Chapter One Hundred And Eighty-Eight

Outpost. Trading World.

I'd seen this in a vision not so long ago when dreaming. Vala Mal Doran at my mercy, she was currently locked up in the outpost's prison, a place that was normally used to confine visitors to this world who had a little too much to drink at the bar, or to house those who had sticky fingers. Most of the people who ended up staying here for a night ended up going free again or got barred from the outpost. This time things would be different.

Vala was the key to the Ori invasion of this galaxy and therefore the means of preventing it. If she never gave Daniel Jackson that tablet, he would never translate it, and they'd never find that Long Distance Communication Device that would link them to a couple of people in the Ori galaxy. Without that happening the Ascended Ori would never learn of the humans of this galaxy and therefore never send a crusade force.

Thanks to my attempts to prevent this by both seeing and shaping the future, as the Eldar Farseer had somewhat taught me to do, I'd known that by opening up this trading outpost, and that by offering Naquadah as payment for rare items and technology, that she'd be drawn to it. Low and behold here she was, trapped in a cell, at my mercy.

"You're no common thief" I said.

Since I needed to pretend that I didn't already know this woman I'd looked her up and down so as to see what I might deduce if I'd not known her at all. Her clothes were too high in quality to be hand made by medieval people and she was too healthy looking to have come from a more primitive world. Also they weren't exactly very suitable to be worn in public.

"There's nothing common about me, I assure you" insisted the prisoner.

I turned to address Oriana, who had been placed in charge of the administration of this outpost by her older sister/clone. Like Miranda she had a gift for this sort of work, and better people skills that her sister/clone Miranda who came off as superior were as Oriana was more friendly. A result of having a more normal upbringing with her foster family I assumed.

"What did she do?" I asked Oriana.

She wasn't the only one to try to answer that question.

"Nothing too bad" lied Vala

Upon hearing that Jack, who I'd brought along because I'd not spent much time with her recently, burst out laughing.

"She and five men, who were under some kind of mind control, attempted to rob the vault that we have on the bottom floor of the admin office" my sister-in-law let me know "She and her friends were taken down by the security guards who were using shock mauls"

Such weapons were most commonly seen in the use of the Adeptus Arbites and Enforcer squads on countless Imperial worlds. Upon activation, they deliver a powerful incapacitating shock to the enemy. Shock Mauls are primarily used for crowd control, but can also be a deadly melee weapon in the right hands.

"After that her companions started claiming that she had them ensnared with some sort of Goa'uld technology" Orinana told me.

That very well could be true.

"Goa'uld have a mind control substance called Nista, or something like that" I explained "I don't know much about it other than if you get an electric shock while under its effect you snap out of it. So those men might be telling the truth".

Since that did involve alien tech it would be a good idea to contact the Inquisitor and let her handle those me, if they were lying well we always needed more servitors. As for Vala I wanted her for myself as she could be useful to me. I intended to make her mine and I didn't care at all about what she wanted from life as she was part of my plans for this galaxy.

"You tried to steal from House Thrax '' I said to the prisoner "That was most unwise. So you and I are going to talk, and you better hope that you know something worthwhile enough to trade for your life".

I wouldn't actually kill her. I just wanted to interrogate her and while doing so twist her mind so that she would become loyal to me. This would take a few sessions, as such I'd have her transferred to my battlecruiser so that I work on while also ensuring that my ship was running smoothly.