SG1-15 The Power Behind the Throne by Steven Savile Read Free Book Online

side and share his misgivings about what they were getting involved in. “Something bothering you?”
    Daniel shrugged. “Hard to say.” Of course, it wasn’t, it was easy to say, what was hard was to live with the consequences of what he had to say.
    “Spit it out, Daniel.”
    “All right, here’s the thing,” Daniel said. “Are we sure we want to do this? I mean, have we thought through the implications of bringing this creature back with us? Are we talking about trying to keep it a prisoner here, trading one cell for another? And if we aren’t, then what? It isn’t as though we can drop it off at Disney World and tell it to go sightseeing. And the only other option I can come up with turns us into a death squad. So, what are we going to do? And don’t say find it and worry about it later. The Ancients hid the Mujina for a reason: they understood the threat it posed.”
    “So what do you suggest, Daniel?”
    “I don’t know, Jack. I can’t see any good coming out of this. The Tok’ra called it a weapon, but it’s worse than that; you can choose not to detonate a bomb or put the safety on a gun, but how do you stop this creature from being what it is? How do you stop it from finding the one thing it knows you will respond to, and giving it to you? Kill it? That’s not what we are, is it? Or did we become the Tok’ra’s assassins when I wasn’t looking?” Daniel screwed his face up. He’d said it. He hadn’t intended to, but looking at his friend he’d not been able to stop himself. He owed it to Jack to speak up. Besides, of them all, Jack was surely the most likely to respond to the creature — after all, there was enough need in him to fuel an army of Mujinas.
    “No one is killing anything,” Jack said, and Daniel almost believed him, but Jack was a soldier — he had to know it came down to assessing a credible threat and removing that threat if there was no alternative. The Mujina could not be allowed to fall into Goa’uld hands, but neither could it be allowed fall into human hands. It didn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to picture a Mayberry or a Kinsey with something like the Mujina by their side, and imagine the reflection their flawed humanity would conjure from the creature. Jack had to know full well that mankind was every bit as dangerous as anything the stars could bring down. And if he knew, then his promise had to be a lie. A well intentioned lie, but a lie just the same. “We’re on a Search and Rescue, let’s find this creature, extract it, and get back home. We can worry about the “What If’s” when we’ve made sure it can’t fall into Goa’uld hands. That’s a promise, okay? But until then we have got our orders.”
    “All right, Jack,” he said, closing the door of the command room behind him.

Chapter Eight
     
Jet Black Sunrise
     
    Iblis strode purposefully through the dank corridor.
This
, he thought, and not for the first time in the year since he had awoken,
is the hive of power? This filth-ridden place?
It was laughable. These Corvani had no class. They were like grubs crawling about in their own excreta. How they had risen above the Kelani amazed him. But then, the Kelani were hardly more developed than the average monkey. He looked back at Kelkus trailing along behind him, sniffing and sniveling in his footsteps.
Monkey, yes, that was an appropriate comparison
. Iblis was tired of the wretched human, but as long as he served a purpose he would allow the man to live. He needed a disciple, and Kelkus had proven just that. Willing to do anything to spread Iblis’ influence in the Court of the Raven King without risk of exposing his nature, allowing Iblis to plant the seeds of unrest and greed he thrived upon. But it hurt him, all of this sneaking about. He battled with his ego, wanting to stride these corridors as god, as was his right.
In time,
he promised himself.
In time.
As it was, he had his own role to play and for the moment it was every bit