Lord of Light
Part One
The four stepped through the Stargate. Jack said, "Another day, another alphabet soup planet. But look, this one has not only trees, but shrubbery and flowers too! Isn't that special?"
"Bored already, sir?" asked Sam. "The MALP said this world was uninhabited, but somebody made that path."
Daniel wandered over to a marker stone off to the side of an overgrown but still visible stone paved garden path.
"Well, at least Daniel's found something he likes," Jack said. But then Jack saw Daniel's expression. "Or not. What've you got, Daniel?"
"You're not going to like it," Daniel said, for once not touching the alien writing.
"I already don't like it, what does it say?"
"Oh, you know... I'm your god, don't follow any of the others, your standard Goa'uld sort of stuff."
"And?"
Daniel pointed to four letters. "The name of the god that claims this planet. And this over here is the name of this place."
"Daniel, I usually don't have to drag explanations out of you. What is it?"
"Nothing relevant. I think we should leave now. There's clearly nothing here that will help us in the fight against the Goa'uld." Daniel turned toward the DHD, only to be stopped by Jack's hand on his arm.
"OK, Daniel, spill it."
"This is Eden."
"Nice. Pretty place. We'll stay away from the local fruit and watch out for snakes in the grass."
"No, I mean this is really Eden. Think about it, Jack. The center of Goa'uld power on Earth was Egypt. But they had power bases as far away as Peru and China. They probably conquered all of the Middle East before branching out."
Jack was obstinately refusing to draw his own conclusions, as usual. But Sam said, "Oh God."
"Yeah," agreed Daniel. "Precisely." Daniel pointed again to the four letters. "YHWH."
"What is wrong, Daniel Jackson?"
"This one's our god, Teal'c."
"I sympathize, Daniel Jackson."
There was a long pause. "OK," said Jack. "Huddle time's over. Let's move out. See what's on the other end of that trail."
"Jack, I really think we should let sleeping Goa'ulds lie for once," said Daniel. "Do you think you could handle meeting this guy, if he's still around?"
"I've got no problem. A snake is a snake as far as I'm concerned. You?"
"I think it was harder for me to find out about Ra."
"Carter?"
"I can handle it, sir."
Jack paused for a moment, as if assessing whether she really could handle this or was just putting up a brave front. Then he looked at the path. "OK then. Let's go."
Jack led them down the garden path. Soon they came to a clearing with a temple. The front was open to the air, and the door into the structure was open.
"Standard Goa'uld architecture," commented Daniel.
They went inside. It was a throne room, but there were no Jaffa or Goa'ulds. It was empty. Daniel took out his little video camera and started recording, sweeping the room and then moving in closer to capture the Goa'uld writing on the walls. Jack and Sam stood around nervously, and Teal'c took up a guard position at the door, looking every inch a Jaffa.
"I found another Gate address," said Daniel. "It says it goes to Hot Place. I guess that means Hell, but that name is already taken." Daniel paused. Then his natural enthusiasm for archeological discoveries finally kicked in. "It says here that Yehuvehe-that's probably how it would be pronounced in this dialect-was betrayed by his son, the Lord of Light, and his First Prime, Adam. Teal'c, I guess you're not unique in history after all." Daniel glanced at Teal'c.
Teal'c said, "It is more likely that the Lord of Light was trying to take over his father's holdings, not trying to undo the System of the System Lords."
Daniel continued, "The Lord of Light led a rebellion against Yehuvehe. Yehuvehe defeated the first rebellion and banished his son's followers to Hot Place, but the Lord of Light escaped into the garden. There he corrupted the First Prime's wife, Eve, when she ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Then she convinced Adam to rebel. He put off his Jaffa armor and covered himself with leaves. Camouflaged, he attacked Yehuvehe but lost. The Lord of Light abandoned Eve and she threw him through to gate to the rest of his people in Hot Place, but Adam and Eve were caught before they could go through the gate themselves. Yehuvehe did not want the Lord of Light to have a trained warrior like Adam with him, so Yehuvehe sent the First Prime and his wife to Earth.
Jack shook his head. "You were right, Daniel, this is going to take some getting used to."
A grinding sound from behind the throne made Daniel and Jack turn around. Sam was standing on the dais, behind the ornate golden throne, and a door was opening. "I found something, guys," she said. They followed her into the next room. There beneath the time-rotted hangings was a gold sarcophagus. "I think it's operating." She moved closer, and placed a hand on its side. "There's somebody in here. Goa'uld."
"Three guess who," said Daniel. "So what do we do, Jack?"
Jack did not reply, only stared at the sarcophagus.
Teal'c said, "The Goa'uld will be vulnerable when he first awakens. If we all shoot at once, we can kill him easily."
Jack paused a moment longer. "Yeah. Yeah, good, right. Kill the snake. A snake is a snake." He took a deep breath. "Use zats. Nobody comes back from disintegration."
Jack, Sam, and Teal'c got ready and Daniel opened the sarcophagus, then stepped back quickly and brought up his zat gun. The Goa'uld inside sat up, blinking. He did not look like God-no long white beard-he was just another Goa'uld in a pretty-boy host. Jack ordered, "Fire!" and they disintegrated the Goa'uld.
The four were silent for a long time. Finally, Daniel said, "God is dead."
When they got back to the SGC, after the routine medical screening they gathering around the table for their debriefing with General Hammond.
Daniel said, "Before we begin, I'd like to say that until now I always thought the level of secrecy around here was a little over the top. So many people already believe in aliens. People want to believe in aliens, even if some of them are hostile. But there is no classification deep enough to bury this in. If what we just found gets out, the Goa'ulds won't need to destroy the Earth, we'll do it for them."
"Well, I don't know about that, Daniel," Jack said. "We've been going around telling everyone we meet that they're worshipping false gods. Turnabout's fair play."
"Come on, Jack, you've been to the Middle East. Maybe you weren't born there, like I was, but I'm sure you can imagine what would happen if the world found out the United States thinks God is an evil parasitic alien bent on galactic domination. And that we claim to have killed him. Hello, can you say jihad?"
Jack started to argue, but the General held up a hand. "Are we talking about THE God?"
"Yes, sir," said Jack. Then he started in on the debriefing.
At the end, General Hammond said, "Well, I agree with Dr. Jackson. I'm going to invent a whole new classification to put this in, and then classify the classification. Now, as much as I'd like to let you loose on translating the videos you brought back of the walls, and exploring that new gate address, we're going to have to put that off for a few days. The Tok'ra have requested your presence at their negotiations with some potential new allies. You won't be expected to mediate, just be there, as a reassuring presence. The Tok'ra think that showing that they can interact with unblended beings as equals will clinch the deal for them."
"As equals?" asked Jack. "Since when do the Tok'ra treat us as equals?"
"You're not getting out of this one, Colonel. Besides, General Carter will be there." Hammond smiled at Sam Carter. She smiled back.
The negotiations proved uneventful, except that Daniel managed to get himself into trouble again. One cantankerous old Tok'ra woman named Kiriol (at least the host was old, the symbiont was only on her first body) decided Daniel was "a very cute boy", which she announced loudly to anyone who walked by, and she pursued him all over the Tok'ra base. The second morning, Jack had to hunt Daniel down in his hiding spot in a store room to bring him back to the conference chambers. Daniel said, "Do I have to come out? I think the old crone wants my body. I least I hope it's the old crone. It would be even worse if it's the symbiont that wants my body."
The third morning, he couldn't find Daniel at all, and then it suddenly wasn't funny anymore. A search party was organized. Daniel definitely was not at the base. "Oh, for crying out loud," Jack muttered, "what is it with you people?" The negotiations ground to a halt as suspicions flew about what happened to Daniel, when they discovered that Kiriol was missing, too.
Daniel was relaxing in some natural hot springs. He reflected that if Jack were here, he would be complaining that there were too many trees. "So what is this place?" Daniel asked.
Kiriol answered from her seat on a mossy rock. "This is the Place of the Queens. It's really frustrating for me to have to have this as my first host. I'm younger than she is, even if you count the years I spent as a larva. I grew up right there." She pointed to the mineral-scented water. Daniel started to get out, but she laughed and held up a hand. "Don't worry, I was the last one. There's nobody in there right now. Except you, of course."
"Not that I don't appreciate the hot bath, but why did you bring me here? And why were you chasing me all day yesterday? I thought I knew what you wanted, but I'm in here and you're out there and now I'm kind of stumped."
Kiriol laughed again. "No, you did know what I wanted, after a fashion. I want you to seed the pool. You're handsome, you're a genius, and even better, you have a quality that we often lack: compassion."
"Uh..." said Daniel intelligently.
"I'm a Queen, Daniel. Sure, I could choose another Tok'ra, but none of them have the quality I'm looking for. I have to think about the future. Someday we might win this war. And what kind of people will we be by then? Besides not pretending to be gods, that is. I want us to be people like you."
"I'm flattered. I think. Although that has got to be the most unromantic pick up line I've ever heard."
Kiriol shrugged. "What's the point of trying to be romantic in this host? The Tok'ra do have mirrors, you know."
"So... if you're proposing what I think you're proposing... why are you sitting forty feet away from me?"
"I'm in a fertility cycle. I can't help but put out pheromones. The Tok'ra don't take unwilling hosts, and we don't take unwilling donors either."
"Pheromones."
"Ta'u hanu."
Daniel shuddered. He remembered that pink perfume. He also remembered his own larval children being burned alive. And everything that came in between. "I'm sorry, Kiriol. Things are just-not right. I just..." Daniel trailed off. He wasn't about to discuss Hathor with this Queen. "Um. I don't want to. I'm sorry."
"You wouldn't have to be present for the egg laying part. All you have to do is seed the pool, you can go back to the base, and I'll follow when I'm done."
Daniel shook his head. "No. Sorry."
Kiriol sighed. "Maybe you'll change your mind someday. At least I got a chance to talk to you. Let's go back. There are towels in that shed over there. Oh, and please don't reveal this gate address, not even to the other Tok'ra. It's a secret of Queens and their consorts. Will you do that much?"
"Sure."
"No hard feelings?"
"No. No, not at all. When you dragged me through the gate you had me scared for a moment, but if this was the worst thing that had ever happened to me I'd be walking on air."
Kiriol nodded. "Same here."
When Daniel and Kiriol reappeared at the Tok'ra base, they were mobbed. Angry Tok'ras picked Kiriol up bodily and carried her away. Daniel was rushed to a private room, where his teammates and a Tok'ra doctor fussed over him.
"I'm fine, really. All that happened was I went for a soak in a hot spring and we talked, that's it. Really, you don't have to go poking at me like that, I'm fine. Hey, I think I'd know it if I was injured, OK? Leave that alone. Ow."
"A hot spring?" asked the Tok'ra doctor, her face suddenly gone hard. "With a white shed nearby?"
"Um, yeah, is there something wrong with that?"
The Tok'ra cursed and hurried out. Daniel fended off the concerned questions of his teammates. The truth was, Daniel was a little shaken up, but only because he had been reminded of Hathor.
Finally Jack and Teal'c left, but Sam lingered a moment. Her voice was soft. "Daniel, when you came back through the gate you looked like you'd seen a ghost. What happened, really?"
"Nothing, Sam. We talked. That's it. It was a serious talk. I'm just thinking. That's all."
"OK, Daniel. But you didn't look this bad when we killed God."
"I'm fine. Let's go get lunch."
Later that day, Daniel went up to the surface to get some air. There he saw a beautiful young woman. The breeze stirred her white-gold hair, and she was pouting like a model in a fashion magazine. Daniel went up to her and said hello.
She looked down at him. She was a very tall woman. Daniel saw that she had been crying. "I offered myself to the Tok'ra in good faith," she said. "They said they rescued me from life as a slave, but I was never treated badly on my home world. I lived in luxury. It was my destiny to be host to a Queen. And the Tok'ra had one, and said I could fulfill my destiny, but as a free person, as a partner. I was overjoyed. And now-now that I've been blended-they told me that being in me is a punishment! Because I'm vacuous, they said. They told me I don't have any personality, that I have no interests or experience of my own, that I bring nothing to the joining and am too weak-minded to hold up my half of the partnership. They told me this in front of everyone! Well, not you, you and the other Tau'ri weren't there. I guess your friends were deciding whether you were OK. The doctor said you appeared undamaged but that you'd been taken to the Place of the Queens, and that this was her punishment. They told this in front of the new allies, and said this was so they would see how seriously they take their commitment to their allies." The beauty brushed away tears. "I ran out of the room. Someone followed me, tried to tell me no one really meant it, that it was just for show, for the new allies, but it's all true. I really do have no interests or experiences of my own, my whole life was devoted to preparing to be a host for Ma'at, and then they killed her."
"What's your name?" Daniel asked. "Your own name, I mean, I know you're Kiriol's new host."
"Essa."
"Well, Essa, that was a really cruel thing to do to you, even if they didn't mean it, even if it was just for show. But I know Kiriol has been waiting for a young and beautiful host, and you're exactly what she wanted. You've got to know that, somewhere inside, right?"
"She says so, but I can't really tell yet. At least I don't feel all jumbled up with memories, like so many people have said it's like. Kiriol is too young to have many yet, except for the race memory, and I can't really see much of that. At least not yet."
Essa started crying again, and Daniel instinctively pulled her close. "It'll be alright," he whispered. He could never stand seeing anybody hurt.
"How can I stay here?" Essa asked. "They all think I'm some kind of mind-free non-person. And they hate Kiriol. Neither one of us wants to be the one on the surface when they're around." As she spoke, the pink mist escaped her lips. The ta'u hanu floated onto Daniel as she stood in his embrace. Daniel's eyes glazed over. He had to make things right for his Queen.
"How about a little vacation? Tok'ras take vacations, don't they?"
"And go where?"
"Earth. With me. Essa, you don't deserve this. And neither does Kiriol, God, she didn't do anything. That'll show them, huh?" He pulled back enough to smile at her, and she giggled through her tears.
She nodded. "Yeah, that'll show them."
It didn't take much persuading for Daniel to arrange for Essa to come back with SG-1 to Cheyenne Mountain. The Tok'ras did not argue very hard to keep Essa on their base, since she appeared to have a death grip on Daniel's waste and wouldn't say anything to anyone but the Tau'ri. The Tok'ras did make it clear she was not to stay more than a week, though.
Daniel took Essa home with him that night, and the next morning there was more than fish swimming in his aquarium. The two of them went back to the base, and Essa found some translations to work on in Daniel's office while SG-1 geared up for the mission to Hot Place. The MALP showed them a peaceful desert world. It was inhabited, but no one had any weapons, and there were no recognizable Goa'uld styles of dress or armor.
They gated to this peaceful looking Hell and approached the first person they saw. Daniel stepped forward. "Hello, my name is Daniel Jackson. These are Jack O'Neil, Sam Carter, and Teal'c. We are peaceful explorers."
The native cocked his head and looked at the four of them oddly. "That is a Jaffa."
"He's a friend. He means you no harm."
"Did Yehuvehe kick you out, too?"
"Um, no, he's uh, dead. We sort of um. We killed him."
The native grinned. "Truly? I must tell the others!" Then he laughed. "But I'm forgetting my manners, my name is Shai."
"Pleased to meet you, Shai. Will you take us to your leader?"
"Leader?"
"Elders, village council?"
Shai scratched his head.
"The one who decides what to do when there's a problem that needs to be solved."
"Ah, the First Rebel! Of course you seek the First Rebel, what could I be thinking, you have killed that old warlock Yehuvehe, of course you seek him. This way." Shai walked off at a brisk pace. SG-1 followed him to a temple. It looked much like the other one: another deserted Goa'uld temple and throne room.
"The First Rebel," Shai said, gesturing to the empty throne. "Enjoy." Before Daniel or anyone else could ask him any more questions, he sped off, laughing.
"Great," said Jack. "Looks like the king isn't home, folks."
Daniel climbed onto the platform on which the throne rested. "Well, there's one thing here," he said, picking up a heavy golden crown. It came down in the back and along the sides like a helmet, and appeared to be one piece of solid gold, except it was not as heavy as it ought to be. "I think it's hollow," Daniel said. "Jack, I'd like to take this back with us and study it."
"Sure," Jack said. "Carter, any other rooms in here? Sarcophagi?"
"None, sir."
"This is interesting," said Daniel. "The writing along the rim of the crown says Eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, know and be known by the wisdom of the ages, and pledge your self to battle for mens' souls against the Goa'uld."
"Sweet," said Jack. "Maybe you were right, and this guy was some kind of early Tok'ra. Looks like he's gone now, though. That must be what Shai thought was so funny."
Daniel stuffed the crown in his bag and brought it home. They would try to contact the inhabitants again once he had studied the artifact and translated his recordings of the writings in the temple. Daniel was excited about his finds, but he also wanted to get back to the Mountain. He didn't want to leave Essa alone on a strange planet too long. When he got back, he realized he need not have worried about her. The first thing she asked him was, "Daniel, what's a supermodel?"
With that worry taken care of, Daniel waited impatiently through the post mission medical exam and the debriefing. He wanted to get another look at that crown. He got Essa to go help Sam with some technological thing, and finally he was alone in his office with the gold crown. He transcribed the writing into his notes. "Know and be known by?" he asked aloud. "That's an odd phrase." He took pictures, and described the artifact for his report. Then, yielding to an impulse, he put it on.
A sharp pain at the back of his neck, and the world went away. He saw the Great Pyramids being built, heard the chatter of the workmen, smelled the camel sweat and felt the sting of sand in the hot wind off the desert. Then more images came, images of Earth and of other worlds, and then there were images of his own life, mixed in with the other experiences. He reeled and braced himself against the desk. The crown fell off his head, knocked over his coffee cup, and landed in a coffee puddle on the floor. A small trickle of blood ran down his neck.
The images ceased, and there was an expectant silence. "Hello?" Daniel asked.
An answer came from the back of his head:
Hello.
"You're the First Rebel," Daniel said. "The Lord of Light."
Yes. You may call me Lucifer.
End of Part One