Well, when I said last chapter that I had to drag my muse back to work, I meant it. And it seems that now, she makes me pay for it.
The inspiration struck me and I wrote all the week end, nearly half that chapter. The rest came easily enough.
There is some technobabble in the chapter, so sorry for those that dislike it. It was my little thoughts on the sarcophagus and the genetic insanity of the Goa'uld. Agree with me or not, I think it's coherent.
So, once again I thank all of you who have left a review, and I will try to answer the questions of those that had some.
Guest : The Tok'ra left after Lilith was implanted, that's why he knew her name ^^
Guest (another) : Kuro's body was destroyed yeah. Maybe not immediately but it was. There's no coming back for him.
Not an Eldritch Horror: You have a point for the drug. I didn't think of it at all. Still, I think that Lilith's hatred for the Tok'ra could make her irrational enough to want to use an hands on method. I know it's a stupid justification, but it's the only one I can give without some retcon.
As for the sarcophagus to resurrect the Jaffa, it has to be done very soon after the death, less than an hour. There was no way for Lilith to reanimate any of them, and well, the Jaffa didn't think of it. I mean, I'm pretty sure the Goa'uld never use the sarcophagus on their Jaffa. Ever. So they wouldn't think about it.
Guest : No, I didn't need to read your comment to think about Iltani. It was planned all along. I'll say nothing more about her. As for Bastet, she won't be a villain, but she'll be ruthless when it is needed. As you said, any good ruler has to be at times, and she will be a good ruler. She already is, and she will continue to be. In the canon Stargate RPG book, it's said that her capital on Bubastis is a medieval metropolis housing 6 million people. A medieval city doesn't get this big without a seriously benevolent ruler. She just can't stand traitors and becomes trigger happy when they are mentioned.
I'll say nothing more on the subject, spoilers and all that.
JP : I understand you, and I can agree with you on the naming point. It won't change though, for one very good reason : I suck at naming things. A lot. So if it bothers you that much, just consider that everything she says and thinks is in the Goa'uld language (which is the truth) and that the 'rifle' and 'sniper' names are just translations. If you looked at it, I don't like to use Chappa'ai instead of stargate, despite it being the Goa'uld name for it. It's just a matter of preference, and I hope it won't prevent you from enjoying the story. As for the design of the sniper, the long muzzle of the weapon is a structural necessity for precise long-range weapons. The principle is totally different from the Earth's snipers.
No comment on her respect for the Goa'uld though, anything I said would be spoilers.
I thank everybody else that reviewed once again, it is my pleasure to give you an enjoyable story to read.
I'm still looking for a Beta or two. Just saying.
Now, please enjoy this new chapter.
2798 BC, Refuge, Lilith's domain.
I closed Kyra's eyes as she expired, a small sad smile on my lips. She had been my confident, my friend and my best warrior in those last two hundred years. Even during the last thirty years, as she was too old to work as my first prime anymore, she did not renege her duties and stood as the matriarch of her village, teaching the young girls how to fight and how to think.
She knew that her time was coming and requested my presence for her last moments. Had she been anyone else, I would probably have refused, but she had given me so much of herself that I didn't want to spit on her last wish like that. So there I was, looking at her body, surrounded by her family and friends.
She was the very last of the first generation of my Jaffa, and she endured every skirmish, every fight; but even a warrior as talented as she was could not stave death off. That one enemy that will get us all in the end. And even that one, she had avoided much longer that I had thought possible. She had had an unexpectedly long life, and I had never regretted taking her as my prime once.
Even I had suffered under the ravages of time. Maya's body that I inhabited had aged, how so slowly, appearing in her mid-twenties. I also had matured in my behavior, the years slowly but surely taming my rash tendencies and giving me full control of my emotions.
I smiled softly as I was asked to help bring Kyra's body toward the pyre where it would be incinerated. Once again I complied without protest, knowing that my former prime deserved it.
As I walked the streets of the Jaffa village with the rest of the funeral procession, I marveled at the changes that happened in the last two hundred years.
At the time, all of the villages on refuge had been pathetically primitive, a small group of houses put together without a clear plan or any organization. I changed that, and totally reorganized the villages. There were large main roads, clean streets and no one living in misery.
The planet was raw, unused, so I gave everyone the chance to work as they wished, and fortunately there were a lot that had some ideas of what they would do. Blacksmiths, herbalists, guards, farmers, lumberjacks… And those that did not know where to work, I gave them the jobs that were not taken yet necessary for the continued prosperity of our society.
Of course, not everyone knew how to work by themselves. And 'not everyone' was a euphemism. After generations as slaves, they completely forgot how to work for and by themselves. I had to literally teach them how to do their jobs and how to act with some independence, or rather have my most independent Jaffa do so. Kyra was a good example of those.
It was a lot of work in the beginning, but it had been how so worth it. With a clear and just order of things, and the ability to prosper as something else than slaves, the human population thrived. They were also joined by the Jaffa who were slowly but surely broken out of their overly militaristic mindset under my own orders.
Oh, there were still a majority of Jaffa who trained and lived only to serve me, but wanting to become something else than a warrior was no longer a shame, nor shunned. Everyone was able to work as they wished, and the conditions of life had been increasingly improved, leading the population to be extremely content with their lot.
I didn't give them the advanced technology that I had at my disposition, and let them innovate and develop their own technology. No sense guiding their development and progress and tainting their creativity by giving them the solutions without any effort. It would take centuries, but I knew that one day they would be able to reach the level of us Goa'uld in scientific endeavors.
Most of the Jaffa males were working in the refining of naqahdah, which I had improved in a couple of years so that it wasn't as daunting and dangerous a task as before, or in my new shipyard.
I was cut out of my thoughts when we reached the pyre, and I watched stoically, like most of the Jaffa and villagers, when it was lit. My last goodbye to this loyal subject of mine was left unsaid, but I didn't mean it any less. I would miss her.
I went back on my palace on Eratna soon after and simply smiled about how much I managed to accomplish.
I finally managed to find the influence of naqahdah on the emotions of both host and symbiote after three dozen years of study. It was a hormonal mechanism, something that was not fully understood at the time, simply because we couldn't care any less to learn about those. I had to make numerous analysis and learn by trial and error to not only isolate these hormones but also learn of their influences on our emotions.
The next step was to locate the gland that was producing those, there were several in the brain of the host and some very different in the body of the symbiote, and then observe the interaction between the naqahdah in the blood and the production of the different hormones, in the symbiote, the male human and the female human.
The effects were extremely subtle, and I actually doubted it when I saw the results, but I finally had my conclusion. The naqahdah in the symbiote did not cause by itself the full insanity. The Tok'ra were far too rational for my tastes after all, but they still had naqahdah in their veins. No, the effect was much more insidious. The sarcophagus was curing and resurrecting the recently dead by overstimulating the living tissue and having it repair and replace the short amount of necrosis that take place soon after the death.
Usually, that wouldn't be sufficient to reanimate someone, but the radiation was so potent that it even managed to induce the creation of new brain cells, something that was naturally impossible. This creation though, released a cocktail or hormones into the brain that induced some erratic and violent behavior and a phenomenon of addiction. It was a short term effect though, and soon enough the hormonal levels go back to normal and so does the user of the sarcophagus. Hormones are subtle though, so to really and visibly influence the behavior, the sarcophagus has to be used repeatedly in a short amount of time.
The presence of naqahdah though, made things much more complex. Because the brain cells that were created contained naqahdah too, in some infinitesimal proportion. And though the presence of naqahdah in ordinary brain cells was harmless, it wasn't the case for those constituting the hormonal glands. I observed a permanent increased production of hormones that were directly responsible of anger, mistrust, rage and confidence among other negatives emotions, both in the symbiote and in the host. This explained why changing hosts changed nothing about the behavior of the Goa'uld, but also the lack of any addiction. There was no hormone responsible for addiction produced by the malignant cells.
It was a long jarring task to get there though and when I wasn't working on that problem, I was either working on the improvement of the living conditions on Eratna and Refuge, or answering to Bastet's orders.
It left me remarkably stressed and I had taken as a habit to have regular massages from servants in order to relax, or even sometimes to have sex with consenting partners of either gender. I was not difficult for those kind of things. I always looked for our mutual pleasure though. It wouldn't have been good to be considered a bad lover, my pride wouldn't be able to stand it. On a side note, Maya who was feeling everything was very grateful that I decided to indulge in such basic needs. She very much appreciated the stimulation.
Back to the scientific achievements, I immediately informed Bastet of what I discovered once I had a comprehensive picture of the situation, and she was shocked by the gravity of the situation. She asked me what could be done to remedy this problem, but at the time I was afraid that I had no solution, not having worked on the sarcophagus yet. Once again, she urged me to find a solution, even stronger than before. Either my understanding of the situation made her believe all the more in my ability to find a solution, or she was distressed by the idea of becoming insane and lashed out. Personally, I thought that it was a little bit of both.
After I managed to understand the mechanisms of our genetic insanity, I worked on the sarcophagus itself. There were of course several well-known limitations, like the fact that there was a time limit during which a body can be reanimated before it was too late. An hour at the very most, sometimes less. It depended on the human.
Another was the effect the radiation used to supercharge the cellular regeneration had on the hormonal production, as I had found just before.
Still, with my newfound knowledge of the mechanisms of our insanity, I tried to see what was wrong with the sarcophagus, but could find nothing else. The problem came from the inherent nature of the radiation used in the healing process. After some experimentation, I found out that I could slightly reduce the intensity of the radiation and still conserve the healing power, but it was a minimal change, not something that would prevent the long term effects.
No, Telchak had done an excellent job in the creation and calibration of the sarcophagus, something that I could barely improve. The one who doomed us was Thoth with his early experimentation that introduced the naqahdah in our bodies.
There was only two ways we could avoid insanity. The first was to create a treatment that would be taken before going in a sarcophagus and would help in avoiding the creation of malignant hormone-production cells. The second was to purge our bodies of all of its naqahdah. Both of those solutions also included, of course, using the sarcophagus at most once a week to avoid the inevitable side effects and addiction.
Finding said medication took me another fifty years, but I managed to do so after such a time. My knowledge of chemical processes in both the human and symbiote bodies had to be increased by a huge factor before I could do so but I finally found the solution. It was to be ingested a couple of hours before entering a sarcophagus and it didn't cure the insanity that was already present. It prevented it from spreading any further though. Only time and the natural degradation of the brain cells, combined with a regular use of the treatment would be able to reverse it.
Bastet had been ecstatic at the news, and had immediately rewarded me with a place amongst her lieutenants, which I accepted. I was also invited to join her in her chambers for a night that I wouldn't forget for many centuries to come. Apparently, Bastet had a similar way to relax as I did, and had millennia of experience over me.
I had spent the next fifty years working on both a functional new fighter to replace the death glider and managing the growing population on my planets, both meeting huge successes, and my next course of action before replacing all my death gliders by said fighters was to study the stargate and its dialing device.
Indeed, the new fighter was designed so it would be able to travel through the gate, but it would not be practical to not have a universal dialing system inside the ship able to control the gate and supersede the dialing device on the ground.
The principle was pretty easy and I thought I would crack it fast, but I soon realized that it would take a lot of time before I would be able to do so. I managed to create the portable dialing device quickly enough, I just had to analyze the signals sent to the gate when someone dialed it, but the huge problem I was facing was the creation of the code that would permit the portable device to supplant the original. I was still stuck on that point and would be for a very long time for one good reason.
Even though I was able to have a good view of the programming, I had absolutely no idea where to find the part of the code that would allocate a priority on my personal devices compared to the dialing device. And even though I was tempted to brute-force it, I just knew it would take millennia due to the complexity of the program and the relative inadequacy of the Goa'uld computers to work with such a huge amount of information.
I ordered all of the death glider to be recalled and transformed into this new single crewed fighters though. Even if I didn't have the final piece of coding to transmit to the gate in order to make it perfect, I could very well add it in the future when I got around this problem. I just left the place for that programming crystal empty.
The new fighters were slicker and could travel through the gate easily, I had replaced the usual staff weapons by a far bigger version of my plasma rifle which offered far more precision and rate of fire. I thus included a precise targeting system including some thermal sensors and several smaller upgrades in order to slightly increase their speed. I was not able to add a hyperspace device or a shield system due to power requirements, but I was looking at it and was keeping an eye on more efficient power sources. Just in case.
The last thing I had worked on was the ships that would replace the Ha'taks in my future fleet. I was still working on some basic design, but I had a lot of time to plan things and didn't have the resources to start building them yet.
With all of these projects, I was extremely busy and didn't even have the time to work on that strange brittle ore that was found on this planet. I would have loved to work on that new metal, but once I finished a project, I would forget about it until another was decided. And I hated to multitask in my scientific endeavors.
It wasn't as if I didn't have all the time in the world to improve though, the Asgard had contacted the System Lords to offer a treaty, and from what I had heard from Bastet, they would let us be except if we attack some protected planets. All in all, it was one less threat to the Goa'uld as a whole and I would be able to take my time and perfect the technology I developed.
I entered Bastet's throne room and smiled as I saw her amongst her lieutenants. It was nice to be a part of her most trusted subordinates. She looked at me with a serious expression and understood that the situation wasn't as benign as I could have believed beforehand.
"Greetings Lady Bastet."
Her expression didn't change at all.
"Lilith, you are a little late."
I nodded at that.
"My apologies, my former prime just died today, she asked me to be there for her last moments and funeral pyre."
Bastet understood immediately and didn't press on the subject, but I could hear a couple of dismissing snorts from the other lieutenants. Apparently they didn't have any respect for those that wasted their whole lives serving them. I ignored them. The opinions of fools didn't matter in the slightest to me.
"See that it doesn't happen again…" I knew that she would be lenient though, but not too much. "I asked you all to join me here to give you some news on the Tok'ra problem." And just with that, she had our undivided attention. "As you know, their new developments in weaponry caused us untold amounts of trouble." Her gaze stayed on me one more second than necessary, and I couldn't help a sheepish expression to appear on my face, much to her hidden amusement. "After numerous years spent tracking them, we have finally managed to determine the position of one of their major bases." Excited chatter broke out after that declaration. "Silence! Now, I have been tasked with getting rid of the scum, and by extension so have you. Prepare your troops and be ready to attack in exactly eight days, at noon, at those coordinates." She gave us all a set of coordinates with a time schedule. "You see there is a time on it. My Ha'taks will out of hyperspace exactly at the first of the times given, and I want the gate to be occupied non-stop from that moment, until there is a sizable amount of Jaffa on the ground protecting the gate and preventing any escape. Those times are your schedules. You will have a limited amount of time to bring your troops on the ground."
I knew that I shouldn't show it to the others lieutenants, but I knew that it was a chance to show lady Bastet my new technology, these improved death gliders of mine, so I would have to ask her if I could use them to offer some more air support when we would be alone.
"Of course my Lady, it will be so."
It was our collective answer to the task that was given to us.
"Good, do you have any question?"
No sense passing by good data on the combative strength of the enemy.
"My Lady, is there an estimate of the number of Tok'ra and their infrastructure on the ground?"
She grimaced at that.
"No precise estimate, but it's definitely more than a hundred."
It meant that we would have to be careful and there would be casualties either way. That and my aerial support would come in handy. My new fighters were much more efficient in dealing with running and hiding targets than the traditional death glider, what with their targeting system, improved rate of fire and thermal sensor. I couldn't help but let out an amused smile at the perspective. It would be fun.
"Really Lilith, should I enjoy this smile of yours?"
I was cut from my thoughts by the amused voice of Bastet, and I couldn't help but realize that the others lieutenants had left a couple seconds before.
"Oh, you definitely will my Lady, let's say that there was a… recent innovation that I think will be useful in this fight. It's not perfectly finished but it doesn't matter for the moment, not for those kinds of fights."
She sent me a delighted grin.
"You always deliver Lilith, I'm eager to see what you have created this time."
I couldn't help but answer cheekily, knowing she was in a good enough mood to take it well.
"It's always my pleasure to please you my Lady."
She laughed at that and simply waved me away.
"I'll see you there Lilith, don't be late that time."
I snorted as I was leaving.
"You're never going to let me forget that, right?"
I couldn't see her face as I was leaving, but I could just hear the grin in her voice.
"What do you think?"
Oh well…
One week was a short time to prepared, but fortunately I didn't have that much to do. I had more than a hundred Jaffa trained to pilot my new gliders, and my new guard had been formed and trained for numerous years. They were ready to face a Tok'ra base, of that I had no doubt, especially since we would not be alone.
I had decided to only take my personal guard as ground troops, and have fifty fighters in the air to assure we have air support. Two of my guard were scouts, four were heavy assault Jaffa and the last four were standard Jaffa, if you did not count their superior training and tactical thinking. That with the weapons and armors I improved centuries ago made them very dangerous fighters, maybe even on par with some veteran full-fledged Tok'ra.
I myself was no slouch either. Despite my scientific mind and tendency to immerse myself in research, I did not forget to take care of myself and to train. I had become a very decent markswoman and scout, and a very dangerous close ranged fighter, my relative natural weakness from my female body completely eclipsed by the strength provided by the Goa'uld symbiote.
It was thus with a relative serenity that I went through the gate at my assigned time, eight days after I was warned about this operation. I could see hundreds of Jaffa in front of the gate, the place bustling with activity. The closest to the gate were Bastet and the other lieutenants, I was the last.
Bastet was frowning as she was looking at my troops.
"Is that all Lilith? It doesn't seem like…"
She was cut by a smile on my lips and the sound of the first of my improved gliders bursting through the stargate. It took two minutes for all the ships to arrive and they positioned themselves neatly above the gate in a standard formation, under the shocked eyes of Bastet, her lieutenants but also my Jaffa.
"Hello Lady Bastet, we have arrived."
There was nothing left to say, and a small smile appeared on her lips.
"Indeed, indeed you have. I suppose that the only improvement wasn't just making them smaller to fit through the gate?"
I scoffed at that.
"Bah, that would be a waste… No, I improved the weapons, added a precise targeting system and a thermal sensor. I would have done more, but I'm still limited due to the power output of our current naqahdah generators."
She nodded at that, a serious expression on her face.
"You'll tell me everything once we have more time. It's time for the attack to begin. We know the base is on this planet, but it seems to be an underground base, well hidden. We'll have to explore carefully the surroundings to try and find an entrance, before purging the scum."
All the lieutenants nodded, me included, and left to give the orders to their troops. I simply reached for my communicator and gave them the instructor.
"All pilots, it is Lilith speaking. Disperse and search the area. Any thermal activity is to be reported. If you see someone fleeing, you have authorization to pursue them as discreetly as you can and see where they go. You don't have the authorization to fire yet. Over."
I waited a few seconds before I received the acknowledgement of my orders from the leader of the squadron and immediately after I could see them scattering to the four winds, trying to cover as much ground as possible.
I then looked toward Bastet.
"Do I have the permission to stay near you my Lady? It would be advantageous to be able to report to you directly if my Jaffa find something."
She did not hesitate for a second.
"I see no problem with it."
I nodded gratefully in thanks and stayed on standby, waiting for any news.
Seconds passed, then nerve-wrecking minutes, seemingly unending.
Then, all of a sudden, the communicator activated.
"My Lady, ring structure detected three hundred and fifty three meters south-south-east of the gate. Thermal readings signals that it has been active very recently."
I grinned and turned toward Bastet, who nodded with an amused grin. The hunt would finally begin.
"Good job and thank you for the info. Stay on standby and look for any other exit."
Bastet was already leaving with her first prime and her guard, so I quickly followed her with my own Jaffa. The run was short and we soon found the ring device, the naqahdah calling to us, easy to detect. The entrance was surrounded by numerous Jaffa and these warriors had the dubious honor of being the firsts to enter the Tok'ra base.
Numerous waves of Jaffa were sent inside the base before Bastet and her guard, then myself, decided to enter.
The tunnels were smoking, the sounds of fighting omnipresent and the bodies on the ground littering the place. I could easily smell death in the air and its strength nearly made me retch before I composed myself. Resolute, I walked through the hallways, looking in every crevice and every room for any Tok'ra that was hiding, or any suspicious piece of technology.
I found nobody, of course, but I still continued, slowly but surely approaching the frontline. Just as I saw the Jaffa of Bastet's guard tear through the opposition, my attention was grabbed by a room on the side, their armory. Inside were several traditional weapons, like the Zat'nik'tel, but also my sniper weapon. I was extremely surprised to not see any plasma rifle in the armory but saw it as an oversight on their part. Maybe it was not conspicuous enough for them.
Still, I ordered one of the scouts in my guard to stay in the armory and guard the weapons, before continuing toward the fighting. It wouldn't do for an ambitious lieutenant of Bastet to take those weapons without my, and more importantly Bastet's, knowing.
Soon enough, I was in the middle of the fighting, blasting apart anything that moved in front of me. One kara'kesh covering my left hand and a Zat'nik'tel in my right hand, I was ready to either kill or capture any Tok'ra facing me.
The fighting lasted for endless minutes, before I faced one Tok'ra that made my heart stop beating for a second. Iltani had become one of them. She hadn't seen me yet, fighting ferociously against several of Bastet's Jaffa, but it wouldn't last. She didn't have the chance though. Blindsiding her, a single Zat'nik'tel shot made her crumble to the ground. The Jaffa were about to kill her when I stopped them, asking them to let her alive for me. Bastet looked at me puzzled, and I answered her by a ferocious grin.
"My former servant in Babylon."
Her expression turned amused for a second before she nodded toward me and continued the assault. I immediately sent my guard to take her unconscious body and bring her out of the tunnels where they would take out all of her weapons and keep her unconscious until I would be able to interrogate her.
After that, the fighting did not last a lot longer, barely ten minutes. My Jaffa reported detecting another entrance and several Tok'ra fleeing, but I immediately gave them the authorization to use their weapons and kill them.
That was how, merely an hour after our assault, we were all out of the tunnels, grinning ferociously at the carnage around us.
The Tok'ra activity on that planet had been annihilated and seeing it was just perfect. What made that an even better day was the fortuitous capture of Iltani. I would enjoy the little talk that we would have, just her and I.
Contrarily to what I would have thought, nobody tried to raid the armory before asking Bastet, which made things so very much smoother when she decided to collect the sniper rifles for herself. Then, it was the time for a more thorough search of the base and to collect the prisoners. Unfortunately, it was a simple base for one branch of the Tok'ra. The separation was probably made especially for cases like that.
We found absolutely nothing about any other base, the communicators and any compromising evidence that would be able to help us get more of the little pests was irremediably destroyed. We got no new technology, and the only evidence that we would be able to get would be through the prisoners, but even then I knew we would get nothing. It was too well organized. They would know minor things, but we wouldn't be able to stop any major attack or capture any important spy.
That was why, after taking care of everything in the base, we simply returned in our respective domains. I had lost no Jaffa to the fighting so I was pretty much happy with how things went. I just had to go to Bubastis and deliver the schematics of my new glider to Bastet.
I didn't spend long on Bubastis, just the time to get the schematics to Bastet and tell her about the portable dialing device. She was pretty much impressed by the idea and the way I went to gain tactical superiority in case of direct attacks through the gate. Unfortunately, she had no idea of where I would possibly gain a sufficient knowledge of the stargate and it's programming in order to add that very last piece of programming.
Soon enough, I was back on Eratna where I had the unconscious Iltani brought. I didn't dare to have her moved to Refuge in case there was a subtle tracker imbedded in her, but Eratna was good enough for what I had planned.
That was where we were, her resting in a comfortable bed and I looking at her, waiting for her to wake up. I could have thrown her in a holding cell and tortured her for the information I wanted, but in the end, what I sought could only be gotten if she wanted to tell me.
She would die of course, but the way she would die would depend on the answers to my questions, nothing else.
A soft groan and some movement indicated that she was about to wake up, and I forced myself to relax, with a dubious success. It was it, the betrayal that made me cement the very hatred of the Tok'ra that drove me till that day, I would finally know why…
"Urgh… where am I?"
It was the heavy voice of the Tok'ra that filled the air, and that anticipation of mine turned into a cold fury.
"You are my prisoner. Now, you may not believe me but I want nothing from you. Give the control to Iltani."
Her head snapped in my direction and I could visibly see her face pale as she saw me. Would she beg? Try to play my heart for the good old times?
"Oh, I see… We're going to die, aren't we?"
Oh, some dignity, I did not exactly expect that. I answered her though, with a single nod of my head.
"I can't let you live after today. But it needs not be painful. I seek some answers, answers that matter little for the Tok'ra as a whole. If I'm satisfied, you will die quickly, if I'm not I will take pleasure in making your agony as long as possible."
There was a couple seconds of silence before Iltani… no, not Iltani, the Tok'ra… sighed and closed her eyes. When they opened again, I knew I was talking to her, my former servant.
"Greetings Lady Lilith…"
Her tone was soft, nearly as soft and polite as back in the day. She had aged, far more than I did. Even though I did not use the sarcophagus often, I still did from times to times, using my treatment to avoid the insanity. As I appeared twenty five at most, she appeared in her forties.
"Hello Iltani, it has been a long time since we last met…"
She closed her eyes and nodded.
"Yes it has… and the last time we did, there was no time for explanations. I guess that's what you want?"
I didn't trust my voice for a few seconds, so I said nothing until I managed to speak again.
"Indeed. I'd like two questions to be answered. When, and why?"
She tilted her head to the side, before asking.
"How will you know if I say the truth?"
I looked at her for a few seconds, before simply answering.
"I'll just know."
Her eyebrows rose, before shrugging.
"The when is easy, since before we ever met. It was a…"
I brought my hand in the air to stop her. Surprisingly, she did, letting me look at her for a few seconds. I didn't know how I was able to tell, but I simply knew that she was lying. I may have been some instinct or something, but I just knew.
"And now the truth please…"
She chuckled softly before nodding.
"Had to try… Well, I remember it well, it was just after you had been shot. The Jaffa guards of Marduk denied me entrance inside the palace while they were bringing you inside, so I was left alone outside the place." She stopped talking for a few seconds before continuing. "It didn't take them long to find me once I started to wander into the city." She chuckled at that part. "I was terrified out of my mind at that time, but they were polite. And they told me everything about the Goa'uld. Their love for conquest and their cruelty. How they passed themselves as gods to fool us and rule over us." She then looked straight at me. "But I didn't believe them when they said that you were like that too. I remembered how kind you were, and you were always making that… funny face when I called you Goddess for the first times. Like you found it silly but you didn't have the choice. So I told them."
I frowned at that. That was something I didn't expect. That wasn't going at all like I expected.
"And that silenced them for a few moments. They even used a communicator to ask if you were not one of them to their superiors. What they found seemed to surprise them since they decided not to kill you in the attack, but just to capture you." She was slightly shivering. "Then, they asked me for my help. They told me that you were indeed different from the Goa'ulds and that you couldn't be yourself amongst them, but if they showed you another way you could be happy as a Tok'ra. And… I believed them. So I helped them. I understood my mistake when I saw your face just as you were about to activate the ring device."
I stayed silent at that and looked at her, not knowing what to think. It was so far better and yet so far worse than I imagined. Because, how could I hate her? She did what she thought was for my very best, the task of a loyal servant. And yet, I took that loyalty for treason and it hurt us both. I couldn't even hate the Tok'ra operatives, because I knew they may have been right. I could probably have been happy with the Tok'ra if they got through me soon enough.
"I… I don't know what to say. I mean…"
I closed my eyes and sighed. I still had to kill her, the lines were drawn clearly, and she was an enemy.
"Lilith, I…"
I closed the gap between us and silenced her with a finger on her lips, making a soft hushing noise, before hugging her. She was visibly surprised, but accepted the hug gracefully.
"I forgive you Iltani, I forgive you…"
She was about to speak when she jerked, the sudden pain of my knife piercing her heart surprising her. She died on the hit, her eyes flashed one last time and it was over. I delicately put her body back on the bed and looked at it for several long minutes in silence.
That meeting had been cathartic in a ways that I couldn't have imagined before. I just couldn't hate the Tok'ra as much as I did before, and in the end wasn't this better? I had to admit that in retrospective, my near irrational hatred of them was nearly self-destructive in its intensity. I was not thinking enough, and even sometimes not thinking at all when facing them or even the very idea of them.
Still, now it was over, and I just wanted to rest. My problems could wait for another day.
I was frowning as I entered Bastet's throne room, three months after Iltani's death. Things had gone pretty well in the meantime and I was about to see the humans on refuge grow. Hell, they even started to build schools to educate their young. It was not free yet but I knew it was only a matter of years.
Still, Bastet did not usually summon me several times a year, not without a very good reason. And when I glanced upon her face and saw the worried expression she had, I couldn't help but feel this wouldn't end well for me.
"Greetings Lady Bastet. You have summoned me?"
She looked at me and hesitated for a moment before nodding.
"Hello Lilith, and yes, yes I have. I'm afraid this will be far less pleasant than usual." I simply stayed silent at that, letting her continue. "I was reluctant to let those new designs of yours be known outside of a very restricted circle, and it seems I was right in doing so. The System Lords have heard of your new weapons and you have been summoned to appear in front of them."
My eyes widened at that. It wasn't good, it wasn't good at all.
"I… when am I supposed to…"
She cut me sharply.
"Tomorrow."
I couldn't help but gasp at that particular piece of news.
"To-tomorrow?! But I…" I stopped myself and sighed. "It's not as if I have a choice, damn it…"
She snorted, unamused.
"Indeed. Fortunately, There is no proof that I am aware of those improvements, so I won't lose my status as a System Lord, but you… you risk your freedom."
I gritted my teeth. I knew that they wouldn't kill me, but probably use me until my death.
"I know… Is there any way to avoid being stuck in Ra's laboratory for life?"
She shook her head with a sad expression on her face.
"Probably not. You… are a valuable subordinate, losing you will pain me."
I closed my eyes and sighed. There was no way I would enter Ra's laboratories. I would never get out, never escape without some heavy escort to watch me. Fortunately I still had Refuge, so all hope wasn't lost.
"I'll see what I'll do when the time comes. I have to prepare for tomorrow." Bastet hesitated and then nodded before watching me leave. I just stopped before completely leaving the room. "It may be wise to destroy any proof you have of me giving you the technology. It wouldn't do for you to fall with me, and I think you will be suspected of wanting to keep my upgrades for yourself."
She chuckled sadly and I knew she was agreeing with me. I left immediately afterwards.
The travel to the space station which was housing the council of System Lords was short. I had been provided with a transport from one of Ra's planets nearby and was about to dock on the station. I was a nervous wreck at that point, and I knew I had to calm down and think. I had to retrieve my balance and deal with things as much as I could if I ever wanted to get out of that one free.
The landing in the station was smooth, and soon enough I found myself in front of the entire council of the System Lords looking at me. Knowing my place, I kneeled silently in front of them. I knew not the protocol to speak in such covenants, so I decided to not speak unless spoken to.
"Lilith, you know why you are here."
It was Ra that spoke first, and I knew I had to be careful with my answer.
"I do Lord Ra."
The entire room was silent and I could barely breathe.
"What is the extend of the upgrades you have devised for our technology?"
I closed my eyes for a second, not that they could see it, before opening them again. I had to be smart there.
"I improved the Ma'tok staff to be more precise and have an increased rate of fire. It is slightly less powerful though, and far less intimidating in design. The armor I created is made of a succession of naqahdah and heat resistant leather to disperse the heat from plasma strikes and preserve the Jaffa underneath. I have improved the glider so that they can fit through a stargate, and replaced the traditional weaponry by two bigger versions of my improved staff. I also added a targeting system to make full use of the more precise weapons and a thermal sensor."
There were some mutterings around me, but I stayed silent and did not move.
"Rise Lilith, and look at me."
I did so immediately and looked toward Ra. His host did not have an overbearing stature, but there was something about him, something that commanded the uttermost respect.
"Two centuries were a lot of time for such… minor modifications of our technology. What have you worked on in the meantime?"
Now that was the most dangerous point of the reunion and the one where I could be killed without a second to try and explain myself. I had to be extremely careful with my words.
"I studied a bit of our past and wondered about Anubis' heresy."
There were some angry exclamations until Ra simply raised his hand, calming the room instantly.
"That is a dangerous matter to research Lilith. What drove you to do so?"
I closed my eyes and took a big breath before opening them again.
"I was weary of our continued use of the sarcophagus, and was even more so after reading about the despicable actions that Anubis imposed upon Lord Apep. I thus worked near a century on the effect that the sarcophagus has on both our bodies and the bodies of our hosts."
He frowned at that, maybe guessing where it was going.
"And what have you found?"
I looked at him before continuing.
"The sarcophagus itself is nearly as perfect as possible. I only managed a small improvement in the calibration, and even then it was not that important. The problem lies with the naqahdah in our blood. I'm afraid the long terms effects of a regular use of the sarcophagus are indeed insanity."
If there was some shouts before, now it was a roar that erupted in the room, with only Bastet keeping her calm. Even Ra seemed angry, and I knew that was a very bad thing.
"What exactly do you mean by insanity, and how is the naqahdah in our blood the cause of it?"
I nodded before looking at him calmly.
"The sarcophagus works by regenerating the living cells of the organism. In the case of the brain, it can even make us produce some new brain cells, which is usually impossible. The problem is that due to the naqahdah in our blood, those brain cells are defective, and make us prone to anger, rage, increased bouts of paranoia and distrust and other negative emotions."
There was a complete silence in the room before Ra spoke again.
"Have you found a cure?"
I smiled at that.
"I did. It's not exactly a cure, the only way to do that would be to purge ourselves of any naqahdah in our blood, but I managed to design a treatment which, taken before entering a sarcophagus, prevents the formation of the diseased brain cells and let us retain our full sanity. Lady Bastet ordered me to find such a solution once I presented her with the full problem, and I finally gave her the product a couple of weeks ago."
That was a white lie, but I cared for Bastet enough to not let her go down with me.
"And the damage the sarcophagus already did on us?"
I smiled at that too.
"There is no way to directly cure it, but brain cells die naturally. Time will cure us."
He looked at me for a few seconds before nodding.
"Very well Lilith, you have proven your use to me. I wish to offer you a place as one of my scientists."
It would have been an honor if I was interested in such positions. As I heard the proposition though, it just tasted like ashes and I knew I would end up in a gilded cage for the rest of my days. I had no choice though.
"I am honored my Lord."
He nodded before looking at me once again.
"Do you have any question on your new position before leaving?"
I nodded slowly.
"Will I be able to retain my domain my Lord?"
He shook his head.
"No, you will be busy enough with the task I will give you."
I nodded, not letting my turmoil appear on my face.
"May I have a couple of days before entering in your service my Lord? I made my humans quite attached to me and I fear that without my explanations to smooth things out, there may be some complications for the Lord or Lady who will take the planet."
He stayed silent at that, looking at me for several seconds before nodding.
"If you think it necessary… I want you on Abydos in two days. Do not be late."
I bowed in thanks.
"Thank you Lord Ra, I am grateful."
He waved his hand dismissively.
"Leave us, our business is concluded."
I left.
It was only a few hours later that I reached Eratna. I knew I did not have the time to plan things out with the population and I had to leave fast, so I rushed to my palace to order my Jaffa to evacuate toward Refuge with all of their possessions. All of my Jaffa had their families living there, so I knew they would not protest.
In four hours, all the palace had been cleared of the Jaffa and any technology I owned bar my personal guard. There was only the population that I could evacuate, and even then I was reluctant to do so. They would probably not be punished by whoever took control of the planet afterward, so I simply lied to them, telling them that I was entering in the service of the Supreme Lord Ra and that I couldn't rule the planet anymore. I knew it was a waste to let the population stay there, but I just couldn't take the risk of having any spy reach Refuge. Not when its secrecy was my last bastion before death.
I redacted a message on a Goa'uld tablet for Bastet. I knew that she would get some flak from my escape, so I tried to smooth things out for her in that message. It read that way:
'Lady Bastet, as you are reading this message, I will have left Eratna.
You may be wondering why I would escape such a prestigious place amongst Ra's scientist when I told you it was my ambition to be recognized as one of the greatest Goa'uld scientists. The reason is simple. I lied. I never wanted to become a scientist, all I wanted was to keep some freedom to act as I wished.
This offer from Ra is something I know will limit said freedom forevermore, and that's why I'm leaving. I could assure you that I will not work against the interests of the System Lords, but I know that I will not be believed. I know that Ashraks will be sent against me. I will take that risk.
I am sorry for all the trouble, and wish your reign to be long and prosperous.
Your former servant,
Lilith.'
Once it was written, I sent the tablet through the stargate and dialed Refuge. I would miss her, she had become a good friend in all those centuries I spent at her service.
But I was a free Goa'uld, and I would remain free, even as an exile.
Hah, you did not expect that I bet!
That was a problem I remarked pretty soon. With the rate I developed technology at, the Goa'uld would soon become stupidly overpowered, and remain as the main rulers of the Galaxy. No, I had to separate Lilith from the others.
That was my way to do so.
Refuge is really known to no one but Lilith and her Jaffa, so there will be no threat from that point of view, and she will take some measures to secure her position. But you'll see that in the next chapters.
Speaking of the next chapters, don't expect the next one to come as soon as this one. Don't know if my muse will continue to work in overdrive.
So please, once again, review and leave any constructive criticism you have, I'll make sure to thank you and answer you.
Ttfn!