Writing > Alliance (Stargate SG-1)

Chapter 46

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Daen:
To spare the boy’s feelings, Tony had removed Suna’s restraints before reuniting them. Currently, they were both in his room in the house, playing with one of his toys. Tony looked inside at them from the hallway, and felt his gut twist. The kid’s features could well have come from a four-year-old version of Hargrove himself.

Suna had admitted that Cayo was indeed Hargrove’s son, but that hadn’t been much of a surprise, considering all the other surprises they were still catching up on.

Tony finished filling the other two in on what Hargrove had said and done, and they both reacted predictably. Nelson was shocked, while David and Alvesh were stolidly accepting of the facts. He had to admit they made a good pair. They had many qualities in common, but he found himself wondering just how their ‘conversations’ went.

Hargrove’s words and actions had apparently had an effect on Suna as well. She had agreed to tell them everything, as long as her son was left out of it. She’d even agreed to take an injection of the nanites to prove she was on the level. Tony had held off on that, at least until they knew what to do next.

Shaking his head, he looked up at Nelson. "You said you found the transmission’s source?"

"Uh, yeah." Nelson reached into a low compartment in the bedroom’s closet and pulled out an ornate box. He opened it, revealing a Goa’uld communication sphere with a glowing red button inset. "The kid told me that if he ever couldn’t find his mom, he was supposed to open this box and press this button. It’s rigged to send off a kind of distress beacon."

Tony nodded. "That must be why Hargrove chose that moment to call Pierson. He got the signal, and was checking up on his son!"

"Sounds about right."

David took a deep breath. "Ok, but what do we do now?" He looked out over the back yard, and hidden launch bay. "This just got a whole lot bigger than we were expecting. Is it time to get Homeworld Security involved? Show them everything we found?"

Nelson shook his head vigorously. "They’ll lock Suna away in some deep dark hole somewhere. And at best, the kid would end up in foster care!"

"And we didn’t exactly go about this on the level, either." Tony added. "We could face some problems ourselves." He thought about it for a few seconds. "One thing’s for sure, though: we can’t let this attack on Plenios happen."

"Why not, boss? Since when do we care what happens to a Goa’uld queen?"

"We should, if that queen is sustaining the Jaffa." David put in quietly. "Queens go into a spawn cycle several times a year, and create several thousand young each time. If she’s suddenly not there to produce the symbiotes…"

"Then thousands of Jaffa will die." Tony finished bitterly.

"No they won’t." Nelson objected. "You’ve got that drug, tricordrazine."

[Tretonin.] Alvesh corrected him. [It takes time to synthesize. We could never create enough for all of them, not at the same time.]

"Ok, so we warn the Jaffa. Let them stop Hargrove."

"Can’t do that either, Nelson." Tony gave him a somber look. "Relations between the Free Jaffa Nation and Earth are shaky enough already. If we tell them that a human from Earth is about to mount an attack on one of their planets, it could be disastrous!" He shook his head. "No, we have to do this ourselves."

A quiet fell on them, punctuated only by the sound of Suna and Cayo playing with his toy train.

"Well, we can’t take that ship down there." Nelson looked out the window as well. "Odyssey would detect us as soon as we got off the ground, and probably shoot us down long before we could jump to hyperspace. One or two of us might be able to use the Stargate on a ruse, but I wouldn’t want to risk anyone else finding out about all this."

"I can get us offplanet." David said suddenly. He looked pained. "Even if we could use that ship out there, Plenios is a long way away from Earth. We’d never make it in time. Alvesh has a ship stashed away a lot closer, though. If we’re intent on doing this ourselves, I’m your best bet."

Tony gave him a long, searching look. "And Alvesh? Are you sure he’s on board with this?"

"He’s no fan of the Jaffa, believe me, but he’s got our backs on this." David gave a sad smile. "Besides, where I go, he goes."

Looking from one to the other, Tony sighed. "I guess that’s the plan, then. Funny. I always figured that if I ever committed a series of… what are technically crimes against our own government, I’d have more fun planning them."

Nelson grinned. "I bet that’s what the A-Team thought too."

-.-

The long drive back to Colorado was quiet, at least at first. Little Cayo fell asleep almost as soon as the sun was down, lying down in the back seat with his head on his mother’s lap and his legs draped over Nelson’s.

Still, Nelson was keeping the zat gun handy, in case she decided to try anything.

Before leaving, David had downloaded the ship’s database into one of his gizmos and set the life-support system to void the ship of atmosphere. The near-vacuum inside would preserve… what was left of Pierson until they could figure out what to do with everything.

The database had included a list of about fifty names, but no one in the car had recognized any of them.

Nelson had been in favor of blowing the ship up and leaving the two of them behind, but David had convinced him they needed to bring her along. He’d argued that when Homeworld Security finally realized Pierson was missing, they’d certainly begin an investigation that would eventually lead them to her. Even if they didn’t find her, Nelson had to admit to himself that he wasn’t comfortable with her being here, not after what she’d done. For better or for worse, the life she’d apparently been building for herself on Earth was over.

Once her son was asleep, and when she was apparently sure his breathing was even, Suna tapped Tony on the shoulder. "I’m ready."

Glancing over his shoulder at her, as if to reassure himself that she wasn’t going to try anything stupid, and nodded at her. "Ok, start at the beginning. How did you get out of the base on Hovak before the self-destruct went off?"

Keeping her voice low, she responded slowly. "I should start earlier than that, actually. You will understand."

Suna kept her eyes on the road, but Nelson could hear the reflection in her voice, as she thought back years into her past.

"It was shortly after we discovered the truth about the barriers; that they affected time as well as space. Hargrove gathered Pierson, Jahu, myself, and a few others together. He told us that when the barriers finally fell, the Survivors would not be allowed to continue fighting the Goa’uld and Jaffa. That the people of Earth would make us stand down, in order to protect themselves. He said that we would have to be ready, when the time came, to take matters into our own hands."

"That doesn’t make any sense." Nelson protested. "The SGC may not have been able to officially sanction what we were doing out there, but they wouldn’t have tried to stop us!"

"Don’t be so sure about that, Nelson." Tony said thoughtfully. "People from Earth trained the Survivors, equipped them, and directed them on missions. We can’t escape responsibility for what they would do as a result. Hargrove and I discussed that, just after Cayo died."

He kept his voice low, looking down at the kid. "He was determined to stay, to take Cayo’s place after the rest of us went home. I urged him to take his time, not to rush to a decision." Tony sighed. "I guess he decided to go all the way with it."

"Hargrove came up with the plan," Suna continued, "and we all eventually agreed to it, and to keep it a secret. When Bokal left the Tollans, Hargrove recruited him, too."

Suna held her breath for a second. "The plan was to destroy the base, and make the tau’ri believe the Goa’uld were responsible for all our deaths."

Tony’s knuckles went white on the steering wheel. "Are you saying the Goa’uld didn’t attack us? That they’re all still alive??"

"Holy hell, Suna!" Nelson said loudly. He could relate: his own thoughts had just been thrown into turmoil. Cayo stirred slightly, and Nelson looked down, abashed. "Sorry. But is it true?"

Even David seemed taken aback.

"It’s true. Hargrove and Pierson told us when to act. I set the evacuation alarm, and the base emptied before the self-destruct went off. Bokal, Jahu and a few others agreed to stay behind, to convince you that it was a Goa’uld attack."

"But we were attacked on Helios!" Nelson exclaimed, this time more quietly. "We heard Apophis’ voice!"

Suna shook her head. "Sa’valain was piloting our old alkesh over Helios. The ship was up high enough that you couldn’t see it. Pierson told him when to attack, and where to fire to make it a good show without hurting anyone. As for the voice, Sa’valain used the synthesizer to fake it. With some modifications, it was easy enough to broadcast the voice from inside the atmosphere."

"Then Blake and Haley-" Tony began.

"No." Suna cut him off quickly. "I’m sorry, Tony, but they didn’t make it out. They were the only two who didn’t. According to Bokal, they were working on a kind of sonic device in their lab at the time. They must have been unable to hear the alarm."

Ever since he’d seen that image of Suna in the marketplace, Nelson had carried a grain of hope inside him. A hope that somehow, Blake and Haley were alive as well. It had been painful- excruciating, actually- but the idea that Sylvia could see her real parents again sometime was a wondrous thought. Every time he’d caught himself starting to hope, Nelson had tried to push it down, but in the end had failed.

Hearing those hopes dashed again, Nelson couldn’t help but look to Tony. Suna could have been lying, of course, but her words carried immediate conviction. Somehow, he knew she was telling the truth. Blake and Haley were still dead.

This must be a thousand times worse for him. Nelson told himself. He raised Sylvia!

As if hearing him, Tony spoke again, slowly. "When we got back, Jahu was injured. He took a hit to the back of his head. Archie told me that he’d be all right. They were all in on this… plan of yours?"

David finally spoke as well, his voice carefully controlled. "Just how many of the Survivors knew about this, Suna?"

"Only ten or so of the Survivors were involved." She answered. "When we told the rest what we’d done, after the evacuation, they weren’t happy about it, but they eventually all agreed to leave Earth out of it. As for the Deuca… I really don’t know. Archie knew about the plan, but we haven’t had contact with them since. Hargrove assumed they’d just gone back into hiding after Archie left."

"How did you know when to do all of this?" Tony asked, his voice strained. "I mean the exact moment the barriers went down. Did the Tollans tell you?"

"It was that artificial person Bokal made. Rev, I think you called him," she said in a subdued tone. "Bokal programmed him to send us a message on the somaradio frequencies, as soon as the barriers fell. Hargrove thought that it would be we who deactivated the barriers, but he wanted us to be ready, in case they malfunctioned or the Goa’uld did it themselves for some reason. It happened far sooner than any of us expected, but we were ready all the same."

"I remember!" Tony blurted out. "I was there when he got that transmission. I saw how surprised, how excited he was. I thought he was just reading about the possible revolution on Helios!" Tony’s face suddenly became even more grave. "And then, after the mountain exploded... he knew you were still alive, Suna. He put on a performance for me, and I bought it: hook, line and sinker!"

Nelson grimaced. "We all did, boss."

Suna seemed to sense that they were all in pain. Thankfully, she kept her mouth shut as they digested what she’d told them.

Seconds stretched into minutes, as road markers continued to pass by.

As he thought about it, something didn’t seem right to Nelson. "It’s a bit convenient, isn’t it?"

Suna looked over at him. "What is?"

"Well, Hargrove’s plan hinged on every Earthling, every tau’ri, buying into the story. Yet the only two Earthlings who he and Pierson couldn’t manipulate into leaving Hovak were Blake and Haley, and they both ended up dead!"

"You think they were sacrificed for the plan to work?" Suna shook her head. "No. When Hargrove found out, he was as shocked as the rest of us!"

Nelson flattened his voice. "How comforting."

"I know my husband, Nelson. He wouldn’t do such a thing." She maintained stubbornly. "Haley was my closest friend!"

"Yeah, well, Pierson was Hargrove’s closest friend, and you saw how that ended." Nelson continued, his voice brutal.

Suna’s face reddened.

"Enough." Tony finally spoke again. "Whether it was on purpose or not doesn’t matter right now." Now that he’d had time to process the anger, the grief, he was apparently himself again. "I think I understand why you went along with it, Suna. I might even be ok with it, if Blake and Haley hadn’t been killed in the process. Still, none of that explains why you all jumped in bed with the Alliance. What did they offer you, to get you to work for them?"

Suna gave a bitter laugh. "You still don’t understand; Hargrove doesn’t work for the Alliance. They work for him! He started it!"

She smiled at their collective reactions. "What? You didn’t think they picked the name ‘Lucien’ out of a hat, did you?"

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