DISCLAIMER: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Sci-Fi Originals, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money has changed hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.
The Return of Ra: "First Moves"
by Darrin Colbourne
Major Samantha Carter stared in fascination as the hastily recruited flight crews completed the assembly and modification of the special commercial aircraft. They were usually sold as kits to flight enthusiasts and hobbyists for a few hundred dollars apiece, but when told of the special needs for this mission, the Pentagon special-ordered six of them and sent Air Force transports and personnel to pick them up from the vendors' warehouse. Now they had taken shape, and the Major had to appreciate the ingenuity of the birds. They were small, two-seat versions of the Bell-Boeing 500-D Helicopter, teardrop-shaped rotorcraft with "No Tail Rotor" thruster assemblies on their tailbooms. The flight crews were installing the mounts and controls for clusters of Stinger anti-air missiles and .30 Caliber machine guns. They still didn't seem all that formidable, but they were the only Earth-made air support small and flexible enough for the trip.
Meanwhile, the area ringed by the Rangers had expanded to accommodate the influx of SGC technicians, support and security personnel that had saturated the airfield. They were making preparations of their own, and when they had everything in place, one trotted over to where Carter was standing.
"Major," she said, "we're ready to open them up."
"Then let's do it." Carter said.
"Yes, Ma'am." The tech said as they started back for the boxes, then called out to her compatriots: "Let's cut 'em loose!"
Soon several techies were crawling around the boxes, releasing restraining clamps and hinges. The big box was finished first. The crews scurried away as the big side panels fell away.
Carter watched with satisfaction as the box was opened to reveal the Antarctica Stargate, none the worse for wear since being locked in storage. Soon the device was clear of crate panels, and the two big sides had fallen in such a way that they could be used as loading ramps. The other crate was soon broken down, revealing the 'Gate's Dial Home Device.
Stargate Command was now a field operation.
Though the ceremony was similar, this time the Selket Guards stayed in the background, well away from the stairs that led to the throne in the center of the hall. They resented it, but they had been told that the others must take precedence on this ship, and Sia would brook no argument. That was why the chief Horus Guards, led by the Jaffa Sia had selected to be Anubis, Ra's First Prime, were closest to the throne. Sia stood off to one side of Anubis, Bastet the other, and all were kneeled and had their heads bowed in respect, waiting patiently for the guest of honor to arrive.
Then, with a dignity and bearing that only the Sun God could manage, a tall, slight figure dressed in robes and fine jewelry and an elaborate humanoid mask emerged from the chamber beyond, surrounded by dozens of child-servants of different ages and flanked by two Horus Guards. The figure strode gracefully and slowly to the throne and sat with a flourish. Only then did anyone dare to look at him, and then only Sia, wearing a proud smile.
With a gesture and a barked command, everyone stood and faced the throne. On cue, everyone's headgear was retracted away, revealing their faces. Sia was especially proud of the Anubis she had chosen. Like Bastet, she had been impressed by his dark good looks as well as his mind. He would serve Ra with distinction, she was sure.
Once his subjects had unmasked, the figure gave a mental command, and the mask he was wearing retracted and faded away, revealing a youthful, smiling face, with almond skin, high cheeks and a withering stare. His eyes flashed once as he regarded his entourage, and the pride and eagerness that emanated from him added a final, triumphant note to the event.
Ra was reborn!
He rose and strode forward to the waiting subjects, stopping in front of Sia. The goddess immediately bowed and took his hand, kissing the back of it reverently. When she rose she stared at the beautiful face she thought she'd never see again and said: "It is good to see you again, My Lord."
Ra simply nodded, and after a cursory inspection of the Jaffa said: "Now, tell me what has transpired in my absence."
Sia's smile faded, and she took a breath and thought as she began: He's not going to like this...
Colonel Jack O'Neill and the other SG Commanders arrived on the base just as the first signal was sent through the Stargate. He caught up with Major Carter in the command tent that had been set up nearby, then looked over her shoulder as she arranged the papers on which she'd drawn up her operations plan.
"Oh, hello Colonel." She said glancing back. "I was just getting ready for the formal briefing."
"Looks like everything is ready outside." O'Neill said.
"Yes, Sir. As a matter of fact, we're ahead of schedule."
"Our schedule. Let's hope we're ahead of the Snakes' schedule as well."
"Well, of course, but...oh! That reminds me." She checked her watch, then walked out of the tent. She watched as the Stargate shut down, then exploded back into life a few moments later. O'Neill watched with her. The technicians around the 'Gate hit the ground seconds later, knowing what to expect.
Nothing happened for a moment, then a giant, cone-shaped Goa'uld attack ship flew out of the event horizon, sending the base field personnel scurrying. O'Neill recognized the machine as the death glider Teal'c and Hammond had used to rescue them from the clutches of Hathor and her Jaffa, but he still flinched as he saw it emerge. Carter just smiled. Its arrival meant that they could put Phase 1 of her plan into operation soon.
The custom-designed udajeet came to rest directly in front of the command tent. When it shut down, the cockpit opened to reveal Teal'c and Bra'tac.
"Fantastic, Teal'c!" She said as the Jaffa set foot on the ground. "We can get to work on it right away."
"Are you sure this'll work?" O'Neill asked, a little dubious.
"We do not have a choice, O'Neill." Teal'c said, in his usual deadpan. "This must succeed for the rest of the battle plan to work."
"Besides," Bra'tac joked, "who wants to live forever, eh?"
O'Neill watched as several techies came over to the death glider with some tools and equipment. "I dunno. I just don't want to throw away any chance that I might."
Everyone backed well away as Ra stood in the center of the hall, seething. Even Sia, who knew better, was afraid of what the Sun God might do. His eyes glowed with rage, and his body shook with intensity as he inhaled and exhaled heavily through his clenched teeth.
"My Hathor, dead?!" He hissed. "Heru'ur disgraced?!! My empire in disarray, my subjects in rebellion...all because of the actions of the two Tau'Ri jackals that dared to try and kill ME?!!!"
Sia had thought it best not to tell him that in this universe the two jackals had succeeded, and her Jaffa were sworn to secrecy on the matter. Better that he thought she had found him here and managed to revive him after a long sleep. It was technically true. Besides, she'd known he'd be upset enough over her accounts of the current state of his universe. Some damage control was in order. "But Apophis is also disgraced, My Lord..."
"But not dead, not conquered, not eliminated by my hand!!!" Ra bellowed. He stormed down from the dais that held his throne and marched right over to a Horus Guard. He grabbed the staff weapon from the Jaffa's hand and primed it, then jammed the barrel into the Horus Guard's stomach.
The sound of the blast was muffled by the meat of the target, and the explosion of energy sent the now dead Jaffa flying. He impacted with the wall and left a dark, bloody streak as he slid to the floor. Ra just stood looking at him, the glow in his eyes finally starting to fade as he caught his breath.
He turned to look at Sia. "I will have my revenge on them all, the Tau'Ri, the Tok'Ra, Apophis, I will punish them all! And I will start with the traitorous dogs on Abydos!"
Sia nodded, then went to the Pyramid's control panel. She activated a viewscreen, which expanded in mid-air and lit up with an image of the horizon of a planet, a spare, brown desert world.
"I've taken the liberty." Sia demurred. "We can descend any time."
Finally, Ra seemed to calm down. "Immediately." He said, as he ascended to his throne. When he sat, he gestured lazily at the Jaffa he'd just destroyed. "And someone get rid of that!"
Sia sighed. A good warrior wasted by a tantrum. He would have been more useful stopping the enemy's bullets.
Carter gave Teal'c and O'Neill some last minute warnings as they suited up. "Remember, you have to be positioned just right when you hook the cables, or its weight will throw off your balance when you lift it!"
"Got it!" O'Neill said, tightening his flight harness.
"Understood, Major Carter." Teal'c said. The men then boarded the rapidly modified death glider. Teal'c strapped into the pilot's seat and started the machine up, while O'Neill went over the controls for the external equipment. The Colonel gave the Major a Thumbs-Up as the canopy closed.
The techies had already dialed an address into the Stargate. The bevel had just stopped turning and the wormhole opened with explosive force. When it subsided, Teal'c lifted off and flew right into the wormhole...
"Remember," Sia said, "destroy anyone or anything that comes out of the chapaa'ai, or anyone who tries to enter the pyramid."
"We will obey, Goddess," the Selket Guard said with a bow. She and a party of Horus and Selket Guards had crowded onto the disk under the Pyramid's transport rings. They would descend ahead of the Pyramid landing ship and secure the landing site.
Bastet touched the control on her gauntlet. The transport rings descended and sent the landing party away.
The Abydos Stargate opened up, and the four Abydonian young men guarding it raised their weapons, ready to defend against an attack.
They were shocked when a massive, strange looking udajeet blasted out of the shimmering surface effect. They dove for cover, but then cheered when one saw the smiling face of Colonel Jack O'Neill and told the others. The exhaust of the machine kicked up dust that clouded the interior chamber.
Teal'c worked the controls until the glider was hovering in just the right spot. "Now, O'Neill!" He called out.
O'Neill used a trackball on his control panel to aim. "Fire One!" He said. A grappling hook shot out from the front end of the glider and clamped around the Stargate near the bottom. He repeated the action three more times, till the Stargate had been hooked in four places. Then O'Neill's hands darted over the controls, bringing in the slack on all the lines until the grapples had the device firmly in their grasp. "Secure!" He called out.
Teal'c began to raise the glider as high as he could get in the chamber, while O'Neill reeled in the biggest catch he'd ever made. The Stargate began to rise out of the recess it had been in for millennia.
With all the noise from the glider and the winches it would have been difficult in the extreme to pick out the ratcheting sound of the transport rings, but an alert Abydonian did just that. He swung around with his weapon ready just as the shimmering blue transport ray began to fade, leaving behind four Horus Guards and two female Jaffa that he reasoned must be the new guards that Daniel Jackson had told them about. He started firing before the rings had gotten halfway up to their recess in the ceiling.
The shots alerted the rest of the Abydonians, while the flashes alerted O'Neill and Teal'c. The natives fanned out and joined in the battle, felling two Horus Guards before the Jaffa could return fire, then staff blasts scythed across the chamber. Two of the Abydonians fell, then another Horus Guard before the last two boys went down.
The look of shock O'Neill saw on the woman Jaffa's face was priceless. She was watching in disbelief as the Stargate was pulled out of place. A Horus Guard got set to fire at the glider, but a Selket Guard stopped him. Good, O'Neill thought, That's right. Shoot us down and the Stargate goes down too. Your boss wouldn't be too happy about that, would she?
"We must hurry, O'Neill!" Teal'c said.
"We can't rush this," O'Neill said, "and she can't shoot us down!" Still, he silently willed the indicator light that would show the Stargate had cleared the dais to turn from red to green.
Teal'c knew better. She couldn't shoot them down, but she could...
O'Neill's attention was suddenly drawn to sparks of blue lightning that danced across his part of the canopy. He looked out of the cockpit and saw that the Selket Guard was brandishing a zat'n'ktel. "She's trying to 'Zat' us?!!"
"If she can get through to us," Teal'c said, "the zat'n'ktel blasts will weaken us until we can no longer continue this operation, and we will be forced to descend and lower the Stargate, causing only minimal damage!"
That was enough for O'Neill. "C'mon green," he chanted, "...green, green, green-yes!!" He worked the controls to the forward winches, hauling the bottom of the Stargate up while Teal'c compensated for the shifting weight. Now all three Jaffa below were firing 'Zat' blasts at the cockpit, and the canopy was starting to blacken and burn with all the energy being dumped into it.
Then, just to add insult to injury, a low frequency rumble started to echo through the chamber, and O'Neill could see and almost feel the pyramid shaking around them. He kept winching the Stargate up, up, until the indicators on his controls showed the grapples were locked in place.
"Go, Teal'c, go!!" The nose of the glider dipped as Teal'c began forward flight. The winches had been placed so that the bulk of the Stargate would not interfere with the glider's weapons, so as the nose dropped, Teal'c lined up a shot at the Jaffa. The enemy scattered, but one of the three was incinerated in the blast. Teal'c dropped the craft down a little to adjust to flying with the added weight, then sped away to the exit of the pyramid. Several energy blasts fired at the opening widened it into a dust-obscured hole big enough to fly the 'Gate and glider through. After an agonizing few seconds of total darkness, O'Neill was elated to see the early morning Abydos sky.
When they were well away from the pyramid, O'Neill looked back. Hovering in the distance was a mammoth Pyramid ship, kicking up a sandstorm and bolts of lightning as it approached the pyramid for a landing. "Way too close..." He muttered.
While he was watching the Pyramid ship, O'Neill hadn't noticed that further up a second landing ship was descending. It wasn't a pyramid, but one of Sia's design. She'd created it knowing that most of her time would be spent at Ra's side, and the landing posts created on the worlds in his dominion would mainly be for the use of his ships. She could, of course, land a Pyramid without a post, but it caused tremendous strain on the ship, and she was more than capable of coming up with an alternative.
Sia watched with pride as the Jaffa she'd chosen for Ra brought his Pyramid in for a smooth landing. The ship itself gleamed in the Abydonian sunsrise, testament to the months of loving care she had put into building and perfecting it.
Then she noticed something odd near the landing post. Some of the nearby sand had been disturbed. She pointed to the area on the screen. "Magnify and enhance this area."
A Jaffa complied, and Sia realized that the disturbance was evidence that an aircraft had just streaked away from the pyramid. "Follow that trail to its source!" She commanded.
The screen panned along the streak, until it came upon a sandstreak being kicked up by a low-flying object. "Magnify that craft."
Another magnification and she could see that it was an old attack craft, a type that hadn't been used in centuries. She recognized the configuration, but it had been modified. Someone had added some sort of curved extensions...
Her eyes went wide as she realized that the "extensions" were actually a ring...a big, black, sculpted ring...
"Launch two udajeet now!" She bellowed.
O'Neill looked back periodically, expecting death gliders to be sicced on them at any time. The attackers finally arrived when they were halfway to the Abydonian city. The Colonel watched as two dots dove on them from out of the suns and expanded into full-fledged gliders. White-hot packets of energy erupted from their flanks and cascaded down around the SG-1 teammates, exploding in the desert sands around them.
"It appears they are no longer worried about damaging the Stargate, O'Neill!" Teal'c said.
"Yeah, I got that!" O'Neill said as Teal'c dodged another hail of blasts. "I don't suppose we can fight back?"
"The Stargate makes us too heavy to maneuver properly! I will have to try to lure them into our range!"
"Do what you gotta do!" O'Neill checked his controls. The grapples were holding for now, but too much bobbing and weaving might shake the 'Gate loose, doing no one any good.
Teal'c waited until the enemy gliders made one more strafing run, then hit what passed for his glider's "air brakes". O'Neill lurched forward as the machine came to a dead stop, pitching nose down in mid-air. The maneuver was gut wrenching, but accomplished what Teal'c wanted. The two enemy gliders overshot them. They swung around and dove in again, but this time they attacked from the front, giving Teal'c the opening he needed.
The Jaffa gunned the engines, forcing the nose of the glider up and drawing a bead on the attackers. He fired a spread of blasts in their path. One glider took a hit dead center and was destroyed, while the other lost a weapon and veered off trailing fire and smoke.
Teal'c took his time getting back to a normal flying attitude. O'Neill was finally able to breathe again, after a quick glance to make sure all his warning lights were off. "Thank God the worst is over." He said.
Teal'c glanced back. "Actually, O'Neill, the greatest challenge will be flying this device over the wall of the city without doing any serious harm to either."
O'Neill looked around and remembered how low the heavy weight was making them fly. "Oh, yeah...almost forgot that."
"Here they come!" One of the lookouts called out. He watched as the glider curved in. Teal'c was using the wide arc to gain lift. The glider ultimately cleared the wall, with a few inches to spare. People on the ground signaled to the glider with arm gestures and shouts, guiding it through the streets to a wide open space in the center of the village. It was the largest marketplace, and had been cleared of merchants for the purpose of gathering defense forces for Abydos.
Teal'c looked down and saw a construct in the center of the clearing. "It is time, O'Neill." He said.
O'Neill was looking down. "Danny came through, all right. Let's set this thing down."
Abydonian craftsmen had worked round the clock to create a base to hold the Stargate. The structure was made of tough stone and shaped to accommodate the two-story sculpture. Daniel Jackson was standing nearby with a group of men with ropes that would help guide the device into place.
As O'Neill lowered the Stargate, Jackson's group went into action. They tied the ropes around the base of the 'Gate, then pulled it gently into position as Teal'c descended. By the time the suns were fully up, the Abydos Stargate was standing tall and secure in its new home. Makeshift wooden ramps were secured in place.
Teal'c landed a few meters away. Jackson ran up to the glider as the Colonel and the Jaffa jumped out. "Let's take five and then get all these things off the glider." O'Neill was saying. "We have to get back in the air to cover the deployment."
"I sent Teneth and some others to watch the 'Gate." Jackson told O'Neill. "Did you see them?"
O'Neill bowed his head for a moment, then looked Jackson right in the eye. "They...covered our escape."
Jackson could see in his eyes what O'Neill meant. He grimaced and bowed his head. O'Neill wondered if his friend would be okay. It was the first time he'd ever sent men to their deaths, and it probably wouldn't be the last before this was over.
"You were right, you know." O'Neill said, trying to make Jackson focus on the task at hand. "I saw one of those pyramids as we were high-tailing it outta there."
"I wish I hadn't been." Jackson said, looking up again. "Horus and Selket Guards?"
"In the flesh."
"Then we need to hurry. It won't take long for Ra and Sia to settle in."
O'Neill checked his watch. "Don't worry. We're still on schedule, and the cavalry should be pouring through any minute."
Jackson nodded, then looked back at the Stargate. "You couldn't have brought the DHD too, huh?"
"We were a little rushed. We didn't have time to shop for the whole set."
Sia shook with rage as she paced back and forth, cowing the Selket Guard and Horus Guard that survived the mission. They knelt and bowed deeply before her and Ra as she lambasted them for such a miserable failure.
"Did your weapons fail? Did you freeze on the trigger? How could you possibly have let them escape with the Chapaa'ai?!!!"
When the Selket Guard didn't answer immediately, Sia stopped in front of her, eyes blazing. Bastet admonished her: "Answer the Goddess!"
"I-I reasoned that if we destroyed the craft the chapaa'ai might be damaged and unusable, so..."
"You reasoned? You reasoned??" Sia grabbed the woman by the chin, digging her nails deep into the coffee-dark skin, and looked directly into the guard's eyes as she hissed: "If the chapaa'ai here had been destroyed utterly, all that would mean is that the latter phases of our plan would have to be postponed until such time as we were able to travel to another world and use the device there. We would still be able to conduct our plans for this world on schedule, without any serious resistance. Now, since the Abydonians have the device, they can either use it to escape our grasp or get help from the Tau'Ri, or Tok'Ra, or anyone else in the network with access to a chapaa'ai, making all of our plans that much harder! That is reasoning, you stupid cow!" She released her grip and stalked away, walking up the dais to Ra's throne.
She knelt before Ra and bowed deeply. "Forgive me, for the mistake of trusting this incompetent to help us in your great cause, My Lord."
Ra simply stood and gestured to a servant. The little girl brought over a black box resting on a pillow. "Even gods may make mistakes." He said calmly. "Mine was to come here with so few guards, sure that no one would rise to challenge me. You have brought me back, and given me a chance to redeem my mistakes. Allow me to help you redeem yours."
He took the box and opened it, then held it before Sia. She raised her head and looked inside.
It was a lovely gesture. She reached her right hand in, letting it slip into the delicate ribbon device that Ra himself used to punish wayward servants. She lifted it out and looked at the decorative Eye of Ra on the device, which sparked with power.
She stood and descended the stairs, approaching the now trembling Selket Guard. The others stood back reflexively, each one glad it would not be him or her this time.
She stood over the woman, then reached down, touching the device to her servant's forehead. "This is for her lack of judgement." Sia announced, then willed the device to work.
For long, horrific seconds, the Selket Guard was wracked with pain, trembling as the painful, arcane energies of the device coursed through her. Sia's eyes glowed and she grinned with satisfaction as the life ebbed from the woman's body. Finally, with a cry of agony, the woman collapsed to the floor.
"Bastet," Sia said, "gather five of your best warriors and prepare for a special mission. Anubis, send twenty of your warriors to guard the pyramid and surrounding area. I will retrieve the control device myself. If we can find a way to make it work at a long distance we may be able to disrupt their ability to use the chapaa'ai."
"We could simply level the city." Ra said. "Then we would have access to the device ourselves."
Sia knew she was being tested. "But the dead will not bow to you, My Lord, nor can they serve you. They must be brought back under your thumb, to be ground down whenever they dare challenge you."
Ra seemed satisfied with the answer, and nodded his approval to the others, sending them on their tasks. Sia smiled, pleased that he was going along with her plans so willingly. She needed that cooperation to make sure he could stay in this reality forever.
"We should be seeing something in five, four, three, two..."
Kachung!
O'Neill loved having perfect timing. The styluses on the device began to light up as someone dialed Abydos. He hoped it was the right someone.
The 'Gate opened and O'Neill checked his ID beacon. When he received the right signal, he sent one through of his own...
"Incoming signal." The techie announced. "It's SG-1."
Carter nodded and moved away from the 'Gate. "Okay!" She called out. "Do it! Just like we discussed!"
"Move out!" Colonel Cromwell bellowed, leading his men to the ramp and into the wormhole. They would secure the area on the Abydos end and prepare the way for the rest of the force. Operation Sundown was underway.
NEXT: NIGHT MOVES
