Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 141

Chapter 141 - Fallen Gods - Part 3

The flight to Stargate Command was likely going to sit firmly within Eventus's top one hundred awkward moments for significantly longer than he had suspected it would when O'Neill first insisted on coming along.

“So what?” O'Neill voice echoed out from the rear compartment. “You killed him?”

“Yes.” Yami confessed with the slightest bit of venom in her tone. “And if you knew even half of what my host did you would celebrate his death.”

“Because Goa'uld are such great judges of moral character.” O'Neill snarked.

“Once more you judge that which you do not know.” Yami scoffed. “For thousands of years we ruled your people as gods. Could we have done that without covering all facets of what rulership entails?”

“Sure.” O'Neill shot back. “You probably just dumped all that stuff on the Jaffa like you did everything else.”

“My brother spent his entire life supervising the legal system of System Lord Indra's domain!” Yami snapped, real anger at the man entering her voice for the first time. “You will not besmirch his accomplishments by suggesting he handed off his responsibilities to Jaffa.”

“We're descending into the mountain now.” Eventus called out before O'Neill could further press the emotional button he'd just discovered.

A few seconds passed before O'Neill walked up behind his chair. 

“You're absolutely sure she's not a bomb or something, right?” He whispered.

“I ran the Jumpers sensors over her twice.” Eventus reassured the man, idly wondering just how much of those results he should share before deciding to leave it at just the aspects the General was likely to care about. “The most advanced bit of technology on her was that cellphone she handed over before we set out.”

Taking a moment to glance back at Yami, O’Neill leaned down next to him. “She slipped through the Goa'uld scanners we have covering the UN.”

That was more than a little interesting given Eventus hadn't even known the building had those. “Are you sure she didn't just hack them? If they were on the same network as the building's other security it would have been relatively simple.”

O'Neill shook his head. “They're non-networked. Only thing they’re wired to is the control unit.”

“The Jumpers scanners could pick up her symbiont just fine.” Eventus offered apologetically as he considered other possibilities. “Was a little fuzzy on the naquadah resonance response, but she’s the first Goa’uld I’ve scanned with the Jumpers sensor module so I can’t really say whether that’s normal or not.”

A frown momentarily graced his lips as that reminded him of something he’d recently read in the SGC’s mission files. “Didn’t the Goa’uld who possessed Kianna Cyr have access to a serum stolen from the Tok’ra that could mask the presence of naquadah in her body?”

“If you are done speaking secretly,” Yami suddenly interjected. “I believe those outside are getting impatient as they have begun knocking on the hatch.”

“Probably the new guy.” O’Neill admitted.

Eventus’s lips twitched slightly as he switched the cockpit display to show a surprisingly large number of people gathered in a semicircle around the rear of their ship.

Having confirmed that the hatch was clear, he triggered it to lower and then motioned to O’Neill that he was free to go deal with his end of this mess.

Shooting him a brief look of annoyance at that, O’Neill turned and headed to the now open hatch, stopping only to grab his hat from where it was still sitting on the jump seats.

“Colonel Mitchell.” He greeted the armed man cautiously looking into the gate ship.

“General.” Mitchell returned, his eyes, alongside those of the rest of the armed men surrounding the hatch, focusing on the somewhat bored looking Yami. “Everything good?”

“I left my favorite pair of pajamas in DC, what do you think?” O’Neill snarked at the man as his eyes flicked across the faces of the various men and women arrayed outside. “Surprised Daniel isn’t here.”

“Doctor Jackson and Doctor Weir are waiting outside for the all clear.” Mitchell admitted. 

“Which you haven’t given yet.” O’Neill noted. 

“No sir.” Mitchell confirmed in seeming apology. “But you know security procedures for situations like this as well as I do.”

“If it helps I can confirm he isn’t under any undue influence.” Eventus offered as he walked up behind O’Neill. “And if I was under any you’d absolutely know it by now.”

Mostly because they had been close enough to the ship that it would have been relatively simple to take them all out at once by using a stun pulse generated by the vessel's field emitters. 

Several seconds of silence ticked by before O’Neill rolled his eyes. “Well?”

“Doctor Weir insisted we had to wait to do anything till you stepped off the ship.” Mitchell admitted awkwardly.

O’Neill let out a sigh and then took two steps forward. “Better?”

Mitchell motioned to a pair of soldiers to the right of the hatch, and they shuffled back enough that there was now an open path to the doorway.

With an exasperated shake of his head O’Neill walked towards the door, and Mitchell focused back on Eventus. “You can go too, but if your new snake friend leaves the ship we’re under orders to take her into custody.”

“I figured as much.” Eventus admitted, taking a brief moment to lock down the cockpit hatch before following O’Neill out of the gate ship.

He paused in his step at the large door and turned back to the Soldiers still within. “Just to keep everyone on the up and up, you should probably know that the Jumper’s sensors are recording audio and video of its interior and the room around it.”

“Gotcha.” Mitchell said.

There was another pair of soldiers in the hallway outside their current floor’s portion of the refurbished missile silo, each positioned at an angle that would allow them to open fire on someone exiting the room without worry of catching the rest of those waiting outside in the crossfire. 

“Eventus.” Doctor Weir greeted with a clear tinge of tiredness in her voice.

“Doctor Weir.” Eventus smiled. “I have to admit, I was surprised to hear you were back at the SGC. I thought you were going to take a break after all the meetings to spend some time with Simon?”

Weir winced. “Things didn’t work out.”

“Sorry to hear that.” Eventus said. “But hey, maybe you’ll find someone in Pegasus.” His smile turned a little bit teasing “I know Captain Herius is single?”

Who records suggested was a lot more reliable of a man then Janus was.

“Thank you.” Weir offered weakly. “But I think I’ll leave things as they are for now.” She glanced over at Doctor Jackson, who looked distinctly like he had a thousand questions to ask and was only just holding himself back from doing so. “Would you mind if we moved this out of the hall?”

“I would have no problem with that.” Eventus agreed, idly wondering if he should request Vala join them given her greater knowledge of actual Goa’uld life. “The normal meeting room? Or did you have someplace specific in mind?”

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Author’s Notes: You know, when you think about it it’s kind of sad that the closest Doctor Jackson ever really got to interviewing a Goa’uld about historical matters was when he posed as Lord Yu’s Lo’taur. But hey, who knows, maybe current circumstances will allow a better option to come around.