Birth of a Rebellion
Chapter One
Silence wafted its way across the grounds as a few flames flickered there way in and out of existence. To look upon it now one would hardly believe that this was the site of a fierce battle only an hour earlier. Two armies had clashed and died on these grounds and the air had been filled with the sounds of rallied screams, and of weapon fire, and of death. Now it had all faded away leaving nothing but a trace; nothing but a silent void. For a brief moment that silence was enjoyed and nature relished it as a chance for itself to become normal once again. A heartbeat later though the silence was stripped away as a whirring noise could be heard in accompaniment to the appearance of several metal rings as they appeared from the air. A flash of white light came and suddenly the whole thing was over again and all that stood in its place were three figures.
Once the metal rings had vanished back to where they came two of the figures immediately seized the staffs in their hands and looked about for any sign of danger. When no sign was shown the two eased their guard only a little. They then stood there silent and almost statuesque as the central figure took a step forward.
The third figure seemed to clash the other two. Both other figures were strong and muscular soldiers clad in dark gray armor, whereas the third was a slender woman dressed in a snug, earthen colored outfit. A slight wind blew its way across the grounds and through the woman's shoulder length red strands of hair. On the wind was carried the stench of death and the woman cringed slightly as it hit her. Turning her head from side to side she could see the aftermath of the battle and the bloodied and broken debris it had left in its wake. She just stood there for a moment, taking the whole scene silently in, before the approach of another figure drew her attention.
With a steady pace the figure stomped his way across the blood soaked ground towards where the three new figures stood. The whole trek there he kept his eyes locked on the woman, fearing that if he were to let his vision stray that her wraith may come down upon him. As he approached her he let his pace slow as the beating of his heart quickened slightly in reverence. The moment he came into her presence he dropped to one knee with the words, "My queen," on his lips.
"Arise," she said to the soldier with a voice not quite human and a faint glow in her eyes which further seemed to make her alien. Obediently he rose from the ground and stood before her. Looking over him she saw a strong warrior not unlike the two that stood behind her. His tanned skin was covered in sweat and blood and it appeared as though he had just lived through a nightmare, though he gave no other sign of having done so. As her gaze looked the soldier over she immediately noticed a difference then what she had expected to find. The soldier standing before her was not who she planned on meeting upon her arrival and the absence of gold from the mark left upon the soldier's forehead made her grow curious about what had happened. "Where is my First Prime Lo'tak?" she asked of the soldier.
"He died in battle, my queen," the soldier nervously said with a slight bow.
Again the woman looked about the grounds and saw them to be covered with the dead bodies of her soldiers. "How many Jaffa remain alive?" she asked as a thousand scenarios ran though her mind of how the battle could have played out. With the loss of her First Prime none seemed to turn out well for her army in the end.
"Just under eighty, my queen."
"Just under eighty?" the woman repeated with shock in her voice and disbelief in her mind. "There were almost six-hundred warriors sent here to combat an army only a third of that size. How were you so greatly overpowered?"
"None from the enemy army is left breathing though," the soldier said, hoping the fact would provide some justification for the high death toll. Something in his mind told him how wrong he was though for making the statement and he cringed inwardly as he feared the woman before him might retaliate in some way for his remark.
"How were you overpowered?" she asked again, a bit upset that the soldier had not given her a direct answer.
"They knew the land better, my queen. They had a tactical advantage over us that we weren't prepared to face."
"Are you making up excuses?" she said with a bit of raged annoyance flecked in her voice.
"No, my queen. I would never make excuses," he said frantically, trying to ensure his safety in the face of his queen.
Anger built up inside the woman, and normally she would use such an instance to strike down the Jaffa before her as an example, but for some reason she refrained from doing so. As she looked into the eyes of the obviously terrified soldier something in her just didn't see the point in such an action anymore. It was as though her heart no longer was in the game of instilling fear and obedience in her soldiers. "Very well," she said solemnly at the Jaffa before her. "Gather the surviving Jaffa and prepare to be ringed up to the Ha'tak shortly."
"Yes my queen!" the Jaffa said crisply before scurrying off to wherever the remaining Jaffa were, thankful that he had escaped the encounter unscathed.
Once the Jaffa soldier had left her presence she just stood there for a moment, taking the entire scene in and burning it into her mind. It still amazed her how her forces had been so nearly decimated by those of the enemy. Explanations, or more to the point excuses, could be fed to her for an eternity and yet none of them would be enough, none could bring back the Jaffa that had so bravely fought and died in her name. This day she would have to give to her enemy, to Ra. With that she spun around on her heels in an eagerness to leave the charred grounds and returned to stand between the Jaffa who had ringed down with her and had kept their rigid, statuesque appearance with silent vigilance. A moment later she pressed on a jewel that had been strapped around her wrist before the large metal rings returned quickly and disappearing just as fast, taking the Goa'uld queen Egeria with them.
The moment the rings in front of her were replaced by the ring room aboard her vessel she breathed out a sigh. Being down on the planet had made her uncomfortable. True she had seen battle before, firsthand in fact, but for some reason this time it bothered her. She wondered if it was somehow related to the devastating loss she had been dealt at the hand of her greatest foe. No, she didn't think that was quite it. A restlessness had found its way into her being lately, and for some reason she just couldn't shake it. There was like this foreboding sense to it that made her mind slip into fear from time to time. All she could do at the moment about it was sit back and hope it would go away on its own.
Just outside of the ring room Egeria was relieved to find her blonde haired companion waiting for her return. The young woman was a head shorter than Egeria, or rather her host, and had long flowing blonde hair to compliment her soft, milky white skin. She had the perfect look for her Goa'uld symbiote's persona, Aphrodite.
"Egeria, my queen," Aphrodite said with a slight bow. "How went the battle?"
"Poorly," was all Egeria chose to say before continuing to walk on.
A moment later Aphrodite began to follow after Egeria in the hopes that she would choose to explain exactly what she had meant by the word poorly. Egeria had other plans in mind though and walked on silently through the flame-lit hallways of her vessel with her subordinate and the pair of Jaffa guards trailing behind.
Taking her time moving about the ship she was given some time to think about what had transpired in concerns with the battle. Having finally had enough of debating the matter solely with herself she made her way down a hallway until she reached a pair of huge golden doors. Reaching over, she touched a small symbol on the wall before the doors slid open. Before walking into the plush living quarters she turned around to face her three followers. "You two," she said acknowledging the Jaffa, "stand here and guard. I am not to be disturbed."
"Yes my queen," the two soldiers said in unison before taking up positions on either side of the doorway.
"Aphrodite," she said as she looked upon the young woman, "I want you to come in. There are a few things that need to be discussed." The young woman simply replied with a slight bow before the two women entered Egeria's living quarters and the doors slid close behind them.
Inside of her plush quarter's Egeria felt the last of her uneasiness disappear. She felt as though her quarters were the one place where she could be free of all the responsibility of leadership. Being a System Lord of course had its advantages, but it wasn't exactly the life of luxury either.
"Have a seat," she said to Aphrodite, who had taken a nervous looking stance in the middle of the room. As her subordinate made her way to a velvet chair Egeria made her way to a small adjoining room. "Let me just change out of these clothes and then I'll tell you about the battle."
"Okay," Aphrodite said back and stopped, not knowing what else to say.
Looking through a closet full of elegant fashion Egeria tried to find something more comfortable to wear. The snug outfit she had on was nice for giving her a more commanding presence, but other than that she hated it. She had never quite understood why it almost was expected for Goa'uld in her place to wear such flamboyant attire. A certain level was of course required to instill belief and loyalty in the Jaffa soldiers and their Tau'ri subjects she knew, but it still seemed to be a bit much. Once she found a more loose-fitting and flowing gown to her liking she slipped it on and joined the waiting Aphrodite.
The moment Egeria walked back into the room Aphrodite's eyes fell upon her, expectant of the news of what had happened on the planet below. In her mind the plan set forth by Egeria seemed to have little chance for failure. She knew that Ra's warriors were formidable, but against an army three times their size how much of a fight could they have put up? The strange feeling that Aphrodite had gotten by the few words spoken by Egeria after her return made Aphrodite almost panic at what might have happened. Her mind had led to all sorts of speculation, but she simply shoved it all away and waited for her queen to share with her the news.
"Would you like something? A drink perhaps?" Egeria offered.
"No, I'm fine," was all Aphrodite replied with as anticipation bubbled inside her.
Feeling fine herself Egeria decided she could no longer put off telling her subordinate about the devastating battle any longer. Slowly she walked across the room and sat down on a couch of the same velvet material that decorated most of her furniture. After taking a moment to go over her words she began. "The battle did not go so well Aphrodite. While Ra's soldiers were defeated, they killed more than five-hundred of my Jaffa before they were."
As the staggering news hit her Aphrodite's mood changed to shock and her face reflected it. "Five-hundred dead?" she barely managed to say as it seemed to become an impossibility in her mind. "Ra only had an army of two-hundred Jaffa stationed here to guard the mines." Letting the casualty information sink in her mind wandered to another topic for a moment. "Was Lo'tak able to secure the naquadah mine?"
"Lo'tak is dead," Egeria said with an empathetic tone that was uncommon among Goa'uld, especially when referring to the Jaffa who served them. "But I would imagine with no more enemy troops down there the mine is now under my control."
"Lo'tak was killed?" Aphrodite said with almost as much shock in her tone as when she had questioned the number of dead Jaffa. "At least we were able to get the mine. Now we have a fresh supply of naquadah we can use to rebuild our ships and go after Ra with force."
With that Egeria suddenly got up from her couch and walked over to a window set into her room's far wall. Through the invisible force shield she looked at the rich green and brown coloring of the world below. In that moment she felt as though Aphrodite had missed the point of what really happened. She was a good subject, but sometimes she thought too much like a Goa'uld for Egeria's liking. "We may have a new supply of naquadah, but the price was very high to get it," she said both to Aphrodite and to herself.
When Egeria had suddenly gotten up from the couch and gone to stand over by the window Aphrodite had become very confused at what had caused her queen so much distress. At that comment though everything had become very clear to the young woman. "How were the Jaffa overpowered so easily?" she asked trying to show some concern about the dead Jaffa, though the notion seemed almost alien to her.
"The Jaffa soldier I spoke to accounted the loss to the enemy having a tactical advantage. He said that because Ra's forces knew the territory better they were able to out maneuver my own."
"That's crazy! Of course they would know their own territory better. Did you discipline the Jaffa for making up such a horrible excuse?"
"No," Egeria said with a sigh. "I told him simply to gather the remaining Jaffa up and ring back up to the Ha'tak."
"But why, my queen?" The thought of a Goa'uld not choosing to discipline a Jaffa for such an obvious error in judgment seemed to Aphrodite to be sheer lunacy. Had she been able to think about it she might have thought there was something wrong with Egeria, though she would never voice such an idea out of fear of retaliation upon herself.
"Don't you see Aphrodite?" she said looking out into the stars before suddenly turning away from the twinkling starscape and back to look at her subordinate once more. "The reason so many Jaffa were lost today isn't because Ra's forces knew the layout of the land. That Jaffa was right that they had a tactical advantage, but it wasn't that. No, their advantage lay somewhere in their individual strength. Obviously through training or some other means Ra has simply been able to fill his ranks with more formidable soldiers. I don't know how he has been able to do this, but he must be stopped."
"If you want to start your own personal war against him..." Aphrodite started, but was abruptly cut off by Egeria's words.
"My own personal war? Aphrodite, I think you are missing what I am trying to say here. I don't want to stop him for my benefit or my survival. No, I want to stop him for the benefit and survival of all the System Lords. Ra has started on a conquest as of late that will surely end with him as the most dominant and powerful Goa'uld ever."
"The System Lords? Why should we care about them? They would just as soon see as die at Ra's feet then do anything to aide us in stopping him."
"Maybe so Aphrodite, maybe so. But you must realize something. With the way things are now there are what twelve, fifteen, perhaps as many as twenty or so System Lords right now all on about the same level battlefield? With that many warring Goa'uld a sort of balance of power has been created. We System Lords may be dedicating our lives and resources to destroying each other as we vie for power, but there is a much-needed balance that is created from that conflict. If one Goa'uld were to rise in power above the rest then the balance would crumble and surely the Goa'uld would crumble along with it to leave only that one dominant Goa'uld to rule the entire galaxy. Can we really just allow Ra to be that Goa'uld?"
"I understand what you are saying my queen, but we can't just declare an all out war on Ra. As you said, he already has a formidable Jaffa army, as well as an impressively sized fleet. He is already beginning to leave you and the other System Lords one step behind in power. It is too big of a task for us to take on alone."
"Then we won't take it on alone Aphrodite."
"But how can we do anything but?" Aphrodite pressed on, hoping for a definitive sanity to shine its way through a veil of insane ideals that were coming from Egeria.
"That we can figure out in the coming days." As she walked away from the window Egeria gave a sigh and realized how much a toll the stress of the day had taken on her. "Right now though I need to rest in my sarcophagus for a while. When I am restored we will speak of this matter more." With a simple wave of her hand Aphrodite was dismissed and she made her way out of Egeria's quarters, both confused and a little doubtful about what her queen had said. Once Aphrodite had left Egeria made her way over to the gold covered coffin and pressed a small button, to which it opened in response. Laying down in it her mind swirled with a thousand thoughts about the battle she had barely won, the Jaffa soldiers, and of Ra and how she had to find a way to defeat him. As she closed her eyes she vowed that she would be the death of him, or him the death of her.
A/N: So I've been wanting to do a Stargate fanfic, but I couldn't come up with any ideas. After watching the sixth season episode "Cure" I came up with an idea about this story involving Egeria. I thought it was a cool and unique idea, but what do the rest of you think? I haven't commited myself to it yet so if it turns out that everyone thinks this idea is a flop then I'll move on. If I get a lot of positive feedback though then I'll come back and do some more after I write the next chapter in my Star Trek series.