Chapter 10: Invasion
Oval Office, Washington DC, Present Day
President Glassner let out a small whistle when Arthur finished his story, before leaning back in his chair to contemplate what he had been told. In a way, the storyteller appreciated the dignitaries lack of response. It showed that, probably as a result of years as a professional politician, the man had learnt not to simply shout out the first thing that sprang to his mind.
"That does explain a lot, actually. We had wondered why the Goa'uld had never returned en force after the Egyptians defeated them. After all, we still have no weapon capable of beating them back."
"Not quite, but..." Arthur simply disregarded the Presidents curious and excited look with a swish of his hand.
"So, did you ever see her again? Your wife, I mean?"
Arthur's smile broadened immediately, while his eyes dropped a bit, giving Glassner the impression of a man in conflict with his own emotions.
"So you did figure it out. Faster then I thought you would, as well. What gave me away?"
"It was not that difficult, really. The respect Charles had for you, like you were some bigger then life figure; the fact that in your story, only one character really seemed to be leading the others; or even just that proud light in your eyes whenever you talked about your son. You did not answer my question, though. Don't stall."
This time, Arthur's smile dropped visibly, leaving behind a world-weary man desperate for change.
"No. We did manage to get a few messages out, every once in a while, but the treaty prevented me from leaving and her from returning. I know she is doing fine and actually continued the fight against the Goa'uld with the Tollans for a long time."
"My reports indicate that the Tollans, when we met them, were a completely isolated people, with no wish to aid us, or fight the Goa'uld."
"The Tollans you met had just recently lost their planet to a large catastrophe caused by others, that forced them to completely abandon their way of life and even their own home. Compared to Earth, there are fairly few of them, and even the fact that they managed to stay independent from Goa'uld rule is extremely impressive. That they managed to protect another few planets is even more so."
President Glassner looked puzzled. "I was informed that the planet just recently underwent the dramatic changes that destroyed its ecosystem. Their policies of non-interference, on the other hand, seem to be a lot older. Non of those we met even mentioned a fight against the Goa'uld."
"Shifting a planet out of its stable orbit is not an easy thing to do, and requires a lot of energy. For an uncontrolled, unfocused blast, no matter how strong, to do so is a credit to the Tollan energy production technology. Still, all the explosion did was nudge the planet a little bit. It took dozens of years until there would be a recognizable shift in orbit, and at least a hundred of them until the orbit shifted enough for the planet to actually be uninhabitable."
"How do you know all this?"
Arthur smiled at the man's question, having expected it much earlier. "Well, we did download the recent mission reports, and from there a lot of it is simply Physics. By the way, I must commend whoever designed your digital security system. Moving all files to an independent system without outside access is genius. As for the rest of it though, well, you saw I met the Tollans. I'm assuming that camera did not have audio?"
The President shook his head. "No. Although Dr. Jackson, after being assured he would not be facing any kind of repercussions, provided a summary of the conversation you had with the Tollan security officer. Dr. Jackson is a prodigy when it comes to everything spoken, so I am pretty sure his report was flawless."
As Arthur continued to simply smile at him, President Glassner opened his mouth to ask his question once again, when understanding finally filled his eyes. "Son and Father. You called that man son. Originally, we discarded it as a curious figure of speech. How would an Earth ambassador ever father a highly-developed alien. Now, it is obvious and the rest of the conversation makes so much more sense. That really is Shining Wolf, your son."
Arthur nodded at him, before explaining. "Obviously, after being separated for five thousand years, it took us a moment to really reconnect on the level we used to, but after living together for two thousand years as a family, sharing thoughts and emotions regularly, you get back into the familiar patterns quickly."
"So you'll finally get to see your family again. Did your son not break the treaty with the Goa'uld, anyways?"
Arthur wiggled his hand from side to side. "Kind of, and yet not. For reasons I'll get into later, we can not easily break the treaty. The only reason Shining Wolf was able to get to Earth was that he was unconscious, and did not know where he was. As for seeing them again: well, I suspect that with the way things are going right now, the Goa'uld will be trying to challenge the treaty in close future. They simply can not afford to continue to ignore the threat the Tau'ri have become. Once that happens, we will, of course, be ready."
President Glassner looked puzzled. "So in all these years, the Goa'uld have never attempted to return to Earth? That does not really fit what we know about the Goa'uld."
Arthur smiled fairly. "Oh, they attempted, all right. They simply never succeeded in staying."
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Unnamed planet, Chronos' territory, 1000 BC
With a large amount of satisfaction, the powerful Goa'uld regarded the ships standing in front of him. While flying them was not as easy as flying a death-glider, he had spent a lot of time having his Jaffa training. They would, after all, have to execute an extremely difficult manoeuvre to begin with, a manoeuvre the pilots had aptly named 'threading the needle'.
His disability to reassemble ships on the other side of the Tau'ri gate had caused Chronos a fair amount of trouble. For the first few hundred years, the Goa'uld had his few scientists working on ways to allow the Jaffa to survive long enough in the cold to assemble the ships. At first, progress was adequate, at best, but forty years later, one of them managed to modify a space suit to fit a Jaffa and to withstand the icy winds. When they were finally done, they had found the suit to be too bulky to correctly assemble the highly complicated hull parts of the ship. Of course, non of this would have enabled Chronos himself to return to Earth, since there was no way he was going to endure the cold or hide his beautiful face in some suit.
In the end, the god's vanity did not matter. Even a simple Tel'tak proved to be much to complicated to dumb down to a click-and-fly system, so for the next few hundred years, they attempted to optimize the suits more and more until Chronos finally grew impatient and terminated the matter himself. The scientist who had first proposed the project and had supervised it had quickly been made to feel his Lord's displeasure, and won't be making any mistakes anymore.
In the end, the solution proved to be a wonderfully simple one. Since the ships could not be assembled on the other side, but were needed there, they would simply have to bring the ships with them. Of course, the matter was much more complicated then that. While getting to the planet was easy enough - all they had to do was modify a death-glider to fit through the gate - getting off was much more difficult. Without on foot access to the gate, they needed a way to remotely dial home. Additionally, the death-gliders weaponry was designed primarily for space-combat. Should they really encounter descendants of the strange aliens that had defeated Ra so long ago, they would need a lot more firepower power available.
Lastly, though, Chronos simply did not have the means to fly two hundred ships through the gate. Most of his fleet was needed to protect his galactic interests and could not be made available. Additionally, the Tau'ri slaves would, of course, not be flying out in armed gliders. As a result, some kind of transport ship was needed.
The first problem turned out to be the most difficult one. After almost two hundred years of research and trying to back engineer the Chappa'ai's dialling device, and just as Chronos contemplated giving up and just sacrificing a human or Jaffa every time somebody passed throughl, the Chappa'ai on one of his research outposts activated and a crystal with specifications for a ship based dialling mushroom passed through. Chronos suspected Ra's involvement, who had sworn revenge on the Tau'ri aliens. The system was a lot larger then what Chronos had aimed for, since it recreated the gatebuilder's system, but it would fit on the cargo ships at least.
About one thousand, three hundred years after the Goa'uld left Earth, and seven hundred years after Chronos reestablished a connection, the Chappa'ai in on the planets northern pole activated once again.
After being buried in the ice since the gatebuilders left the galaxy, many hundred thousand years ago, the small cave holding the gate had shrunk down to almost nothing. Only the ancient race's unbelievably powerful, crystal based power source, that has provided the gate's superconducting energy circuits with enough charge for an incoming wormhole, which in turn miniscule heated the imposing metal ring to just above the melting point of ice, prevented the cave from disappearing completely and the two rings from freezing together.
The first thing to pass through the gate were dozens of small, round balls, that burst into a large, hot white flame, burning for several minutes, melting and even evaporating the ice in the immediate surroundings of the interstellar transportation device. Afterwards, a hot, red laser beam as wide as the Stargate itself, began cutting straight through the ice, angled slightly upwards to reach the surface.
One of the disadvantages of the new glider was the small amount of space available for the thrusting systems. Since high speeds were necessary for a pilot to survive a combat situation, Chrono's engineers decided to, instead, cut back on the anti-gravity device that enabled the Goa'uld ships to fly more slowly then aerodynamics would allow or, in case of larger Goa'uld ships, even hover motionlessly inside a gravity well. As a result, the first glider, and with it the first Jaffa in over a thousand years, to return to Earth shot through the gate at, for such small caves, impossibly high speeds and would have immediately exploded on the opposite wall, were it not for the laser.
"This is eyeball. Command, I can see the sky from down here. I repeat, mission success. The way is clearer."
Upon confirmation, two dozen more gliders quickly succeeded each other to leave the wormhole, before finally five almost twenty meters long, cylindrical crafts appeared over Earth's northern pole, four carrying the remaining Jaffa and Goa'uld, packed tightly, and one their leader, Chronos, and his personal attendants.
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"My lord. We have reached Egypt. First scans show the Chappa'ai burried in the sand right where it used to be. There are several smaller settlements around, although non of significant size. Shall we land?"
Chronos inspected the information displayed on the screen, confirming what his First Prime had already told him.
"No. Keep going. According to my information and my calculations, the north should be more densely populated by now and more comfortably climated. We do not need the gate."
"Of course, my lord."
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Quen'top lazily guided his horse along a small path on the southern tip of what today is called Greece, his partner right behind him. Ever since the immortals had left Egypt in the aftermath of the rebellion, Earth's saviours had lived homelessly, always en route from one village to the next to help the people and to search for any new dangers to humanity.
Although non of them were really happy with where live had taken them, the immortals knew that living anywhere would mean having to explain just why they never seemed to die, never even seemed to age. Travelling the land meant less comfort, but it also meant a better protection of their secrets, and, thereby, the treaty with the Goa'uld. Still, almost one thousand five hundred years after leaving Shank'anon, a place to truly call home sounded wonderful to Quen'top.
Their ranks had continued to grow in that time, although nowhere near as much as they had before the rebellion. Still, two new immortals had been reborn, which is what they called the first time they used their powers, which in turn they called tapping, during the time on the move. Whenever that happened, a ripple would vibrate through the fabric that fuelled their powers, alerting the other immortals as to the location of their new brother or sister. Once they stopped using their powers again, though, and moved to a new place, their arriving mentors would have to search for them, hoping to find another clue as to who they are. Eventually, they always did.
Quen'top was violently jerked out of his musings when his young partner, the elder of the two new tappers, grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Cursing, the immortal crushed his first reflex to reach into his powers and defend himself, before following the young man's stretched finger.
At just shy of two hundred years, Herakles had seen more than most humans ever got to see during their whole life, especially when few of them ever even left their own village or tribe. Despite that, he retained his youthful joy in discovering new things, and would get an infectious grin and a light shining behind his light blue eyes whenever he found a new mystery to investigate.
"By the void, they fly. What do you think it is?" he asked, a childlike curiosity in his question that belied his age.
Quen'top could only stare in shock as more and more ships dove out of the clouds and lowered themselves over Europe. Despite being a different entirely model than those he knew, the design, the weapons and the formation of the eighteen ships screamed Goa'uld to the veteran.
"Ride for Egypt immediately. Ride as hard as you can, and get there as fast as you can. Spread the word. The Goa'uld are back, and they brought plenty of ships. I'll try to find out where they are going and what they are up to, then follow you as soon as I can."
Herakles starred in shock. He had heard the other immortals talking about the war, had once seen Thundering Eagle, a kind, joyful man, who was a rock nobody seemed to be able to move or hurt, on the anniversary of the rebellion. Despite them winning, despite knowing that they had made the world a better place, non of the powerful beings ever felt like celebrating, knowing that they had lost two of their own that day, two who would probably have to endure untold horrors and who would never have a chance to return home.
Glancing at the almost three dozen ships in the sky, he marvelled at the beauty of destruction and chaos. The crafts were shiny silver, perfectly round, and, at least the smaller ones, extremely sleek. The pilots were obviously well trained, since they flew the crafts in perfect synchronization, reacting to each other's moves and constantly moving along the fleet of transporters they were obviously guarding, looking for any and all threats.
"Go!" Sufficiently encouraged, the young immortal immediately spurred his horse on, almost flying over the country side for many moments before his logic caught up with his instincts. While the Goa'uld had been his personal bogyman for as long as he knew about them, Egypt was far away. If he exhausted his horse now, or even worse, lost it, he would be forced to abandon it and make his way on foot, at least until he found a new one. While stealing was a concept he despised, he knew that right now, every moment counted.
Quen'top watched his young charge leave for a moment before turning his horse once more, following in the direction of the fleet. If he was lucky, they would keep going straight and he might have a chance to catch up with them wherever they landed. From the direction, they might be coming from Egypt and the Chappa'ai there, even though that gate should be buried and guarded.
The immortal elder was not overly concerned for his young charge. He would be heading east a bit, to cross down to Africa via the Middle East, where he would hopefully not encounter any Goa'uld. Maybe, with any luck, he might even find a few of their friends on the way to send them his way and to support him. As for all outlaws and bandits waylaying him - they were more then welcome to try, of course, but with the urgency of his message, and the powers he had available, the poor sods were probably going to come to regret their decision.
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Thundering Eagle stood before the great Sphinx, inspecting the various signs carved into it with both interest and amusement. Over the years they had used the impressive building the people of Egypt had build as a guard from the old gods and as a monument to those who died as their personal message board to keep track of who was going where, when he would return, and anything else worth mentioning, their style of writing, their language, and even their words had changed significantly as they adopted ideas from other societies that slowly began to advance into civilization or developed new concepts of their own.
It was the large message in the centre of the segment he was currently expecting, roughly a thousand years old, that caused the man to smile as he remembered the day. Surrounded by well wishes from immortals now spread out all over the globe, was the wedding announcement of Graceful Cobra and his now wife Kore, an about two and a half thousand years younger immortal that had joined him as an infiltrator in Egypt shortly after she first tapped.
The couple had asked Thundering Eagle to wed them. Although the immortal had had the right to do so as the governor of Shank'anon, he had most of the time chosen to observe from the background and not get involved with the day to day politics of the humans. They were, he had felt, to fragile in the ever-changing, endless current of life he was living. For his two friends, though, Egeria's former servant gladly had made an exception.
After loosing his wife and son, Thundering Eagle had been devastated. Defeating the Goa'uld throughout the world had given him a focus, but ultimately, a relationship that long necessarily meant that loosing the other would leave deep scars on ones soul.
Apart from his lost wife, Graceful Cobra was by far the person who knew Thundering Eagle best. Despite being separated by almost five hundred miles for most of their lives, the two men had formed a tight friendship and a deep bond of trust. Therefore, when Thundering Eagle had finally crashed, Graceful Cobra had been ready to step in and lead the immortals in his place, thereby giving his friend time and space to mourne.
Never in all the years since then, though, did he leave Thundering Eagle alone. Once the immortals had split up after the cleansing and travelled out into the world, Graceful Cobra and Kore had begun to follow their grieving leader, first from a distance as to not to disturb him, but later on as companions, friends and partners.
"Anything new, Eagle?" Kore appeared at his left shoulder, reading the text with him. They had found the slim, redheaded woman in northern England, hiding between a couple of rocks from a group of hunters out for her blood while the immortals still hid their nature from Egeria. Apparently, she had crashed a religious ceremony in which a group of children from the defeated tribe were to be sacrificed to thank the gods for the victory. Unaware of her own powers, she had been forced to run for her life after she had killed the shaman and freed the children. Thanks to the now destroyed Tel'tak, Shining Moon and Graceful Cobra had arrived just in time to intercept a patrol and get her out safely.
"Not really. Just a list of territories the others travelled to. Apparently, Ra'tep managed to negotiate a peace between two of the major tribes of the east, but apart from that, the situation seems quiet."
"Eagle! Do you sense that!" Hearing the stress in Graceful Cobra's voice, the immortal swirled around, staring intently. Graceful Cobra currently had his eyes closed, is fingertips shining dimly in the evening sun as he bled off excess energy from maintaining a connection to the field.
Kore regarded her companions in shock as both of them closed their eyes. Over the years they had travelled together, the young woman had quickly learnt that the control the pair had over their powers was immense, and far greater then anything she could hope to match yet. Still, sensing did not seem like a concept she was familiar with.
"What's going on?" The young woman took several moments to realize it was herself that had asked the question, before internally cursing herself. Obviously, both men were highly focused and would not appreciate her interference. To her surprise, though, Graceful Cobra answered easily with no strain audible in his voice.
"Somebody is tapping fairly heavily north-east from here. Not a rebirth, but simple tapping. I can not be sure, at this distance, but I think it is simply an attempt to communicate, to find others close by."
Thundering Eagle nodded. "It's approaching fairly fast. I'm guessing whoever it is, is on horseback, and pushing the horse hard. Judging by the direction, I'm guessing they are headed here - about two, maybe three days away."
Kore's mouth hung open in shock. "How the heck can you feel them all this way, and how can you know their location and distance? They are still way too far away to communicate."
Graceful Cobra turned towards their female companion. "It's not communication as such. When you take a cup of water out of an endless lake, you will not see a drop in the water level, but you will see the ripple of where it entered. The moment one of us taps, the ripple can be felt to those sensitive enough. When a new tapper appears, it's like dropping in a large boulder. The ripple is much larger, and therefore easier to detect. Eagle and I spent a lot of time working on our powers, and therefore are a bit closer to the void then most others."
Kore shook her head in amusement. "A bit. Right. When you simplify it as you did not, I can roughly imagine what you are talking about, but it is simply an abstract concept and nothing I could really understand. You two are ages ahead of us."
While Graceful Cobra simply shrugged, Thundering Eagle fully came out of his trance as well. "Whoever it is is definitely heading here and seems to have a message. Why don't you two ride out to meet him or her, I'll wait here to stop any others just in case they happen to pass through."
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Graceful Cobra crept through the bushes ahead of Kore, careful not to make much noise. After a day and a half of hard riding, they had finally intercepted the presence he had felt earlier, and were now on the way to make contact.
Unfortunately, although they knew their contact was most likely a friend due to his or her powers, the urgency with which the rider had moved seemed to have attracted a lot of attention. Already, the pair had dogged two raiding parties combing the country side, looking for easy prey.
Finally, in a small clearing, they found a majestic black steed tied to a tree and a young man sleeping, sheltered from the light summer breeze under a thin blanket.
Indicating for his companion to be quiet, Graceful Cobra slowly inched forward until his hand shot out to cover the young man's mouth.
Startled from his sleep when a hand sealed his lips, Herakles jerked upwards while preparing to tap into his powers. After years of training with Quen'top, who insisted on startling him as part of his training regularly, his first few moves were instinctive.
When the young man found himself unable to roll to the side, he opened his mouth once again, intending to bite into the hand holding him as a last attempt to conceal his powers.
"Be still. There are raiders all around here. We don't want to attract attention. We are friends." When the man stopped struggling, Graceful Cobra slowly removed his hand, although Kore could still see him twitching in case the young man reacted once again.
"Who are you?" Herakles' voice did not show a hint of fear, understandably considering the power he was capable of calling forth, but the stress of his journey was easy to hear.
Graceful Cobra took a step back and settled down on the ground, before piercing the young man with a look. "We believe you were looking for us. This is Kore, my partner, and I am Graceful Cobra."
Almost immediately, the man felt the young man's mind touch his own as he verified his claim. Even amongst the immortals, a certain pecking order had established itself, and Graceful Cobra, as one of the oldest, was also one of the most respected ones.
"Thank the void I found you." The young man visibly sagged into herself once he realized his mission was completed successfully.
"My name is Herakles. I'm only a few hundred years old, so we have not met yet. Quen'top has taken me under his wing. Three months ago, we were on our way through Greece, just a routine patrol, when several dozen ships passed over us. Quen'top said he did not recognize the designs, but they were without a doubt Goa'uld fighters and cargo ships. He sent me here to alert the others, while he planned to follow them as well as possible, to find out where they went and what they want here."
Although Herakles managed to convey his whole message without taking as much as a single breath, Graceful Cobra had jumped up to start pacing half-way through it already.
"You did well. Thank you. Close of your mind."
When both of his companions simply looked confused, Graceful Cobra took the time to elaborate. "You are still trying to reach others through the void. Normally, that's a noble idea, but right now, I'm going to reach out myself. If you are connected to the void then, you will feel it, and to reach Thundering Eagle at the Sphinx, which is about two days away still, I can not really be gentle. So cease tapping, otherwise you will probably get a bad headache."
Graceful Cobra closed his eyes for a moment, before opening them again a few moments later.
"Let's go."
Kore was the first one to find her voice a few moments later. "Hold on. We appear to have missed a few steps here. First of all, did you not say communicating over this distance was not possible. Secondly, were you not going to communicate with Eagle? And lastly, go where?"
"Not impossibly, just difficult. Eagle and I had to rely on long distance communication a lot of the time while I was in Egypt, to make sure Egeria did not find out or simply because it was faster, so we practised a lot. The mind is a wonderful thing, though. You think faster then you talk, so why should we restrict our communication to the speed our voice can articulate words. As for where we are going, to find the Goa'uld, of course. Eagle will wait for the others and then meet us at the crossing to Europe, and our job is to find the Goa'uld until they arrive."
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When you are immortal, time becomes less important, especially as the years pass and little changes in the world. As a result, they often choose to settle down one place or another for a while, and only return to Egypt to check the news seldomly before moving on to the next area.
Normally, Thundering Eagle did not mind a bit. Normally, he would be one of those not returning to Egypt for centuries at a time, and it was by pure accident that he happened to be there when Herakles brought them the news. Right now, though, he was impatiently waiting for the other members of their group to finally appear.
It took almost two hundred years until the second group of immortals crossed the Bosporus strait into Europe. Locating the Goa'uld, on the other hand, was easy. All Quen'top and the other immortals had to do was follow the large flow of refugees back to it's origin on the Greek peninsula, and locate the most extravagant building there.
Standing on the edge of a small forest, Thundering Eagle and Graceful Cobra stood side by side looking up at the majestic mountain and the fortress sitting in the steepest part of the hill. Six of the two dozen fighters stationed there were constantly moving about, circling the fortress palace like moths a flame. Along the lone small path winding up the hill, a dozen heavy encampments were set up, manned with multiple Jaffa at all time. All groups not led by a Jaffa, or larger then five people including the guide, were immediately fired upon.
"Not that's a fortress." Thundering Eagle exclaimed with a small whistle when Graceful Cobra had finished reporting on his, his wife's and Herakles' findings. The small group of three and Quen'top had spent the time reckoning the area, trying to find any detail they could exploit. Non had turned up.
"You have no idea. The guards operating outside the palace are in constant rotation, ensuring they are well rested, but also giving us a idea as to the amount of people in there. Occasionally, a Goa'uld would venture outside to check on the guards or the slaves. As a result, though, we were able to identify a hundred and twelve different Jaffa, as well as thirty Goa'uld."
Once again, Thundering Eagle nodded, while the assembled immortals behind them listened with interest as well. "So they probably brought two hundred."
"There are eighteen of us. If we surprise them, I we might be able to defeat them, but getting up that path is all but impossible, even more so doing so unseen. There are probably a dozen checkpoints along the way, and we could not really spread out either. If they attacked us, we would be trapped in their crossfire. That guy heading the operation is paranoid."
"Do we know who it is? The amount of resources he is committing is astonishing in itself."
"There were a few, rare occasions when he himself showed his face. There are plenty of statues in the temples all around here, though, proclaiming his greatness. He calls himself Chronos, and announced himself and his followers to be Titans. Apparently, they liked the concept but did not wish to name themselves 'gods' once again."
Thundering Eagle frowned in thought. "I don't believe I am familiar with that name, so he is not a System Lord, which is strange, considering the wealth displayed in weaponry alone around here."
"I am familiar with him from years back. He was originally one of Ra's underlings, but eventually managed to gain his freedom for services well done. He since established himself as a powerful, if cruel, ruler and has gained a fairly large territory. If I were to guess, the prestige of returning to Earth, and the number of slaves he exported, have since elevated to the status of System Lord."
"How many slaves are we talking about here, exactly?" Ra'tep asked from the crowd.
"We can not be sure as to the exact numbers. As the stronghold here grew, he required more workers and quit shipping them away. Instead, one of his cargo ships leaves daily to acquire humans from around the globe. Judging from the size of the vessel and the number of people they herded in at the beginning, I'd say we are looking at about fifty humans a day for the past two hundred years."
"Three and a half million people, " Thundering Eagle muttered under his breath. "It's no wonder he managed to elevate his position. How do they get off world?"
"We have a theory, but nothing more. All ships they brought seem round and fairly slim, although relatively long. Since we know flying even to Abydos takes weeks, and the ship is back within the day, we suspect they are navigating through a gate somewhere close."
Thundering Eagle shook his head. "I checked on the gate while waiting. It is still buried exactly where we left it."
"Ra might have brought a second emergency gate, or maybe they brought a new one with them or found one on another planet or in a nearby system. The possibilities are endless and we really don't have the time to explore them all."
"So removing their supply routes is difficult at best. What can we do? What do we do?"
Graceful Cobra sighed and looked around wearily, regarding the eager faces observing him. All of them wanted to get rid of the Goa'uld, especially now that they knew how many people had lost their homes and families. Seeing no help forthcoming from his companions, he proclaimed the bad news himself.
"There is no easy quick fix this time. At least, we don't see one. We can not simply waltz in there and attack. We found no secret entrances to the palace, and while there are a few ring transporters to enable the Jaffa to move quickly, they are rigged to only accept incoming transports. We do not have a large army ready to draw the fire of the Jaffa and even if we did, they would be slaughtered on this path up there, even more so then they were at Ra's temple. We have no ally in there to inform us about enemy movements or their level of technology."
"So what do we do?"
"We wait patiently for the right moment to strike. Until then, we have to try to get into the palace, both to get more information and to possibly get behind enemy lines and execute a pincer move."
When a murmur spread through the assembled immortals, Thundering Eagle voiced the peoples thoughts. "I am almost afraid to ask. How do we do that? You sound like you have a plan."
"Now is where it gets tricky. Word of mouth says there has been a large flooding north of here, around Mount Olympus. We are survivors of the water and looking for a place to stay and to form a new life. Every year or so, one of the Goa'uld will come down and look for new slaves to serve in the palace. We have to establish ourselves as hard workers and obedient servants. Additionally, we have to appear inconspicuous. Therefore, it is imperative that we do not appear to be too closely linked. I recommend we appear in small groups over the next few weeks, and settle down in the area. If anybody asks why you chose here, spin a tale about the protection of the gods and the few people competing for the land. Ever since Chronos took the people, the landscape around here has been almost barren.
Oh, and don't forget, we will need new, Greek names as well, if we are to blend in."
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Zeus, he was careful not to even think of himself as Thundering Eagle anymore, skillfully kept his shudder inward as he watched the Jaffa herd the people like cattle. For over ten years, the immortals had lived in the villages surrounding the mountain forest, and had, as a group, quickly made a name of themselves as hard, dedicated workers generally known as 'Olympians'.
So far, though, the Goa'uld had been weary of the strange newcomers and had avoided picking them for palace duty. For a long time, it did not really help their plan that the humans mistrusted them as well, mostly because non of the immortals seemed to wanted to settle down and start a family with the native inhabitants, and non of the immortal couples had children. Luckily, just in time to dispel all doubts, four years after arriving in their small village, Hades and Persephone, formerly Graceful Cobra and Kore, had been blessed. As the second immortal couple, they had a son, Charon. So far, he had shown some first signs of using his powers, causing all the immortals to take great care in hiding him from the Goa'uld.
Herakles too eventually decided to settle down. Being relatively young, the immortal had fallen in love with a local maid, and had pursued her steadily. In private, when Zeus had confronted him together with Poseidon, the younger man's former mentor, he confided in both his elders that he was well aware the marriage was ill-fitted and would not last, but could not help but follow his heart.
Poseidon, who had given up on his own fiancée when he found out about his fate to shelter her from his new life, could relate easily, as could Zeus, after many thousand years of marriage and another millenia mourning the loss of his love. Herakles' daughter of three years, too, showed signs of being extraordinary already, although using her powers seemed to tire her out more quickly then what Zeus remembered from his own son or Charon.
After a decade waiting, though, it appeared the Goa'uld had accepted the new villagers.
Roughly, a Jaffa grabbed Zeus and lifted him to his feet, before pushing him out of the group.
About fifty new workers joined the palace work crew that day, and half a dozen of them were Olympians. Thankfully, non of the members of the two young families were taken.
Apparently, waiting ten years was considered long enough for people who had a live expectancy of only about forty and who were already pushing thirty or thirty five. The time invested for a possible deception had become too high - or would have been, had the Olympians been mortal.
.
"By Chronos. It's truly a palace worthy of the titans." Zeus was well aware that a Goa'uld had chosen to accompany every single one of the Olympians as they made their way past the various check-points and up the hill. Apparently, contrary to Ra's underlings, paranoia was a common concept amongst Chronos' ranks, even after two hundred years of peace.
Even though the fortress they were currently approaching was impressive, the fact that Zeus and the other immortals had spent the last years scouting it and observing all movement around it meant it did little to impress him. The Goa'uld walking behind him, on the other hand, would probably appreciate his comments and dutifully report his awe to his superiors. As the first of six, it fell to Zeus to make sure everything went smoothly.
Stepping past the last checkpoint and the heavy steel gate securing it, Zeus started to become truly focused and attentive. So far, simple stone walls had prevented the immortals from ever seeing the courtyard he was now standing in, and the protective abilities it offered.
Besides from two Jaffa guards, the court was empty. A second, equally heavy gate could be closed to create a dead zone between which any attackers would be trapped and easy prey to the Jaffa. Several more heavy staff canon emplacements glimpsing over the second wall provided the necessary firepower for such a strategy, while similar emplacements on the first wall could provide deadly support to the Jaffa guarding the hill.
Zeus and his group were led to a small side door, though, where another Goa'uld was waiting for them in a small room, bare except for a display and a platform.
Zeus had to force himself not to let out a sign of relief as he saw the scanning device. The security measures to confirm their identity were, of course, unknown when they planned this mission and the immortals in the end decided to simply risk it. Had the device before him been anything different, Zeus would have had to improvise, especially since they still had no idea where their strange powers actually came from.
In this case, though, luck proved to be on their side. The device with in the room seemed to be one of the Goa'uld's standard scanners, and roughly the same one as the device the immortals and Egeria used in Shank'anon to try and figure out their own secrets.
Back then, even after years of study, they had been unable to find any indication that those with power were any different then those without it.
Still, Zeus had to fight down the urge to reach for his powers when the golden dome the device created surrounded him as he stepped onto the platform. For several moment, he could see the Goa'uld, a scientist, he presumed, typing away on some kind of keyboard before he finally gave a nod to his partner and the light shut down once more. Waiting for permission, the immortal stepped off the platform and, through the courtyard, finally into the inner sanctuary.
"I'm in. No problems, keep calm." A simple message left Zeus mind to reassure his friends behind him as they were preparing to follow him. Immediately, Hades sent back the mental equivalent of a pat on the back, congratulating his friend on his success and offering him silent support, at the same time.
Gold was the dominant colour within the complex. Contrary to the Egyptian temple, which was more or less constructed using Earth-born materials and primitive human slaves, the highly advanced technology of the Goa'uld dominated these rooms. While metalwork had since been understood and mastered by the humans of Earth, the amount of Gold visible was such that Zeus doubted human technology could have mined, refined and crafted it all, even in two hundred years. If that was not enough, the automatically opening doors, the artificial lights, and the ring transporters were a dead give-away that something alien inhabited these chambers.
Zeus desperately tried to keep track as the Goa'uld led him and the three men in his group through the long, dark hallways. With one corridor looking like the next, though, it quickly proved to be impossible, for now, at least.
After using a ring transporter to get down, or maybe up or sideways, there seemed to be no way to tell, and a few more steps, Zeus finally found himself at the destination of their journey and a place he could understand unconditionally. He suspected his human companions felt equally if not even more relieved when they finally stepped into the large kitchen area.
Dozens of slaves, mostly female, bustled through the room, checking on various pots and fires, stirring and turning the food everywhere, always hurrying around to meet their quota and provide for the palace's various inhabitants. One corner, though, clearly marked off, was heavily overstaffed. Inside the ropes, ten women, all of them older and therefore probably more experienced, attended to just as many pots, carefully adding spices and checking the temperature of the fire and in one case even Goa'uld electrical heater.
Clearly, Zeus had found Chronos' personal staff, and his private kitchen.
"This way." Roughly, the Jaffa guard stationed in the kitchen grabbed the spy from behind and brought him out of his musings, shoving him forward and after their Goa'uld guide. In the back of the room, next to a stairwell leading downwards, the male host stopped and, for the first time, spoke, his eyes flashing briefly and his voice distorted.
"You have been given the honour to serve your god, Chronos, greatest of the Titans. From now on, until you are told otherwise, you will work in the kitchen. Down there are your quarters, as well as the food depots. You will go down there and bring up whatever the cooks need to fullfil their duty. Chronos' personal cooks are to be attended first. If you serve well, you will be given a meal at the end of each day. You will not leave your work-area unless you are told to. You will not go to sleep until you are told to. You will not take any food but what you are given. You are not to speak any more then necessary. Are there any questions?"
Clearly, the Goa'uld was one of the lowest Chronos had available if he was forced to delegate the servants, or maybe he simply did not wish to spent any more time with those he considered inferior. When the men remained silent, his eyes flashed golden once again.
"I said, are there any questions."
"No." All four men murmured immediately. Clearly, thats what the alien had been waiting for. Immediately, the crystal on his hand device flashed golden, and the man in the centre screamed in pain as the golden beam hit his head.
"You will address me as 'My Lord', the Jaffa as 'Sir', and Chronos as 'Your Greatness'. Is that clear."
After a moment, all four men mumbled once again.
"Yes, My Lord."
The next men screamed in pain as the beam hit his head, before collapsing to his knees.
"You will not hesitate. If you are asked, you are to answer. You will not murmur. I already have to deal with your incompetence, I can not be bothered to make out your incoherent mumbling."
"Yes, My Lord." This time, the men spoke clearly, although they kept their eyes firmly on their leader's feet.
The host nodded once before turning on his spot and walking out the kitchen.
Zeus closed his eyes in frustration for a moment, anticipating a long and difficult time in the fortress, before broadening his mind, contacting the other five immortals now on the mountain.
"Be careful, friends, they have gotten worse. Be sure to be as submissive as possible."
There really was no sense in having them endure the pain when he could prevent it this easily.
A gentle hand on his shoulder jerked Zeus' attention back into the kitchen. An elder woman with a kind smile and long, grey hair mustered Zeus critically, before nodding. Apparently, he had passed whatever test she had for him.
"Come, friend, I will take you to your quatres. You will need your sleep for tomorrow."
She would be right.