Retaliation by Bill McCay Page A

days.
    “She’s one of the people who had the most to lose when the world changed,” Faizah said. “Think about it. She was one of a very privileged few on this world. Her father was the virtual ruler of Nagada, in the ab-sence of Ra or the Horus guards.”
    The girl shook her head. “I guess there’s a little bit of Ra in all of us. When people have power, they want to keep it. I saw that when I met Gary. He had to be the boss. Maybe it’s the same thing here.
    Kasuf still runs Nagada, with your help. Skaara leads warriors. And Sha’uri. .. found you.” “I-ah, think you’re oversimplifying,” Daniel said, his voice constricted. He’d always considered his mar-riage a piece of almost Hollywood luck-the end-of-the-movie scene where the hero weds the chieftain’s daughter. But what had Sha’uri gotten out of the bargain?
    Faizah was still talking. “It must be hard, I suppose, to face what Abydos has become if you’re still con-nected to the old ways of things. Like children. Old fo-gies-“she smiled at the idiom-“tell me I ought to be married and pregnant by now. It’s one of the reasons I was glad to leave home. I can’t tell you how glad I am to be here, making a future for my possible children rather than making children for a possible future.”
    She was very serious now. “I mean, I’ve got the rest of my life for kids. With the work we have to do now for Abydos-opting out now would be just about the same thing as-as treason.”
    “That’s a pretty strong statement, young lady,” Daniel said. “We’ve talked a bit about how things work on my world and how they work here. But what you’re talking about now sounds very much like what we Earth folk call politics.” “ ‘Politics.’ “ Faizah repeated the word as if she were tasting it. “If that means how I think this world should be-well, you might not like it.” “As long as the program doesn’t start with
    ‘Round up all the Earthmen and kill ‘em,’ I think I can take it.” Daniel smiled.
    “I belong to a group called Freedom,” Faizah said. “Some of the more extreme members might like your idea.”
    Daniel’s smile faded. “I’d heard that some of this faction stuff was getting out of hand.”
    “But-but-!” Faizah stumbled over her words. “We thank you for what you’ve done. Without the Earthmen we’d still be a slave planet. But we’re not so grateful that we’ll follow every order-or even sug-gestion-that comes through the StarGate.”
    Thinking of the bitter struggle with the United Min-ing Cartel, Daniel had to admit the young woman was right.
    “We can’t stay with the old tribal ways,” Faizah went on. “That would leave me back home, planting fields-and being planted with babies. Learning to write is good. Everyone on Abydos should have that, if only to read the hidden histories. Once we all know where we came from, we can decide on a destiny for this world.”
    “And what do you think that should be?” Daniel asked. Faizah shrugged enchantingly. “I’ll be honest-I don’t know. But I feel that maybe the people on Earth had the right idea when they buried their StarGate.” She raised a hand toward his shocked expression. “I don’t mean for thousands of years-maybe for a century or so.” Faizah smiled. “So the people who live on Abydos can just get to work building their world- undisturbed.” Daniel found himself smiling at his student’s audacity. I wonder how General West would react to that, he wondered. His cold, drafty door into the unknown being slammed shut-from the other side!
    Then Daniel suddenly found Faizah’s plan less funny. How would West react to a movement that would cut off his only supply of Ra’s wonder quartz?

CHAPTER 7
COUNTRY MATTERS
    “Well, sir, the motor pool has just put its seal of ap-proval on the last shipment of Humvees to come through the gate,” Lieutenant Charlton reported to Jack O’Neil.
    “No embarrassments like overinflated tires to ex-plode in