666

Chapter 2

666

The dark continent was called such because of the skin color of the people living there. My host was from the dark continent. South of Egypt by many plains, mountains, and jungles lay one of the former winter palaces belonging to Ra. It now belonged to me. As did ten veteran Jaffa, their wives and children, and one hundred slaves.

We were packed like spices in a jar inside the alkesh. It was made to transport fifty jaffa and their equipment, along with a crew of twelve. The fact that that my lab equipment took up enough space for ten jaffa alone, meant that space was at a premium. There was no room to sit, and the air was barely breathable. If I didn't have the ability to turn off my sense of smell, the stink of the slaves would have made me want to kill myself rather than suffer with the stench.

As soon as the alkesh landed at the palace, I was ordering all the slaves to to take mandatory baths at least once a month.

The slaves were in horrible condition. Rotting or missing teeth, with few under the age of 20. I would only get a few years use out of them unless I ordered them to start breeding with the locals immediately. You could not expect a human over the age of 35 to survive very much longer.

After less than an hour in the dead silent alkesh, we were unloading the ship into the empty palace. The surrounding lands were overgrown with the wild and no farmland was in sight. I felt my rage boil. My slaves were likely to starve unless we found some way of getting food within the next few days.

The gifts of the sun god were poison and despair.

I wanted to shout and rage, but I would not let my slaves see me in such a way. My lo'taur was the only slave I owned in good health that was well fed. She had learned my ways over the last year and had not been punished for months now.

I felt completely humiliated to have my father deceive me in such a way. I was disgusted with myself for believing that Ra would gift the son of Neith with anything other than the worst domain on all of Tau'ri. My new palace was a small pyramid with a single small throne room, two bedrooms, and a storage room. It lacked even a basic ring transport to connect with with ships in orbit.

Rage seemed to be my only emotion as the unloaded alkesh vanished into the horizon. I could not let myself turn to despair in front of my slaves, however. I wanted to open my communication sphere and call the sun god, just to curse at him.

This domain was a punishment, not a reward.

"Jaffa!" I called out. all ten of the men carrying staff weapons turned to face me. They all wore the eagle headed armor of a Jaffa of Ra, though they were now sworn to me. I had watched them fight in a tournament to win the right to become my first Jaffa.

Being a warrior of the sun god was considered an incredibly job with the total lack of actual combat. Being the first Jaffa of a new god was considered a very combat oriented position, and greatly desired as a consequence. I was expected to be attacked by rival Goa'uld sooner rather than later.

I began to speak to them. "Pair up into five groups of two and go hunting in the jungle. large game is preferred. If you see any signs of humans, report back immediately." I needed to feed the slaves and my Jaffa as my first priority.

"Ni," my first prime, "take the second communication sphere an scout out the local terrain. I want you to find the local humans, the ones whose labor built this palace as soon as possible."

Ni acknowledged my orders and saluted by smashing his fist into the chest plate of his armor. He was the winner of the tournament and was one of the largest Jaffa I had ever seen. At seven feet tall, he had a back like an oxen's and arms like tree trunks. His olive skin glistened in the morning sun before the eagle helmet sheathed his bald head as it expanded.

"Jaffa, Kree!" Ni shouted and pointed at the dense jungle surrounding us. "Move out!" He yelled after pairing up eight other Jaffa.

I reached into my cloth of silver robes and removed my second communication sphere. "Don't fail me, Ni." I said as I handed over the gold plated ball. "Finding the native humans is of paramount importance, Ni. We will starve without their source of food."

My first prime slammed his closed fist into his chest-plate once more. "I won't fail you, my lord."

I fed a couple of bioluminescent tendrils of nerves into the back of my host's eyeballs, and let another slip into into the larynx to modulate the vocal cords. Ni saw my eyes glow and my voice change as I spoke for the last time. "Your family is depending on you to find them food. They will starve if you fail."

Ni backed away with his partner, bowing.

I turned around to face the gathered human slaves. My lo'taur stood behind me as I began to address the gathered humans with glowing eyes and a echoing voice. "Begin constructing your own shelters at the edge of the jungle, you will be sleeping there tonight." I looked around at the half starved faces of my serfs and wanted to turn my kara-kesh on them and slaughter them all.

It was unfortunate that they were all that I had for who knows how many centuries in the worst case scenario. I needed every last one of them. Genetic diversity was very important in keeping a healthy population of slaves. I could not spare a single life to starvation nor my own anger problem.

Could this be a test by Ra?

I don't remember him ever testing his spawn in such a way. The potential loss of life was negligible to my father. A hundred slaves and ten Jaffa was not even worth his time thinking about. I had memories of ruling Unas armies in the millions and Jaffa armies in the tens of millions. Ten was insignificant in the extreme.

If this was not a test, Ra simply hated me. This, I could understand. I hated the sun god with a passion of a thousand suns. My father had put me in an impossible situation. I could face my problems head on, and flail against the injustice of my very existence or accept my failure and die in shame, wallowing in my own hatred.

I had to do what was best for the wellbeing of my slave. Not for their sake, but for my own. I had to prove myself and climb to the same heights as my parents. I felt the need to not only prove them insignificant worms that they were, I wanted to kill the sun god and the Goa'uld queen with my own bare hands.

I knew from Neith's memories that the gold obsessed freak ate all of my previously spawned siblings and hunted my mature siblings, on Neith's side, to extinction. He spoke confidently and assuredly when he claimed to have no enemies left alive. According to Ra's memories, six thousand years had passed since Neith had been captured and deposed. Few Goa'uld left alive were even spawned during the ancient times of Neith.

The true events of the rise of the Goa'uld were carefully hidden by the use of wild captured queens and the selective stripping of certain memories from the Goa'uld's genetic memory.

To my knowledge I was the only spawn of Neith left alive. Ra hated Neith yet coveted her knowledge and kept her alive for the sake of their shared history.

Meaning that he had been torturing her daily for the last six thousand years due to their shared history.

I looked at the crowd of slaves who still stood motionless as I thought about my situation. "What are you all waiting for?" I shouted in a deep echoing voice. "When a god tells you to do something, you do it. Now begin constructing shelters." My eyes began to glow as I raised my kara-kesh.

I was loosing my temper with the still motionless slaves. They had probably never seen a god in person before. "Now!" I shouted once more as I fired a light kinetic blast into the crowd.

Many of the slaves jumped as I shouted at them. The ones in the front of the crowd were bowled over as if a hurricane force wind had picked them up and slung them backwards into the crowd. The slaves began to scurry towards the jungle's tree line. I walked into the small 'palace' after watching the slaves beginning to collect sticks from the forest's edge.

I made a mental note to improve their standard of clothing somehow. I did not want them to die of exposure to cold during the winter. I had no idea how cold it got here in the jungle covered mountains during the winter. I doubted the loincloths alone would be sufficient. Upper body covering would be needed at some point or another.

It took a few hours for me to set up the nano-furnaces, molecular fabricators, and holographic interface. I set the nano-furnaces to construction simple titanium ax and steel spear heads. I wanted the shelters built quickly to cut down on the loss of life due to exposure. Axes and spears would allow construction to be sped up and hunting to be taught.

It was nearing nightfall when the Jaffa began to return. They all returned with dead beasts. A couple of wild boars, a few deer, and a giant sized orange and black striped cat. Barely enough to feed the Jaffa and slaves. It would have to do however.

Well after the sunset, My communication sphere activated. A hologram of my first prime appeared floating in the air above the sphere. "My lord," Ni saluted "I have located a primitive tribe of locals."

I raised an eyebrow. So soon? This was good luck. "Capture one and bring it here. I will speak with one of them." I ordered.

"There is more good news as well, My lord." The first prime held up a crescent shaped yellow and brown seed pod. "We have found a new type of fruit. I observed the locals eating them. It grows wild everywhere in the jungle and is delicious to eat. I think the worst of our food problem is over for now."

"This is good news." I felt a little relieved that my slaves would not be dropping dead from starvation very soon. If the fruit was as common as the First prime said, we would not starve to death within a matter of weeks as all the wild game in the area was exhausted.

"Return with a captive and some of this fruit you say is so common." I pressed on a button to cut the transmission.

I reached over to flip the switch on the nano-furnaces' interface screen to cycle it to produce the next batch of ax heads. I had fifty already after a single evening of work. Identical microscopic nanites were created through the use of energy to matter transmission. The nanites could then be used to build any material as long as there was a supply of raw material. The naquada power generator used inside of it would last for thousands of years if the machine was properly maintained.

I went to bed on a grass and leaf pallet, curled up in the arms of my warm lo'taur. She had collected the soft leaves and grass throughout the day after she noticed there was no bed in the palace. I used her for warmth and for comfort. Her body was soft and her skin smooth. Far more comfortable than the green pallet on the stone floor, alone.

The next morning, I was had three of the oldest seventeen Jaffa children begin to pass out the ax heads among the slaves. Everyone received one, as I started the nano-furnaces on producing steel spear heads. The furnaces started running low on materials. So I had some of the slaves begin to carry handfuls the rich soil outside into my lab and to showed them how to fill the furnace with raw material.

The Jaffa children were still too young to receive a prim'ta, thankfully. I could not afford to pay for a queen's services. Making new Jaffa was expensive unless you had a Goa'uld queen to associate with or dominate. They loathed to give away their larval spawn. It reminded me of my next project.

Ra had created the Jaffa using a device of the Ancients on the planet of Dakara. With Neith's advanced understanding of Ancient technology, I was sure that I could create a miniature version of the device to be used on a single person at a time, to correct the flaws in Jaffa immune systems.

It would be very difficult, but it would allow me to increase my number of Jaffa without selling every scrap of naquada to a queen that would as soon run off with my payment than to deliver larval spawn to a weak young Goa'uld without an overlord's sponsorship, like myself.

I began working on it on the holographic interface as soon as I was able. Ni, however was quick to interrupt as he drug a shrieking dark skinned woman into my palace. Her hair was black and braided elaborately thought twigs and mud caked much of her hair. Her face was tear streaked where the tears had made the dirt covering her body to run.

"A local, my lord." Ni saluted as I looked up. "As you ordered."

"Whats the name of your tribe, girl? Why have you not maintained the land your ancestors built?" I questioned with glowing eyes and a deeply echoing voice. Her face contorted in fear as she started jabbering away in a foreign tongue between her shrieks of fear. It sounded like she was begging for her life.

"Do you understand me, girl?" I asked without the glowing eyes and Goa'uld voice.

She continued jabbering away and yelling out cries of fear.

I shook my head at Ni. "Give her to the slaves. They may start reproducing with her. Then come back to give your report on the locals without that annoying girl's screams."

Ni soon returned without the noise-maker. "There are several dozen humans living in small mud huts along the river, approx. twelve miles to the north." Ni began. "I picked up on these being edible by watching the primitives feast on them." Ni held out a bundle of yellow crescent shaped fruit. "Every other tree has these growing in them."

I nodded with a frown and took the bundle of fruit from the large Jaffa. "How do you eat them? I questioned with genuine curiosity. I had never seen a fruit of it's like before. I tore one off of the bundle and handed it to Ni. "Show me."

"You peel them, my lord." Ni demonstrated peeling the fruit. "The inside is soft and sweet." He held the peeled fruit out for me to inspect.

I took it from him and took a bite. "Point the fruit out to the slaves and allow them to collect their own food." I said once I finished the delicious fruit.

"I want you to raid that village along the river." I said. "They have forgotten the gods they serve and need reminding." I walked over to the nano-furnaces and loaded the orders for 10 zat'nik'tels into the machines. "I want you to capture all the females and children alive. I am going to issue all my Jaffa zat'nik'tels."

Ni's eyes gleamed like his bald head as he imagined himself as a warrior armed with one of the rare and highly sought after zat'nik'tels..

"It will take a week to build them all." I checked the nano-furnace's screen. "I have twenty spear heads to issue to twenty lucky slaves."

Ni looked at me with confusion.

"Find twenty of the youngest, tallest, and healthiest slaves to be elevated to the warrior class." I said before I lit my eyes once more. "Now that we know the area around us is inhabited, we need more than ten Jaffa to both guard my palace and attack my enemies at the same time."

666

Two weeks later, I left my lo'taur in charge of the palace with two Jaffa and five new spearmen to guard the palace. I took eight jaffa and fifteen untrained boys with pointy metal tipped sticks to the river a few miles to the north. I carried a short spear, around seven feet long, as did the other newly raised warriors.

Unlike the untrained spearmen, I had thousands of years of experience with the spear under my belt. I simply had to train my host's muscles to respond fast enough to be to my liking. I was a deadly warrior with a staff or spear.

I left a village of nine large cabins made of cut logs and plastered with a mud and grass mixture. The buildings were spread apart from each other, along the expanding tree-line. A new cabin was being plastered as we left the village. Sixty slaves worked of cutting down the jungle around my palace and another ten worked to erect the cabins. The final ten slaves were in the jungle, collecting the fallen yellow fruit or climbing trees to knock the yellow fruit to the ground.

Excitement surged through me as we made our way along the river. The jungle around us was full of loud and colorful birds and vibrant colored flowers of every shade. The yellow fruit trees grew tall into the air, and gave off a sweet scent that filled the air. It was a beautiful day. I felt more and more alive as we made our way closer to the dark skinned people's village.

It was dark by the time we arrived at the village. I could see a few men awake beside a big fire-pit. The fire-pit had a large pig roasting on a spit over the fire. I could hear the men chattering back and forth across the fire as the Jaffa and I crept closer through the trees. The fire blinded the men next to the fire to our approach. There were around twenty little huts arranged in a circle around the fire-pit. One side of the village faced the river, where I could see long canoes floating in the water. On the other side, was the jungle.

A soft clinking of chain-mail was the only sound the Jaffa made as they raised their zat'nik'tels and fired at the men lounging around the fire. All three were struck with multiple blasts of disruptive energy and died on the spot. Two bodies disintegrated into nothing.

"Get rid of the last body" I whispered to Ni. He fired his zat once more and the third man disintegrated. I felt more alive than ever before. I didn't feel like an extension of Ra and Neith. I felt like my own person for once.

The spearmen stepped out of the woods and surrounded the jungle side of the village. They were not to attack. Attacking was the Jaffa's job tonight. The spearmen were there to keep stray villagers from escaping. The Jaffa split into pairs and quietly moved into individual huts. The quiet hisses and clicks of the zats went unheard as the village slept through it's own culling. I stood in the center of the village, next to the pork roast. I extended my spear over the fire and carved a section out of the pig's belly with my spears sharp blade as I listened to the hisses and flashed of light coming from the huts. I took a bite of the juicy hunk of meat.

I waited in front of the fire-pit, feeling alive as my men slaughtered the villagers.

By the time I finally heard someone cry out, half the village had already been culled. Naked men rushed from their huts with stone tipped thrusting spears.

Two men spotted me and rushed me as one, screaming in a clicking and honking kind of foreign tongue's war-cry. I dropped the pork belly from my hand and began to spin my spear in a protective maneuver. They both ran at me, spears stabbing and attacked on my left and right at the same time. Still spinning my spear, I batted the stone spears aside, shattering the stone head on the left man's spear.

The man on the right had his hand stuck with the bladed tip if my spear. A few fingers flew off the man as he screamed in shock and pain, beginning to back away. The man on the left attempted to tackle me. I used my enhanced agility to flip over his head, neatly bringing my spear around to lightly slice at his neck with the sharp bladed edge of my spear.

The man's neck gushed blood as his jugular was severed. He dropped to his knees holding his hand to his neck, trying and failing to stem the flow of blood. The man on the right seemed to have lost his senses as he gathered the courage to charge at me with a frenzied cry. One of his hands only had a thumb and forefinger left.

I sidestepped his charge and slid my spear into his back, just between the fourth and fifth ribs. His heart exploded in his chest as he gave out a choked cry. He collapsed to the ground, as dead as his still struggling partner on the ground, trying and failing to keep his blood inside his body.

Another man was charging me, holding a wicker shield and short spear. He was more muscled than the me I had just killed. This was a warrior. It was all the proof I needed to know that the jungle was populated with other people than the builders of my father's pyramid. These dark skinned people must have killed the original builders.

I spun my spear with my right hand, raising my kara-kesh on my left arm, I turned the dial up to maximum. As the man brought his shield up to bare, I fired. The kinetic blast covered the four meter distance between us in a ripple of displaced air.

The man flew backwards as if kicked by a giant. His back made a dull cracking sound as it collided with a yellow fruit tree. A man began to scream in their foreign tongue from behind me. I turned around to face an elderly man, naked and heavily muscled, with his skin covered in pale white ashes pointing at me and screamed once more. He carried a stone knife in his hand that he pointed at me with and held a squealing piglet in the other.

I walked towards him slowly. He was old, in his mid thirties, and could not outrun me. I wanted to enjoy killing him myself. He began to chant the same words over and over as he brought the stone knife up and into the squealing piglet. My shield activated itself as is it's sensors picked up energy heading towards me at a high velocity.

My shield flared bright yellow as I was lifted high into the air and thrown backwards by an invisible kinetic force, similar to my own kara-kesh. I felt my body crash into the water. My host's body was knocked unconscious with severe brain hemorrhaging.

I took direct control of the body's motor function and began to swim to the surface. What was that? Did the old man bring some king of hidden technology to bear against me? I knew of nothing other than my own kara-kesh that could bring such a force to bare against me.

The energy had thrown me through my own shield. Not even the kara-kesh could do that. I swam back to the village, while I did my best to repair the brain damage. The host's consciousness was utterly gone. The brain injury had left him virtually brain dead. Without my to stimulate the right muscles, he would have stopped breathing already. I was keeping the host alive, if barely.

The bleeding in the brain slowed to a stop as I wrapped my tendrils around the punctured artery. I drank the excess blood off the brain to relive the pressure. I climbed back onto land with the help of Ni, to be met with an almost silent village. My jaffa were dragging unconscious men and women into the center of the village, next to the fire-pit.

I ran over to the old man, Ni following, to find him only unconscious and not yet dead. I felt relief. I wanted to know what had happened. "I'm switching avatars, Ni." I said to the large first prime behind me. "This body is dying." I opened the old man's mouth to show pearly white teeth. A rarity. It meant that he ate no sugar or bread.

"Hold his mouth open." I told Ni.

I lay down on the ground next to the old man. I exploded out of the back of my first host's neck and into the cold and frigid air. Ni held the old man's mouth open with wide eyes as he stared at my true form. I jumped into the elderly man's mouth

I felt warmth as I brushed past Ni's fingers and burrowed into the back of the old man's throat.