Restoration
Side-by-side, Amaunet and Apophis followed the Jaffa honor guard down the corridor leading to the banquet hall, where their most loyal servants had gathered in celebration. Relishing in her reborn senses, Amaunet slowed to breathe in the aroma of the food and the fragrance of the flowers. She was home.
"Behold," Apophis declared, lifting the veil from her face. "Your Queen!"
Amaunet's eyes swept over the figures kneeling below. With their faces bowed low to the ground in reverence, she could not easily identify them. Some were quite young. They had likely been birthed after her imprisonment by Ra, and had never known their queen.
Suddenly, there was a blur of motion at the far end of the banquet table, and then a young man dressed in strange green garments stood and started moving towards her. Amaunet sensed a stirring in her host. Apophis frowned at the slave's disrespectful behavior.
"Kneel before your queen," he demanded. The slave ignored him, and continued moving towards Amaunet.
"Sha're," he pleaded. "It, it's me."
As she turned towards him, Amaunet was nearly overwhelmed by a wave of emotion from the host: joy mixed with fear. Her eyes flashed as she suppressed it. Apophis would deal with this disobedient slave.
Apophis raised his hand, and sent a surge of energy towards the offending slave. Amaunet watched with satisfaction as he was thrown against the far wall and sank to the ground. The moment was short-lived, though, as yet another male and a female slave rose to their feet. Amaunet experienced another vision from the host mind, revealing the thing in his arms to be a deadly weapon that spit bits of metal. Quickly, she stepped in front of her lord, extending her arms to shield him. Her host knew these people, and she hoped that they would not risk harming it.
Her hope was rewarded when the slave hesitated, and then lowered his weapon. He was punished for his insolence with a blow to the head from a Serpent Guard that sent him crashing to the floor. The woman with him held up her hands in surrender as more guards surrounded them.
"My lord," asked the chief guard, "how would you have me deal with these? Shall I take them to the courtyard and execute them for the insult to your Queen?"
The First Prime stepped forward and opened his helmet. "If they are executed immediately, my lord, then we will not know where they are from or which system lord they serve," he said. "Would it not be better to place them in the dungeon until you have time to attend to them?"
Apophis studied the humans, contemplating their strange weapons and unfamiliar technology. The woman was beautiful and unusually tall: her height emphasized by her erect posture and fearless expression despite the guards that surrounded her. She stood defensively over the younger man, who lay unmoving, still sprawled where he had fallen by the wall. The older man was beginning to stir. As Apophis watched, he groaned and clutched at his head.
"Well, this is turning out to be a crappy day," the man muttered.
Their equipment seemed primitive compared to the Goa'uld, but beyond that typical of humans. Apophis decided that would be wise to learn their origin before disposing of them. He turned to Teal'c. "Remove only their weapons, and put them in the dungeon," he ordered. "Remain nearby and watch them. It may be that they will use their technology to contact their master, or they may reveal something to one of the other slaves. Report back to me all that you learn."
Two guards forced the older man to his feet. He took a few steps; then staggered. They tightened their grip on his arms and marched him towards the door. Two others lifted the young man by the arms and pulled him along, his head hanging limply, his feet dragging behind. There was a sudden clatter as the glass circles slid off his face and onto the ground. The woman quickly knelt and snatched them up. A Jaffa grabbed her arm to wrest them from her.
"Please, he needs these to see," she pleaded. Apophis gestured slightly to the guards, indicating that she could keep the glass circles, for now. Soon enough he would possess all that they had and all that they knew.
As the Jaffa dragged him away, Amaunet glanced at the young man. She felt the host struggling to retake control, shouting his name, "Dan'yel, Dan'yel!"
Unbidden, her hands reached out for him. Amaunet put forth her greatest effort, and forced them back to her side. Do that again, slave, she thought angrily, and I will put him to death with my own hands...
"My hands," the host protested.
"…but first, he will suffer greatly". She pictured the worst tortures that she could conceive and projected them to the host: images of knives, whips, burning brands and painsticks.
"Please, no! Dan'yel!"
"Then trouble me no more!"
Amaunet smiled in satisfaction at the silence which followed.
Several hours later, when the feast had ended, Apophis and Amaunet returned to their chambers. Apophis dismissed the servants, and at last, they were alone.
"I am troubled by the presence of enemies at our table," he said. "We should choose hosts for our children without delay, and then I will take you to safety in your hidden temple at Kemet. You must stay there until I am certain that the House of Ra has been utterly defeated."
"We have only just been reunited. Please, let me stay with you," Amaunet protested.
"I would not lose you so soon," Apophis replied. "But the location of Chulak is too well-known among the system lords. I insist that you obey me in this."
Amaunet bowed her head in submission. "Your will is mine, my lord. Let us select the remaining hosts as soon as may be. But I must confess that I am weary."
"Then you shall not walk to the dungeon, my queen. I will call for our litter at once."
Amaunet's nose wrinkled as the gently swaying litter approached the dungeon, with its overwhelming stench of unwashed humanity. The litter's movement stopped, signaling their arrival.
"Sha'ka ha! Kree hol mel, Goa'uld!" she heard the First Prime announce in a loud voice. There was a slight thump as the litter settled to the ground, and then he cried again, "Jaffa!"
At that signal, Apophis stepped out of the litter. Though she would have preferred to remain within, Amaunet obediently took Apophis' hand and climbed out, taking her place beside him at the entry to the dungeon. The Serpent Guards descended the stairs before them, forming two lines that divided the crowd of humans.
Teal'c ordered the slaves to kneel in preparation for the choosing, first in Goa'uld, and then in the common tongue. Guards rushed down into the crowd, shoving any who hesitated to the ground.
Now the members of Apophis' court moved into the dungeon. Teal'c ordered the litter bearers to begin selecting potential hosts for their examination. Amaunet watched impassively as the age-old process unfolded: potential hosts were selected, examined, and then either accepted or rejected by the courtiers.
Suddenly, Amaunet's attention was drawn to an unusual commotion in the center of the room. It was the young man from the banquet. He was on his knees, held tightly by two guards. He was speaking rapidly in the common tongue, babbling about being a host. Was he offering himself? He looked up at her, and their eyes met. This displeased Amaunet, and she looked away quickly without acknowledging him.
Her gaze was drawn back when an oddly familiar voice began screaming. One of the courtiers had chosen a handsome, dark-haired boy who had been kneeling next to the young man. Ignoring his protests, the litter bearers pulled him from the dungeon. The older man that Amaunet had observed in the banquet hall tried to intervene, but was disciplined by a blow to the face from a Serpent Guard.
The choosing was over. The courtiers filed out of the dungeon, and the Serpent Guards formed a barrier between the slaves and the door, preventing any escapes. Apophis turned to survey the captives. They had been followers of Ra. There would be no return to their homeworlds, no mercy.
"Kill the rest," he ordered.
Amaunet retook her position in the litter next to Apophis, and then closed the curtains around them. The light cloth was ineffective against the stench of the dungeon and the screams of the terrified humans. She was relieved when the litter reached the ground level of the palace, and the heavy door leading to the lower levels shut behind them.
She turned to her Pharaoh. "My lord, what of the female slaves you prepared as potential hosts for me? I desire maidservants that are beautiful. The human life span is short, and the servants I have now are growing old."
"They are from Ra's domain. Would you not prefer servants from our own worlds?"
"These have already been cleaned, and they have healthy bodies and good teeth. It seems a pity to discard all of them. Have you not said yourself, that a beautiful female is a beautiful female, where ever she is from?"
Apophis smiled indulgently. "And you are the most beautiful of all, my love. Very well. You may choose from them any that please you. Then we will proceed to the ceremony of implantation together. It is time for our son to take a host."
In the dungeon, Daniel's heart was pounding as the guards lowered their staff weapons and advanced on the unarmed people. Most of them screamed and fled to the far wall in panic. He resisted the urge to turn and run with the others. There was nowhere to go: it would be better to face death with some measure of dignity.
But an intense desire to live surged through him. If he and Jack died, who would save Sha're and Skarra? Their fate would be sealed as surely as Earth's Stargate. Beside him, he heard Jack shouting at the head guard.
"I can save these people. Help me!" Jack pleaded. "Help me."
"Many have said that," the guard replied. Daniel couldn't keep his eyes from traveling to the nearby wall. Scorch marks and gouges silently testified to long ages of slaughter.
His attention was drawn back as the guard suddenly began firing on his own men. To Daniel's utter astonishment, he tossed his weapon to Jack, adding, "but you are the first I believe could do it!" Suddenly, shots were flying everywhere. Daniel stood frozen in surprise for a moment, before Captain Carter grabbed his vest and pulled him down behind a boulder.
After several confusing moments, the guards were dead, or had fled, except for the one who had helped them. Too many of the captives also lay dead or severely wounded. In a daze, Daniel found himself standing beside a large hole in the wall of the dungeon, helping the prisoners that were still mobile climb through to freedom.
"You going to be okay?" Jack looked at him with concern.
Daniel couldn't put what he was feeling into words, and now wasn't the time, anyway. He just nodded briefly, and then climbed through the wall. They had a long run uphill to get to the Stargate, and it was by no means certain they could get there before they were hunted down, or locked out of Earth.