OOC: W/ Sep

There was a request from the good doctor asking for trouble. “If you’re sure it’s safe, go ahead.” Black was a lot surprised and little disappointed at Williams actually pulling it off. She had to admit the man's diplomatic skills were in the top league, having no idea how he managed to defuse the situation. On the other hand, his skills just cost Earth a Ha'Tak and a few Al'Kesh. Oh well, she can't have everything. As far as she was concerned, she didn't expect to be disappointed as other opportunities were likely to arise. "Copy that. I'll be in the ready room." she replied to Williams.

"You heard the man - Assume orbit around Tolia, power down railguns." she said, frankly hating the idea. They could however not detect if the missiles were primed - a circuit the size of a laptop hidden in a piece of tech like the ship and behind shields, there was no way. "Reset the missiles to proximity fuses. Tubes one through three distance 1 kilometer, tube four 500 meters." she ordered, keeping why she wanted it to herself for now. 

She was just about to redirect Ariadne and Brandt to the ready room, when the sensors officer frantically called out to her: “They’re retreating! Ha’Tak is powering down!” Kat raised an eyebrow. “What the hell is going on here? Full alert!” she said, cancelling the stand down. 

Williams heard the alarms as the lights dimmed and the lower energy red lights came on in order to preserve power that would be needed for shields in a combat situation. He pressed his earpiece not two seconds after he had walked out of his office. “Captain, what is going on? Why have we entered a full alert?”

“They’re withdrawing. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s not much in character with Halion, is it? Continue to the ready room, I’m sending Ariadne and Brandt as well. We may have to get out fast if this is a trap.” Catherine said, signalling the two infiltrators to the briefing room. “Keep an eye out and inform me of any changes! If they decide to turn around and attack, the three kilometer fuse missiles should be enough to put a radiation cloud big enough to blind the Ha’Tak, and launch the short fuse one in the middle of the enemy strike craft formation as a mine. It should take at least some of them out!” she gave the orders, trusting the bridge to the officers and going to the ready room.

That was when it got interesting. A communication came into ship, routed to both Williams and the Captain. “This is Tonak of Tolia-” Oh, what a lie. “-Due to Halions hostile actions against our allies, those who freed us. The people of the Tauri we have removed him from office and I have taken his place. Feel free to beam down to aforementioned site if it makes you feel safer than beaming into town. You may carry whatever makes you feel safer, I shall disable the beam jammers if I can to most of the sites. However I do not have a broad enough understanding to disable the jamming off the Ancestral facility. If you copy this, please respond.” There was a smug look on his face and no-one else in the room dared to speak. Some of them he knew agreed with him, others were just in it for power. He himself, was using them all.

"A coup? Sir, I strongly advise against going down there. I don't trust these people as far as I can throw them." Black told Williams on a private line, not intending to talk to the Tollian himself. She'd need an editor beforehand. "Before we knew they were hostile, now we know literally nothing. If you insist on beaming down, you have to find volunteers, I am not ordering anyone to go into the unknown." she delivered. Harsh, rebellious even, but she would never endanger a crewman when there was nothing to gain from it.

"Found the gate yet?" she asked, turning to the sensors officer. "It is in one of the areas that was shielded before. It's buried." The officer reported back, a blip lighting on the map with the gate's location. "Beam it on board and have an engineering team look at it. I want it ready to be redeployed to the planet to receive from Earth once we leave."

Williams pondered on it, there was still the whole issue of the Ancient Facility. “I agree with you on this one Captain. They’re too unstable to risk people with. Send a small detachment down to the area we were planned to meet at, say Rea’c and Lieutenant Zaken now in order to scout out the area before we were set to go down. We’ll find out if there are any traps going on and insist on meeting this… Tonak somewhere outside of his power influence. At the same time this Ancient Facility is too good to pass up. There are few of them in the milky way in such good condition. See if we can beam anyone near to it. Lieutenant Brown should have the necessary expertise to find a way in as should Colonel Blaze*. We need to find out if it is worth sneaking into just to download technological specs to go over in the ship.” He paused to think for a moment.

This Tonak obviously staged some form of military coup, so probably some kind of military leader. “Captain, in this case I feel that it should be you to speak to this… Tonak. He is obviously a military leader and will more likely respect speaking to a fellow military mind more than speaking to a civilian. We need a look at that facility, and see if he would allow for a delegation from Earth to be sent. A ground borne SG team will have an easier time being reinforced and doesn’t have to worry about a base attack.”

Wondering if Mr. Williams wanted to torture her on purpose, she none the less nodded, despite only being on audio. “Very well. Just a note: We found the gate and are preparing it to be deployed to the planet as we speak, should that be desirable.” Frankly, she’d love to just dump this planet on SGC and go to the next one. They found the gate, the facility was intact, Earth could do the rest.

Arriving to the ready room, she pointed to Lt. Zaken and Rea’c: “Williams wants the two of you to beam down and scout the area. I don’t know if you heard but there has been a coup on the planet. The ships have withdrawn, but we have no idea of what’s going on down there. I will not order you to go, this is a volunteer task. In case you have trouble, I asked Dr. Lawson to create a beacon powerful enough to punch through the jamming should they put it back up.” she said, looking for the good doctor. Hopefully he would finish it soon enough. “So quick evac is an option should you accept.” she finished, not really knowing enough to give them any other pointers.

Standing a bit aside, she tapped her earpiece: “This is captain Black. Your coup hardly inspires confidence. I may send a small envoy, but should anything happen to them, I [i]will[/i] wipe you out as a navigational hazard for other ships.” she told the Tolian, her patience reaching it’s limits

Tonak laughed at this, off the microphone of course. He wouldn’t be so stupid. “I completely understand Captain. I am sure if our roles were reversed I would be just as cautious at sending my people into the fray. If it will make you feel more comfortable you may send people over to the Ha’tak to ensure that it will not be used against your people. I only want to find out the secrets of the Ancestral facility and hopefully instigate good relations with the first ones of the Tauri. Many people here almost revere you as they did the false god Amethes for what you did for us. Now we can find Aeryn, his host, and let him live a free life. For many years the former host of the Goa’uld was hunted by Halion and tortured for the crimes the Goa’uld committed. Some of us are not as backward as you may believe. I only hope that we can make amends and he can too help you and I find out the secret of the Ancestors together.”

He took a break as if some of this was having an emotional effect on him. “I assure you, our government was in agreement to replace Halion we only feared to do it until now, we hope that our planet and its facility can assist in uniting the Galaxy. Please help us do that.”. Oh god, he sounded like the Tauri now in their quest for power. He sometimes had to exaggerate but all this made him want to shoot himself in the forehead. At least with Halion gone he wouldn’t need to uphold the pretext for long.