Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 74

Chapter 74 - Political Games

Eventus was half way through his grilled salmon melt when the sound of the door opening drew his attention away from the well put together sandwich to see who it was that had decided to join him in the room.

“Agent Tucker.” Shen Xiaoyi greeted the man next to the door with a nod before walking over to take a seat across from Eventus's own.

“High Councilor.” She continued, offering him a pleasant smile. “Are you enjoying lunch?”

It was clear from the Asian woman's accented cadence that English wasn't exactly her preferred language, so Eventus offered her a brief smile before switching.

“Very much so.” He confirmed in Mandarin as he ate a spoonful of soup. “Chef wasn't really a profession my people indulged themselves with, so the personal flair on each of the dishes is something of a treat.”

Shen blinked in surprise. “You speak Mandarin?” 

“I speak every currently active human language outside of Coptic.” Eventus informed her in amusement.

Of course, it would have been more accurate to say that Mandarin was a descendant of one of the languages his people brought back from the Pegausus galaxy. However he was playing the diplomacy game, and pointing out that sort of thing always brought the risk of making people from face based cultures defensive.

Shen furrowed her brow in confusion. “Outside of…” She trailed off as some realization hit. “Because it’s descended from Goa'uld.”

Eventus felt his eyebrows rise, moderately impressed that the woman had been able to put that together from such a small bit of information.

“Exactly that.” He confirmed with an approving grin. “Most human languages have what you might consider a common root logic behind them. Goa’uld however doesn’t, so I’d have to spend a few weeks studying it first if I actually wanted to learn. And with everything else going on, it has been extraordinarily low on my list of priorities.”

Shen gave a light laugh and shook her head in bemusement. “From everything I've heard, having too much work and not enough time to do it in, is one of several things our people seem to have in common.”

“My previous position used to have two months of required vacation time a year.” Eventus recalled fondly, desperately wishing he could take one of those now. “But that was before our cold war with the Wraith turned hot.”

If he was being honest with himself, even a week off on a beach somewhere would probably do him a world of good. But with the sheer number of things that needed to be done even that was probably several years away from being a realistic goal.

“I'd offer to spend a few weeks playing tour guide and showing you around Earth.” Shen put forward with a look of friendly commiseration. “But I haven't had a day off myself since before the Americans disclosed the Stargate program to us three years ago.”

The wince on Eventus's face wasn't even remotely feigned given how much pressure she must have been under that entire time to bring home at least some sort of win.

“Assuming your government is willing, I certainly wouldn't be adverse to having you spend a couple days showing me around your country.”

Sightseeing in China was on his list after all, and what little he remembered about Shen Xiaoyi suggested she was pleasant enough company when not desperately fighting to keep her job. So he didn't particularly mind handing her something that she could bring back to her government as a personal accomplishment.

The offer clearly caught Shen off guard however, as she blinked several times before an odd look seemed to come across her face.

“I would of course have to make the request.” She finally said, tilting her head slightly and shooting him an almost flirty smile. “But I certainly wouldn't mind, and I suspect my government would be more than happy to entertain you for a few days during your stay on our world.”

Taking a few moments to finish up his lunch, Eventus let out a happy sigh before turning back to Shen. “I take it the IOA is ready to continue our meeting?”

An uncomfortable look briefly flashed across Shen's features before settling on a general feeling of resigned apology. “I'm sorry to say your immediate interest in opening direct trade negotiations has thrown us for something of a loop.”

Clasping her hands together and leaning forward slightly in her chair, Shen shook her head in clear exasperation before shooting Eventus a wry grin. “You have to understand, so far these sorts of arrangements have always gone through the SGC due to the United States possession of the Stargate. And while our governments had some hope that would change with the Atlantis expedition. The general expectation was that we would be dealing with groups who want to trade raw materials and various degrees of operational support for supplies and military assistance.”

Which sounded suspiciously like a diplomatic way of saying the non-US countries had only been expecting to deal with much less advanced cultures who didn’t have anything to offer them outside of land access and manpower.

“And truthfully.” Shen continued with a sigh. “There’s the lingering question of what we could even bring to the table when negotiating some sort of exchange with your people.”

“Currency, identity, access, and a constant stream of physically fit humans willing to serve our every need.” Eventus said, waiting a moment for her to process his words in their entirety before quirking his lip in amusement and continuing. “That last was a joke by the way.”

After all, currency could entice that easily enough without any of the negatives associated with just forcing people to do what you wanted.

A number of emotions seemed to flit across Shen’s features before finally settling on a sort of intrigued confusion. “Forgive me for saying this. But those seem like very odd things to want to trade with us for given your people’s capabilities.”

Eventus gave an acknowledging tilt of his head at that. “In theory I could of course infiltrate your planet via stealthed starship, utilize your data networks to create false identities, and then build up funds by selling easy to acquire metals like gold and platinum. But that would make it nearly impossible to openly utilize your planet as a vacation destination for the surviving members of my people.”

All of whom with the exception of he and Herius had lived their entire lives with the losing war against the Wraith hanging over their heads. So access to somewhere generally peaceful like Earth where they could just forget about their troubles and blend into the populace for a bit would probably go a long way to help with the depression and PTSD that Herius had warned him was more or less plaguing his crew.

“And on the more selfish front.” He continued, not seeing any reason to hold his own desire on the subject back. “After experiencing your media, I was somewhat hoping to open a production studio or two to generate more of it.”

He gave his now empty plate and bowl a forlorn glance. “And maybe see about hiring a team of trained chefs to come to Atlantis.”

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Author’s Notes: That odd moment when the humans figure out Eventus considers culture a perfectly valid trade good. And yes, Shen is totally willing to take the plung for Emperor and Country on that.