Stargate is owned by Studio Canal. The movie novelisation by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich is published by Signet.
Stargate SG-1 is owned by MGM, based on Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich.
A Breed Apart
A Stargate story
He was merely after new life when he had taken the young boy, Ra, as a host, but he had been changed by the experience. The boy's mind, his knowledge, experience, memories, and emotions, had opened up his own mind to new possibilities.
The boy was different to the others. He knew that buried deep beneath the boy's indifference to the rest of his tribe was a desire to belong to… something. Something more than just his tribe. There was a desire for approval by… someone.
He knew how he could get it.
Ra had remade his public image into something familiar and alien at the same time. Awe-inspiring. The mask he fashioned for himself was human, yet unnerving.
From among the populations of humans, he selected a few individuals, and instructed them. He gave them visages to wear, and they became his servants. They took on the faces of the animal spirit-gods he knew the people worshipped and feared. Soon, they would have names of their own. They, too, would become gods, if lesser gods in his service. Since his technology allowed him to incorporate his own mask into his host body's head, creating a truly unnatural transformation, his servants would know and remember their place – that for all their god-given power, he was above them.
Finally, one night, he was ready. He presented himself to a collection of primitive humans, gathered on the banks of a river, bathed in white light brighter than the midday sun. The people were promptly overcome with fear and awe.
Seeing the humans lying prostrate before him and his retinue of animal gods brought him a deep sense of satisfaction. He was being recognised, rightfully, for his greatness.
This was something he would have never even considered were it not for his taking of the boy as a host.
Years passed. A pyramid was built to act as a stable landing platform for his ship. He sent humans through the Stargate installed within to other worlds; the quartz material that was crucial to his technology could not be found on this planet, and colonies were set up to mine it. Pyramids were also built on these planets; the pyramids, as well as allowing his ship to land, served as visible reminders of his presence, his majesty and power.
Several dozen of the people, selected for their prowess with working wood, stone, and metal, had been given the honour of remodelling part of the interior of his ship, creating a luxurious palace with a vast throne room where Ra received his subjects. It was a privilege to work in the house of Ra.
Everything was going better than he could have possibly hoped.
The king became idle, almost bored. Then he remembered a discovery he had made, while searching for a host body. He remembered the world with primitive, ungainly bipeds, the lakes filled with alien eels that attached themselves to the bipeds and changed their behaviour.
He took his ship to the world; even though it had a Stargate, he wanted to be close by to observe the results, and he had no desire to personally set foot on the world. His animal-headed guards had taken three humans, selected at random from the crowds of his worshippers, and, standing by the shores of a lake, ordered them into the water. Ra remained in his ship, hovering above, to watch.
The people swam, as instructed, but it looked as if fear set in when the eels brushed up against their bodies.
It did not take long.
They were taken by the eels, which promptly burrowed into them as they did with the leathery-skinned bipeds. One drowned, having been injured when an eel attempted to burrow into a limb, then his flank, and he could no longer swim.
The other two thrashed about, coughing, sputtering and screaming, as the eels bit at their bodies, finally latching on their necks before burrowing inside. They swam-paddled back to the shore, their legs collapsing as their feet found solid purchase on the mud. Both of them fell to their hands and knees in the waist-deep water before slowly crawling to the shore.
When they finally emerged from the water, their behaviour was, indeed, different. Erecting themselves to stand upright, they moved differently, now seemingly more curious about their surroundings than before.
Ra ordered his Horus guards to bring the humans back to him. They were more resistant, attempting to fight off his guards where before they were passive and obedient.
They still recognised him upon being returned to the ship, still wet from their forced swim in the lake, but once again their behaviour was changed; they looked around their surroundings with a new curiosity, as if seeing them for the first time, even though they had seen the ship and its colossal throne room before. Further, they seemed to be almost tinged with defiance where there had previously only been submissiveness; one of them had even lunged at Ra, screaming, arms raised, only to be beaten back by a watchful Horus guard. At his right side, his chief guard Anubis had snapped to attention, arming his staff weapon, but Ra stopped him, pushing the weapon away with a gesture of his hand.
Lying on his side, with two Horus guards standing over him with armed staff weapons, the fallen man looked up at him, still defiant. His eyes glowed, much like Ra's own. Beside him, the other subject, a woman, remained kneeling, but also looked defiantly up at him.
Despite the shock, Ra was curious, almost amused, as his guards dragged the two implanted humans away.