SG:Universe fic "Show your hand"
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Title: Show your hand.
Sequel to: Habitable to poker.
Author: Rodlox.
Fandom: Stargate:Universe
series: "The Unfolding"
Rating: PG13
spoilers for: Faith.
Characters/Pairing: Vanessa James, Chloe, Caine; mention of Scott.
Summary: Vanessa James may have stumbled into something very bad.
warning: this is probably an offshoot of my series, rather than something that takes place in the show over season 1. or maybe it tucks back into the series, I don't know.
note: after writing this, my Vanessa muse said "I have lousy taste in men. Ask anyone."
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Having arrived at her doorway, Vanessa James asked Chloe, "You asked to see me?"
Chloe nodded. "Yeah. I'm not sure whether or not to thank you for getting us off that planet - I suppose, now that I've had time to think it over, our odds of being rescued or having much of a life there, they weren't as good as I thought."
"Long shots sometimes pay off," Vanessa said.
Chloe looked at her, as if to say Are you changing your mind, or just rubbing salt in my wound?
"No need to thank me," Vanessa said next.
"You were just doing your duty, I know," Chloe said. "But that wasn't why I asked for you. I wanted to tell you something."
"Go ahead."
"Please, relax. At ease, I think."
In the hopes Chloe would get to the point, Vanessa did as asked: bent her knees a little and put her arms at her sides.
"I've been thinking ever since we got back - and some on the planet after you mentioned them - and honestly, I never heard of the Goa'uld before you mentioned them on the planet," Chloe said.
Had Vanessa been walking, she may well have stumbled at that. What? How do you not hear about them? "I'm surprised. Given who your dad was, I mean."
Chloe shrugged. "If he knew about them, he didn't mention them to me." And he told me everything - I was his senior aide, after all. "He did introduce me to some of his friends - fans of the Stargate project. The Trust," naming the friends in one fell swoop.
By this point, alarms were going off in Lt James' head. "That's not good."
"Really? They struck me as nice people."
You *would* think that, wouldn't you? Vanessa thought. "Trust me, the Trust are not good people. They tried to hand our planet over to the Goa'uld more than once." I've still got the scars from one of those battles.
Chloe was gape-mouthed by this point. "They - that's not good. That's bad." And her watch beeped twice. "Oh, I - Um, can we finish this later?"
Vanessa nodded.
"I kinda promised Scott -"
"Sure, go ahead," Vanessa said, not caring to hear the dirt on what Chloe and Matt were going to do.
"Thanks," Chloe said, running off.
Vanessa hadn't taken three steps to her own quarters when -
"I would have prefered you not done that," a very sonorously deep voice informed James.
"Who are you?" she asked.
Switching to a normal human voice, the goa'uld used the host's voice: "You know me, Vanessa," Caine said. "Though it may not have been for the best that you talked to her just now."
"Why's that?" Lt James asked. "You going to kill us?"
A tsk. "That would be noticed. But if they thought you killed her...the stormclouds of the human heart. Jealousy, at least."
"Yet you're here, talking to me, and not killing her. So what do you want to say?"
"An agreement, Lieutenant," Caine said. "You tell noone else that I am here, and I will stay my hand.
"You serioiusly think I'd agree to that?" Lt James asked him.
"I did not think you would. Though you know I can do far worse than I have already said."
"You're a goa'uld. QED."
"Names will get you nowhere, soldier. Think - imagine if I decide to change hosts."
Vanessa knew what it was doing - trying to plant the seeds of doubt: the possibility that, in the future, someone who did something, was being controlled by a goa'uld.
She knew what to do: keep it off balance: "And Chloe's father?"
"He was painfully human, but perfectly useful," the snake replied. "I leave the decision in your hands," and began to walk away. As he did so, he made one further statement: "Lovely, is it not, that Destiny was made before the Ancients installed those pesky filters in their machines?"
Just because there' no goa'ulds-can't-use-this filter on board, Vanessa thought to herself, doesn't mean nothing will stop you.
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the end
.
Title: Show your hand.
Sequel to: Habitable to poker.
Author: Rodlox.
Fandom: Stargate:Universe
series: "The Unfolding"
Rating: PG13
spoilers for: Faith.
Characters/Pairing: Vanessa James, Chloe, Caine; mention of Scott.
Summary: Vanessa James may have stumbled into something very bad.
warning: this is probably an offshoot of my series, rather than something that takes place in the show over season 1. or maybe it tucks back into the series, I don't know.
note: after writing this, my Vanessa muse said "I have lousy taste in men. Ask anyone."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Having arrived at her doorway, Vanessa James asked Chloe, "You asked to see me?"
Chloe nodded. "Yeah. I'm not sure whether or not to thank you for getting us off that planet - I suppose, now that I've had time to think it over, our odds of being rescued or having much of a life there, they weren't as good as I thought."
"Long shots sometimes pay off," Vanessa said.
Chloe looked at her, as if to say Are you changing your mind, or just rubbing salt in my wound?
"No need to thank me," Vanessa said next.
"You were just doing your duty, I know," Chloe said. "But that wasn't why I asked for you. I wanted to tell you something."
"Go ahead."
"Please, relax. At ease, I think."
In the hopes Chloe would get to the point, Vanessa did as asked: bent her knees a little and put her arms at her sides.
"I've been thinking ever since we got back - and some on the planet after you mentioned them - and honestly, I never heard of the Goa'uld before you mentioned them on the planet," Chloe said.
Had Vanessa been walking, she may well have stumbled at that. What? How do you not hear about them? "I'm surprised. Given who your dad was, I mean."
Chloe shrugged. "If he knew about them, he didn't mention them to me." And he told me everything - I was his senior aide, after all. "He did introduce me to some of his friends - fans of the Stargate project. The Trust," naming the friends in one fell swoop.
By this point, alarms were going off in Lt James' head. "That's not good."
"Really? They struck me as nice people."
You *would* think that, wouldn't you? Vanessa thought. "Trust me, the Trust are not good people. They tried to hand our planet over to the Goa'uld more than once." I've still got the scars from one of those battles.
Chloe was gape-mouthed by this point. "They - that's not good. That's bad." And her watch beeped twice. "Oh, I - Um, can we finish this later?"
Vanessa nodded.
"I kinda promised Scott -"
"Sure, go ahead," Vanessa said, not caring to hear the dirt on what Chloe and Matt were going to do.
"Thanks," Chloe said, running off.
Vanessa hadn't taken three steps to her own quarters when -
"I would have prefered you not done that," a very sonorously deep voice informed James.
"Who are you?" she asked.
Switching to a normal human voice, the goa'uld used the host's voice: "You know me, Vanessa," Caine said. "Though it may not have been for the best that you talked to her just now."
"Why's that?" Lt James asked. "You going to kill us?"
A tsk. "That would be noticed. But if they thought you killed her...the stormclouds of the human heart. Jealousy, at least."
"Yet you're here, talking to me, and not killing her. So what do you want to say?"
"An agreement, Lieutenant," Caine said. "You tell noone else that I am here, and I will stay my hand.
"You serioiusly think I'd agree to that?" Lt James asked him.
"I did not think you would. Though you know I can do far worse than I have already said."
"You're a goa'uld. QED."
"Names will get you nowhere, soldier. Think - imagine if I decide to change hosts."
Vanessa knew what it was doing - trying to plant the seeds of doubt: the possibility that, in the future, someone who did something, was being controlled by a goa'uld.
She knew what to do: keep it off balance: "And Chloe's father?"
"He was painfully human, but perfectly useful," the snake replied. "I leave the decision in your hands," and began to walk away. As he did so, he made one further statement: "Lovely, is it not, that Destiny was made before the Ancients installed those pesky filters in their machines?"
Just because there' no goa'ulds-can't-use-this filter on board, Vanessa thought to herself, doesn't mean nothing will stop you.
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the end