Chapter Eight
With a brilliant flash of white light the Goa'uld queen Egeria once again found herself on the surface of the Reloor world, moments away from facing the choking arrogance of the System Lords. In that moment she wondered if it had all been worth it. If putting up with these Goa'uld would prove fruitful at the day's end. Quickly though she dismissed these questioning thoughts, knowing that in this campaign against Ra she needed all the help she could get, and any moment spent towards that endeavor would be worthwhile.
Unlike before the ring room was empty. With an exhale Egeria figured that the other System Lords no longer felt her worthy enough for an escort. Another insult, another reason to further enrage her. Tightening her fist at this latest deliberate blow to her ego she simply forced her emotions down and walked out of the torch lit room to where the System Lords awaited her.
Walking through the earthen hallways Egeria thought for a moment about what decision the System Lords might have come up with. They certainly hadn't taken long in their deliberations, whatever result might have come from them. Thinking this brief length of time to be another bad omen she prepared herself to fight any decision that didn't favor her. And she would indeed fight. Her survival, their survival, depended upon them pooling their resources and forces together in a stand against the forces of Ra. Egeria knew this, and knowing that her end awaited should she fail just caused her to be that much more determined.
Approaching the pair of large copper doors she sorted out a few last minute things in her mind. Once she felt satisfied enough about those things she let out a final breath, hoping that by doing so would dispel any lingering signs of emotion and weakness from her being. Feeling as ready as she could be to face the System Lords she pushed the doors open and stepped inside.
Beyond the doors she faced a scene that outwardly appeared no different than before. The five System Lords sat there staring at her, as if waiting for her to divine some comment for them. It was not her place to do so in this instance however. No, she had had her say the last time she stood before these Goa'uld. Now it was their turn to say something to her.
"Queen Egeria," Yu addressed with a cold tone. "Is there anything further you would like to say before we pass judgment on you?
Pass judgment? Such a statement, so full of superiority, it was enough to further fuel Egeria's anger at these System Lords. Knowing that an outburst would be of no use, especially this early on, she suppressed her rage and simply said, "No there isn't." She knew this statement was not totally accurate, as there were a few things she thought she might say to make them reconsider their opinions, but she decided it was best to hold her comments until she heard something from these five Goa'uld.
"Very well," Yu said as he sat back in his chair. "Marduk will be the first to have their say."
Flashing a menacing grin at Egeria, Marduk glared at her as he cleaned his teeth with his tongue and moistened his lips. "I think this matter is a very simple one," he said in a deep and villainous tone. "The matter is whether we should sacrifice ourselves and our armies to take on one of our own. All on the whim of this one scared little Goa'uld queen. I do not know about the rest of you, but I sit here wholly unconvinced that Ra is a threat that we should be so concerned with."
Disgusted, Egeria simply brushed off Marduk's statement and chose one of her own to respond with. "If you are too foolish to realize the true threat that Ra poses then I will no longer waste breath trying to convince you. You can be conquered in ignorance for all I care."
This statement, this verbal attack to his own authority, cut into Marduk's being as though it were an actual blade. It stung him to the core, and worse yet it made him appear the fool in front of his rivals. Had he not agreed earlier that this meeting should remain a civil one then he would have made Egeria pay for her words. Under that binding pact he could do nothing but simply dismiss her insult, something which became easier as Rhiannon chose to break the intolerable silence.
"Not all of our opinions on this matter are as brash as the one held by Marduk," Rhiannon said to Egeria as Marduk cast a sneer in her direction. "While I may not hold the same opinion however, I cannot ignore his words. When last you stood before us you said that Ra was a threat solely for the fact that his territory is vast and his army sizable. These of course are concerns for us were he to be at war with us, or be a rival in the least part, but as neutral System Lords in his eyes it causes us to pause and truly wonder whether your reasons are valid enough to launch an unprovoked campaign against him."
"Unprovoked?" For the second time in the brief exchange of words with these System Lords Egeria felt the need to comment. "And how do you define unprovoked?" she asked flatly of the female hosted Goa'uld.
This time it was Rhiannon who felt disgusted as she believed Egeria had just insulted her and so attacked her intelligence. "Simply, Egeria, that he has made no move against us, so why should we make a move against him?"
Taking in Rhiannon's words Egeria considered them for a moment. Surely they were valid, at least in some part, but she wasn't about to admit to that fact. To do so would belittle her stance in front of these Goa'uld and in this conversation. With a full inhalation of the surrounding air she prepared to make another point in this war of their words.
"He has made a move, my fellow Goa'uld. He has made a move already and he is making yet another as we sit here and speak." This statement left nothing but confusion in the minds of those who heard it. Willing to clear things up in the belief it would do some good, she pressed on. "With each battle won his territory grows. Each victory serves to further strengthen his army and his resolve. Every world conquered delivers to him more precious resources to aid in his campaign of domination. All of these are steps made towards the goal of completely wiping out the Goa'uld, and forcing whatever remnants of our race left into his service. To me, this shows that a stand against him would be far from unprovoked."
"You talk and you talk, but you say nothing at all!" Marduk said with disdain. "All of this mention of resource stockpiling and army raising are not aspects of war, but simply aspects of our way of life. It is something that I am currently engaged in, as surely you are yourself. And if not, then it is you who are making the mistake, not any of us."
Egeria was growing further frustrated at the folly she was forced to witness. She had come to these Goa'uld with a warning, and an offer of support against their common adversary, and yet they blatantly refused. Worse than mere refusal, they used her goodwill against her in an attempt to erode her power. Their insolence was intolerable! At that moment part of Egeria wanted to turn around and leave the fools to their own willful ignorance until Ra came to destroy them. Another part of her whispered not to give up so easily. Listening to the latter she addressed the other Goa'uld. "Does this pathetic worm speak for the rest of you?"
"He most certainly does not," Shaq'ran suddenly spoke up. As everyone's eyes and attention was turned to him he sat up and straightened himself in his seat. By doing this he appeared to be a much larger and much more menacing Goa'uld. "It is well known that Ra and I are rivals. The size of our respective forces, as well as the closeness of our borders, has turned our fight into the rivalry that is well known throughout Goa'uld space. Because of this clash I came here looking for an opportunity to rid myself of one of my most powerful foes. That opportunity has been provided, thanks to you Egeria. However, I am not wholly convinced myself that moving against him now is so necessary."
Shaq'ran's words did nothing to help the Goa'uld queen's mood. For a moment it seemed as though he had decided to side with her, but his final statement snatched that possibility away.
"In war there is a finite set of rules," he continued, "even I know this. Those rules help us to decide who to attack, where to attack them, and most importantly when to attack them. Ra is indeed a threat, yet still he will undoubtedly one day be destroyed. But is that day today? Is that day tomorrow? Or even the day after that? A campaign against him will bring about untold costs to whoever engages him. Costs that could leave his conquerors vulnerable; whether they succeed in his destruction or not. With this in mind I have to ask myself not whether or not Ra should be dealt with, but rather is now the time to deal with him?"
"I myself have to consider what Shaq'ran just said," came Gilgamesh as he brought his hands together under his chin and looked back at Egeria. "It is no secret that my army is a relatively small one. As such, my forces are spread too thin to be launched against the forces of Ra. Were I to take him on, even with the aid of you Egeria, then surely it would do nothing but bring about my own demise; which is something I cannot allow."
Quickly Egeria saw how valid the concerns of her fellow System Lords were, and she knew if she didn't address them in that moment then surely the discussion would wander in circles and remain stagnant until the point where they rejected her proposal. There had to be some way to turn things around, to get them to ease off of these fears and inch closer to accepting her proposal for themselves. She just knew there was something, but what? Searching in her mind for some tactic that might work she finally rested on something. Coming to her mind she smiled at the idea. How stupid she felt for not thinking of it before passed over her mind for a moment, before it faded away and left only the idea itself.
"You all go on to say how you cannot afford to take on Ra simply because the cost will be too high. I ask you though, what about the gains? Have you all forgotten this fact, this rule of war that to the victor go the spoils? Ra's territory is indeed vast, so imagine what each of you could gain in his defeat! Surely anyone that stands over him in his demise will be rewarded with more respect, more territory, and more soldiers than any one single campaign has ever bore, and would more than make up for anything you lost." By making this appeal to each of their own side of greed, their Goa'uld side, she hoped to entice them enough to agree in an assault against Ra. Looking upon their faces and seeing their reactions to this information she believed the tactic to have worked, and that she now had five allies against Ra. She should have known it wouldn't be so easy though.
"And who would take command of his forces?" Yu asked with toneless curiosity.
"We can divide his domain equally amongst the six of us," Egeria flatly stated, hoping that no more doubt would come about this proposed alliance.
"I cannot trust that you will be so generous in that division to all of us," Marduk suddenly said as he glared at Egeria. "Or that you wouldn't simply try to seize the whole of it for yourself once Ra has met his demise."
"Or at the very least keep the best worlds for yourself," Gilgamesh added.
Almost immediately Egeria began to see the flaw in her tactic. She had underestimated the sheer greed of each of these Goa'uld, but more importantly was how she had underestimated their lack of trust in each other. This should have come to no surprise for her; these Goa'uld had been at each other's throats for years, centuries even for some. Being a Goa'uld and a System Lord herself should have made her expect these things to come up, yet she hadn't. So blinded had she been by her desire for this to work that she had overlooked the obvious.
"We can worry about who gets what later," she said, hoping to push the bickering matter aside for a moment. "What we need to focus on is Ra's downfall, not what we are going to do its wake. The rest is unimportant."
"But if it is so unimportant, then why mention it at all?" Rhiannon asked as she shifted in her chair.
A familiar feeling made its way to Egeria, and that feeling was frustration. Once more the words and the attitudes of her fellow Goa'uld had frustrated her nearly to the point of giving up on this endeavor to gain their allegiance against Ra. Especially as it was becoming more and more evident how pointless and futile that endeavor was. Still though, she wasn't about to let a few hostile words dictate her actions and force her to go storming out of there.
Letting her eyes pan across each of the five System Lords she decided that sheer tactic alone would not win her the support of these warring Goa'uld. Carefully planned words did not seem to suffice either. Giving an unnoticeable sigh she decided to simply play every card she had and let the chips fall where they may.
"You accuse me of talking in circles, of saying nothing at all, but are your words any better? Are your words any more creative or inspiring?" Glaring hard at each of them she emphasized her questions and her point with that look alone.
"Our words may not be inspiring to you, but they don't have to be. You are not the one that needs convincing against Ra. No, it is we who need to be convinced." Yu firmly said, touching on the point he had made earlier about Egeria being their guest. "So Egeria, make your point."
Clenching her hands into fists Egeria could feel rage build up inside her once again. This time though there was no vase that she could shatter upon the floor for relief. Nor was there a subordinate whose life she could extinguish on a whim. There was only her; her and these sorry excuses for gods. It sickened her that she was like them, and were there not other concerns at hand then she could have easily brought the force of her army down onto each of them. That would be beneficial to no one other than Ra though, and there was no chance she would consciously do something that might aid Ra in his thirst for domination over the Goa'uld race.
"Make my point?" she asked sounding desperate at first, but quickly regained her strength to show her full resolve. "What more of a point could you expect me to make against Ra? I have already stated that he is a mortal threat to our race. A threat that if not dealt with soon will encompass and destroy each of us. No my fellow Goa'uld, the point has already been made. What is now in wait is your decision on the matter. So what shall it be? The salvation of our race and untold splendor to be divided amongst yourselves; or its imminent destruction in which everything will be lost and reshaped according to the will of the despicable Ra?"
These words seemed to resonate throughout each of the five Goa'uld as they sat there unable to speak, simply contemplating everything within themselves. As she waited for the next move to be played Egeria stood in the room's center, exuding the magnificent glorification of ones self that only a Goa'uld could posses. If this posturing had any bearing on the System Lords and their decision then they would not readily admit it. Despite Egeria's best words and her best efforts none of the Goa'uld seemed to budge from their opinions of the matter.
"Your words do have merit," Rhiannon said after another moment's pause, "but still we cannot..."
Once the word merit had fallen away then Egeria knew exactly what would be said. Instead of wasting more precious time to allow Rhiannon to restate a point that had been made to death during this meeting she decided to abruptly cut into Rhiannon's words with her own. "What are we?" she asked with conviction as she looked each of them over. "Are we not gods? Are we not superior beings, destined to rule the stars and subjugate the people of those stars for own benefit? We are supposed to be the lords of all creation, and yet we sit here and argue and deceive and play this childish game with our words. Tell me, my fellow Goa'uld, are these the actions of gods?" Looking at them she realized her words to be having some effect by way of their expressions. She was right, and they knew it. "And if you find these actions not ones to truly be representative of our glory and our power, as I know you do, then for the sake of the sanctity of our race end this quarrelsome debate and join me in stopping Ra once and for all." Believing this to be enough, and hoping that it would be as she had no words left in her, Egeria stood firm before them and awaited the words that would bring her their final decision.
"Again, you speak profound words," Shaq'ran said after some thought and consideration. "And your words should be taken by each of us and added to our already strict dogmas. They do have weight behind them." Pausing for a moment to finalize his words Egeria felt suddenly sure that Shaq'ran would join her against Ra. The concept made her so joyous she nearly smiled, but at the last moment she was able to keep her emotions in check as Shaq'ran delivered his final words. "Those words though are not strong enough to convince me in an all out assault on Ra. True, he is a great threat, and truer still is that he could probably destroy each of us if he so desired, but even with these facts in mind I do not feel that now is the necessary time to march upon him in such a forceful campaign."
"I agree with Shaq'ran," Gilgamesh suddenly spoke up. "Being a System Lord with less to hold onto and more easily to lose I have to fully consider everything that your proposed alliance would mean. In this game of warfare that we are playing against each other a player must fully realize and consider all of his options before making a move. Considering the possible repercussions to myself and my domain I simply do not see the necessity of bringing down Ra; especially when I consider the entirety of the situation that I would be put into."
"We could go on and on in this debate of Ra's formidability and our vulnerability to him were he to make a move," came Rhiannon, picking up where Gilgamesh left off. "In the end though it all boils down to one immutable fact; necessity. Whether we win and defeat Ra or not we would weaken ourselves just in the attempt. This would naturally bring the other System Lords to descend upon us like scavengers and pick clean the remnants of our domains for their very own. Whether or not Ra is a threat was never a question here, we all know he is. As we all know we are to each other. But to risk so much to take down this one System Lord? I simply cannot justify it."
With three of the System Lords present having their say Egeria's hopes of an alliance shattered. Even if both Marduk and Yu gave her their full support then she would still be out voted over what should be done. Working even harder than before to suppress her emotions she turned and awaited Yu's response.
"I share in the sentiments mentioned by these fellow Goa'uld. You are right Egeria, we are gods. And as gods we have a responsibility to not let our glory and our magnificence falter, even in the face of a threat such as Ra. But if we lose ourselves in a campaign to bring about his downfall then what is to become of our glory? What will be said of us in the coming years, the coming millennia, if we risk everything on this sole task of bringing Ra down? In the end it is that glory that defines us Goa'uld as a race and as individuals, and I cannot risk losing my own glory, no matter what possible gains there might be."
Taking in Yu's words and decision Egeria turned to face the last System Lord and her last potential ally. Standing there and looking at Marduk as he menacingly sat there nothing short of utter contempt washed over her. In all her time since taking a host she did not believe she had ever met a Goa'uld that more embodied everything she felt wrong about their way of life. To her he was vile and truly a horrible example of what a Goa'uld could become. She was not eager to hear more of his words, but she knew she had to nonetheless.
Looking back across the room at the Goa'uld queen, Marduk sat there rather smugly for a moment before speaking. "My opinion is no different than when you returned. You have said a great many words here before us, but they were all meaningless and a waste of time in my opinion."
Seething for a moment as Marduk's response washed over her it took a moment for another, a much larger fact to sink in. All five of them had rejected her idea and her proposal of an alliance. She would be facing Ra alone. Seeing no reason to stay a moment longer, and not wanting to stay either, she simply brought her hands together and left them with the parting words, "Very well, I will stop Ra on my own," before turning away from them and making her way out of the room and back to the transport rings.
The moment she was back aboard her Ha'tak she felt a surge of relief come over her. Being before those Goa'uld had been a very unnerving experience for her, one that she was glad to be finished with. That relief was just setting in as the doors before her opened and in stepped the blonde haired Aphrodite.
"My queen," Aphrodite immediately addressed with a slight bow of reverence. Standing back up she almost asked how the meeting had turned out, but looking at Egeria's face gave her that answer. Instead she found herself simply say, "None of them?"
"None Aphrodite," Egeria said with obvious defeat in her voice. "We will be fighting Ra alone." A pause ensued between the two Goa'uld as they stood there and let this development fully sink in. Suddenly though something else came to Egeria's mind as she remembered the task she had given to her subordinate. "Unless you got a message to Anubis."
When this statement hit her Aphrodite had no idea what to say. She knew that she should be honest, but she hated to give her queen more bad news. Sighing with the knowledge that she had to tell Egeria no matter what she simply said, "No my queen. I was unable to locate the whereabouts of Anubis and send him the message."
Hearing the defeat in her subordinate's voice brought her mind into the full realization of everything. She had gained no allies here on Reloor, and Aphrodite had been unable to get Anubis a message, but maybe there was someone else she could still talk to. Deciding on her next move she began to make her way out the door. "Come Aphrodite," she said over her shoulder to her subordinate. "I know who we can talk to about getting a message to Anubis." Seeing a faint glimmer of confusion in Aphrodite's eyes Egeria simply explained with "We are going to speak with Osiris."