Chapter Text
P34-353J, December 14th, 1998 (Earth Time)
Catra met Sam’s glare with another chuckle. “See, that happens if you aren’t honest about your feelings,” she said - even though she was too far away for Sam to hear her words.
“Catra!” Adora hissed next to her.
“Oh, come on!” Catra pouted at her lover. “It’s funny!”
“It’s not!” Adora retorted. “What did they say, anyway?”
And that was also funny! Catra turned to grin at her, wriggling her ears to make her point.
Adora rolled her eyes. “What did they say?”
“Oh, Anise and Freya realised that Sam is in love with Jack, and Jack in love with her, and so they told her that they will stop trying to seduce him.”
Adora frowned. “That’s a good thing, isn’t it? I mean…”
“They will simply try to get his genetic material from now on,” Catra interrupted her.
“Oh.” Adora blinked. And then she blushed a little. “Not like… that, right?”
Catra shrugged. “I don’t think so. But who knows what Tok’ra think about that?”
“Daniel. He would know.” Adora nodded. “Let’s go ask him!”
That was a good idea. But even better, it proved that Adora was as curious as Catra about this. She grinned widely.
But when she looked around to see if Daniel was still talking to Per’sus, she noticed that Jack had gotten to Daniel first. Damn.
“Oh.” Adora pouted. “We can’t ask Daniel now - Jack would realise what this is about even if we don’t name names.”
“So?” That would only make it funnier, in Catra’s opinion. And Daniel would probably tell Jack anyway, just as he must have done after his talk with Glimmer.
“We can’t just ask Daniel if Anise wants to, ah, just sleep with Jack to have his child if he’s there!” Adora hissed.
“Oh.” Catra blinked. Not because she agreed with Adora - she didn’t; they could and should - but… “I just realised. Anise and Freya want Jack’s genetic material to make a baby.”
Adora gaped at her. “Oh. But that would… They can’t do that!”
Catra nodded. That wasn’t funny. You didn’t make a baby and then just… left. Both Catra and Adora knew what growing up without parents was like, and growing up with one parent out of the picture because they weren’t wanted wasn’t good either. It happened too often - on Earth and Etheria - to let it happen to a friend. Or to let a friend let it happen. “We have to talk to them.”
“We have to tell Jack,” Adora said.
Catra cocked her head. She had meant talking to Anise and Freya, but Jack worked as well - Sam was already trying to tell Anise that they couldn’t just make babies. And Entrapta… totally misunderstood the problem. “We need to talk to all of them!” she whispered. “Entrapta just offered to loan Anise and Freya one of the cloning pods from Horde Prime because she thinks this is a technical problem.”
“Oh, no!” Adora looked from Jack to Sam, Anise and Entrapta and back, biting her lower lip.
“I’ll take Jack; you take the others,” Catra told her.
“Alright!” Adora nodded, then took a deep breath, raised her chin and started towards the three women on the other side of the buffet.
Catra sighed, grabbed another fried fish and headed to Jack and Daniel.
*****
Jack O’Neill would have to thank Carter once they were back on Earth. The Captain had neatly distracted Anise. Although he would have to be careful so this wouldn’t end up as awkward as their last talk about… similar topics. The last thing Jack wanted was to touch on why Carter had seemed to be annoyed with him as well as with Anise. Or his subordinate’s exact motives for helping him out.
He needed a distraction for himself before he dwelt on that too much and started thinking thoughts a good officer didn’t think about his subordinate. “So, what’s your take on the negotiations?” he asked Daniel before taking the last bit of his alien noodle bowl.
His friend narrowed his eyes slightly. So it was a transparent change of subject - not that talking about the food had been very engaging either, anyway. “I think we’re going to get an Alliance, though ironing out the details might take a little while longer.”
Stating the obvious, are we? But Jack nodded instead of snarking. “Yeah. The Tok’ra might not like it, but they need us if they want to beat the Goa’uld.” They survived until now, but as any officer worth their commission knew, you couldn’t beat an Empire like the Goa’uld’s with just saboteurs and spies. You either needed a revolution with the support of the military - and good luck trying to get the Jaffa to rebel against their gods in sufficient numbers - or an outside power that supported you and could increase the pressure until the Empire cracked. Or defeat it in a war and let you pick up the pieces.
“They need the Alliance, yes,” Daniel said, nodding.
Jack rolled his eyes. “I am aware that ‘us’ doesn’t mean the United States.” Unlike some of his fellow officers, Jack had accepted the new reality. Then again, he had known that the United States wasn’t the top dog any more ever since he had started fighting the snakes. And the Etherians were decent ‘leading allies’, all things considered. Even if they needed to be taught about privacy.
His friend nodded with a smile. “Or just Earth. There’s been a lot of changes since we met the Etherians.”
“Meeting aliens tends to do that,” Jack commented.
“Well, we’ve met aliens before - but we’ve kept it secret, and so any changes were very limited. But now… the whole world knows. This knowledge changes how everyone works and lives. Every country is now at least considering the galaxy when they formulate their policies.”
“And all the riots and economic shockwaves, and, oh, right, the war,” Jack pointed out.
“Well, yes, massive changes rarely happened without such effects in human history.” Daniel didn’t seem to consider that much of a drawback. Then again, he had been willing to live a basically bronze-age life on Abydos with his wife, so Daniel’s standards of what was an ‘acceptable cost’ were a bit off, to say the least.
“You know…” Jack trailed off when he saw Catra walking straight towards them - with a concerned expression. “Don’t tell me you found another spy!” he mumbled, knowing she could hear him.
She jerked at that, her eyes widening, but she kept coming. “No, not a spy,” she said as she reached them. “It’s about making babies, Jack!”
“What?” Jack glanced around. Had someone from their delegation snuck off and was now engaged in the hanky-panky with a snake?
“Making babies?”* Daniel asked.
“Yes. Or, in this case, about not making babies. Jack! You can’t let Anise take your genetic material and make a baby!”
“What?” Jack stared at her.
Now she rolled her eyes. “Duh! What do you think she wants your genetic material for?”
Jack blinked. Not that he would let a snake get his… whatever. But wouldn’t exactly expect Anise to use that to have his babies. Seducing him was one thing - attempting to seduce him - but this was…
“I would have thought they want to analyse it so they can isolate the gene or genes that make you an Ancient - at least according to their AIs,” Daniel said.
“Yes, but that’s just the first step,” Catra said. “What do you think comes once they have that knowledge?”
“They… use it?” Daniel grimaced.
“To make babies with it. Your babies, Jack.”
Oh. Oh damn. Jack hadn’t thought of it like that.
“But just sharing a gene wouldn’t make someone your child,” Daniel said. Then he blinked. “Or would it?”
That wasn’t a question Jack wanted to answer. “I’m not going to have any snake test tube kids,” he said. Charlie would… He pressed his lips together and forced the painful memory away.
“Well, would they be your kids, Jack?” Daniel really didn’t know when to stop. “Or what about, ah, modifying someone’s genes with that gene? Would that make them the donor’s child? Or relative?”
Jack clenched his jaw and glared at his friend, just in time to make him shut up before he could speculate further. “I’m not going to let anyone get my genetic material for anything like that.”
“Good.” Catra nodded. “We don’t need more kids growing up without their parents.”
That… Oh, Hell! That was how the Etherians saw this? Damn. Jack sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. This was even more messed up than he had thought.
“No one will be growing up without parents because I won’t let anyone take my genetic material,” he said. “No matter what for.” Well, Dr Fraser had samples of his blood and stuff, and not just to check if he wasn’t replaced with a double on a mission, but that was different.
But Catra didn’t look very impressed. “You can’t guarantee that.”
Jack pressed his lips together. This wasn’t a topic to be discussed in the middle of a diplomatic mission in an alien base, but it didn’t seem as if he had a choice. He sighed. “Anise won’t take my genetic material against my will,” he said. “Not if she knows what’s good for her.”
“She does seem to plan to persuade you.” Catra nodded at him.
“No chance,” Jack said in a flat voice. He wasn’t ready for a kid. Another kid. Not after Charlie.
“I don’t think Anise is planning to, ah, make babies,” Daniel said. “For one, they would take too long to grow up to help any project.”
Ah, Daniel, both ruthless as well as naive. Jack glanced at Catra, who seemed to share his thoughts. “You don’t need to be an adult to do things. We were taught how to fight from an early age,” she told him.
Of course, she would know this from experience. Jack would really love to have a talk with Hordak about that, no matter how much the alien claimed to have reformed. And speaking of Hordak and the Horde… “And I’m no expert, but couldn’t Horde Prime grow adult clones?” Jack knew that had been the case.
“Right.” Catra nodded with a grim expression. “And even if Anise won’t do it, others might do it. You might not be able to keep from having… kids.”
“I don’t know if you could call other people who share some genes with you your kids,” Daniel insisted.
“Family, then,” Catra retorted.
That was debatable. Only, Jack didn’t exactly know how to debate that without sounding as if he would actually abandon family. Even though just getting some genes spliced, modified, whatever didn’t make anyone family. Family was more than just genes. Oh, damn - now he sounded like a character out of some sappy soap opera. At least, he was only doing it in his head. “Look,” he began, nodding at Catra and Daniel. “I’m not going to abandon a child.” Not that there would be one, ever. “But if some Goa’uld adds some of my genes to their Jaffa Prime, then they’re no family of mine.”
Daniel nodded, but Catra still didn’t look convinced. Hell, this argument would have… Oh, for Crying out loud! Jack narrowed his eyes at her. “It’s not the same as your situation.” Not at all.
“What about Teal’c?”
“He’s a special case,” Jack replied. Before she could protest, he went on: “And yes, he’s not unique. But he’s not special because of his, ah, genes, but because of his character. And yes, Daniel’s right - you can’t just claim to be family like that.”
His friend nodded but then said: “Well, I doubt that the question of whether or not you can create familial ties through genetic engineering was ever answered, although they might consider the cases involving sperm donors as precedents.”
Jack had no idea whether the rulings from those cases would support his views. He raised his eyebrows at his friend.
“Well, they’re not conclusive…” Daniel shrugged. “It depends on the circumstances of the, ah, donation. I’m no expert, though.”
“If you have a child, you can’t just abandon them,” Catra insisted.
“It’s not that simple,” Daniel said. “Though I think I recall that there have been issues with the biological parent suing the legal parent...”
“Just in case it might be in doubt: I’m not planning to sue for visiting rights to a Jaffa with my genes,” Jack said. “And it doesn’t matter anyway since I’m not going to let anyone get my genetic material.” Oh. That might work. “In fact, I’m going to ask Entrapta to ensure that that can’t happen against my will.” That should work perfectly. He nodded.
“Ah…” Daniel raised the index of his right hand with a grimace. “Just ensure that there are no misunderstandings. The traditional way to prevent unwanted progeny is kind of… invasive.”
Invasive? What…? Jack grimaced himself. “Of course, I didn’t mean that!”
Daniel nodded, but Catra looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”
And, not for the first time, Jack’s friend was unhelpfully helpful and told her.
“They do that?” Catra asked with wide eyes.
Jack clenched his teeth and debated in his head whether heading over to the other group would be less embarrassing than staying here.
*****
Adora pressed her lips together as she approached her friends. She had to be subtle. Subtle and diplomatic. She needed to be honest and persuasive. She couldn’t just tell others what to do - she had to convince them to do the right thing. And, more important, not to do the wrong thing. She could do this. She had to do this.
“You can’t make a baby with Jack’s genes!”
Adora grimaced as everyone - Anise or Freya, Sam and even Entrapta - looked surprised at her outburst.
“What?” Sam snapped, starting to scowl.
“Actually, you can do it,” Entrapta said, nodding. “Science makes it easy - well, relatively easy. But the Horde - Horde Prime’s Horde, I mean - already had the necessary technology. Of course, you need the right genetic pattern and base material for the cloning pods - unless you want more Horde clones; that pattern is the default - but it’s totally possible to make a baby with Jack’s genes! We just have to reverse.engineer the clone pods.”
Sam turned her head to frown at Entrapta. “Adora didn’t mean that it was impossible.”
Adora nodded. “I meant, you shouldn’t make babies without their parents to raise them.” There - much better! She should have started with that.
“I wouldn’t do that!” Anise protested. “Using Jack’s genetic material to create offspring without his consent would be an unacceptable breach of trust.”
Adora nodded in agreement. That was good. Although now she felt a little foolish for rushing over to her friends. Apparently, she had been worried over nothing. She looked over to see how Catra was doing - she must have overheard their discussion, so… She blinked. Her lover seemed focused on Jack.
“And what would be an acceptable beach of trust?” Sam asked with a twisted smile which, well… Shadow Weaver had always worn a mask, but if she hadn’t, she probably would have had such an expression when she had been annoyed with Adora.
It wasn’t a good look.
Anise cocked her head to the side. “That depends on the circumstances, obviously. What is acceptable and what is not acceptable changes according to the actual situation. If you are trying to preserve your life, more actions are acceptable than when you are merely trying to avoid an inconvenience.”
“The ends justify the means?” Sam was still not happy.
“Yes.” Anise nodded.
Adora shook her head. “That’s not true. Some things are never justified. Like destroying a world to defeat your enemy.” What the First Ones had been planning had been monstrous.
“A single world would be a small price to pay, relatively, to end the threat the Goa’uld present to the entire galaxy,” Anise retorted with a frown. “They have scorched and destroyed multiple worlds during their evil reign.”
But that was… “That doesn’t mean we should do as they do!” Adora protested. “And there’s always a way to defeat them without destroying a world!”
Entrapta nodded. “Yes. Although alternate solutions might not be as effective.”
“That doesn’t matter when we’re talking about innocent lives,” Adora told her.
“Even if it means higher casualties for our own forces?” Anise asked.
“We don’t sacrifice civilians to win,” Adora replied at once. You didn’t attack the helpless! That was what the Horde did! Had done.
“Sometimes, the enemy uses civilians as human shields,” Sam said.
“Then we save the civilians first,” Adora said firmly.
“I see.” Anise nodded. She looked pensive, Adora noticed. Or talking to Freya in her head.
“But we were talking about using Colonel O’Neill’s genetic samples,” Sam said. “Which you still intend to do, don’t you?”
“Well, yes.” Anise nodded. “As an Ancient - or a descendant of an Ancient - his genes could unlock so much technology…”
Adora pressed her lips together as Anise glanced at her. She was a First One - an Ancient - herself.
“Oh, yes!” Entrapta nodded emphatically. “Adora helped us so much with using First Ones technology.” She tilted her head to the side. “Although she did that by helping in person. We didn’t clone her or graft her genes on others. Which would be tricky, I think - the First Ones were expert geneticists, so they would have thorough checks for such attempts to bypass their security.”
“Yes. Simply inserting the relevant genes is unlikely to work.” Anise agreed. “The Ancients would have expected such crude methods. And we don’t know how much gene grafting we would have to do to satisfy the requirements set by their technology. However, their own descendants would qualify. We know that already.”
“Yes.” Entrapta nodded. “Alpha proved that when she identified both Adora and Jack as First Ones.”
“Exactly. And that means their progeny would qualify as well,” Anise said. ”Probably - there’s likely a combination of genetic markers necessary that not every child might inherit.”
“So, you do want to make a baby with Jack,” Adora said.
“Only with his consent, of course.” Anise smiled. “And without sexual intercourse, of course.” She nodded at Sam.
Adora blinked again. Uh… “But the baby would still grow up without one parent.” And that was bad. Not as bad as being an orphan, but still bad.
Anise’s stance changed, and Freya said: “That does not need to be the case. With a Stargate, Colonel O’Neill could easily visit as often as he wanted. With the demands of the war, many children won’t see one of their parents for long stretches of time, will they?” She smiled warmly.
That was… She wasn’t wrong, Adora had to admit. And if Jack agreed to that, well, she couldn’t tell anyone not to have children, could she? Wait, she had just done that - but that had been different.
“The Colonel won’t agree,” Sam said with a scowl.
“That remains to be seen,” Freya said. “Of course, he could raise the child - or children - and we could visit. I am sure he would be a good parent.”
Adora blinked. She wasn’t the only one. That was… well, Jack had had a child, so he had experience, but… he was also very busy. But… “That would be his decision,” she said. But she doubted he would want to raise a child during the war - he would have to quit the Air Force, wouldn’t he?
Sam shook her head. “He won’t.”
But Freya kept smiling, and Adora didn’t think Sam sounded as certain as before.
This was getting complicated.
*****
The Colonel wouldn’t give consent to having a test tube baby with an alien. Samantha Carter was confident that her assessment of him was correct. Mostly - she wasn’t a hundred per cent certain. And, she realised, she didn’t know enough to tell. She knew - from talking to others; he had never talked about it, and Sam knew better than to bring it up - that the Colonel had lost his son to a tragic accident with a firearm three years ago, which had also destroyed his marriage.
But would that push him to reject Anise’s offer? He was almost certainly blaming himself for the accident; any parent would in his position. So Anise’s offer might be seen as a sort of second chance. Unlikely, but not impossible. And since Sam knew, from personal observation and experience, that the Colonel had a soft spot for kids, possibly accentuated because of this tragedy, she was also reasonably sure that if someone managed to create a test tube baby with his genetic material, he wouldn’t reject the child.
But she didn’t know for certain how he felt. And not just about the issue of test tube babies. Another reason for not breaking regulations, a small voice whispered in her head. If she never found out the truth, she couldn’t be disappointed.
She pushed the voice away. She wasn’t afraid of the truth. And she wouldn’t let fear dictate her course of action. Complying with regulations was the reasonable course of action, nothing more, nothing less.
But she still felt the urge to punch Anise - and Freya; both were in obvious agreement about their plans - in the face. It was irrational and unfair, she knew that. They were from an alien culture. Two alien cultures, actually, and they were, as far as Sam was aware, acting perfectly acceptable according to their standards. And, she added to herself, according to some standards of Earth and possibly Etheria as well - donating sperm and oocytes was a relatively common procedure, after all.
But trying to trap someone in a relationship by having their child was not too rare either in many cultures, she added with a frown.
“Well…” Adora broke the short spell of silence. “That would be his decision, right?”
Of course, it would be the Colonel’s decision! Sam nodded sharply.
But Freya kept smiling so confidently. She knew nothing about the Colonel, Sam knew. Anise and Freya only knew of his reputation and fame and had barely spent a day with him, less than twenty-four hours in total. Sam had spent months with the man, much of it in extreme situations where people generally showed their true colours, but they had also spent considerable time socialising.
She raised her head and met their eyes. Yes, she told herself again, the Colonel would reject their offer.
He’d better!
*****
“...so, you see, it’s technically reversible, but the odds aren’t that good. So, it’s practically a final decision not to have any more children.”
Catra didn’t grimace at Daniel’s explanation, but she couldn’t help feeling a bit queasy at the thought of asking a healer to permanently remove her ability to have a child. Although healing magic should be able to reverse that. Of course, with Entrapta’s help, she could have a child with Adora any time she wanted, no matter the condition of her body - and in a pinch, Adora could carry a baby to term, though they would have to find out how transforming into She-Ra would affect that - but to do that to your own body? When you had other alternatives?
She shook her head. “That feels like a pretty drastic way to save on money spent on contraception.”
“Well…” Daniel shrugged with a sheepish expression. “It’s one of the most effective ways. And you, ah, can’t forget or mess it up. But it is not an uncontroversial procedure; many men think, although quite irrationally, that it would hurt their masculinity.”
“Ah.” Well, cutting something in your body might do that - Catra was no expert on Earth culture. “But you don’t cut off their balls.”
“No, we don’t. Not any more, at least,” Daniel said.
“I think we all got your History of Eunuchs 101 lesson,” O’Neill cut in with a toothy smile. “Thank you.”
Daniel pouted at his friend. “I felt it was important to explain the differences between a vasectomy and castration. You really cannot afford any misunderstandings here.”
O’Neill tensed and nodded jerkily.
Catra agreed. “And it wouldn’t help you anyway since Anise could take your genetic material from any cell.” At least, Entrapta could do that, so Anise should be able to do it as well.
“Yes, I assume so.”
“So, how exactly do you expect her to keep your, ah, genetic legacy secure?” Daniel asked.
For a moment, Jack frowned, then he smiled and shrugged. “Magic?”
Daniel snorted, but Catra nodded. That sounded like it might work. “You should ask Glimmer, though. She’s the one who was trained as a sorceress. Entrapta’s the specialist for technology.”
“I will then.”
Catra narrowed her eyes. She couldn’t tell if O’Neill was serious or not. He sounded serious, and it was a serious subject, but… he also didn’t like magic.
Well, it was his body, so it was his choice and none of her business. And if he could get over his dislike of magic, then that could only help him.
*****
And he would. Jack O’Neill was sure of that. He suppressed a shudder. Magic was creepy, but he would rather have a spell cast on him than find out someone made a test tube baby with his genes. Or a clone. Or an alien-O’Neill clone. Yes, despite the creepiness, he would talk to Glimmer about this.
But not right now. This was a diplomatic meeting, after all, and Glimmer was the most important member of the Alliance delegation. Mostly because she was more of a diplomat than Adora, of course. In any case, Jack knew better than to bother her about his personal problems in the middle of diplomatic negotiations. Even though they were currently being conducted at the buffet. With his luck, he might derail a crucial breakthrough by distracting her - the Etherians might take politics personally, but, as Catra had just proven again, they cared about their friends so much, they might prioritise Jack’s issues over the good of the Alliance.
And that, Jack wouldn’t allow. Couldn’t. He knew his duty to his country and to Earth. And he would be a damn hypocrite if he defended Air Force fraternisation regulations to the Etherians, then turned around and asked them to help him with a personal problem at the expense of the overall goal of the Alliance.
No, there was enough time to handle this once they were back on Earth. More privacy as well - Jack wasn’t keen on letting everyone know he wanted to use magic to keep aliens from taking his genetic material. Carter would probably call it ‘preventive contraception’ or something sciency-sounding, but she would do it with that faint smile of hers that…
Jack sighed and grabbed another bowl of alien noodles. He reminded himself that he knew his duty. And that he would do his duty.
And just as he started to eat - Daniel was well into lecturing Catra about the finer points of masculinity as seen by various cultures on Earth - the Head Snake called everyone to the meeting room again.
Great. Jack started shovelling food into his mouth on the way to the door. He had a feeling he’d need the calories.
*****
“...and yes, I think we can agree on the necessity of a united intelligence council. However, the exact composition and purview of such a council need to be defined more clearly before we can move to the next part.”
Jack O’Neill struggled not to yawn. Sir Watson had the boring, droning tone of a bureaucrat down pat. The man could speak far more engagedly, Jack knew that, so either he was feeling the hours himself, or this was by design - it was hard to tell with career diplomats. Not that Jack could think of a reason why you wanted to be boring unless it was to tire out the other side or make them fall asleep at the table.
Which, he confirmed with a glance around, wasn’t working anyway. At least not on the snakes and their hosts. Though they probably cheated by switching between Goa’uld and host so one of them could rest. Or something.
But Catra looked like she was only awake because Adora would elbow her if she fell asleep, and even Daniel seemed to be too tired to keep paying a hundred per cent attention to ‘history being made in our presence’, as he had called it. Before the meeting, of course.
“Indeed,” Garhsaw said. “And, given the importance of intelligence for waging war, I think the council’s purview should include some oversight on how the information provided and curated by it is being used.”
“As long as that is strictly limited to advising, of course,” Glimmer cut in. “We cannot allow such a council to usurp the role of command.”
Sir Watson nodded, and Garshaw smiled. “Of course.” Jack couldn’t tell if she had seriously expected to be able to outmanoeuvre the Alliance like that, but he was sure that she wouldn’t have minded if the spook council would have gotten veto powers or something. It certainly would have fit the sneaky snakes to try for some ‘rule from the shadows’ role, and you couldn’t get more shadowy in war than a spy.
But with that line drawn, they settled for the details of how to staff said council. Surprisingly, the Etherians didn’t propose some magical superspy as the leader of the council. Or not so surprisingly - Jack remembered that they didn’t seem to be terribly fond of spies, the way they sometimes spoke of ‘Double Trouble’.
Well, Jack approved of being wary of spooks. Based on his own experience with them - he was sure that the Etherian version of spies wasn’t any better than the CIA agents he had worked with during the Cold War. Probably worse since they had all sorts of magic.
While Glimmer, who seemed to be holding up well, actually, and Sir Watson hashed out the details with Garshaw and Per’sus, Jack risked a glance at Anise, who was taking part in the meetings as a technological advisor - and immediately wished he hadn’t. The snake met his eyes with a smile. Or Freya did; Jack couldn’t tell right now, not without them talking or moving.
Two people - or a snake and a person - occupying the same body was just creepy. How were you supposed to have a relationship with that, anyway? What if you liked one but not the other? What if you liked both but preferred one? Or if one of them hated you, and the other loved you? It was difficult enough to handle a relationship with just one person, especially as a soldier - Jack’s marriage had seen some rocky times even before… He pressed his lips together as he, once more today, had to force the memories of that terrible day away. Anyway, handling a relationship with two people? That would be a nightmare.
No, Jack would stick to plain boring relationships with a single partner. Hypothetically, of course, since regulations were regulations, and they forbid relationships between an officer and a subordinate.
*****
Adora suppressed a sigh when the meeting finally ended. Almost midnight Earth time, according to her watch, but it wasn’t the hours, it was the drudge, or what you called it. Catra, of course, wasn’t nearly as subtle or diplomatic. “Finally!” she exclaimed when Glimmer, Sir Watson and Garshaw agreed on finishing for today. “I think I fell asleep twice already!”
Everyone chuckled, though Adora wasn’t quite sure that her lover had been joking - there had been a few spots during the last two hours or so during which Adora had been too absorbed by the discussions to pay enough attention to Catra. And since those discussions had been more political than military, Catra might not have cared enough for them to pay rapt attention herself.
Well, it was over for now. And they had made progress! Sure, the devil was in the details, but a lot of the big stuff had been settled. More or less, at least. Adora trusted Glimmer and Sir Watson would handle the rest. Of course, this was just the preliminary negotiations, so there were still important subjects left for the elected leaders of the Earth countries to discuss and settle. Though as Sir Watson had explained, if the preliminary meetings were going well, odds were the actual official negotiations wouldn’t divert too much from what the diplomats had already sounded out.
It was different from what Adora was used to. On Etheria, princesses handled that kind of stuff - preliminary meetings were mostly about protocol and stuff setting up the actual meetings since you needed a princess to actually make decisions, but then, since they had Glimmer and Adora herself here, that wasn’t a problem.
Still… she was glad to return home, or sort of home, now. “I’d rather fight a tank platoon than do this again,” she muttered before she caught herself.
Catra snickered. “Of course, you would,” she said. “Tossing around tanks is fun for you.”
One of the officers in the delegation walking behind them laughed aloud. General… Peck, Adora confirmed with a glance. The American.
“You should have seen her whine about not being allowed to throw tanks back when we were fighting mind-controlled allies,” Catra told him with a smirk, walking backwards as they left the meeting room.
“Throw tanks back?” Peck laughed some more.
Adora pouted. “Scorpia was throwing tanks at us!”
“One tank,” Catra said. “And she later apologised for that.”
The general suddenly looked a little confused.
“They’re not pulling your leg, sir,” Jack chimed in. “There are at least two individual Etherians who can physically throw light tanks like we’d throw a backpack.”
“At least light tanks,” Catra said.
Adora nodded. They hadn’t tried it with heavier tanks since the Horde didn’t have them.
“The antigravity engines throw off the equations a little,” Entrapta said. “But both Scorpia and Adora should be able to handle the mass.”
The general wasn’t laughing any more, Adora noticed. And Per’sus was staring at them as well. “I thought we mentioned that,” she commented. She was sure they had. Pretty sure.
“It was in our report,” Jack said. “But it might have been dismissed as an exaggeration.”
“I must have missed it,” Peck said. He added something else under his breath that Adora didn’t catch, but Catra snickered again, so it was probably a curse.
Ah, well - they could address their allies’ lack of knowledge about their capabilities later. Right now, Adora really wanted to return to her bed and rest. And relax.
They reached the transport room, but it took a few more minutes of shaking hands and saying their goodbyes before they were finally off, and then there was still the trip back to the Stargate.
There was something to be said for placing the Stargate close to or into one of your bases, Adora found. It cut down on travel time a lot.
*****
Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, United States of America, Earth, December 15th, 1998
Adora sighed without restraint when she walked down the ramp in Stargate Command’s gate room. Almost home! Well, almost back to Darla.
But the generals were already waiting for them. Four of them - the French one was missing. “Good to have you back,” General Hammond said. “Was there any trouble?”
“The Stargate worked like a charm, sir,” Jack replied. “No security concerns either.” He shrugged with a glance at the Russian general. “I think that’s all that concerns Stargate Command.”
The Russian general glared at him, which prompted Catra to chuckle. Adora almost chimed in before she caught herself - she must be a little more tired than she had thought.
“Alright, Colonel. The Alliance delegation is waiting at NORAD to debrief you.”
Right, Adora reminded herself. Officially, Stargate Command wasn’t an Allied base but under United Nations control, so the Alliance officials would be waiting in the base right above this one.
Earth customs were weird sometimes. Not too rarely, actually.
“More meetings,” Catra whined. “Let’s just tell them we’ll talk to them tomorrow! At noon!”
“And leave us to face them all alone?” Jack frowned at her.
“Yes.” She beamed at him, showing all her teeth.
“That would be selfish,” Glimmer said, shaking her head.
“So? Don’t tell me you want to have another meeting right now,” Catra shot back.
“It’s not about what we want, but about what we need to do,” Glimmer replied. “So…”
“Oh, great!” Entrapta cried out, interrupting them - she was talking into her multitool, Adora realised. And she smiled widely. “The relay network is done!” she announced. “We can talk to our friends back on Etheria! And a few days earlier than projected, even!”
Adora gasped, then smiled.
Yes!
“We need to return to Darla at once,” Glimmer said.
“Oh, now we do?” Catra asked - but she was smiling as well.
“Sorry,” Adora told Jack with a smile.
Though she didn’t feel too sorry. She really wanted to talk to her friends back home. She hadn’t seen them in almost half a year!
*****