Langara that they had visitor who killed a Langaran guard and stole the blueprints and plans for their mines,” Daniel told him.
“Damn! I’ll get my men on it. I don’t see how someone could get away.”
“Maybe he had a cloaked ship?”
“Then how did the Unas know he flew away?”
“They said they heard it. They do have quite sensitive hearing.”
“I can’t argue with you. Everything you ever said about them was true and if they say we had company, then I’m sure we did. I need to make a report to General Landry too.”
*
- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado
Landry got their reports and so did General O’Neill. Landry read over them and then called O’Neill.
“Sir, I think we are dealing with someone we’ve dealt with before. This is all too personal to be some stranger.”
“And who do you think it is?” Jack didn’t let on that he had the same thoughts.
“A Goa’uld. It has Goa’uld written all over it.”
“But as far as we know, all the system lords are gone.”
“It’s hard to kill the bastards, Jack.”
“That it is. Thanks for the call. You have SG-1 and SG-18 poke around some and see if they come up with anything. Maybe Vala can rattle some Lucian Alliance cages too. She does know some unsavory people.”
“I’ll see what they can find out.”
*
- On board the Daedalus
“General Landry wants what?” Vala asked Mitchell. “He wants me to contact the Lucian Alliance? Is he crazy? They’ll kill me for sure and they’d do worse to you if they get their hands on you.”
“We’ll have to capture one of them, I suppose,” Mitchell answered her though his thoughts on the matter were pretty much the same as hers. They would kill him first and ask questions later. Of that much he was sure.
“Well, I do know some people we can contact,” Vala said.
“But will they shoot us first too?”
She grinned. “Could be. You never can tell. Maybe we need something to trade.”
“Like what?”
“A ship?”
“I don’t think anyone is going to give us a ship to trade.”
“What about the Al’Kesh that Muscles has?”
“That might work,” Mitchell agreed. “And you can ask him for it.”
“I can do that.” Vala actually feared very little except being alone. She had no problem asking Teal’c for the Al’Kesh. He contacted Bra’tac and it was agreed that they loan it to Mitchell. The three of them gated to Chulak and began the one day journey to a planet that Vala felt was their best chance of finding some leftover Lucian Alliance members.
Carter, McKay and Jonathan stayed on the Daedalus.
*
- The Smugglers’ planet
Cam and Vala were no longer dressed as soldiers but as a couple of smugglers. Cam was in black leather and armed to the teeth with a mix of weapons from several different worlds. Vala was dressed in a tight black leather outfit not unlike the one she first showed up at Stargate Command in. She certainly looked the part of Mitchell’s woman right down to the way she pressed herself against him suggestively every chance she got. Cam was fairly sure that she didn’t need to be quite so authentic, not that he minded.
Teal’c stayed aboard the ship. He was too well known everywhere to expect to slip in unnoticed.
The man behind the bar looked them over. “What can I do for you?”
Cam ordered them two drinks. He sat at the bar and sipped his while Vala tossed hers back in one swallow and slammed it onto the bar.
“Another!”
The bartender obliged her and she disposed of that one too. Cam was about to say something to her when a man walked into to the door and spoke.
“Vala Mal Doran! As I live and breathe. Hasn’t anyone killed your lying ass yet?”
Vala turned without even flinching and smiled.
“Boern Jax! You dog! What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been looking for you for a long time. I was about to give up.”
Vala looked at Cam, grinned and leaped at Boern Jax with an ear piercing yell. Soon, everyone in the bar had joined in the fun. Cam grabbed her from the grasp of a scrawny blond man and dragged her out the door.
“What the hell was that?” He asked when they’d gotten a safe distance from the bar.
“I … I think I was married to him once.”
~~~
Chapter Fifteen
- The Smugglers’ planet
Vala and Mitchell were still hiding in an alley outside the bar when another man came down the alley. Vala peeped out from behind a wood box then turned to Cam.
“Crap! I know him too. I stole a ship from him once.”
Mitchell rolled his eyes. “Is there anyone on this planet who doesn’t want to kill you?”
“Well, there is Garen Toker.”
“Toker?”
“I, uh, was only engaged to him. He still liked me when we parted.”
“Would this Toker be of any help to us?”
“Maybe.”
The man had finally reached them but he was so lost in thought that he walked on by without even seeing Vala. They thought they were safe until he stopped dead still in the middle of the street.
“That scent! I know that perfume! Vala Mal Doran! Where are you? I know you’re here.”
Cam motioned for her to go and she stumbled out from behind the crate. “Hullo, Demetrius. How are you?”
“How do you think I am? You left me and took everything I had.”
Being Vala, she couldn’t help but say, “You didn’t have much, Dem. I did you a favor.”
“I don’t quite see it that way.”
He was a big man, rough and hard edged, and he towered over Vala as he moved closer to her. He appeared to be reaching for a weapon. Cameron popped up from behind the crate with his weapon drawn.
“I’d take it easy there, Demetrius.”
“Who are you?”
“Named Cameron. Jason Cameron. I’m Vala’s husband.”
Demetrius began to laugh, almost uncontrollably. “You poor fool! You’d be better off to turn that gun on yourself than to save her. Believe me. I was her husband once too.”
“That’s not your concern. Me and Vala, we do all right.” He pulled her close to him and kissed her cheek. “Don’t we, hon?”
“Uh, yeah, we do at that, Lambikins.” She pushed her backside hard against him.
“We could use some help. Vala is looking to hook us up with some old business associates. Maybe you can help us.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“I won’t shoot you where you stand for threatening my wife.” Cam looked dead serious as he spoke. Even Vala was a bit impressed with him.
“That isn’t quite what I had in mind.” He made a grab for Vala and ended up on the ground with a foot on his chest, a gun aimed at him and the knife Vala had relieved him of touching his throat.
“What did you have in mind, Demetrius? Shooting Jason and beating me up like you did in the old days?” She stood up and kicked him.
“Now you know I didn’t hurt you.”
Cam put his weight into his foot. “A real man don’t have to beat his woman.” There was real anger in his voice now.
“Where might we find Garen Toker? We would like to do some business with him,” Vala asked her former mate.
“Toker? Are you crazy? He’s mixed up with the Lucians and they’ve gone crazy since Netan was ousted as leader.”
“Crazy?” Cam asked.
‘They’re more terrorists than thieves these days.”
“Who is their leader?” Vala asked.
“That’s just the thing. No one knows. Whoever he is, he’s ruthless and greedy.”
“We’d still want to meet with Toker.”
“Ask Ed in the bar,” he finally said.
“You mean old drunk Ed?” Vala remembered the old man who was always in the same seat every time she’d ever been there.
“Yep, ask him. He ain’t near as old or as drunk as he seems.”
“If we let you go, can you behave and be quiet?”
“If you cut me in on your deal.” The big man’s eyes shone with greed.
“I could just cut you,” Vala purred as she moved the knife up to his throat again.
“All right! All right! He lives with MaryAna Poole when he’s home. She lives out past the old mine.”
“I know where MaryAna lives. I followed you out there enough times,” Vala told him.
“Can I go now?”
“I don’t think so,” Cam answered. “I think you’re going with us, help us find Toker.”
Soon the three of them were walking down a small dirt road in the moonlight. Vala walked beside Demetrius while Cam kept his gun trained on the man’s back. The house was an old rundown shack, more or less, but most houses on this planet were like that. It had once been a prosperous agricultural planet but as the land had been overused and became poor, it became a haven for people with nowhere else to go and it still was.
Vala knocked on the door. A once pretty blond woman came to the door. “Whatd’ya want? Vala!? Is that you? And Demetrius? Who else is that?”
“My husband, Jason Cameron,” Vala answered her. “Is Garen here? I need to talk to him.”
“Naw. He ain’t been home in several days. Went off with that damned Falker again. Something about the Lucian Alliance. If they make so damned much money, why don’t he bring me none?”
“Did he say when he’d be back?” Cameron asked her.
“Never does. I just expect him when I see him.”
There was little to do but thank her and head back to town.
“What are we gonna do with him?” Vala asked Cameron, meaning Demetrius.
“I guess he’s our guest for the night. We need to find a room though.”
“There’s a boarding house in town. Not fancy but they do have beds and the owner makes breakfast every day,” Vala said. “That place still around, Dem?”
“Yep, old Etta is still renting out her rooms and making gravy and biscuits every mornin’.”
The three of them got a room, one with two beds. Vala slept with Cam, who kept one eye open all night. He wasn’t sure which one he trusted less, Vala or her former husband. Morning brought breakfast, which reminded Cam of his Grandma’s cooking. He told Etta so too and made a lifelong friend of the tiny old woman. She even gave him a hug.
Just as they were leaving Etta’s, Demetrius poked Vala. “There! There he is. Garen Toker!”
~~~
Author: Alex
Fandom: Stargate SG-1
Genre: FCGen
Characters: Jonathan O’Neill
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and do not profit from their use.
Warnings: None
Spoilers: For the series.
Beta: Larian Elensar, Larry
Author Note: This is my second scifibigbang story and it is again in the Stargate world.
Summary: Jack’s clone grows up and comes to Cheyenne Mountain. There’s something strange going on out there; someone is blowing up planets!
Chapter Fourteen
- Langara
“The only things missing are the blueprints from the mines. Whoever took them either wants the naquadah or wants to make us think he does,” Jonas said to Carter and Mitchell, who’d come back down to the planet to investigate. Teal’c, Jonathan and Vala were examining the council chambers for any clues.
“I’m very sorry about the guard,” Mitchell said. “The thief had to have come in something cloaked for none of our sensors or yours to see him.”
“Col. Mitchell is right,” Carter added. “We are doing a poor job of protecting your planet and catching the culprits.”
“I think they have planned it this way. Their goal is terror,” Jonas said.
“They’re doing a good job of it too,” Mitchell said.
There were no clues, nothing to be done. The clothes left on the dead guard were not of any particular make. They were from a planet that made clothing and sold it on many planets throughout the galaxy so that was no help.
He left nothing else behind. Nothing. They couldn’t even find where he’d put his ship. They couldn’t be one hundred percent sure that he’d not used the Stargate. They’d have to check to see where it had dialed last but that would take some time. Time they felt they didn’t have.
Mitchell was so frustrated that he wanted to hit something. Only their enemy was like a ghost. He seemed to disappear into thin air. He knew that eventually the person behind this would show himself. It was too personal for him to remain in the shadows forever. But how much havoc was he going to wreak first?
*
- P3X-403
The Unas came for Jackson. They told Col. Edwards in their odd halting words that they wanted to talk to Daniel. Edwards sent for him immediately. After Daniel met with them for several hours, they finally returned to their home ground.
“What did they want?” Edwards had been curious when they asked for Jackson and the seriousness with which both the Unas and Jackson spoke told him that it was not good news.
“They say there was a human here. They did not see him but they smelled him. They say he left into the sky.”
“Our heat sensors picked up an extra person yesterday. We couldn’t find him though. Then there was nothing. We decided that it was some sort of malfunction,” Col. Edwards told Daniel.
“The Unas say there was someone here. We need to find out if he took anything. We just got a report from Langara that they had visitor who killed a Langaran guard and stole the blueprints and plans for their mines,” Daniel told him.
“Damn! I’ll get my men on it. I don’t see how someone could get away.”
“Maybe he had a cloaked ship?”
“Then how did the Unas know he flew away?”
“They said they heard it. They do have quite sensitive hearing.”
“I can’t argue with you. Everything you ever said about them was true and if they say we had company, then I’m sure we did. I need to make a report to General Landry too.”
*
- Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado
Landry got their reports and so did General O’Neill. Landry read over them and then called O’Neill.
“Sir, I think we are dealing with someone we’ve dealt with before. This is all too personal to be some stranger.”
“And who do you think it is?” Jack didn’t let on that he had the same thoughts.
“A Goa’uld. It has Goa’uld written all over it.”
“But as far as we know, all the system lords are gone.”
“It’s hard to kill the bastards, Jack.”
“That it is. Thanks for the call. You have SG-1 and SG-18 poke around some and see if they come up with anything. Maybe Vala can rattle some Lucian Alliance cages too. She does know some unsavory people.”
“I’ll see what they can find out.”
*
- On board the Daedalus
“General Landry wants what?” Vala asked Mitchell. “He wants me to contact the Lucian Alliance? Is he crazy? They’ll kill me for sure and they’d do worse to you if they get their hands on you.”
“We’ll have to capture one of them, I suppose,” Mitchell answered her though his thoughts on the matter were pretty much the same as hers. They would kill him first and ask questions later. Of that much he was sure.
“Well, I do know some people we can contact,” Vala said.
“But will they shoot us first too?”
She grinned. “Could be. You never can tell. Maybe we need something to trade.”
“Like what?”
“A ship?”
“I don’t think anyone is going to give us a ship to trade.”
“What about the Al’Kesh that Muscles has?”
“That might work,” Mitchell agreed. “And you can ask him for it.”
“I can do that.” Vala actually feared very little except being alone. She had no problem asking Teal’c for the Al’Kesh. He contacted Bra’tac and it was agreed that they loan it to Mitchell. The three of them gated to Chulak and began the one day journey to a planet that Vala felt was their best chance of finding some leftover Lucian Alliance members.
Carter, McKay and Jonathan stayed on the Daedalus.
*
- The Smugglers’ planet
Cam and Vala were no longer dressed as soldiers but as a couple of smugglers. Cam was in black leather and armed to the teeth with a mix of weapons from several different worlds. Vala was dressed in a tight black leather outfit not unlike the one she first showed up at Stargate Command in. She certainly looked the part of Mitchell’s woman right down to the way she pressed herself against him suggestively every chance she got. Cam was fairly sure that she didn’t need to be quite so authentic, not that he minded.
Teal’c stayed aboard the ship. He was too well known everywhere to expect to slip in unnoticed.
The man behind the bar looked them over. “What can I do for you?”
Cam ordered them two drinks. He sat at the bar and sipped his while Vala tossed hers back in one swallow and slammed it onto the bar.
“Another!”
The bartender obliged her and she disposed of that one too. Cam was about to say something to her when a man walked into to the door and spoke.
“Vala Mal Doran! As I live and breathe. Hasn’t anyone killed your lying ass yet?”
Vala turned without even flinching and smiled.
“Boern Jax! You dog! What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been looking for you for a long time. I was about to give up.”
Vala looked at Cam, grinned and leaped at Boern Jax with an ear piercing yell. Soon, everyone in the bar had joined in the fun. Cam grabbed her from the grasp of a scrawny blond man and dragged her out the door.
“What the hell was that?” He asked when they’d gotten a safe distance from the bar.
“I … I think I was married to him once.”
~~~
Chapter Fifteen
- The Smugglers’ planet
Vala and Mitchell were still hiding in an alley outside the bar when another man came down the alley. Vala peeped out from behind a wood box then turned to Cam.
“Crap! I know him too. I stole a ship from him once.”
Mitchell rolled his eyes. “Is there anyone on this planet who doesn’t want to kill you?”
“Well, there is Garen Toker.”
“Toker?”
“I, uh, was only engaged to him. He still liked me when we parted.”
“Would this Toker be of any help to us?”
“Maybe.”
The man had finally reached them but he was so lost in thought that he walked on by without even seeing Vala. They thought they were safe until he stopped dead still in the middle of the street.
“That scent! I know that perfume! Vala Mal Doran! Where are you? I know you’re here.”
Cam motioned for her to go and she stumbled out from behind the crate. “Hullo, Demetrius. How are you?”
“How do you think I am? You left me and took everything I had.”
Being Vala, she couldn’t help but say, “You didn’t have much, Dem. I did you a favor.”
“I don’t quite see it that way.”
He was a big man, rough and hard edged, and he towered over Vala as he moved closer to her. He appeared to be reaching for a weapon. Cameron popped up from behind the crate with his weapon drawn.
“I’d take it easy there, Demetrius.”
“Who are you?”
“Named Cameron. Jason Cameron. I’m Vala’s husband.”
Demetrius began to laugh, almost uncontrollably. “You poor fool! You’d be better off to turn that gun on yourself than to save her. Believe me. I was her husband once too.”
“That’s not your concern. Me and Vala, we do all right.” He pulled her close to him and kissed her cheek. “Don’t we, hon?”
“Uh, yeah, we do at that, Lambikins.” She pushed her backside hard against him.
“We could use some help. Vala is looking to hook us up with some old business associates. Maybe you can help us.”
“What’s in it for me?”
“I won’t shoot you where you stand for threatening my wife.” Cam looked dead serious as he spoke. Even Vala was a bit impressed with him.
“That isn’t quite what I had in mind.” He made a grab for Vala and ended up on the ground with a foot on his chest, a gun aimed at him and the knife Vala had relieved him of touching his throat.
“What did you have in mind, Demetrius? Shooting Jason and beating me up like you did in the old days?” She stood up and kicked him.
“Now you know I didn’t hurt you.”
Cam put his weight into his foot. “A real man don’t have to beat his woman.” There was real anger in his voice now.
“Where might we find Garen Toker? We would like to do some business with him,” Vala asked her former mate.
“Toker? Are you crazy? He’s mixed up with the Lucians and they’ve gone crazy since Netan was ousted as leader.”
“Crazy?” Cam asked.
‘They’re more terrorists than thieves these days.”
“Who is their leader?” Vala asked.
“That’s just the thing. No one knows. Whoever he is, he’s ruthless and greedy.”
“We’d still want to meet with Toker.”
“Ask Ed in the bar,” he finally said.
“You mean old drunk Ed?” Vala remembered the old man who was always in the same seat every time she’d ever been there.
“Yep, ask him. He ain’t near as old or as drunk as he seems.”
“If we let you go, can you behave and be quiet?”
“If you cut me in on your deal.” The big man’s eyes shone with greed.
“I could just cut you,” Vala purred as she moved the knife up to his throat again.
“All right! All right! He lives with MaryAna Poole when he’s home. She lives out past the old mine.”
“I know where MaryAna lives. I followed you out there enough times,” Vala told him.
“Can I go now?”
“I don’t think so,” Cam answered. “I think you’re going with us, help us find Toker.”
Soon the three of them were walking down a small dirt road in the moonlight. Vala walked beside Demetrius while Cam kept his gun trained on the man’s back. The house was an old rundown shack, more or less, but most houses on this planet were like that. It had once been a prosperous agricultural planet but as the land had been overused and became poor, it became a haven for people with nowhere else to go and it still was.
Vala knocked on the door. A once pretty blond woman came to the door. “Whatd’ya want? Vala!? Is that you? And Demetrius? Who else is that?”
“My husband, Jason Cameron,” Vala answered her. “Is Garen here? I need to talk to him.”
“Naw. He ain’t been home in several days. Went off with that damned Falker again. Something about the Lucian Alliance. If they make so damned much money, why don’t he bring me none?”
“Did he say when he’d be back?” Cameron asked her.
“Never does. I just expect him when I see him.”
There was little to do but thank her and head back to town.
“What are we gonna do with him?” Vala asked Cameron, meaning Demetrius.
“I guess he’s our guest for the night. We need to find a room though.”
“There’s a boarding house in town. Not fancy but they do have beds and the owner makes breakfast every day,” Vala said. “That place still around, Dem?”
“Yep, old Etta is still renting out her rooms and making gravy and biscuits every mornin’.”
The three of them got a room, one with two beds. Vala slept with Cam, who kept one eye open all night. He wasn’t sure which one he trusted less, Vala or her former husband. Morning brought breakfast, which reminded Cam of his Grandma’s cooking. He told Etta so too and made a lifelong friend of the tiny old woman. She even gave him a hug.
Just as they were leaving Etta’s, Demetrius poked Vala. “There! There he is. Garen Toker!”
~~~