It's as I said, sir. There are no SG teams, Tokra, or Jaffa rebellion because they do not exist yet. Ra is still the Supreme System Lord and the Tau'ri is still under his control.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. 'Somehow, I think I should've seen this coming. That Jaffa did refer to Ra in the present tense when I spouted those names at them.'

You know what they say about hindsight, sir.

'Right right, hindsight is 20/20. It isn't always, actually, but it can be as is often the case.' I thought. 'This changes some things, but not too much. Earth may not be in the game right now, but there's still one Earthling ready to kick some Goa'uld ! #. And there's always the Asgard if nothing else. And the Jaffa rebellion had to start somewhere. I'm sure we could find some that are just as discontent with the Goa'uld as the original founding members like Teal'c and Bratac were.'

Indeed sir. In the meantime, shall I implement the last main stage of the plan?

I sighed. 'Yeah. I don't like it, but there's nothing else for it. I don't have any other options to work with unfortunately.'

On my command, the nanites finished locking down control of the rest of the systems of the Hatak. With no way to keep over 400 Jaffa under control, nor any place to hold them till I can work to undo their conditioning and religious zealotry, there was only one real option I could use at the time that would ensure I survive this situation and leave me with the resources needed to better the lives of others in the future.

Knowing that though didn't stop me from closing my eyes and feeling utterly despicable, knowing that just at that moment, Jarvis was currently purging the atmosphere out of the entire ship except for this room, having opened every door and airlock to the void of space, shut down all life support to everywhere except here, and shut down nearly all systems except for emergency power.

Despite what popular fiction would have you believe, this is not a quick process. A ship this big has a lot of atmosphere, and while the rooms on the very edges of the hull, like the bridge for instance, would have experienced explosive decompression like in the movies, the rest of the ship would be slowly leaking the air out. Thus condemning hundreds of Jaffa to a slow, agonizing death by asphyxiation.

And I had to wait them out.

...

I didn't even make two minutes.

"I can't do this." I muttered.

Sir?

"Close the airlocks. Turn the air back on. Bring this ship back online, though leave all consoles locked and all weapons and drive systems on lockdown. In fact, lock every single blast door so that the Jaffa are trapped. And... give me shipwide." I ordered.

Yes sir. Comm systems are activated.

I swallowed. Better make this good. On impulse, I asked, 'Can you modulate my voice to sound Goa'uld?'

Yes, since the communication is coming from your comms, I can run your voice through a quick synthesizer to give it that dual tone effect the Goa'uld seem to like so much.

'Good. Thank you.' I thought to Jarvis, then took a deep breath.

"Attention all Jaffa. This is your new lord speaking. I am Lord Matthew. I have taken over this ship. You all have just witnessed a mere fraction of my power. Do not think to challenge me. Do not think to escape. Serve me, and I will see you rewarded. Disobey, and I will see you destroyed, and I will not be so lenient as to let you live to betray me again. And if you think to rally yourself around that dead worm, Bes, think again, or you will find yourself joining him, floating outside the hull."

'That's it. Cut the transmission.' I thought.

Done sir.

I sighed. 'Ugh. I feel dirty doing that. But if it keeps them alive long enough to do something to save them rather than kill them all, then I guess that'll have to do. Keep an eye on the situation. I'm... sure there will be some who try to escape anyway. Just... those are the ones who probably wouldn't listen anyway. And I don't accept betrayal. Ever. So make an example of them.' I ordered, feeling sick.

Yes sir. A few have already attempted to blast their way out with their staffs. I am now venting their atmosphere.

I closed my eyes and sighed. Unfortunately it couldn't be helped. And I'd tried to warn them. I knew intellectually that there was nothing else I could do, but that didn't stop me from feeling the hurt and wishing there was more I can do. Unfortunately it's not like this ship is equipped with deployable shipwide sleeping gas or something.

I sighed and sought to go to the next stage of the plan. Need to keep busy, since we're not out of danger yet.

'Got any good locations for me Jarvis?' I asked.

A few, sir. The closest of which is two weeks away.

I frowned and sighed in frustration. Two weeks on board a ship surrounded by POWs that could try to get smart? I had half a mind to unload the lot of them to the planet below and take off. But in the back of my mind, I remembered that part of the goals I was aiming for was companionship. But a bunch of zealots aren't the best company to have if they get it in their mind to kill me as a false Goa'uld. I recalled the number of stories that bypass this through enforced loyalty, brainwashing, and downright slavery. I wouldn't, couldn't, go down that route.

Perhaps... if I could search their minds... reassure myself of their loyalty or the capability of loyalty, then that would be enough, but that would take time. I would need to be long gone by the time I finished that, and then what do I do with the ones who I found out would rather betray me? Kill them? Ideally, I'd just leave them somewhere to live out their lives or get scooped back up by the Goa'uld where they can return to their families and have the possibility of making a future decision to seek freedom, but the plan is to flee Goa'uld space until I've gotten a decent power base.

That's not to say I'm going to sit back and look all pretty up in an ivory tower though. I just need some place I can fall back to that'll serve as a safe haven for those who don't wish to fight and can at least serve as the backbone for the war effort to topple the Goa'uld Empire.

Then, once they're toppled, hopefully my power base will have developed enough that the system established there will spread to the rest of the galaxy, instituting planetary governors and a republic of systems with me as the figure head leader enforcing the rules and hopefully keeping corruption stamped out.

That's the basic rough draft of a plan anyway, which is only vaguely, loosely based on Star Wars and Mass Effect. While both systems of government weren't perfect or infallible, they're the best examples I can immediately think of at the time. I'll come up with something better in the future I hope.

In the meantime though, I've got a ship full of Jaffa to deal with, a nice ship with decent tech despite being woefully inefficient, and only the beginnings of a plan of where to go. I need more information.

'Hey Jarvis, how long do you think it'll be until this ship is missed?' I asked.

This is the ship of the Goa'uld Bes, a lieutenant for the System Lord Bastet.

'That explains the cat motif for the Jaffa.' I realized.

Indeed sir. While this ship isn't scheduled back to return to Bubastis for quite some time, several of the worlds this ship is scheduled to contact have Jaffa outposts that might contact the capital about the missing ship. At most, we have a week. At minimum, five days.

'Five days? Hm... Could we have all the Jaffa left tested for their loyalty in five days? Between the ship's power core and the subspace communications implant, we could have multiple nanite cultures implanted into the Jaffa at a time, especially if we make it mandatory for them to walk into a room to submit for testing.'

That should be doable, sir. In the meantime, what should be done with the ship?

I hummed in thought. Best to do for now would be to hide the ship, preferably in a spot where it wouldn't be easily noticed. My first thought was maybe to put it behind the sun from Chelsac-4, but that wouldn't guarantee any ship flying into the system wouldn't fly in from that side and spot it. Hiding the ship a couple lightyears above or below the solar plane might work, since not many look there. That's not guaranteed to work here though.

"I don't suppose we could just bury the ship?" I mused outloud.

You could, but the effort to bury and unbury the ship would take a great deal of time more than available. Unless you wish to stay, but that would be ill advised, considering how quickly the changes to Chelsac-3 were spotted.

'Yeah, the original plan is still to skedaddle, ASAP.' I thought in agreement. 'Hmmm... What if we made a microjump above the solar plane? Just far enough to put us out of sensor range, but not far enough that we couldn't get back quickly if necessary? A few lightyears might not be enough distance, but twenty or thirty ought to do it.'

That plan is viable, sir. It still has some risk, but it is minimal compared to the others.

'I think low risk is about all we can ask for right now, Jarvis.' I replied, before settling back. 'When you can, make the jump... once everything on Chelsac-3 is hidden away or removed.'

Yes sir. Jump calculated to occur in three hours.

'Actually... belay that. Craft a landing pyramid for this thing. We're gonna give this baby an overhaul first.' I ordered.

Jump delayed by five hours. Setting course to Chelsac-3. Landing pyramid being raised just outside horseshoe valley. Do you still wish to flatten everything else?

'Yes. And we'll be recalling all nanites to the ship, too. I want the overhaul done as fast as possible, then we're leaving this planet behind. Though do me a favor and keep a note of where its located. We might want to return one day, if for nothing else than nostalgia purposes.'

Yes sir.

It was while I was wiling away the hours and testing out willing up windows of the view points of the photoreceptors on Chelsac-3 that something occurred to me.

"Hey Jarvis? Could the signals from the subspace communications implant to my nanites be intercepted or jacked?" I asked.

By their nature, subspace communications can't necessarily be intercepted, let alone jacked and used inappropriately.

'That doesn't mean it's impossible.' I refuted, 'The Asgard probably know how to do it, and considering their war with the replicators, one look at my nanites and they might be of a mind to shoot first, ask questions later, and the last thing I need is for them to take me for an enemy, or worse, for Loki to take over the nanites for himself.' I finished, shuddering.

While not... impossible, I suppose, it wouldn't matter. Even if an Asgardian or some other being were able to intercept the signal or interrupt it, they wouldn't be able to control your nanites. They would ignore false orders at best or simply go into shut down at worst. The safeguards are simultaneously simple and complex. The simple version is that a genetic signature is required with every communication, and that genetic signature is yours. The complex version is that you could say that your very genetic code is being used as a cipher lock on top of everything else. It is not unlike the Alteran gene lock that prevents those without their genetic marker to use their technology, only with you and your nanites, it is far more specific. Without knowing your genetic structure first and foremost, cracking the rest of the encryption... Any being able to do that would have an easier time simply snapping their fingers to erase you from existence than going to that much trouble.

'Soooo... an Ori or Ascended could probably do it.'

Most likely, sir. Though seeing as you weren't destroyed the moment you appeared in this universe, I feel it safe to assume the Ascended don't plan to interfere with you, and the Ori don't yet know about the Milky Way or Andromeda, let alone you in particular.

'Heh.' I snorted, 'High chance plenty of the Ascended hate me. I'm the pebble that's rippling their still pond and leaving it tie-dyed. There's probably just enough Ascended who care enough about the rule of non interference to stop any one from doing anything about it, but once that changes, I better have something that can protect me from extra dimensional beings. I'm gonna need to do that at some point anyway regardless. Sooner or later, the Ori will probably catch wind and cause all kinds of problems, and I don't exactly remember what SG-1 used to actually destroy the lot of them. I do remember something about the Ark of the Covenant being used to show the truth to the Ori worshippers, but the actual destruction of the Ori? No idea on that one.'

Your answers will probably come the more you look into the works of Janus and Merlin. Everything seems to focus around those two when it comes to this verse's deus ex machina.

'Fair enough, so we've got a working plan to deal with the Ori. As for the Wraith...' I trailed off as something occurred to me. 'Weaver... Do you think she might still be in stasis on Atlantis right now? I mean, considering some of my plans, Atlantis would be under my control long before the Stargate Program ever exists, so that would preclude Weaver ever being in Atlantis in the first place... right? Irregardless, I need to plan that bit carefully. I don't remember much, but I seem to remember a wraith hive being sunk on that water planet with Atlantis, and something about messing with Atlantis' geothermal plant tripping a signal to the rest of the Wraith that Atlantis is back... or something. I also remember something about killing a Queen waking the rest of them up too... Might be easier to tip toe around Pegasus and try to get some hive ships seeded with nanites before any of them wake up... But that's not till far in the future. The Goa'uld are the primary threat right now.'

Indeed sir. Do you plan to destroy them wholesale?

I bit my lip and frowned. 'I... I don't know. Some of them, if not most, certainly. But all? Something about that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, even if their very existence is so easily abusable. After all, Egeria learned, and the Tok'ra share with the host, rather than enslave.'

Quite true sir, though I think you might be forgetting something.

'What's that?' I asked curiously.

Egeria is currently Ra's queen, and the Tok'ra don't exist yet. If memory serves, Egeria was just as bad as the others until her trip to Kheb, upon which she achieved enlightenment thanks to the Ascended being there. Assuming you plan to take Earth from Ra before this occurs, the Egeria of that future may never exist, leaving all Gua'uld as they currently are. Unless you plan to do nothing, which is impossible at this point with the destruction of the Goa'uld Jeb, it is almost a guarantee nothing of the future canon will exist for this verse.

I frowned. Jarvis had a point. I can't just go sparing Goa'uld left and right just because they might change their minds and stop being evil in the future. That's not a guarantee, and even if it happens, I would be peripherally responsible for any victims of theirs. Slavery, death, torture... No, most Goa'uld are the worst of scum. Still, deciding on genocide doesn't sit right with me. Dealing with each individual on a case by case basis would at least be a better policy, even if it would probably still result in the destruction of the Goa'uld anyway. They may have extenuating circumstances, what with the insanity the Sarcophagus induces, but that still wouldn't cover all of their crimes.

It was things like this, and more, that I thought about, while Jarvis handled most of the details regarding my current plans. Slowly, all of the nanites on Chelsac-3 were collecting up towards a currently forming pyramid, while the rest of the planet was being returned to its original state. Several rooms with nanite webs in the floor were being set up, and Jaffa were being directed to these rooms to get a dose of nanites, then separated depending on their loyalty and disposition. Those who wouldn't be able to stop themselves from betraying me would be left on Chelsac-4. There were a few still that were separated further as they were criminal scum not fit to be among polite society, and I wouldn't dare set them loose on anyone. Those ones Jarvis took care of by quietly spacing them. It's not like I was unaware he was doing this, it is my subconscious after all, but it allowed me a degree of separation that would let me get through the situation for now. Just until I had the time available to deal with my feelings on the matter appropriately.

By the time the landing pyramid finished, the 'interviews' were still underway. All the nanites had relocated to the pyramid, and once the ship had docked, all of the nanites attached to the ship, much of it carrying raw mass to help fuel any changes made.

Speaking of changes, there were quite a few that I wished to make to Jeb's, now my, ship. After a thorough analysis of the systems and blueprints currently available, Jarvis concluded that the ship, and all Hatak like it, completely eschewed utility and efficiency for presence and being ostentatious. Seriously, the amount of gold embedded into the walls would make any pimp proud, and every single bit of it's the kind of propaganda that would make even Al Gore, inventor of the internet, blush.

Seriously, imagine walking around a ship where the very walls depict horrifying amounts of self aggrandizement that, for the most part, only you can read in the first place, since the majority of your servants are illiterate, and those who actually can read, ie. other Goa'uld, will just ignore it anyway. Only then do you have an idea just how messed up in the head Goa'uld are.

So the gold was pretty much the first to go. Not that I got rid of it completely. I just pulled it off the walls, stripping them bare and converting the gold into bullion just in case I ever need to use it for trade, and had it stacked and stored in one of the storage rooms.

Next came several changes to the efficiency of several systems. The biggest one being the power core being streamlined. It wasn't by any means perfect, but the change increased energy efficiency by 150% and since power could be easily transmitted using the nanites themselves, a large amount of power conduits were completely bypassed, allowing for multiple channels for power to go where it's needed, when it's needed. By contrast, the next biggest change wasn't actually visible really. Just Jarvis implementing some actual data security. It's not a very good firewall, but heck, at least I have a firewall now. Most of the weapons and hyperdrive were left alone, both simply getting a boost in ability just from having the power core run more efficiently.

After that came an overall design change that came from shifting entire rooms around the ship while the hull itself shifted in appearance. The end result looked like a landed skyscraper. No landing pyramid was needed after that, so the mass that went into it got transferred to the ship.

What followed next was an overall collapse of the black 'ring' around the pyramid part of the Hatak as it fused with the pyramid bit of the Hatak. After that, the pyramid shape elongated greatly, then flattened into a very recognizable wedge shape. But rather than stop there, the middle portion of the ship grew to jut out, almost like a four pronged arrowhead, rather than a flat broad arrowhead shape. The entire ship was colored white by default to allow for solar and thermal absorption. It should take care of any overheating issues nicely and act as a good supplement for emergency power just in case the Naquada power core fails for some reason.

The ship's 'bottom' grew thick overhanging pieces that acted as landing struts as well as protection for the main boosters for the ship, though the entire thing would still retain the maneuverability of a normal hatak. It would just be able to go forward on its sublight engines faster than usual.

The end result looked like a white Star Destroyer bisected by a second Star Destroyer turned sideways and lacking the conning towers on the back, with the boosters on the back being set into the back of the ship, allowing for the entire thing to sit on its butt and point towards the sky while on the ground. All in all I liked it, after I'd actually gotten out to take a look at the thing after it'd finally finished with the upgrades after three days.

There were a couple of other small changes of course, some not so noticeable, some quite noticeable. For instance, the corridors are smaller, though still wide enough for two people to walk past each other without the risk of bumping into each other. There were no more alcoves for easy hiding in. Instead, panels of the floor could flip upward to trip intruders as well as serve as cover for the defenders. Any intruders thinking to use them as cover themselves would find their cover disappearing at the most inopportune times. Nevermind the mesh web of nanites they'd be walking on that would start infiltrating as soon as their feet touched them, allowing for a shutdown of ambulatory signals from the brain to the nervous system… or complete system shut down if necessary. Or the myriad of blast doors that could close at any given point as needed, filling the hallways with nothing but armored doors at the most extreme of cases. The bridge is now located roughly forward and center in the ship. The power core hadn't much changed location, being located roughly behind and center in the ship. I'd also increased the size of the ship by a bit to allow for more room for the hull, which I'd thickened significantly. Even if the shield were to be pierced now, the hull would still be able to weather quite a lot of damage before any breaches became an issue.

Shields were another modified system. Now, the ship had multiple layered shields and while it took a hefty bite out of the naquada engine, it was worth it for the extra protection it allowed.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't step out of the ship to admire it a bit. The view of it, standing tall and proud like a great white skyscraper was rather beautiful. Of course, it would also stand out like a sore thumb against the backdrop of space, but space is vast and that's what cloaking systems and adaptive camouflage systems are for, as I gave the order for the ship to 'disappear', and all the nanites recolored themselves to appear like the background behind them from multiple perspectives. This did put the absorption of solar and thermal energy on hold, but it would be good for when the ship is inactive and needs to stay hidden.

Satisfied, I used the outline of the ship only my eyes could see and went back inside. With the upgrades now complete, and the excess mass and nanites from the planet used to flood the entire ship with nanites, we were basically ready to leave at any time.

But first, I have a number of Jaffa to deal with.