Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 140

Chapter 140 - Fallen Gods - Part 2

Folding his cellphone closed, O’Neill stowed the communications device back in his pocket before focusing on Eventus with an apologetic look.

“You heard what they said?”

“They want you to take her into custody.” Eventus confirmed, not exactly surprised at that given the various sundry things Yami had likely been in the middle doing prior to surrendering herself to him. “But I feel like there's something rather important that you forgot to mention to the president.”

Eventus pointed down at the floor of the gate ship they were currently in.

“I'm gonna need you to expand a bit on that.” O'Neill said after a moment.

“Part of my just signed agreement with the IOA included a line registering this Jumper as a diplomatic vehicle.” Eventus pointed out in amusement. “And that was under your people’s insistence I might add.”

O’Neill frowned, glancing around the interior of the Jumper for a moment before focusing back on him. “Really?”

“Section seven subsection f.” Eventus reminded him. “Authorized diplomatic transport methods within Earth’s atmosphere.”

Pursing his lips as he seemed to weigh Eventus words, O’Neill finally let out a sigh. “You realize nobody is going to be happy about this?”

“Doctor Weir.” Eventus reminded him.

O’Neill rolled his eyes. “All right, nobody but Doctor Weir is going to be happy about this.”

“It’s not like she’s Apophis, you know.” Eventus defended, mentally going over the lists of various Goa’uld the humans had accumulated over the years. “In fact, as far as I can recall she isn’t even on your list of System or Under lords.”

“Prior to his domain being conquered by Ba’al, I served Underlord Krishna as what the Tau’ri would call an infrastructure engineer.” Yami volunteered.

“See.” Eventus waved towards the woman. “That’s nothing, unless she was constructing buildings out of the bones of her victims I’ve probably killed more humans then her.”

“I helped clear out a couple space pirate dens prior to the Wraith war going hot.” He expanded upon seeing the odd look O’Neill was shooting him. “Give it a couple years and you’ll probably be dealing with similar situations what with the way everyone but you is probably scrambling to take over the System Lords abandoned ships and infrastructure.”

“The Jaffa called dibs.” O'Neill returned drolly. “And threatened to shoot any of our teams they caught trying to grab stuff from their worlds.”

Yami sighed.

“Got something to say about that?” O'Neill asked her in suspicion.

“Without the priesthood around to handle all the menial technical matters it is unlikely the Jaffa will be able to maintain much of what they have seized. So I am lamenting the future loss of several centuries worth of work when the water control systems on Shinu inevitably fail.”

“I feel your pain.” Eventus nodded in commiseration. “Waterworks are annoyingly difficult to timeproof with all the corrosion and fouling issues that crop up after a few thousand years.”

And seawater was the worst of the worst on that front, as the accumulated damage to Atlantis could attest to.

“All right.” O'Neill interjected. “I'm going to skip to the end of several different conversations and get directly to the point where I tell you that the moment she steps off that ship and onto US soil she's going into custody.”

Glancing over at Yami, Eventus was almost completely unsurprised at the small smile that was gracing the corner of her lips. “You know you’re playing into her hands by being intractable about this, right?”

“I figured as much.” O’Neill confirmed, walking over to plop down into the seat next to Eventus. “Klorel tried the same sort of thing with the Tollan. But her being here means a whole lot of security precautions failed, and we need to know why.”

“Have you considered just asking?” Eventus floated, turning an expectant look to the Goa’uld woman who seemed to be placidly watching their interaction.

“As I already explained to the Ancient, your people’s information network is not particularly secure compared to those of the Goa’uld. So once I had access, it took very little effort to add my host as an expected guest to this building. At which point your security allowed me entrance as they would any other.”

For a moment it looked like there was something O’Neill wanted to say to that, but he instead grabbed the service cap off his head and set it down next to him. “I meant more why you’re on Earth.”

“I was ordered here by Ba’al during his brief time as supreme system lord.” Yami admitted without seeming concern. “He wished me to seize control of a company by the name of Kadari Technologies, however I failed to do so due to my chosen host’s form being female instead of male.”

O'Neill visibly cringed.

“Congratulations.” Eventus said, amusement all but radiating off him at the unlikely turn. “A portion of your world may have just been saved by a combination of rampant sexism and a Goa’uld with a firm gender identity.”

“Yeah, I got that.” O’Neill sighed, dragging a hand down his face before focusing on Yami. “And what did old Baldy order you to do when you failed?”

“Nothing.” Yami told him simply. “I was not given a communications device for fear that its signal might be picked up. And my only indirect contacts were with members of the group you know as the Trust. Most of which were either killed or captured by you last year.”

One of O’Neill’s eyebrows rose. “Most?”

“Though I do not know the appearance of her current host, I know Athena at least still roams amongst your people as she is the one who ordered me to make the attempt to take Eventus captive.”

O”Neill slowly turned to stare at Eventus with a judging look in his eyes.

“Athena was probably trying to get Yami killed.” Eventus offered, after all, the Goa’uld might be egotistical, but sending a single low level agent without any backup to try and capture him was far past that and firmly into the realm's pure stupidity.

“I suspected the same.” Yami agreed with a nod. “So instead of risking whatever retribution might follow my refusal, I decided to attempt to utilize the situation to my long term advantage.”

A few seconds of silence passed after the declaration before O’Neill jerked a thumb in Yami’s direction. “Would you believe that’s the first thing she’s said so far that I trust?”

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Author’s Notes: They say the best place to hide a lie is in the truth, but the real question is how much, if any, of what Yami’s said is a lie? After all, the Goa'uld tend to be self serving as something of a standard.