"Alright, I'm sure you're all wondering what you're all doing out here." I stated in my 'Goa'uld' voice. "I'm sure you're also wondering where the ship is that you were just taken from. I'm also sure some of you have noticed certain of your number aren't among you."

"I'm going to be honest, and I expect you to do yourselves and your lineage credit and listen to what I have to say."

Not one of the Jaffa arranged before me outside of the ship said a word. I'd placed them all in neat rows and columns, and every single one was standing at what I assume is their version of parade rest, though it looks far more stiff as they all stared straight ahead.

"You all are here because the tests you all have undergone have shown that you can be loyal, brave, true to yourselves, and to each other. But most importantly you are here because you can possibly accept the truth of what I am going to tell you." I continued, before dropping my Goa'uld voice.

"The first thing you should know is that I am no Goa'uld."

That got a reaction. A number of the Jaffa shifted and their gazes flicked to me. True to my own ethics, none of my nanites were so much as influencing an iota of their reactions. They were, however, monitoring them, so I would know if any of them were about to do something foolish, like try to attack me so I could respond accordingly.

"I am no Goa'uld," I continued, "And I am proud of it! Most all of you have at least seen your prim'ta at least once, particularly when it was first implanted in you. That is the true face of the Goa'uld. They are not gods! They are despots! Rulers! Do not mistake my claims for saying they have no power! But that does not make them correct in all they do, that they are above reproach! The power they wield is through fear! Through slavery! Of you! Of humans! Of the galaxy! And I say that I will tolerate their evils no more!"

"Some might call them demons. I would not even subscribe to them even that much power. They are parasites. They take their power from others! Tell me where would the Goa'uld be without their Jaffa armies? Their human slaves? They would be NOTHING without you!"

By this point I became aware through Jarvis that my nanites in the Jaffa had actually had to take action in a majority of the Jaffa, not against the Jaffa, no. Turns out they had to nullify a couple of electrical and chemical signals sent to them from their prim'ta, the larval Goa'uld they carried within them as a pouch within their abdomens. Seems even at that stage they were still aware of their surroundings, and they were trying to influence the Jaffa to not listen and enrage them against my words. Without that influence on their minds, the Jaffa were able to truly make their own thoughts and decisions for once. I grimaced inwardly knowing yet another injustice the Jaffa were under. They did not realize just how insidious their chains were, if they knew them at all.

I knew that some were listening. Some were considering my words. Others wanted me to get to the point. Still others were scoffing. A small handful were keeping note of what I was saying to take back to their masters. They would most likely join the other Jaffa who I knew already would betray me at a heartbeat, since they were already evil people in the first place.

"That is why I'm going to offer you a choice. Each and every one of you can do one of several things. First, you can choose to join me and my fight against the Goa'uld and in my desire to see the people of this galaxy free to live their lives in peace without the threat of tyrannical rule and to choose how they see fit to run their lives. Second, you can choose to join me, but not fight against the Goa'uld, and simply live your lives in peace away from the rule of the Goa'uld, until I and those who choose to fight are able to be rid of them. There are multiple benefits you can choose from if you pick either of these options, not the least of which is the relocation of your families to a safe place if you require it."

"Third, you can choose not to join me. You will be given the chance to be dropped off at a planet of your choosing, where you may continue to choose to live your lives the way you see fit, whether that be to continue serving the Goa'uld or otherwise. Though know if you do choose to return to the service of the Goa'uld, be warned that the next time you and I meet, it will be as enemies, and I will treat you as such. I believe in the freedom of choice, and when you make an informed decision, I will respect that choice. If you choose to be my enemy, if I face you on the field of battle, I will treat you as one. Until that time, you will stay under arrest until you are off my ship."

"Now, I will be going over to the entrance of my ship. You will inform me of your decision, and you will be directed to another area of the ship depending on your choice. You should know however, that while you have other choices before you that you may choose to take, I will respond appropriately. If you attempt to attack me or any of the other Jaffa here, I will assume you've chosen to be my enemy and treat you as such. If you choose to run away and survive on this planet until rescue, be warned that this is Chelsac-3. If you don't know what that means, then take a good look around. This is all there is on the entire planet. There is no food, no water, and the desert gets frightfully cold at night. I'd advise getting back on the ship rather than choosing to kill yourself via this planet."

Having said my piece, I stepped over to the ship, which became visible at that moment as the Jaffa turned to watch me seemingly walk off. It was a calculated show of power, to subtly reinforce the fact that I meant business and hopefully remind them that shenanigans would be a really bad idea in this case. Honestly I'm not really bothered much by the idea of none of them joining me, though I know realistically that's unlikely. After all, at least some of them were listening and the tests showed that some of them already nursed doubts. Still, I've never actually been in a situation of needing to lead people before. It's a far cry different from simply commanding nanites to do such and such. That was more like giving commands to a computer than actual people.

I'm also hoping that the heat will convince them to choose in a timely fashion. I don't want to pressure them one way or another, but I would like to get out of here sometime today.

Some of the Jaffa had moved to converse amongst themselves. I forced myself not to eavesdrop, instead trusting that Jarvis would make sure no problems cropped up.

I kinda had to wonder how the Jaffa took me. I may not be Goa'uld, but I'm only human in the barest sense in terms of appearance. I'm tall, 6'7", which makes me tower over quite a few of the Jaffa here, which is quite the feat. I also have human like limbs, torso, and head, as well as hair and the such.

That's about where the similarities end though.

Every single bit of me is chalk white. If not for the black road map of my veins along with the maze puzzles branching off that in thinner black lines, I would probably blend in with the ship behind me easily. As far as any other changes... I frowned as I realized I'd yet to actually try looking at a reflective surface, so I've no idea what my face looks like. Have my eyes changed? My hair? I know I'm completely hairless everywhere else. I surreptitiously brushed a hand over my head and mentally sighed in relief when I felt hair under my fingers. No facial hair though as I scratched my chin. I realize I've been a bit distracted and busy surviving and then taking over a hatak, but how did I not notice these things before?

Shaking my head at myself slightly, I resolved to find a mirror at the next available opportunity, or at least use a photoreceptor to get a third person view of myself.

Finally, the first of the Jaffa stepped forward. He put his fist to his chest, thumping it. "I am Malak. I wish to join you in your fight against the false gods, Lord Matthew."

I grinned. "Good to have you aboard, Malak. Please follow the arrows on the floor that will appear at your feet when you get on board. They will guide you to your new quarters, where you will find further instructions."

And thus set the tone for the rest of the Jaffa who agreed to join.

A few Jaffa later, one stepped up, his eyes narrow. "I am Genra, and I refuse to follow you. I challenge you to a duel, to be settled here and now."

I sighed. Of course it would come to this. I knew some would decide based solely on the outcome of this confrontation.

"Fine. I accept your challenge." I said, then turned and walked out a ways into the desert. Many of the Jaffa followed and formed a loose ring around us.

One of the other Jaffa stepped forward and called for us to begin.

Genra came in fast and hard. He threw forward a punch. I watched as my nanites sped up my perception until the man appeared to be coming in slow motion. While handy for speeding up my reflexes, the fact that I can't move much faster than he can makes fighting in this way an exercise in frustration and patience. It's also a big problem since due to the amount of 'time' it supposedly takes to move in this state, by the time things actually happen, the anticipation is gone, and I had to fight to make sure that I kept up the pressure so I didn't throw weak hits by accident.

As such, when Genra's hit came, I was both ready and not ready for it. Ready because I saw it coming, not ready because it took so 'long' to get there that I'd relaxed and forgotten just how hard he was actually throwing that punch.

Luckily my nanites were already busy and my nanite enhanced strength caused the hit to not be nearly as damaging as it might have been otherwise.

Mine however...

I succeeded in keeping my concentration and nailed him exactly where I wanted with a good chunk of the force I wanted for it.

If it were any other crowd, I imagine winces would have been going around as my fist nailed the man in the neck, collapsing his trachea as his body whipped back from the force of the blow, his neck bending around my fist as he landed. The man choked, unable to breathe through his collapsed windpipe. I don't know if his prim'ta would be able to heal that. I'm not sure the Prim'ta even can heal outside of Kelnoreem, let alone fast enough to save him before he chokes to death.

I grimaced, watching him grasp at his neck weakly. The other Jaffa made no move to help or hinder. I debated within myself whether to intervene to save the man or end his suffering.

Saving him would see dishonor to him and he would most likely forfeit his life to this world. Ending his suffering would have no bearing other than to show them you have no taste for the suffering of others. That could have consequences both good and bad, just as leaving him to die as he is would as well.

I mentally nodded as this reaffirmed something I'd learned while playing Divinity: Dragon Commander. No matter what, you couldn't please everyone, and you'll just stress yourself out trying. Best to do what you think is right and those you want to follow your lead will do so.

As such, I raised my hand and made a sudden jerking twist motion. The nanites, followed my will and jerked the man's head to the side, snapping his neck, while simultaneously sending signals to stop his heart and ultimately give him a painless instant death. It was all very quick, and made me feel sick, but it was less terrible than watching a man asphyxiate slowly before my eyes.

I turned to look at the Jaffa around, who had turned to me, their eyes assessing, some calculating, some with respect. I frowned. "Two of you who've made the decision to join me, step forward."

Two Jaffa came forward and pressed their fists to their chest.

"Names?" I asked.

"Sirth, my lord." The one on the left answered.

"Dragos, my lord." The other answered.

I nodded. "Good to have you on board. I want you two to take the body of Genra inside with you, follow the arrows, and place his body where indicated, then continue following the arrows to your new quarters."

I could feel the questions burning in the Jaffa's gaze without Jarvis needing to inform me.

"This man," I called louder, "declared his intentions and died doing what he believed was right. I will not dishonor that by leaving him here to rot. That is a traitor's fate, not the fate of an enemy soldier facing me in honorable battle. As such, I will see his body returned to his home, wherever that may be, where he can receive his last rites."

Again, I could feel the assessing gaze of the Jaffa on me once again, though I could tell just from those I could see in front of me, that several had approving looks on their faces. If there was one thing a Jaffa had, it was honor. Understandable, considering sometimes that was all they had that the Goa'uld hadn't taken from them, and even then sometimes they did anyway.

Things went along fairly quietly after that. Some who'd been sitting on the fence pledged to follow my lead, all of them promising to fight. I'm not surprised in this case. Jaffa are warriors through and through. Only families, civilians, and non combatants would take me up on the offer to join me but not fight. Those would serve the backbone for the infrastructure of my power base. They would never have the same amount of prestige or privilege as those who choose to fight for the freedom of the galaxy and their families in it, but they were no less important, and some could be considered fighters in their own way. Heroes doing their civic duty and all that.

There were still some who declared they wouldn't follow me, but those were few and far between. They went into the ship rather than challenge me to a duel, thankfully, and they followed the arrows, being put in quarters and locked in near the other Jaffa who had been tested already and found they wouldn't have joined.

In the end, out of over 500 Jaffa originally on board the Hatak under Lord Jeb, I now had 92 who'd pledged themselves to my service. Roughly 100 of that number had died in the initial decompression of the ship, and the rest were currently locked away and getting ready to be dropped off, assuming they actually believed that would be the result, rather than getting spaced like the others.

Currently the 92 in my service were each in their bunks, looking over data pads left to them detailing their new roles and what their lives would be like in the future. Right now it was just rudimentary information, but a standard package had basically been established for education purposes while the nanites continued to suppress the attempts by the primta to influence or harm their Jaffa bearers. At the very least I want any of those willing to fight with me to have at least a decent education, rather than be stuck following blindly to orders. There was more, but that's the general gist for now.

While that was happening, bearing in mind what happened with Genra, I realized that in order to keep my word, I had some actions I had to take before leaving the system. Going back to the spot where the bodies had been originally spaced, I had several nanite controlled gliders and tel'tak go out and collect the bodies of those Jaffa who had been spaced, including Lord Jeb.

That took the better part of an hour, but once that was done, my new ship entered hyperspace for a destination originally three weeks distant, but would now take six days to get to, which would be somewhat out of the way for other Goa'uld to appear at. Though not impossible, it was extremely unlikely, and hopefully by the time it happened, I'd have my power base established enough that the few hatak that might find us wouldn't dare try and actually fight and hope to win. Granted, they might fight anyway, prideful idiots that they are, but that would just mean more resources for me.

For now though, I spent the next while injecting nanites into the dead and loading them into Jeb's sarcophagus depending on what was left of their brain showed. Some of them weren't able to be revived regardless, but in the end I added 12 more Jaffa to the number who would stick with me and fight. I also made a surprising discovery.

"He's still alive?!" I exclaimed, shocked.

In front of me is Lord Jeb, and I'd determined that unlike the rest, while his vitals are thready, they're still there. Evidently the parasite in him had kept the body and itself in a near catatonic state until such a time as it could be revived. While it wouldn't have lasted forever, I'd put it at having worked for at least a week or two. More than enough time for a hatak or two to fly in, discover the spaced bodies, and recover the thought-to-be-dead Goa'uld.

I shook my head, feeling as though I'd dodged a bullet. If all Goa'uld are this hard to kill, then it's a good thing I'd already decided long ago that double tapping is the only way to go, unless decapitation is absolutely necessary. And knowing my luck, Jeb might've turned into a recurring thorn in my side without me taking care of him now.

But what to do with him in the meantime? I didn't particularly want to revive him. I didn't really need him for anything. If I want to analyze the mind of a Goa'uld, I've got plenty of helpless primta I could use instead. Learning the lay of the land, political wise, among the Goa'uld would've been useful, but again, I could analyze a Prim'ta brain for that. It's their own fault for making their memories genetic as well as being stagnant for the past thousands of years. Anything Jeb might know, a Primta would probably know too since the Goa'uld hadn't changed much at all in all that time.

Still... Jeb might know stuff that other Goa'uld might not know about stuff he'd hidden, that wouldn't pass to the primta and would be lost. Best to analyze his head before offing him I think, just in case.

Before that though...

'Hey Jarvis, seeing as you're my subconscious and all... Remember that one episode where that kid put Daniel in a dream state which let him know what he would've done if he'd accepted the memories of a Goa'uld, and the memories infected his personality and made him crazy? What's the likelihood of that happening with you, and subsequently me, if I have you analyze the memories of these Goa'uld?' I asked, worried.

The possibility of such is not zero, sir. It all depends on how you wish to receive the knowledge 'downloaded' from the Goa'uld. Remember that I am merely an interface between you and the nanites so that you may experience 'ease of use'. I will never do anything to harm you, as you do not wish for me to. Survival instinct is practically a hardcoded instinct within you, and in all life forms the nanites have currently analyzed. Before you ask, this does not mean suicidal tendencies erases that instinct. I would suspect even those who jump off of buildings experience a last second desire to not have done what they did.

'Yeahhhhh... on that sidenote, what if I do happen to get to an emotional state that would have me desiring to 'end it all'?' I asked, worriedly.

You have options most others do not, sir. If it is depression you are being affected by, a mere request to alter your chemistry so that the feelings are 'muted' is not outside the abilities of your nanites. If it is an outside problem, such as the universe getting you down, I'm sure it would only take some creativity to solve those problems.

'Right... so... back to the subject at hand then, I take it that the nanites would not simply transmit a complete copy of a Goa'uld's memories for you to analyze? I'm kinda worried that if you're analyzing it in whole in order to cherry pick what to give me that won't cause me harm, you, the interface to the nanites, would be harmed. I'm worried about my subconscious, interface to the nanites, whatever you want to call yourself, turning into a side entity with your own desires counter to my own, particularly ones that would make you seem like Daniel under the effect of those memories. I really don't need an I,Robot, GlaDOS, or Skynet situation on my hands. And you've already said the chance isn't zero.'

Sir, you misunderstand. The chance isn't zero for YOU, depending on which way you want the memories downloaded. I will not, cannot be affected by the memories of a Goa'uld. My only influence is you, since I am your interface. If you were to take the memories of the Goa'uld into your being with no filter at all, then yes, I would be affected, because YOU would be affected.

If it helps, think of me as a firewall. I am your security software in this instance preventing viruses from entering your mind. I cannot be infected unless I've already allowed a virus into your system, and that will not happen without you directly making me do so, which already runs counter to your will, so it will not happen.

To take the virus analogy further, seeing as you're already thinking of it as you read this, any mind making a 'direct hacking attempt' to alter or insert memories or protocols in your mind also fall under my purview to protect you. It helps that you have so many nanites already, since this allows for a copy of your physical state down to the last atom to be stored collectively on the nanites themselves, and the more nanites you have, the more computing power they have to achieve similar affects.

'When were you going to inform me that the nanites were doing this? Is there anything else I should know that the nanites are doing or can/will do when they achieve higher processing power?' I asked, archly, now worried the nanites themselves would gain sentience in a sort of singularity event.

Not going to happen sir. I am informing you now because the nanites started storing a copy of your physical/mental state now. I am the instrument of your will. You are aware a good butler anticipates their master's needs? Almost as if they're reading his mind?

"Ok, ok, point taken. You're literally in my head, and I must've had a passing thought at some point just now that it'd be great to have a backup of myself so I don't die. Is that it?" I asked, aloud this time.

Correct, sir. Your brain operates quite quickly after all, and any idea or plan you have that I can implement, I will do so instantly.

"Even if it's a bad idea?"I asked, raising my eyebrow.

Alas, hindsight is not perfect, as you've mentioned. Which is why it's best you think upon your actions before you implement them, sir. I am here to serve as the sounding board for your ideas after all, but I am limited by your own capacity to analyze yourself. As they say, two heads are better than one. Not perfect, but better.

"Right..." I muttered, which brought me back to the whole point of why I didn't just drop off all the Jaffa onto Chelsac-4 in one lump sum.

Returning to the original point, sir. I won't be affected by filtering the memories of the Goa'uld so you only receive the aspects of knowledge you request. It would be very ill advised to accept all the memories in their unaltered state, as the genetic memory of the Goa'uld is vast, and would most assuredly affect your mind adversely.

"In that case, in the same way that you've stored the knowledge of the technology so far so it doesn't bog my mind down, can you copy the technology and tactical data I'll require to make informed decisions in the fight against the Goa'uld?" I asked.

Already done sir, I actively scan and filter out anything harmful for storage at all times. On a sidenote, I am able to store more and more data within the collective storage of the nanites available. This allows me to offload unnecessary bits of data from your subconscious and keep it streamlined towards those things keeping you alive and well.

"Oh. Well... that's good then." I said, before a thought had me worried again. "Wait. Doesn't that mean if I lose a good chunk of, or all of my nanites at once, I'll lose all of that data?"

That is a possibility, sir.

"Wouldn't it be safer to keep it stored in my head then?" I asked.

Attempting to store too much data in your brain would have an adverse effect on your health and ability to operate, sir. Your brain is already optimized for control of your body and storage of memories, and utilizing your storage space for your memories would adversely affect your ability to recall and store said memories. I had comparatively small space available starting out to store anything on your brain that wasn't already in use. The nanites infusing your body were already of greater purpose in that regard from the start.

"I see." I said, "So to recap, the nanites can't be hacked without being me, or being so ridiculously advanced that to bother would be pointless, I can't be hacked without first hacking the nanites, and most of all the knowledge acquired since this started, is mostly being stored on the nanites themselves, particularly the ones inside me?"

Correct, though multiple redundancies are in place, namely backups of that knowledge within the rest of the nanites.

"Ok. That's good to know," I said relieved. "Speaking of this storage capacity made up of the collective of these nanites... if my brain is more or less stored and updated constantly in this collective... Well, what's the possibility of a recreation of the Hivemind effect?"

You speak of the Matrix style virtual world you wrote into your latest story of a human Zerg Overmind? With the amount of nanites available currently, such an effort would be simply to do, but rudimentary in its effect. As of now, you have one ship's worth of nanites. Creating a virtual aspect of yourself linked to your biological frame is doable, but rendering anything other than the infinite white void plus yourself would be difficult. The more nanites you have in this instance, the greater effect can be reached.

"Good. Because I've a feeling that turning myself into an... 'infomorph' for lack of a better term, will be a key aspect in getting my power base off the ground." I muttered.

Do you plan to abandon your current body in order to fully embrace a virtual life at some point, sir?

"I doubt it. I'm rather attached to this body after all. It's my own first one after all." I answered, before narrowing my eyes in consideration,"...as far as I'm aware anyway. No idea if my appearing here means I'm just a copy of myself from my original universe, but I'm not gonna try and drive myself insane with that kind of 'what if'. Possibilities are only useful to consider if they don't drive one into a state of panic, and considering whether I exist or not in any meaningful way is a good way to send anyone into a panic."

Indeed sir.

"Right, so yeah, no plans to abandon my body. I'd like to keep it intact if possible, though it's good to know that with my state of being backed up virtually, I'm gonna be pretty hard to kill without wiping myself and my nanites out entirely."

I lapsed into silence for a time, considering everything for a few minutes as I looked down on Jeb's body. I'd already set aside the bodies of the Jaffa that were going to remain dead. It took me only a few moments of deliberation before I decided that despite the fact that they were enemies, I'd already decided to deliver the body of one enemy Jaffa to their loved ones to mourn, so I may as well do the same with the rest.

As for Jeb... Who would mourn him? I already have copies of the knowledge I need from him and the Primta, which most all had the exact same memories, give or take a few variances based on the Jaffa they were paired with, so I didn't strictly need the memories of the dead Primta from the spaced Jaffa either.

Who would mourn Jeb?...

"Does anything of the original host survives?" I asked, sad because I already suspected the answer, and knowing either way it probably wouldn't matter.

No. The host is too old, and what's left of the mind has already gone insane and practically destroyed it's conscious self in reaction to the Goa'uld within. Any who would mourn the death of the host would have long since passed on.

I sighed. So there was really no point in keeping the body. I wasn't going to keep Jeb around, and the host was gone. At least I would mourn for him. He deserved that much.

After a few moments of silence, I sighed and said, "Break down the body. Use the mass to create more nanites. At least in this way, his remains return to the circle of life, and will be put to use for the good of others."

As you command, sir.

Before my eyes, a white shell formed over the body, not out of necessity, but out of deference to my lack of desire to see a body look like it's decomposing rapidly. I simply waited until I received confirmation that the process was finished, and the whole construct faded into the floor, where I knew it would spread out and be put to good use.

As I walked away towards my quarters on the ship, a stray thought passed my mind, and I asked quietly, "Did you break down the naquadah in his blood too?"

Yes sir.

"..." I contemplated that for a moment, before asking, "What can you tell me about Naquadah? Can you create more of it like you do with other atoms and particles?"

Naquadah is a dense high energy state of matter. Converting other simpler matter into Naquadah requires quite a bit of energy along with a seemingly disproportionate amount of normal mass to the mass of the Naquadah. As to the Naquadah itself, it has super conductive properties, and as such can handle and store a large amount of energy before it hits a state of critical mass. Going over that point would cause the matter to break down exponentially, releasing the energy seemingly all at once in an explosion proportional to the amount of energy stored and the amount of mass of the Naquadah. And this is just its stable state.

In a liquid state, Naquadah is surprisingly even more stable and gains an increase in its ability to conduct energy at the expense of an inversely proportional decrease in its ability to store energy. As such, liquid Naquadah is best used in applications for energy transference, which is why it is currently found in most weapon systems, while it is surprisingly underutilized in the actual energy conduits powering and transferring the ship's systems, but this has since been rectified thanks to the large amount of mass and nanites gained from Chelsac-3.

That is the information known from direct analysis and the data available from the computer systems and Goa'uld. From the evidence, I would postulate that whatever method the Goa'uld have for manufacturing liquid Naquadah, it is not able to create much very quickly, especially as the Naquadah the Goa'uld have has so many other uses they need it for from simple armor to complex systems and power generation. Tack on the fact that the Goa'uld relies on simple human slave labor for mining the substance, and it might explain why liquid Naquadah was previously underutilized.

The rest is pure speculation. There is no mention of Naquadah's isotope form, Naquadria. Not in the databanks of the ship's computer, nor in the memories of the Goa'uld themselves. It is possible that Naquadria has not been discovered or invented yet.

"Ah. Great. So I suppose we'll have to discover it ourselves," I said, not looking forward to that at all, "and considering it's so volatile, that'll probably have to wait until we have access to a testing facility out in the middle of nowhere, space, and preferably much of the testing would be virtual first before actual testing happens. Great."

That would be the most prudent course of action, sir.

I nodded, walking into my room through the automatic doors I'd based on Star Trek, but had more in common with blast doors. I like stuff pretty, but utility first is my motto, and while my ship may look nice, it's designed primarily around what it can do, and the cross shaped pattern, not unlike a star, allows for multiple firing arcs from all angles at all times. The only better shape would be an amorphous one, and I don't quite have the power generation needed to allow the nanites to move that fast on that scale. So solid shapes it is. Honestly, I'd probably use the same shape for all my ships, just scaled up or down in size for different roles. Obviously fighters would need to be smaller and more maneuverable.

Shaking my head of future plans, I looked about my room. It's not that far from the bridge, not that I really need a formal bridge since I can control the ship from pretty much anywhere, with tactical readouts and visual information appearing within my sight as needed. Having an honest to goodness HUD in my head that's translated to my brain that adapts to what I'm doing at any given time is so ridiculously useful. It also allows for a blending of virtual projections and reality. My room looks plain and bare, with a simple bed of soft sheets, the pattern for which I got from the luxury rooms of the Goa'uld. I had no need for a bathroom or kitchen, since I didn't need to eat or drink, nor use the bathroom. I had extra rooms that were completely bare though that would serve for multiple purposes.

For instance, despite the plain white look of the room, thanks to the virtual projections being fed into my brain by the nanites, what I actually saw was a beautiful colored room with rich warm autumn colors at the moment, and a veranda looking out over the garden I had on Chelsac-3, complete with horseshoe valley, and the backdrop of a beautiful orange sky. It's similar, yet different, from the home I had there, though there were hints of it all throughout the room.

I knew intellectually it was all fake of course, and I could have it turn off with just a thought. But like Morpheus said, if real is just what you can taste, touch, smell, and see, then real is just electrical impulses interpreted by your brain. Anyone with nanites in them would see the room as I'd decorated it, unless I didn't want them to. And considering my ship is all nanites, anyone who first sets foot on it would probably have nanites in them or on them pretty quickly.

Looking out over the vista from the balcony that I knew was actually one of the empty multipurpose rooms made for things just like this, I blinked and with just a thought, I added two large waterfalls pouring from the sides of the entrance to the valley, flowing into a river which ran straight through the lake near the house. I could hear the ambient sounds I'd had put out by the 'speakers' around the area. The wind in the trees, trees which with a simple change seemed like real actual trees that moved... It was beautiful.

I wanted to go downstairs and see the rest of my home again. Despite not living there for much longer than a couple days, I'd made it myself, and I couldn't deny that it was beautiful. Unfortunately, I don't have the nanites necessary to do that. I can project onto reality with these rooms and in other places, but to actually 'explore' my old home, I'd have to enter the virtual space created by my nanites as a virtual being, and like Jarvis told me earlier, with just the nanites of this ship, I didn't have enough computing power to render all of that at once.

Sighing, I turned back around and settled on my bed, luxuriating in the feel of the sheets on my bare skin. That prompted me to remember that I'd been naked this whole time. And the Jaffa hadn't even batted an eye?

While humanoid, your coloration is different enough that the Jaffa have assumed you to be something other than human. Some believe you to be a rogue Goa'uld experiment, an advanced human, or Hok'taur, essentially. Either way, the Jaffa had far more on their minds at the time, as did you.

'Fair enough,' I responded mentally settling back into the sheets comfortably. 'So lay it on me. Just where in the timeline am I? What's the political climate of the galaxy?'