Chapter Ten

Poc'nah - Day

Xander and Rak'nah arrived in the main square of the main population centre of the planet in a swirl of green lights. Many of the nearby Jaffa took a step back from their sudden appearance with a gasp and fear on their features. Xander knew it was both a good thing and a bad thing. It would help his godly persona, but in truth he was already tiring of the whole god thing. He didn't like to trick these proud people, but for now it was necessary for both their and his survival. When the time came he hoped to have built some mechanism by which they could support themselves, and hopefully still be aligned with him when he 'freed' them to their own ends. He just wanted to make sure they did not just turn to the nearest 'god' and go back to their old ways. That said, at the end of the day that would be their choice, and Xander was not about to take their freedom of choice away from them.

They were met by a procession and honour guard of elaborately dressed Jaffa in what had to be ceremonial armour. Some of the guards had cobra headed helmets that stuck Xander as funny, and it was all he could do not to laugh at them. Once again he reminded himself that this was not his world or culture, and that these were their ways. He had to admit, though, unless they were very light but heavily armoured he could not see a real use in combat for such headgear.

Eventually the procession, which passed through most of the town, entered a large building not far from the building that Xander had turned to rubble earlier. The building itself was almost a temple and had many exotic works of art along its walls and soft linens hanging from the ceiling.

"Lord Yokonamy I am Frae'Tar, the Jaffa Master of Poc'nah."

The elderly Jaffa Master that Rak'nah had talked to before approached them. He was replete in old and strong looking armour and cut quite the warrior dash. He was an old man, probably much older than the 70 he appeared to be, with a salt and pepper beard, a skull cap and bright intelligent blue eyes.

Using the horribly scratchy Goa'uld voice Xander replied,

"Greetings, Master Jaffa."

Rak'nah stepped forward knowing well that his Lord didn't like to waste words.

"We are pleased with your welcome Jaffa Master" he told the much smaller Jaffa with a bow.

The elderly Jaffa smiled broadly at them both and waved a hand. Suddenly attractive female Jaffa appeared with various delicacies from the planet and surrounding systems and laid them on a table in front of the group.

"If my Lord so wishes, we have prepared a feast."

Xander eyed the groaning table with a little worry; he wasn't expected to eat ALL of that was he?

"Thank you Frae'Tar. I am pleased."

The Jaffa master looked surprised by the praise and pointed to an ornate chair at the head of the table.

"If my lord wishes?"

Xander took the seat and was quickly surrounded on both sides by fine female flesh. He glanced to the left at the beautiful blonde haired Jaffa and then to the right at the beautiful brunette Jaffa, and smiled. It was a good job the gang wasn't there to see him he decided. He waved a vague hand at the others

"Sit. I do not wish to eat alone" he intoned, watching the surprised look on the Jaffa's faces as they sat down with their god.

"Are my people catered for during this feast?"

"I'm sorry my lord?" the Jaffa Master asked.

"Do they have food to eat during this feast?"

Frae'Tar looked confused, even as Rak'nah appeared to realise what Xander was talking about.

"If my Lord commands?" his First Prime said.

Xander nodded, and Rak'nah arranged for a large portion of the enormous meal to be shared out as far as it would go in the temple and beyond its walls.

"It isn't a feast if my people are not feasting too, is it now," Xander asked curiously.

"My lord, previous urh, rulers, did not treat their Jaffa with such – respect," Rak'nah told him. "The Jaffa here do not realise you are a wise and generous god."

Xander nodded his agreement; the statement was obviously true illustrated by the way various Jaffa were looking at him. "I am not like the others," he said clearly in somewhat of a double meaning. He was kinder for sure, but neither was he a god, but he wasn't about to blurt that fact out just yet.

"Are my people here well cared for?" Xander asked carefully. "Do they have medical facilities, all the food they require?"

"We are well sire," Frae'Tar told him looking a little shifty as he did so.

"I wish only the truth. You will not be punished for the truth."

"Winter comes, my Lord, and with it much hard living. There is illness to the north that our Prim'ta struggle to contain."

Xander mentally looked up the word and nodded seriously, "A grave situation indeed." He said reaching out to his ship via his wet works and starting some broad spectrum antibiotic production. He also arranged for the Resequencer plant to begin production of some simple food stuffs which the Jaffa could warehouse for the winter. Luckily, he knew his antibiotics would easily kill just about everything illness related. Hell, it might even solve their problem of being reliant on the Larval Goa'uld, but that was for another day. First he had to ensure they were cared for while he was away. He still had much to do back in what he was now calling Sector Two, his little system close to Earth.

"The matters you have brought to my attention will shortly be resolved." Xander told the Jaffa Master. "Always keep me up to date without fear that I will punish you. I wish to be informed of all problems my Jaffa face."

"Thank you, my Lord. You are most caring." Frae'Tar said, looking confused as all hell.

"Now we must talk of protections for the planet and the training I wish my Jaffa to undergo."

Sunnydale University Campus – Day

Buffy turned to her red haired friend "I'm worried."

"About what, as if I couldn't guess," Willow said with a hidden smirk.

"Xander. He's not been in contact since he left to do his stuff, and that was a couple of days ago now."

"I'm sure he's fine. I don't think there is much out there that can get past his technology, and besides, he's different now. He seems to think things through a bit before acting. Lord knows, he needed to learn that lesson." Willow mused, thinking it was something they all needed to work on really.

"Still… anything could be going on up there," Buffy said pointing her head up towards the sky.

Willow nodded thoughtfully, "I'm sure he's okay," she said after a moment.

"Yeah I suppose…" Buffy trailed off when Parker Abrahams walked carefully up to the two of them. "Yes?" she said bluntly.

"I urh, look I wanted to say I was sorry for you know – how I treated you" the dark haired young man said nervously. His eyes were flicking around and upwards as if waiting for something nasty to happen to him.

Buffy and Willow shared an amused look. "Okay" Buffy said after a moment.

"Oh – okay," Parker said looking at her for a long moment before turning away and walking off, still glancing around him every few seconds.

"That was weird," Willow said with a smirk. "I think whatever Xander is doing is getting to him."

"Yeah, maybe I should ask him to stop."

There was a pause and then they both said, "NAH"

A Day Later Sector Two – Space

Xander let out a sigh as his carrier drifted to a standstill just outside of what would become his base of operations.

Everything was moving so fast he could barely keep up himself. He had fortified the planet of Poc'nah to his satisfaction and then left to come home only to find that his base of operations was only about 50% complete. Had he not been distracted then perhaps he could have made that a much higher number. After all, Earth was where he really wanted to protect. That said, however, he now had other responsibilities that were almost as important to him. The Jaffa were happy; he could count that in his favour of things to check off his to do list.

In a way they were also important to the protection of Earth from threats from Space. They would man his outpost/station and keep him informed at all times via his neural wet works system. He would know if there was a problem almost as soon as they did. On the way back to Earth he had begun training the first of them who would then go on to train others, and so on down the line until he had a fully trained fighting force. He also had brought back several of the Pyramid shaped Motherships from Poc'nah, and the Jaffa of course needed no training on how to fight with their own equipment. He had taught them new ways to work with that equipment, however; ways that would improve their chances in one on one capital ship battles.

Other than that he had much to do in his home system of both, Sector One, Sol and now Sector Two where he planned to keep his major base for space operations. He had to finish the base off for one thing and then start stocking it, finish training the Jaffa, and a host of other small tasks he could perform out in space before venturing back to Earth to visit with his friends. The Transmat buffer was now in place, floating in a nebula just between the two systems and allowing him to almost instantly Transmat from his ship to anywhere on Earth he pleased; which was as well as he already missed his friends.

Back in 10010 his father and new friends had helped to fill in the void left when leaving his original friends and family. Here and now, with them so close, he wanted nothing more than to go to them, hold on and never let go. He could not do that though; he had to prepare himself for anything he could conceive of, and anything his now most trusted Jaffa 'second in command' Rak'nah could think of too.

They had put their heads together already a few times and brain-stormed various contingencies for space based attack, but he was aware that the large Jaffa didn't know what to think about demonic attack. At least not yet; he had to get the man down to Earth in an appropriate disguise and show him demons. If the Jaffa were willing to believe in gods, they would almost certainly be able to believe in demons. The trouble with that mechanism of thought was that it may go toward firming their thoughts about their gods, and Xander was not entirely sure he wanted them to think that if he could help it. It was important to his future plans that they started to think for themselves. He did plan on freeing them one day after all and they needed to think that way to protect themselves. Not that he would just desert them like that anyway.

He was also worried about fielding a Jaffa force on Earth. He was not sure quite how his Government would appreciate him having a standing force of alien warriors at his beck and call. He would just have to jump off that bridge when it came to it.

With a slight sigh Xander sat back in his command chair, wondering at the strange twists of fate that had made it his command chair for real. The plan was to put him in command of the fleet for the few weeks it would take to travel from his Father's base of operations to the new outpost. Now he would forever be the commander of the fleet as far as the computer was concerned, without override from him personally and not under duress. The AI was clever enough to know the difference after all. He was sure the Government would have something to say about that as well. He did after all have the capability to wipe out entire continents if he so chose. That would certainly make them nervous. He was still unsure how much he should tell the Government but, given that aliens where on their backdoor already, someone would have to tell them something soon.

Just then his eyes drifted down to one of his arm consoles and his brow rose in silent question. Someone on his ship had just sent a communication from his ship using a Jaffa, or rather Goa'uld frequency. Was this some sort of treachery or something else?

"Rak'nah," Xander said dropping the Goa'uld voice for his first prime; he didn't need to hear the voice to know Xander was in charge around the place after all.

"My Lord Yokonamy," Rak'nah said, moving into attention beside his much smaller god.

"Someone just sent an encoded communication on Goa'uld frequencies from this ship. Find them and bring them before me."

The 7 foot tall Jaffa looked around angrily, as if expecting the traitor to appear before his eyes, before barking out commands in his native tongue. Jaffa all around the bridge jumped into action and, spurred on from vague co-ordinate information from Xander himself, went off in search of the possible traitor in their midst.

"They will be found, my Lord."

"Of course" Xander said, knowing that his First Prime would not fail him. So far, since meeting him the large Jaffa he had never let Xander down, and in all honesty Xander couldn't see him starting now.

It took an hour before a badly beaten Jaffa was brought before Xander looking defiantly at his captors.

"Who did you contact?" Xander asked mildly, glaring at the men who had brought one of his Jaffa before him in such a state. He had not asked them to beat him, just bring him. They both paled at his obvious wrath and took a careful step backwards. The Lord Yokonamy had shown much mercy to various Jaffa since they had known him, but this could be when he reverted to the usual treatment they got from gods.

Xander left it at a glare and decided to talk to them later. In the meantime, the Jaffa had pulled himself almost upright and was glaring at Xander with fire in his eyes. Xander actually liked to see that look there; it was the fire of rebellion and that was something that Xander had wanted to see from the Jaffa since he had met them.

"I will tell you nothing," the Jaffa ground out, although obviously in pain.

Xander eyed him for a moment and mentally bade the Nanites in the area to focus on the Jaffa and heal his injuries, while leaving the baby Goa'uld alone for the moment. The Jaffa was lit with the strange golden glow that accompanied the Nanites working, and when they left him was looking much better. Also, he was looking highly surprised and worried.

"That was nothing but technological trickery, false god," the Jaffa spat, sounding much better.

Xander actually smiled. So far the little display of his tech shown to the Jaffa had been hailed as godly magic. "Interesting" Xander commented mildly as Rak'nah glared at the traitor with fire in his eyes. They had finally found a fine god and this fool wanted to go back to the old ways. Was he mad?

"You two" Xander said pointing to the Jaffa guards, "Leave us." The guards backed off with a bow and left feeling lucky to be alive since they had obviously displeased their god.

"Who are you? Are you actually a Jaffa."

"If you were truly a god, would you not know that?"

"Shol'va, mind your tongue," Rak'nah spat at the Jaffa.

"Are we not all Shol'va, First Prime of a false god?"

"What is your name?" Xander interjected, laying a hand on the forearm of his First Prime to hold him back.

"Jarlan, if it matters any, since I am doubtless about to die." Jarlan said with a world weary smile. He was only glad he had further reported this new god's involvement to his old Master Bra'tac before being caught.

Xander glanced down at his displays, happy to see the encoding had been broken by the ships AI easily enough. "It seems that you wish to tell someone of me, and I find that of great interest. Also, you are not about to die, Jarlan, in fact you interest me greatly. You call me a false god. Why?"

"All the Goa'uld are false gods. They pretend their godhood in order to better enslave the Jaffa under their command, and others races as well." Jarlan replied, slightly relaxing his posture at Yokonamy's words.

"Why does this person, who you do not name, want to know anything about me? Are they a rival, or something else?" Xander said, filing the false god information away for later. It appeared that not all Jaffa were as fooled as he had first thought, but that boded well for his own plans for his Jaffa.

"We watch all the Goa'uld" was the terse reply.

"At least you didn't tell him where we are. I want this base to remain at least nominally secret" Xander said wryly. He tilted his head at the Jaffa, regarding him from a new angle. This was a tricky situation for him. He sensed that not all Jaffa could, or would, follow this Jaffa's example or words. They needed their belief system for the moment; more, they needed their way of life and the Prim'ta that it brought with it. Without it, or an alternative, they would die out alarmingly quickly. Unless the organisation that Jarlan belonged to either intended to enslave the slavers, or had another like plan that was almost as bad as the current situation.

What did he do with Jarlan though? On one hand he had no wish or stomach for killing him, but if he did not he might appear weak to his Jaffa and he needed them more than they realised at that moment. On the other hand, if he let him go he may be able to forge an alliance with the movement Jarlan represented, and may just be able to sell that to his Jaffa also. Of course, the idea of a god explaining his actions in anyway was alien to many of his Jaffa at that time.

"Allow me to deal with him for you my Lord" Rak'nah purred dangerously.

"No, I would like to meet with your master, Jarlan, on neutral ground perhaps. I think we might have much to talk about." Xander said, holding back his First Prime again.

Rak'nah looked a little surprised, but he was quickly becoming used to being surprised around his new god. He sensed that he was totally unlike the other System lords Rak'nah had come across, or indeed the Goa'uld in general. He walked and talked like a Goa'uld when he wished to, but most of the time he was much more relaxed around Rak'nah than a Goa'uld would dream of. There was definitely something special about Yokonamy, and Rak'nah was sensing strongly that it boded well for himself in particular, and his people in general.

Jarlan on the other hand was totally floored by that little speech, and was obviously on the verge of falling apart deciding what to do about it.

"For now, you are free to go. In future, I will monitor all your communications and you are under orders not to try to leave this ship, but other than that you are free to move around." Xander said, hoping he wasn't making a horrible mistake in giving the Jaffa the freedom of movement. "Rak'nah, spread the word that he is not to be harmed." he added as an afterthought.

Sector Two - Space

Jarlan sat in his temporary quarters feeling completely bewildered. He had just openly defied a false god, a Goa'uld in all outward appearance, and had lived to tell the tale. When the Jaffa guards had come for him, he had known that his life was over. Imagine his surprise, when suddenly, he was forced to kneel before the false god. Deep within his own bones, he knew something wasn't right. The false god had shown concern for his well being and directed some of his magical technology to healing him. This was his first clue that the meeting wasn't going to be within the normal parameters that he was expecting. The questions, however, had seemed fairly standard, 'who do you work for', 'who are they' exactly type things to be expected, but the intent behind them was that of curiosity and not with a view to wiping them out. Now he found himself, sitting in his quarters while wondering what to do. He was on restrictions as to where he could go but by the Lord Yokonamy's orders he had been left with a communications device to contact his masters.

Should he do so? That seemed to be the question of the hour. It could all be a ruse to get at Master Bra'tac but something deep in his Goa'uld infested gut was telling Jarlan that this was not the case. The Lord Yokonamy, and Jarlan had trouble thinking of him any other way, wanted to talk to the elderly Jaffa master, not harm him. Jarlan didn't know what that conversation would entail exactly but he would love to be a fly on the wall during it.

He walked over to his comms device and looked at it, it was possible the Lord Yokonamy was going to try to trace this call, but this was some of the height of Jaffa technology, stolen from the Goa'uld, there was surely no way that this false god could track the signal, not with all the safe guards that they had built into it. The so called mighty System Lords themselves couldn't track these devices.

Mind made up Jarlan picked it up and opened a direct line to his old Jaffa Master.

-xXx-

Xander glanced at the viewscreen floating at his elbow as it flashed him a warning. He tapped the screen and it reported a few things to him making Rak'nah curious as to what his lord was doing. Xander noticed this and said, "Our friend with the god issues is contacting his superiors as we speak."

"Traitor, we have a fine and mighty lord finally and he acts thus it is a disgrace."

"Now, now Rak'nah he is only doing what he believes in, do you not believe that the Jaffa should be free to rule over their nations?"

This brought the huge Jaffa up short, it was only in his deepest, darkest dreams, buried deep within his soul that he had occasionally wondered what it would be like to live out from under the grinding heel of the Goa'uld; but he had never dared utter that thought to another.

"I do not know my lord, we are bred to serve."

"And you serve well, that is not to say that you could not serve each other as unified peoples."

"Are you able to trace the communication my lord?" Rak'nah asked while moving on from that troubling topic of conversation.

Xander nodded and tapped at another view screen, "Come closer my First Prime, and behold the wonders of this ship." He said with a smile and expanded the viewscreen cocoon much as he had for Willow only in a much larger direction for his first prime. Rak'nah squeezed in close to his Lord but dare not make physical contact lest he annoy his new god. Xander reached out and directed his First Prime's gaze to a display that was showing a map of the galaxy, a rather complete map at that. "I made this from the databases of the Ha'tak we've recovered and some extrapolation. It's a political map but you'll note that the blip is not moving towards any known Goa'uld locales. In fact I'm surprised to say that it is moving towards Earth."

"Earth, the system we are currently close to?"

"Indeed Rak'nah, indeed."

"What is your interest here; the Tau'ri is nothing but a bane to the Goa'uld?"

"Glad to hear it," Xander said with some amusement showing through his god act. He had read several collated reports of the trouble his people were causing the Goa'uld in particular Apophis who was the main false god at that moment in time thanks to his superior fleet. Xander knew that wouldn't last long especially if he came into direct combat with Xander's carrier again. He was fed up with fighting with the gloves on, next time they came off and he fought all out. He was technologically superior to everything in the galaxy as far as he could tell and he wasn't having some upstart Goa'uld threatening his planets again, either of them.

Rak'nah shot him a strange look but he was quickly getting used to the strangeness of his Lord Yokonamy who seemed to delight in the other god's bad luck thanks to the Tau'ri.

Stargate Command, Earth

General Hammond looked up at the knock to his door and saw Master Jaffa Bra'tac standing there waiting to be invited in. "Come in Master Bra'tac," George said genially.

"Hammond of Texas I have urgent news for you."

"What is it, anything I can do to help?"

"Perhaps, I have just received word from my spy aboard Yokonamy's ship. He has been uncovered and instead of being tortured to death this Yokonamy seeks an audience with me instead. Jarlan, for that is his name, assures me that he believes Yokonamy is being truthful when he says that he means me no harm."

George sat back in his leather chair and looked at Bra'tac seriously, "That's dangerous," he noted, "Very dangerous."

"Without risk, we will never end this conflict. If an ally can be found even amongst the false gods even for a short time, perhaps we should take it. My spy reports that he treats his Jaffa well, better than any other Goa'uld has before him. His first Prime who it has been confirmed as being Rak'nah is treated with respect and Jarlan was shown concern when a couple of Jaffa got carried away in their duties."

"Is he well?"

"Apparently fully healed thanks to some technology that the Lord Yokonamy has," Bra'tac replied easily. "He sounds to be an interesting ally for my people and yours too Hammond of Texas."

"He does, he seems almost too good."

"That was my thought as well."

"Would you like SG1 to accompany you to the meeting?"

"I would," Bra'tac decided.

"Where's the meet?"

"I have passed on an old base of the Tok'ra, one that I personally scouted out before and one of the few attached to a gate. I thought it as well to have an advantage."

"Sound thinking," Hammond applauded.

Bra'tac merely slightly inclined his head; he had been doing that sort of thinking for over a hundred years it just made sense to him.

Outskirts of Sol, Space

Xander looked out at the vista of space on the main view screen. By rights he should be down on the planet having a quiet drink with the girls at that time of day. He had certainly not planned for all the political maneuvering that he suddenly had to do. He had found out that day that the Jaffa was not such a lost cause as he had at first thought and that they were capable of thinking outside of the paradigm set for them by the Goa'uld. He had found out about an organization called the free Jaffa and another called the Tok'ra. The last name had been said to him as if he should know it. He understood it in theory, 'Against Ra' it had taken a quick search on his new found database to really understand them though, Goa'uld against Goa'uld in effect, Jaffa against Goa'uld, Humans against Goa'uld and Jaffa. It was all almost too much to take in and he was now smack dab in the middle of all of it. He had started out with such a seemingly simple goal. Look after planet earth and then he had protected it from an invader and things had gotten quickly complicated and he hadn't even started to look into the whole demon thing or the world hunger one he had promised Willow that he would. He was really started to regret that one. He was only one man, admittedly one man with a genius IQ and an entire fleet of ultra high tech ships at his beck and call but still only one man. That thought had led him to getting the Jaffa involved with him in the first place. Had he known the baggage they carried with them… well he still would have gotten involved but at least he would have been forewarned that way.

Luckily he was alone on the bridge so his sigh was not overheard as he sat back in his command chair and brought some systems online that he had not anticipated having to. Security came online; the full suite and the Nanites went into active mode, shoring up the hull and everything inside of it. He activated the internal defenses that had lain dormant to that point and a few of the more esoteric technological marvels on the ship. He brought the main guns online and charged them, they weren't the Expulsor canons they were the ships main form of offense in a capital ship fight for their time period. He was well aware that using them in this time period would be tantamount to murdering the opposing crew but he now had his own people to protect because every single one of the Jaffa on board were now under his protection along with nearly a billion more on a planet some distance away and several thousand on Ha'tak that were nearby.

Then with a final sigh he put the scanning systems on full power, this took them from passive to a more aggressive mode. The entire system and those around it suddenly appeared in much higher resolution than they had been before on his tactical display. "Computer, design and start construction of a mark fifty AI," Xander said in a dead sounding tone.

"Unable to comply this is against the Niamater Accord ruling."

"I am well aware of that but computer tell me what date was that ruling held?"

"By the current calendar calculations 8002 AD," the computer told him.

"So why are you taking any notice of a ruling that hasn't been passed yet by a body that won't exist for thousands of years."

The computer was silent for a long moment, "Unable to compute, relying on backup decision making programs, what is your command commander."

"I command you to start to design and build a mark fifty AI system for the Starbase codename: alpha one."

"Compliance," the computer intoned. "Design is underway."

"When the design is complete and its built have it design the next stage until we get to mark 100, make sure all the standard safety protocols are a base part of the programming on all and I mean all iterations of the design process. In particular I want you to add a primary protocol that it will always do as I say no matter what other protocols that violates even its own core."

"Working… done."

Xander knew he was taking an enormous risk there but he needed some help and a real live AI would be a great deal of help in running things while he wasn't around. It would in effect become a sort of 2IC to Xander himself and it would for the most part be in charge of the running of the mining operations and all station operations. He just hoped he hadn't just created a real life HAL.

"Start production on a version two of the current Nanite population for the station and once that is done produce some for here as well."

"Any particular commands for them Commander," the computer enquired.

"Yes, I want them to ignore certain types of energy in people, specifically the types found in the scans of my friend Willow."

"Compliance," the computer told him, "current work load will take one hundred hours for the computer design job and three hours for the nanite reprogramming and production."

Xander nodded to himself more than the computer and relaxed back in his chair once more, "Take the current on board fleet out of moth balls and begin construction of simulators."

"Then I want you to direct any of the weaker ships into the geode right now. It will offer them some protection at least."

"Are we going to war commander?"

"Maybe, maybe, oh set course for the Stargate address we got earlier, I converted the address to Autolang."

"Yes Commander."

Xander then put up his feet and watched the stars begin to streak by, "Set a factor of five we're in no rush."

"We are at speed Commander."

Abandoned Tok'ra Base, Day

The transmat let go of Xander leaving him amongst an arid terrain. He had come alone, as was the request, with only him in his uniform and all the gear that went on that uniform. It was more of a ceremonial thing really. That said, it was also functional and had some survival items in it. The most important one at that point was his Nanites which glowed golden against the sting of the sand storm he had transmatted into. They weren't acting as a shield as such but they were undoing any damage that the sand tried to cause Xander almost before it was done trying to damage him. Thus it made him glow slightly in the storm but not enough to block his vision. He walked forward he had deliberately transmatted down to co-ordinates that were a few miles away from the transmitted ones just in case of ambush.

He walked up to find an elderly Jaffa was waiting for him by a pillar that was sticking out of the sand and looked to be quite out of place. Then the old Jaffa held up a device and pressed a button. Rings leapt up around the two of them and Xander's side arm appeared as if by magic into his hand. The rings then transported them down out of the storm and into the middle of what, at first glance, appeared to be an ambush.

"Carter," a male voice snapped out even as Xander moved like a snake and curled an arm around the Jaffa's neck and pointed his side arm at his head.

"Master Bra'tac," a large man called out.

"Stay still big guy or I'll blow his head clean off," Xander purred dangerously. "Who the hell are you all, the communication said I was to meet Master Bra'tac here alone, there was no mention of extra company." Xander tightened his grip on the old Jaffa. "I really don't take too kindly in being led into an ambush."

A sandy haired man stepped forward with an engaging smile, "My name is Daniel Jackson, that's Teal'c and the woman to your side is Major Carter, and the man next to me is Colonel Jack O'Neil. We mean you no harm; we are simply here in support of Master Bra'tac."

Xander looked at them cautiously for a long moment. The guy that had talked, Daniel seemed to be sincere but then he had that sort of face that anything would seem sincere. The one that was likely in charge was the Colonel and he looked weather beaten and cynical, so it was no wonder the guy in glasses had done the talking. "Tau'ri?" Xander asked, flashing his eyes and speaking with the dual tone of the Goa'uld, he had no wish to have earthers knowing about him, especially the military who would sell their souls for his technology.

Daniel, who had just been thinking that the so called Goa'uld was not, took a sharp step back at the display. "Would you let go of Master Bra'tac please, we really are here only to talk."

Xander surveyed them and let his intellect fire over that one for a moment before finally letting go and stepping sharply back and leveling his weapon in their general direction.

The Jaffa Master rubbed his throat ruefully surprised at the strength shown or that any Goa'uld would lower themselves to physical violence as that was what they had Jaffa for after all. "We mean peace," he said croakily.

"Then I suggest you start talking I take it the Free Jaffa is in league with the Tau'ri."

"That's true," Bra'tac said with a slight smile, "As are the Tok'ra, but the question remains who are you in league with?"

"Myself and several billion Jaffa," Xander quipped back, his voice once again normal.

"Are you Goa'uld?" The Colonel asked finally stepping into the conversation now that things were moving along, "Because you sure as hell don't act like one."

"Do you not believe your eyes and ears," Xander asked carefully.

"After all I've seen in this crazy, crazy world?" O'Neil quipped.

"We are all individuals," Xander said, "Aren't the Tau'ri?"

"We wonder if you would be willing to form an alliance," Master Bra'tac asked in a straight forward way, as was his preference.

"I would," Xander said simply and lowered his side arm, "Depending on a few provisos."

"Such as," O'Neil asked.

"I am already standing guard at both Poc'Nah and Earth. I will protect both planets with my full might and I come and go as I please. I have one aim, to protect my people."

"That doesn't sound so bad," O'Neil said tentatively.

"As far as resources, I will not supply anything more advanced than a Ha'tak to you. My main fleet however; my main fleet remains mine alone."

"You have more than pyramid ships" O'Neil asked with a slight smile.

"I do, currently around earth there is a defense grid, under my direct control, that is protecting the planet and system."

O'Neil didn't look like he liked the thought of being surrounded by satellites under a so called Goa'ulds control. "Not a chance. I can't allow something as powerful and dangerous as that to be solely under the control of an unproven ally. Hell, we wouldn't allow something like this to be in place with an ally that has proven themselves," he said clearly.

"It is already done," Xander said calmly, "They are pointing into space Colonel; you need not fear."

"My commanders won't accept that, at the very least give us some control over them?"

Xander paused and thought that over, "I will give you access to the level that you can set the defenses into active mode, meaning they will fire on any ship that comes towards you with the exception of my own." He then held out his hand and concentrated on his wet works and sent a command to his awaiting carrier in space. A moment later, with a swirl of green lights, a controller appeared just over his hand and then dropped into it. He offered it to O'Neil with a slight smile, "This will activate the defense grid and make its teeth show."

O'Neil took it with some surprise showing, that had been almost too easy. He looked at the device; it was very simple and had a thumb sized panel on it which was what obviously set the grid into active mode. The weird thing was this Goa'uld had just handed it over.

"We'll talk about the sharing of technology later, I'm very curious about a few things and I have some items that may interest you."

"Such as," Carter said stepping forward slightly.

Xander pegged her as the scientist of the group easily, "For starters I can give you shielding for your command center."

Carter looked excited and smiled at him. It was a wonderful smile that Xander found himself responding to with a smile of his own.

"What of you Master Jaffa, what is it you require?" Xander asked, "I do wish to forge an alliance with you. It was the reason I came here," At he shot the members of SG1 a smirk before looking back at the old Jaffa while stressing, "Alone."

Master Bra'tac looked thoughtful, while ignoring the last part of that statement. "Currently I need very little; information would be useful as it is in any war."

"That I can provide," Xander said and did his wet works trick again this time a crystal appeared in his hand which he handed over to the Master Jaffa, "I have an Al'Kesh with your name on it also, which will take yourself and Jarlan wherever you wish to go. Or if you prefer I will clear out a Ha'tak?" Xander enquired.

"A Ha'tak, you're willing to give me a mother ship?" This was a marvelous boon for the movement.

"Consider it yours," Xander said and sent out mental commands, "It will be here shortly."

"You know where we are, in space, from a gate address," Carter asked. "The Coordinate system for a mother ship is totally different from the gate system. "

"It's not hard to work out," Xander replied. This was much to the amazement of Carter who was looking surprised. This appeared to be an intelligent Goa'uld that could work things out for his self and was not like the Tok'ra in that he was willingly sharing technology and information with them.

He was almost too good to be true.

"You look familiar, by the way," Daniel asked who had been studying the dark haired Goa'uld for some time, "Have we met before?" It was weird he felt that he knew him for some reason but didn't know why.

"Nope," Xander said with a smile, giving the SG1 team even more reason to wonder about him. He didn't talk much like a Goa'uld at all.

"If there are to be any further negotiations, I would say we need to talk with my direct commander, General Hammond." O'Neil said stepping forward and stopping the banter.

Xander nodded, "You wish to do so now?"

"We'd have to let you through the gate on earth as it is protected by an Iris," Carter put forth.

Xander reached into a pocket and pulled out a basic communications device, he had to trawl the database for the damn thing at that. It was a FTL capable radio basically so they could talk to him real time, he suspected that he would need one of these, luckily he had brought two going by the old adage that you will always need more than you have on you. He handed one to the gorgeous Major Carter and the other to the weathered and pockmarked Jaffa Master.

"For now, I bid you farewell." He said and trigged a transmat to his ship, pleased he had the last word and the looks on their faces had been classic.