Iron Shirt

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Iron Shirt of the Unas

Summary

Iron Shirt (Unas name: Kor Asek) was the alpha male Unas who fought for his tribes' way of life and successfully negotiated a mining agreement with the humans of Earth, in the episode, 7.07 "Enemy Mine".

Character Biography

Iron Shirt/Kor Asek was the leader of at least one mid-size clan of Unas on P3X-403. He wore a Jaffa chain mail tunic, thus giving his name, Kor Asek, which means Iron Shirt in the Unas language. His face was scarred from some past battle, including across his right eye. Despite this deformity, or perhaps because of it, Iron Shirt was respected and even followed by the rest of the large number of Unas on the planet, even those not of his clan.

Iron Shirt and his clan watched as SG-11 tested various areas on their planet. Eventually, Lt. Ritter moved into an area where many Unas died in subjugation to the Goa’uld, and was thus sacred ground to Unas. Iron Shirt or one of his tribe attacked Ritter and killed him. The tribe left his body exposed on a totem as a warning for other trespassers.

The trespassers did not heed the warning. Iron Shirt watched as the search and rescue team took Lt. Ritter and then moved farther into the forbidden territory. His tribe attacked the group. Iron Shirt slashed one (Lt. Menard) in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Before continuing his attack on the frightened Menard, he noticed one of his tribe felled by the strange weapons of the trespassers. Turning, he saw reinforcements arriving.

Iron Shirt clawed one of the new attackers as he passed by. Wounded, the newcomer (Jack O’Neill) fell to the ground. Iron Shirt approached menacingly to press his advantage. Then a voice called out in his language to stop his attack. He turned to find another stranger (Daniel Jackson) speaking the Unas tongue. Confused, Iron Shirt studied both the stranger and the wounded one. Both had their strange weapons raised but were not firing. Questioning if the strangers were really friends, he called his tribe off, and they escaped into the forest.

Much later, Iron Shirt came across an Unas he had never seen before and the trespasser who had spoken his language awaiting their arrival. Iron Shirt and his tribe approached aggressively. The strangers adopted a proper submissive posture, so Iron Shirt ordered his tribe back. The strange Unas introduced himself as Chaka, and his companion was an ‘Uman (human) named Dan’al (Daniel). The two wanted to negotiate with Iron Shirt: Chaka offering a knife, which Iron Shirt exchanged for his bracelet. The negotiations lasted through the night.

After a break, the negotiations resumed. Daniel explained the humans needed the naquadah from the mines to make weapons to fight the Goa’uld. In return he offered food for the Unas. Daniel became insistent that they needed to agree because if not, the humans would move the Unas away from their home. Iron Shirt bristled at this threat, and countered that if Daniel’s people attempted to relocate them, all the tribes would fight and kill the humans.

Daniel became visibly concerned when Iron Shirt proudly proclaimed the numbers of all the tribes he led. Daniel tried to speak into one of his strange devices, then ran from the negotiations, telling Iron Shirt to wait there. Soon Iron Shirt heard the sounds of the humans’ weapons and found one of his tribe dead. He called all the tribes to him, and greatly outnumbering the enemy, they surrounded the ridge above the humans’ camp.

Iron Shirt then approached the camp alone. Daniel again tried to explain the Unas and humans could be friends. Iron Shirt accused the human of trickery. Daniel knelt in submission to Iron Shirt, eventually convincing the other human alpha male (Col. Edwards) for the other humans to also kneel. Understanding the gesture, Iron Shirt called off the attack to the Unas on the ridge and acknowledged acceptance by using Daniel’s word “honor”.

Daniel offered to rekindle the negotiations by giving a small device that could make fire. Iron Shirt, recognizing the value of such a gift, returned the gesture with one of his most prized possessions, the bone necklace that protected him from the Goa’uld. They negotiated again, Iron Shirt eventually proposing that in exchange for the humans staying away from the sacred areas, the Unas would honor their ancestors by mining the naquadah themselves and giving the mineral to the humans to defeat the Goa’uld. Daniel accepted the proposal.

Since the naquadah deposit on P3X-403 was extraordinarily dense, Iron Shirt and his people presumably are still mining the material for the SGC.

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--Aurora Novarum 23:27, 09 Dec 2005 (EST)