Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: SG-1, but its because of this show I discovered fanfiction in the first place. So one might argue, this is fate.
A/N: Reviews are loved.
Egeria
Egeria surveyed the deserts of Belthar from the lip of her tent. The twin suns cast baleful eyes upon the planet, making for yet another unbearably hot day. Not that the heat touched Egeria. As far as her subjects were concerned their goddess could command the winds around her to be as cool as the kiss of mountain air.
Egeria's mouth curled in disgust as she beheld the work her subjects did in her glorious name. An unbroken chain of human slaves trudged in and out of the city ruins, the only thing of value on the barren planet. The slaves on their way out of the ruins were weighed down with heavy sacks of rock and sand; the ones headed back in had already dumped their loads and still they moved slowly, their backs glistening with sweat. All the while her Jaffa stood watch over the slaves, only encouraging them with whips when they worked slower than slugs.
They were all fools, underserving of her presence, yet they did not act so. And the humans, so weak it was beyond pathetic. If they truly wished to serve their god they would work swifter and would have already found her what she desired.
Egeria stepped back inside her tent, letting the lip close and block the unseemly drudgery from her sight. She draped herself across her settee with a sigh of boredom. She swirled one gold-tipped finger around the rim of her environmental generator. Her slaves and Jaffa thought it was magic. Their ignorance was laughable when it wasn't an intolerable necessity. Their senselessness had a purpose, which was more than could be said for the ignorance of her kind.
It was true that Egeria knew more than most Goa'uld. The way she had gained that knowledge had proven less advantageous in the centuries that followed, but the truths had been worth it. Anubis had been an excellent teacher, but ambitious with a cruelty that matched. He'd moved too quickly against Ra in the end and that had brought about his downfall.
Anubis's fate meant little to Egeria. It was her own that consumed her. And her alliance with Anubis, however fruitful it had once been, had cost her in the fallout. Ra and the other System Lords had punished her and shunned her. In the centuries since she had had to work hard to rise above the smear on her reputation.
Belthar would be her new beginning. Once her prize had been found, she would rise again and rightfully claim the power that was hers. For Egeria had continued the research Anubis had introduced her to.
Alone she had sought out ancient technologies and learned their purposes. She'd found the old texts, translated them, and gained the knowledge therein. Most of these she'd stolen from under the noses of other Goa'uld. What she could not steal, she'd bargained and traded for. All of which had culminated in Belthar.
Egeria had taken the planet from Ba'al, another student of Anubis, but not as devout as her. She had not taken the planet through military victory, as pleasurable as that would've been. She known she didn't have the tactical strength to win. Instead she had spawned three batches of prim'tah for him to use in his own experiments. She'd even consented to Ba'al's demand that his host provide the necessary genetic material. In would be worth it when all was said and done, once her slaves uncovered the treasure her research said was on Belthar.
It was all a matter of waiting, as she had been waiting for three months. Prudence though was a commodity she'd exercised too much of these last few centuries. Still it wouldn't do to vent her displeasure on her Jaffa or slaves now, she needed them to work in the available daylight. Egeria picked up a little silver bell and rang it once, summoning her lo'tar. He would entertain her for a few hours at least.
Another day, another week, crept by on Belthar and still there were no results. Inside her tent Egeria fumed. Ba'al had expressed little knowledge of Belthar and she'd assumed he knew nothing of the planet's potential. But what if he had? And not only suspected, but had already uncovered the ancient treasure before he'd sold her the planet?
If that were the case, Ba'al would suffer greatly for making a fool out of her. Egeria sneered as she grabbed a tablet and began to plan Ba'al's slow and painful demise.
"My queen." Egeria was snapped out of her musings at the call of her First Prime.
"Enter," she called in her host's voice, having long preferred the high soprano to the Goa'uld inflections. Only at her command did her Jaffa dare enter her private tent and even then he kept his head down as he knelt reverently before her.
"Why have you come?" Egeria asked, her tone soft but with the undercurrent of violence should she find his words displeasing. She smirked as her First Prime did his best to repress his shudder in her presence. Her demonstration of her discontent at her subjects' continued failure three nights afore was still fresh in all their minds.
"I come bearing great new my queen," her First Prime spoke humbly; "As you decreed we have found them."
"Rise Jaffa, ready my litter at once," Egeria commanded as satisfaction filled her. At last!
The journey into the ruined city was torturously long and Egeria regretted her threat to disembowel the fool that caused her litter to tilt. The heat, even late in the evening, was sweltering and Egeria couldn't very well bring her bulky environmental generator without raising unspoken questions. As such she too suffered the discomfort of sweating. She would let her slaves think her suffering was in honor of their sacrifice – feeble as their labor was.
Then her Jaffa were setting her litter down outside what was left of a small tower half collapsed with age. A line of slaves lay prostrate on the sand, murmuring her name. Twelve Jaffa knelt in reverence between her and the filth. With his head bowed, her First Prime gestured to an opening in the tower.
With great dignity Egeria rose off her litter and strode towards the tower. Her subjects skirted back as she neared. The fools knew better than to touch her even the slightest.
Egeria needed no direction to know that she would have to descend into the tower. The upper portion was too exposed to have saved anything of value. The stairwell down was lit with flickering torches that choked the air with their smoke and did little to help the visibility. Even with her eyesight, the steps would be treacherous in such lighting. It wouldn't do for her Jaffa to see her stumble. Out of one of her pockets, and there were very few on her close-cut dress, Egeria produced a glowing crystal.
She heard several gasps behind her from the humans and smirked. Then she began the walk down to her treasure. Her First Prime and three other Jaffa followed, but she paid them no heed. The descent was long and internally Egeria groused again over the fact the rings into the city were offline. Eventually the torched led Egeria off the stairs, beyond a platform, and down a crystal-lined corridor.
It was a small room, no bigger than Egeria's bathing suite, and octagon in shape. There was a console in the center that was no doubt for control purposes. The real prizes though lie opposite the door along a wall. Six stasis chambers sat there, each one occupied.
According to her research these six were pariahs among their people, the descendants of the Ancients. They had gone against tradition and formed a familial unit. Thus when the other children of the Ancients had ascended to a higher plane, these six had chosen to stay behind, together. Then when the twin suns of Belthar had solar flares that crossed in a mighty explosion, the little family was unprepared and forced to hibernate in order to survive. The radiation had affected the systems more severely than anyone could've predicted and the other brethren of these ancients had written them off as dead.
Egeria had suspected otherwise and now others' arrogance was her victory.
"You have done well. Station a guard above and do not enter. I will return when I am ready."
"Yes my queen," her First Prime monotoned and then led the Jaffa out in formation.
Click, click, click. Egeria trailed her hand over the crystalline surface of the stasis pods. There were two children, both female, but they were too young to be suitable hosts for a queen. There were three men among the adults, also unsuitable for obvious reasons, and one male appeared too old to survive the revival process.
Egeria rested her hand against the remaining chamber. Inside lay a middle-aged woman, older than Egeria would've preferred, but salvageable. She was a woman with a rich, brown complexion and luxurious black hair that fanned out behind her. Her face was beautiful and she had a sharp nose that made her striking.
"Hello dearest, we going to know each other intimately very soon," Egeria crooned, lightly tapping the chamber as she smiled satisfactorily.
So much knowledge – oh the wonders the Ancients had known and left to the Alterans. And what a waste, leaving all those truths to the humans. Pathetic.
*No.*
Egeria paused as she rifled through the Alteran woman's extensive knowledge. The technologies the Alterans had were centuries more advanced than the Goa'uld. Once Egeria amassed a sufficient stock of their weaponry and defenses she would be the supreme ruler of the entire galaxy.
Of course during her research Egeria had realized that her new host had been frozen in stasis far longer than was healthy. Without Egeria's aid her host would not have survived long outside the chamber, she would've had to ascend or die. The same was true for the other Alterans, but that was a concern for another time.
As it was Egeria had begun to suspect other damage had been done to her new host in her long sleep. She had already fully-blended with her host body and hadn't felt the conscious mind of the Alteran in all that time. It made little difference to Egeria whether she had to deal with a host consciousness or not, but she did so enjoy suppressing the weaker mind.
*Are you awake?* Egeria extended the thought gently. Oh the fun she had planned for this mind. To lure the Alteran into a false sense of security and then reveal the depth of all she had lost – Egeria could survive off the sorrow alone.
*I am more than awake Egeria of the Goa'uld and I will not fall for your treachery.* The Alteran's voice whispered through Egeria's mind, weak but lined with steel.
*I know everything, little snake.* The voiced whispered again and Egeria found herself being pulled deeper into the Alteran's mind and yet she didn't move at all.
When the pulling sensation stopped, Egeria found herself in a room with blue walls. There was an open balcony to her left that looked out over a silver-blue city bathed in moonlight and lush forest beyond that. Egeria recognized it as a memory of Belthar before the radiation.
"I am Ulura," the Alteran woman said. Egeria whirled around and found herself facing the woman's whose body she'd recently taken for her own.
"How have you done this?" Egeria demanded, choosing anger over fear. That a human, however advanced, could do this to a Goa'uld – impossible!
"We are within a construct in my mind. A more comfortable place for us to talk and hardly impossible Egeria. You know well you are not a true god any more than I am. Your kind may be able to suppress the consciousness minds of humans in their current evolution, but you will find the same is not true for an Alteran," Ulura spoke neutrally, as a mother to an erring child.
"You think you can rest back control from me?" Egeria scoffed at the other woman; "I will not be so easily cowed or forced from this body."
"I would not do that," surprise flickered across Ulura's face; "I understand your species' need for a host body. I am merely telling you that I will not allow you to suppress me and continue to commit your atrocities against the humans and Jaffa. All life has value, Egeria."
"Some lives are more valuable than others and mine is one of them. More importantly, I will not be told what to do by the likes of you."
As she spoke Egeria prodded around mentally, seeking a weakness in the construct. There, in the doorway to the balcony, she found a slit. She rushed for it. Egeria felt the construct break easily, the illusion dissolving, and she pulled away, out of Ulura's memories and back into her own mind.
*We will talk later.* Ulura whispered and then her mind faded again.
Egeria searched for her presence but it was like grasping at water – Ulura was gone. Egeria seethed and built up barriers within her mind to protect against another incursion. She shushed the worry that said the barriers wouldn't do any good.
The sarcophagus hissed as it opened and Egeria rose in her new body from another regenerative sleep. She did not feel properly regenerated. Hadn't felt the effects of the sarcophagus once in the month since she'd taken Ulura as host, not since she'd healed her body.
In a foul mood Egeria shed her dark green nightdress. She watched her slave girls with sharp eyes as they dressed her, looking for even the slightest mistake. The girls were too good at their job, they made no errors and betrayed no guilt, only fear and respect in her presence. This vexed Egeria even further as she had no justification for punishing them.
"Leave me," Egeria barked as soon as they were finished.
While her slaves scurried from her rooms, Egeria examined herself in her mirror. She wore a tight-fitted skirt of saffron-yellow that pooled around her feet and had a tantalizing slit up her thigh. Above that she had on a bodice of crimson silk and yellow lace and nothing else. Gold filigree wrapped around her upper arms in ivy vines and a ruby the size of her eye nestled just above her cleavage. Her hair was plaited down her back with carnations woven in.
Egeria did enjoy her new skin tone and the range of colors she could indulge in. Her previous host had had a pasty complexion that looked sickly in dark colors and jaundice in yellows. And her hair, so thick and dark, she had many hairstyles she was looking forward to wearing.
All the physical advantages meant nothing without the Ancient knowledge that should've been hers. The knowledge though was gone. Hidden away like Ulura's consciousness. It was an injustice Egeria would rectify, as soon as she was certain she could beat Ulura.
The Ancients and their Alteran children had more than just knowledge. They had powers, abilities granted to them through their increased brain functions. Egeria could not access Ulura's memories, but she could stimulate the necessary parts of the brain to use those gifts.
Egeria turned to look at the tablet she'd been reading and had left on the table next to her couch. She held up one hand and willed the tablet to come to her. She felt a vein in her forehead pulse, but the tablet refused to budge. Egeria stuck her hand out further and shouted at the tablet to obey her.
*That is not how it works.* Ulura's tone was amused.
*I do not believe you.*
*Eventually you may learn to use my abilities, but I warn you. Doing so will open your mind to me and the longer you do so, the deeper I will go.*
*All this talk without any action, I think you're bluffing.* Egeria retorted smugly.
*I have no need to bluff. Instead I have an offer for you. Blend with me fully. Share my body with me in true symbiosis and I will share with you both my knowledge and my gifts. Do this and I can teach you your true potential.*
*I AM A GOD. I do not need your permission or your help. Threaten me as you wish, you will regret it.*
*You are not a god Egeria.* Ulura reprimanded, her polite tone gone.
*Silence!* Egeria cried having had enough of the Alteran's insolence.
And Ulura faded away again. Leaving Egeria to the silence of her thoughts and her failures.
"What do you mean the excavation has stopped?" Egeria screeched less than a fortnight later; "I did not give you the order to stop. This slothfulness is unacceptable. Are you not here to please your god? Why then do you dishonor me so?"
Egeria paced back and forth in her tent in a lime green dress, her First Prime knelt before her in silence. The Jaffa knew better than to offer her excuses. He awaited her orders, to carryout whatever punishment she deemed necessary and accept any pain she gave him for his failures.
*You are being unreasonable.* Ulura's disgust nibbled at Egeria's mind.
*I do not care.* Egeria dismissed her host's opinion. At last she had a problem on which she could vent her frustrations.
*You are acting childish and foolish.* Ulura retorted in her superior tone.
Egeria sneered at that. She, a creature several centuries old with a genetic memory dating back millennia, she was no child. And she most certainly was no fool.
*Your excavation plan was ineffective and inefficient from the start. You force malnourished humans to labor for you from dawn until dusk every day on a desert planet. You do not feed them properly or give them adequate rest, especially during the hottest hours of the day. This situation was the product of poor management on your part, an outcome easily foreseen and prevented. You chose quantity over quality and now you wish to blame others for your mistakes.*
*Oh and how would you deal with this?* Egeria tossed back the thought with no intention of listening to her host.
*Start by giving them three days of rest and sufficient nutrients.* Ulura began and then laid out a very detailed and efficient system for excavating the city by sectors. She proposed two shifts divided into three groups based on age and physical capabilities. The humans would work in an assembly line of sorts, doing specific roles instead of every part, in order to be effective. The Jaffa too would be put on rotating shifts for better results.
Egeria considered the plan and then promptly ignored it. She would not take suggestions from her host. The slaves would do as she pleased or die. That was the way of the Goa'uld.
"My queen?" the question from her First Prime snapped Egeria back into awareness of her surroundings. She realized that during her conversation with Ulura she'd stopped pacing and had stared at her First Prime. No doubt he'd thought she was read to order the punishment of the slaves.
"Silence Jaffa, I am deciding upon your fate as well," Egeria snarled, ensuring her First Prime dropped his gaze and stiffened.
The appropriate sacrifice came to Egeria easily. She would have her First Prime select twenty of the human slaves, those too weak to work anymore. They would be lined up at one of the dig sites and executed. The living would then have to carry the bodies out to the dump with the rest of the junk before continuing to work.
As for the Jaffa, her First Prime would chose twenty of his own men to replace the dead humans. Let them be treated like slaves, then they might begin to appreciate the mercy of their god.
Oh yes, that would satisfy Egeria greatly.
Unfortunately her host's venomous opposition to her plans had Egeria keeping her mouth closed. It was more than that. Her entire body was frozen, refusing to obey her commands. Egeria fought and she pushed and she could feel Ulura weakening, but she wouldn't be able to regain control any time soon.
*What do you want?* Egeria roared at last, acknowledging her host.
*Killing them will serve no purpose.* Ulura's gentle logic had been replaced with a sharpness.
*It will please me.* Egeria responded, taking some gratification in finally upsetting her host.
*And when you have sent them all to their deaths for uncovering nothing of value in the sections of the city they search, then what will you do?* Ulura asked, her tone still biting.
*What do you mean?*
*I mean there is nothing of value to be found in those sections of the city, but I know where useful technology lies buried.* Ulura retorted and Egeria pounced.
She tried to wrap her consciousness around the Alteran's and dig out the knowledge. It was of no use. Ulura slipped between mental cracks Egeria did not know she had. She snarled in frustration.
*Tell me!* she shouted.
*Only if you agree to do as I suggested.*
A Goa'uld compromising with her host? Never in all the centuries had her people considered such a preposterous thing!
*Then I shall speak no more.* Ulura threatened.
Egeria seethed.
"Rise Jaffa," Egeria commanded at last; "I have decided to bless you with my mercy this once. The slaves will be fed and allowed to rest for three days. Then you shall change how you work . . . ."
After hours of pouring through Alteran records, learning how to build growing-crystals, Egeria turned in for the night. The growing-crystals would be of great use when she began to amass her power. She could build escape tunnels beneath her strongholds that only she would know about in case of assassins or attacks. She could even build herself a castle that would look as it were made of glass, if she wished.
With these welcoming thoughts in her head, Egeria slipped out of her bathing robe and into her night dress. For a moment she paused next to her bed, but changed her mind. She'd been sleeping in the bed for the last month, having grown annoyed with her sarcophagus's failings. Her bed was certainly more comfortable, but she still needed the regenerative power of the sarcophagus.
*Don't use that abomination.* Ulura thundered, a touch of fear in her tone.
*I need its healing energies, we both need it if we are to stay young for a long time.* Egeria retorted carefully.
She had given up the pretense of superiority with Ulura. What else was she supposed to do when she couldn't contain the Alteran's mind? Every bit of technology she'd discovered on Belthar had come thanks to some compromise or another with Ulura. This time though, there was nothing that would sway Egeria out of using the sarcophagus. She was only polite out of curiosity – what had the reserved Ulura so upset?
*That technology is imperfect and had been damaging your mind, doing more harm than good.*
*I find nothing wrong with my faculties.*
*Because you are such an excellent judge of morals.*
*I think the real reason you don't want me to use the sarcophagus is because it makes me stronger, strong enough to contain you.*
When Ulura did not respond, Egeria shrugged. She opened the sarcophagus chamber. Beneath her, Ulura rose; her mind forming into a solid consciousness for the first time. Egeria paused in surprise – if Ulura stayed this way, she could be suppressed.
Pausing was a mistake. Ulura formed and surged. Egeria found herself floundering, trapped within her host, no control whatsoever. Ulura raised her right hand. The sarcophagus lifted into the air. With a twitch of her fingers, Ulura sent the sarcophagus slamming into the wall of Egeria's room.
Had they been on Belthar, such action wouldn't have mattered. However they were on Egeria's mothership in orbit above the planet and the walls were made of reinforced naquadah among other elements. The sarcophagus cracked and Ulura sent the device into the wall again and again. In seconds the sarcophagus was in pieces, utterly irreparable.
Egeria's lo'tar rushed in as Ulura dropped her hand. Egeria thrashed against her imprisonment, but Ulura held strong.
"My queen?"
"I have no need for this scrap metal anymore. See to it that the pieces are vented into space," Ulura spoke convincingly as Egeria.
"Right away my mistress," her lo'tar bowed and went to fetch Jaffa to help him.
Ulura glided over to Egeria's window and looked down on Belthar. Behind them the Jaffa entered and quickly went to work as quietly as they could. Egeria tapped down on her anger and considered her prison logically.
*You shall pay for such insolence!* Egeria taunted Ulura as she located a chink in the Alteran's mind.
*Perhaps, but not as you intend and not for long.* Ulura replied as Egeria pushed.
Then she was out of her prison and once again the one in charge. Egeria pinned Ulura's mind before the Alteran could dissipate. Ulura stayed and Egeria locked her into a mental prison of the city Belthar once was. Ulura went without a fight and her knowledge, her Ancient inheritance, remained.
A quick perusal revealed that Ulura hadn't been fully conscious before and that was how she'd kept her knowledge from Egeria. Once she'd become fully aware, there was no going back. Meaning from now on Ulura was at Egeria's mercy.
The loss of the sarcophagus was unfortunate. Getting a new one would be time consuming and expensive. Now at least she had her host under control and Ancient knowledge to make up for the loss.
Egeria relaxed on her bed, her face aglow.
Yes, now things were looking up.
Egeria found Ulura on the outskirts of Belthar's city. She was on the edge of a beach with her daughters. The oldest girl with the crooked smile and gold-streaked hair was Kinya. The younger girl, Aiya, had curls and her mother's nose. They were everywhere in her memories along with Yanic, her husband, a pale-haired man with laughing eyes. There was her brother, Urben, and her uncle, Torbis, too.
They were her family and Ulura loved them with all her being. Egeria had never known such a wonder, had never felt so purely in all her years. Now every time Egeria accessed some piece of Ulura's knowledge, she was bombarded with a new memory of her family. It aggravated Egeria less than it should.
Aiya and Kinya were playing a game of catch in the shallows of a lake. They were telekinetically tossing a ball of water back and forth. Aiya was not as strong as Kinya, thus when it was her turn to catch the water there were droplets that fell, but determinedly she played on with her tongue between her teeth.
"This is an oddly morbid choice of distraction," Egeria commented as she strolled up to Ulura.
Egeria wore the face of her former host. She was in a suggestive blue dress with a gold belt. Ulura had her hair pulled back in a strict bun and wore a drab gray tunic and pants. They could not be more different, yet they stood as equals.
"My daughters are not yet dead."
"Without a symbiote or a sarcophagus they would not survive the revival process for long."
"Long enough for them to ascend with my help."
They stood in silence while Egeria considered these words. Egeria knew that such an event would cause Ulura great pain, to save them and lose them in the same moment. Egeria too would feel that pain, which was why she was here.
"What did you do to me?" she asked, tiredly. She knew Ulura would understand what she meant.
"What do you mean?" Ulura retorted, not amused or smug. She wanted Egeria to voice the changes, to truly acknowledge them.
"I always knew I wasn't a god, though at times I could get carried away. The humans and Jaffa were so inferior, so willing to believe, it almost felt real. Mostly though I enjoyed the power of being worshipped and revered. Torturing and abusing my subjects when I was angry or upset didn't feel wrong, it felt exhilarating. In all these ways I was no different than the other Goa'uld, but now I know the truth."
"And what is the truth?" Ulura turned to face Egeria, not unsympathetic to the cascade of emotions the symbiote was feeling.
"I was wrong to take you as an unwilling host, wrong to take Venae before you in the same way. It was egotistical of me to play a god and evil of me to destroy so many lives simply because I had the power to do so. I committed atrocities in the name of vanity and had hundreds more committed in my name," Egeria paused as the guilt ebbed;
"I want to be angry at you for opening my mind to these truths, but instead I rage at myself, at Ra and the other System Lords for developing such a society of horror. I know what I have done to be wrong, intellectually and morally, yet a part of me still craves to be a Goa'uld."
"We all have a darkness in ourselves which we must battle every day," Ulura placed a comforting hand on Egeria's shoulder; "If you let me, I can help you fight yours."
"After how I have violated you, why would you help me?"
"I chose this path for both of us when I decided to heal you. While I was easily able to repair the damage done by the sarcophagus, helping you to overcome your genetic memory will take a lifetime. I am willing to share with you all that I am, if you are willing to do the same."
As Ulura spoke Kinya and Aiya faded from sight. Then the city blurred and shifted. When the illusion settled Egeria found she was with Ulura back in the stasis room gain, back where their journey had begun.
"You wish to blend with me fully? But what would we do after?"
"Then we will change the future of the Goa'uld one step at a time," Ulura said and Egeria could feel her joy at the idea of a new adventure.
"Very well. Let us begin again. Hello Ulura, I am Egeria," she held out her hand and opened her mind.
"Hello Egeria," Ulura took her hand and the city dissolved in a flash of white.
Egeria became Ulura who became Egeria again. They had the wisdom of thousands of years and many lifetimes. They loved Kinya, Aiya, Yanic, Urben, and Torbis. They cared for the well-being and happiness of those who believed them a god – that deception of theirs would change. They both knew regret and wished for absolution that could never be earned, but they both had hope.
They were Egeria and Ulura. Once Goa'uld and Alteran, now neither, but something wholly new and wonderful. Their future was not yet written, but it would be brighter than their past.
Then they awoke among the stars.