Hello my fellow readers, I've been working on and off on this little project for the last year, mostly just an odd tweek here, a little added dialogue. Review and critique pls.
The Stargate and Babylon 5 franchises are owned by their respective copyright owners, I make no money off of this.
Stargate Babylon
Chapter 4: Return of the Gods.
The Earth Alliance explorers counted themselves lucky that it was late in the day when they started their trek across the desert to the local town, following directions from the maps generated by multiple passes from the UAV. The air was rapidly cooling as day began to turn into night again as they approached the town, though trouble wasn't far behind. At the head of the group Captain O'Neill and Lieutenant Carter were leading the way, while Carter kept an eye on her HUD that displayed information from the UAV Golden Eye.
"Sir I suggest we pick up the pace a little, there's another sandstorm brewing, and you know how nasty those can get," she said as she looked at her commanding officers form, secretly admiring his athletic build, wishing that she could see his rugged roguish features, though she quickly squashed those thoughts, he was her commanding officer, not a potential bed-mate.
Jack merely nodded at that, remembering the harsh environment training he had taken both on Earth and Mars, the sandstorms being amongst the worst experiences he had ever had.
"Everyone double time it we've got another sandstorm coming and I have no intention of getting caught by one out in the open," he called out over the expedition's general radio channel and they all doubled the pace. They were all glad for their combat armour's leg braces that allowed them to run faster and with heavier loads than would be possible without them. Carter kept an eye on the sandstorm's progress as they went, keeping her Captain updated on the storm's progress. At long last the town was in sight.
"Sir we've got to move," she yelled as the wind started to seriously pick up and sand started getting tossed up into the air around them, making it difficult to move.
"Let's go," Jack called out and everyone began running as if the devil himself was licking at their heels, trying to beat the storm to the town. They all ran at full tilt, reaching the town's gates with moments to spare, the last person cleared the gates right behind them and the gates got sealed by the locals as the howling winds and sand crashed into the town's sturdy walls and heavily fortified gates.
"Phew, that was close, for a moment there I thought you weren't going to make it," Doctor Jackson commented as he ran down from the city walls, with the ambassador not far behind him.
"Almost as bad as the sandstorms on Mars," Kawalsky commented as he brushed off some sand.
"Welcome to Nagada city," said Kasuf as he approached the dishevelled Earth explorers, which Doctor Jackson translated for the rest. "The Victory feast is ready, you will sit with me," Kasuf continued as he turned back and led the Earthers deeper into the town.
As the storm raged outside the walls of Nagada city, inside an infectious atmosphere of happiness and frivolity ruled as the locals partied the night away, celebrating the demise of the creature that had been taking their people for centuries. A great feast was prepared for the visitors and Doctor Jackson was trying everything he could reach, while the rest were reluctant and stuck with the instant heat MREs they had brought with them, all having taken off their combat armour and wore just their standard BDUs with skin suits underneath, and had stored their armour with the rest of the packed gear.
"Daniel I don't think we should eat any of the local cuisine while we're here, at least until our medic has certified that it's safe for us," Kawalsky said in warning.
Doctor Jackson, who was munching on something that looked like a variety of naan-bread, dipped in some kind of local sauce, replied, "I think they would take it as an insult if we didn't at least try some of this."
Then the locals brought out the main course covered in brown cloth. It was unveiled to be a huge fat lizard, obviously cooked whole, and Daniel looked a little apprehensive at trying it.
"Well we wouldn't want to insult our hosts now would we, Daniel?" Kawalsky challenged, everyone of the expedition looked on with badly hidden smirks, most thinking he would chicken out.
With a little urging from Kasuf Daniel reached out and took one of the scales off its back with a little meat attached to it and took a bite. He chewed on it and was pleasantly surprised by the taste.
"Tastes just like chicken," he declared smiling. Kasuf and the locals didn't understand the term so Doctor Jackson tried to show them by clucking like a chicken and waving his arms up and down. Most of the expedition team members couldn't quite keep their laughter in as they watched the academic's antics, only the Captain and Ambassador maintained straight faces, while the locals just watched curiously at the strange man.
After everyone had wined and dined Ambassador Sheridan pulled the Doctor aside. "Ask Kasuf if has seen any of the Gate symbols anywhere, without those we won't be able to go home, right?"
Doctor Jackson nodded, walked over to Kasuf and sat down in front of him.
"Have you seen symbols like this?" he asked and drew the symbol for Earth and a number of random gate symbols in the soft sand, which Kasuf quickly erased and protested politely and offered Doctor Jackson a dessert while warning him.
"It seems that reading and writing is forbidden on this world," said Jackson and O'Neill groaned.
"I'm really getting annoyed by this Ra guy," he said in frustration.
The next thing Daniel knew he was whisked away by a small group of local women to one of the stone buildings surrounding the open area they were in.
"What's going on?" asked Sheridan through the translator.
"He is being prepared," said Kasuf.
"Prepared for what?"
"To be prepared for my daughter!"
"Why is he being prepared?" Sheridan asked, again through the translator.
"He is a messenger from Ra, our god, the pendant around his neck bears his mark, and I intend to offer my daughter to him as a gift, it is obvious that he is interested in her," said Kasuf to the surprise of everyone.
"That's barbaric," commented Lieutenant Carter, though too quietly to be picked up by the translator. She did not like the idea of a woman being given away like property, a sentiment shared by every one of the expedition members.
"Ambassador, a word please," Captain O'Neill asked. "Daniel only met her yesterday, now I don't know about you, but I think that's way too short a time to even discuss marriage between a two young people, even if both parties are interested in each other."
"I agree Jack, but like it or not until we can convince these people that Ra is a false god we cannot afford to break up those two, who knows, maybe this'll be the start of them integrating into the Earth Alliance."
"Beginning with a marriage?" O'Neill asked alarmed, to which the ambassador could only shrug.
"Looks like I'm going to have to change the frat regs a little," said the Captain as he worked his comm. unit and set it to the general comm. frequency. "O'Neill to all personnel, a revision to the Fraternization Rules, if you don't want to find yourself married, repeat married, keep your eyes to yourself. For questions, please tease Dr. Jackson."
The ladies began disrobing Doctor Jackson of his BDU and tried to take off the skin suit, though they only managed to get off his boots, socks and shirt off, the good doctor drew the line when they tried to take his pants down, they only got to wash him a little, then he was shown into another room, where the woman he saw out in the mines was sitting on a small ledge covered in animal skins and pillows, wearing only a light gown which looked like simple cotton, but was so thin that it left nothing to the imagination, and Daniel was just stunned for a second, not quite believing his eyes.
Doctor Jackson then remembered where he was and sat down on the ground cross-legged in front of her, and asked, "Why was I brought here, and what are you doing here?"
"I am my people's gift to you," she answered demurely. "I am to be your wife."
Daniel could not believe his ears. She was going to be his wife and they didn't even know each other, not to mention they were from completely different cultures, even if they were of the same species.
"Why did they give you to me?" he asked nervously.
"You bear the seal of Ra," she said, indicating the necklace around his neck, hanging her head in shame. "Do you not find me pleasing?"
"Oh no, I do find you attractive, it's just that I don't know anything about you, and I prefer to get to know a woman before I marry her, and her to know me."
She seemed to brighten at that and asked, "Where do you come from?"
"I'll show you," said Daniel and began drawing in the sand again like with Kasuf, starting with the pyramid and their trek across the dessert. She averted her eyes from the sand drawing, but still listened to his tale. Daniel eventually gave up on writing and just told her. As he went to get some water from a nearby flask she looked down at the drawing and recognized the symbol. She deepened the lines of the pyramid and rubbed out the staircase and drew a small circle above the top. Daniel came back and watched her draw, and instantly recognized the symbol for the Earth Stargate.
He came down to eye level with her and looked closely at the symbol she had drawn. "Have you seen this symbol before and others similar to this?"
She nodded her head smiling hopefully.
"Show me!"
As the two left the tent in excitement, Daniel's vest with his comm. unit still attached sat forgotten on a table.
The morning after Doctor Jackson had been led away by the local women the party had begun to die down, and everyone was returning to their hovels to rest for the rest of the day, Kasuf decided that the people deserved a rest day since there were almost not a single man or woman who had slept a wink during the night. The sandstorm outside had died down and Ambassador Sheridan was beginning to worry about Daniel.
"Captain have you seen Doctor Jackson this morning?"
"No Ambassador, I haven't seen him at all."
"He's not answering his comm. unit and I can't find him anywhere in town."
Jack tapped on the touch-pad on his left-hand gauntlet. "Jackson where, the hell, are you?" No answer.
"Kawalsky, get your squad together and start searching this place, Carter you're with me, I'm going to talk to the locals," Jack ordered and picked up Doctor Jackson's helmet that he had taken off for the feast, Carter followed right behind him. He walked over to a group of youths, Skaara was among them.
"Do any of you know where Doctor Jackson is?" O'Neill asked. The youths didn't quite understand him. "He wore this helmet, has long hair and wears glasses," he said, describing with both words and actions, much to the amusement of Lieutenant Carter.
Skaara immediately caught on and started doing Doctor Jackson's chicken impersonation. He asked politely if he could have the helmet, which the Captain reluctantly gave, and Skaara ran off to one of the pens where a number of local beasts of burden were kept. He pressed the inside of the helmet into the muzzle of the beast and said something in the local language and opened the pen. It then ran off into the city, tracking the scent of Doctor Jackson all the way to its source.
They followed the animal to the entrance to some underground catacombs that ran beneath the city. O'Neill called for Kawalsky to join them at the entrance. It was easy for them to follow Daniel's and someone else's footprints to them with the torchlight from their helmets. He and a young woman were sitting in front of a wall covered in what looked like a mural of Ancient Egyptian writing and pictographs, Daniel pointing to different sections of the wall and talking animatedly with the young woman in the local tongue.
"Having fun Daniel?" Jack said to the doctor and local girl, startling them both.
"Captain, we were just..."
"Save it doctor, next time keep your comm. unit on you." Jack said shortly then turned his attention to the writing on the walls. "Have you been able to decipher this yet?"
"Yes, it's a sort of hidden written record of what happened here and on Earth when the people were first brought here," said Daniel, gesturing to the writing on the wall.
"What does it say?"
"It tells the story of how Ra came to our planet. It says a traveller from distant stars was searching for a way to cheat death, and apparently his entire species was on the verge of dying out. They found a world teeming with life, where they encountered a primitive species, humans," said Jackson as he pointed to a small series of pictographs on the wall showing some demonic looking creature coming out of some sort of pyramid, a single human looking figure facing it while a large crowd of human figures ran away. "A bright light appeared in the night sky, and night became day. The villagers fled in fear, except for one young boy, unafraid he walked towards the light. Ra took him and possessed his body like some sort of parasite, leaving his original body to die."
"He found that in a human body he could use his knowledge and technology to live indefinitely. Inhabiting this new human form he declared himself absolute ruler. He used the Stargate to bring slaves to work in the mines here. The mineral that is found here seems to be the basis for all of their technology."
Doctor Jackson then moved over to another set of pictographs and writings.
"There was a rebellion on Earth, the gods were driven away and the Stargate was buried. Fearing another rebellion here, Ra forbade reading and writing, he didn't want the people to remember the truth."
"Way to go for the ancient Egyptians," said O'Neill.
As Doctor Jackson explained what he had found, Carter took a look around the catacombs, using the lights built into her suit and helmet to illuminate the catacombs brightly. She quite literally stumbled across a large oval stone tablet with writing similar to the cover stones found at Giza.
Quickly she called out, "Captain O'Neill, Daniel, I suggest you get over her, I think I've found what we've been looking for."
As quickly as possible they raced towards Carter's position, where she was standing over the tablet, waiting patiently for them.
"This is it, the symbols for Earth, they must've hidden it here in the hope that the gate to Earth would be reopened again," said Doctor Jackson as he carefully dusted off the sand. A quick inspection of the large tablet yielded six of the required symbols, the last one, the point of origin, being worn off. Doctor Jackson smiled anyway.
"We have all six symbols for Earth now," he said smiling.
"Don't we need the point of origin, doctor?" Carter asked.
"The Gate is the same as ours; the only difference is the point of origin symbol on it, which was the first thing I identified. We now have a way home."
A beeping sounded from Carter's left gauntlet, which caught her attention.
"Sir the UAV's detected something entering the atmosphere. Whatever it is its big, generating gale force winds and electrifying the atmosphere," she said. "It's creating a powerful dust storm and seems to be heading for the pyramid where the Stargate is housed."
"How long till the storm dies down?" Captain O'Neill asked.
"I'm not sure sir, but probably no earlier than early morning."
"And the next dial-in should be within the next hour. Program the UAV to keep its distance from that ship, but close enough to get some readings on it and as soon as the gate opens have it begin sending data through the probe back to Earth through the stargate. We don't know what kind of threat these people are and I'd like to not make another enemy for Earth if I can help it."
"Yes sir," the Lieutenant replied and began sending instructions to the UAV.
"In the meantime we'll wait out the dust storm, and then take a look at this planet's latest visitor," said O'Neill. "Kawalsky, contact everyone and tell them to rig for EMCON (EMissions CONtrol), I don't want us to be detected by our visitors."
"Yes Sir," replied Kawalsky heading for the catacombs entrance.
Outside the city the sandstorm was raging across the desert. The ship that the UAV spotted was slowly making its way through the atmosphere. It was approaching the pyramid at a languid pace, the winds created by its powerful engines kicked up dust high into the atmosphere. As it closed with the pyramid great arcs of electricity connected the pyramid to the ship, melting the surrounding sand into glass as the arcs of electricity struck the ground. It began lowering itself down onto the pyramid, covering the pyramid completely and then clamped itself down and started to open up slowly, long trenches appeared in the middle of the faces of the pyramid ship, as the final clamps locked down into place it lit up like a Christmas tree.
The UAV recorded the whole thing on with its specialized cameras and sensors, recording every little detail of it. A large doorway opened up two thirds up the pyramid, just above where the trenches stopped, and two crescent shaped fighters came screaming out. The UAV immediately noticed them and its rudimentary AI assumed that it had been detected and was under attack. It then sent a signal back to its controllers on watch back at base-camp and awaited new instructions.
Back at the camp, inside one of the tents, a sleepy controller was awoken by an incessant beeping that sounded from the Golden Eye's control laptop. Wearily he looked at the recent photos and was shocked at what he saw.
"Guys, we've got some serious company here," he called out as he began manipulating the controls, switching the Golden Eye's data feed over to different sensors to get a better visual of this planet's latest visitor. Moments later Ferretti came into the tent and stood looking over the controllers shoulder.
"Alright, what have we got?"
"Looks like we've got a visitor, and they must have seen the Golden Eye, they've launched fighters," the tech reported as he began to manipulate the UAV's flight controls.
"Go to manual control and take evasive action, try and loose them in the dust storm, but make sure to fly away from us!" Ferretti ordered.
"Already on it," said the tech as he directed it into a steep dive towards the deck, heading straight for the swirling soup that was the dust storm to try to evade its pursuers, but the fighters kept on its tail and started shooting, though none of them landed a hit as it manoeuvred wildly, breaking their target lock multiple times, the UAV went to its maximum speed, hugging the sand dunes as closely as possible on a beeline straight for the mountains, away from the local settlement and their base of operations, weaving and ducking enemy fire as the alien fighters steadily closed in.
It soon enough reached the mountains and flew in amongst them, attempting to lose the enemy in the valleys, but the alien fighters were still hot on its tail. Short blasts of plasma erupted again from their cannons, saturating the airspace between them, and soon enough a plasma bolt clipped one of the UAV's wings, which sent it spinning down and crashed into the side of a cliff, the two alien fighters made a pass over the crash site, confirming their kill then returned to the pyramid ship.
There was silence in the tent as a sense of dread came down upon them. "I'll notify the Captain's team. He's going to just love this!" said Ferretti as he walked over to the side and opened a channel to the team in Nagada City.
As soon as Captain O'Neill, along with everyone who went with him into the catacombs, came out along with his missing archaeologist a beeping sounded from his comm. unit. "Hey Ferretti, what's going on?"
"Captain, the aliens just shot down the Golden Eye," Ferretti reported
"What?"
"The pyramid ship that we saw on the UAV's scanners launched a pair of fighters that attacked it and shot it down in the mountains, not too far away from here," he reported.
"Was there any warning from the ship?"
"No warning at all, sir."
O'Neill thought over the situation over for a few seconds, not liking the implications of this new hostile's actions.
"Alright, keep this channel open, I'm going to have a talk with the Ambassador and the local leader, see if I can shed some light on this thing's intentions."
"Yes sir."
Jack exchanged a worried glance with Carter and Kawalsky, Jackson only just now coming out of the catacombs. "Jackson, tell your girlfriend to find her father and tell him that we need to speak to him at our dwelling. Looks like the gods are returning."
Jackson merely nodded then had a few quick words with his fiancé who ran off to find her father, then the rest of the Earthers headed back to the dwelling they had been given for the duration of their stay.
"Before we do anything let's consider something," said Doctor Jackson quickly as he sat down on a pile of rugs next to his equipment. "These aliens might have taken our drone's actions as a possible threat or trespassing, assuming this is the same race that Ra belongs to."
"They didn't send any challenges, no queries about our intentions, they just blew it out of the sky the moment they detected it. If that's not hostile behaviour then I don't know what it is," said Kawalsky irritated with the optimistic academic.
"And assuming that this is the same guy, or at least the same race, that abducted these people from Ancient Egypt I don't think we'll get a warm welcome if we ask them if we could use the stargate to return home," commented Carter.
At that moment Sha're and Kasuf arrived with curious as well as worried looks upon their faces.
"What is wrong, my future son?" Kasuf asked Doctor Jackson.
"It appears that the..." Daniel paused a moment as he thought of a good translation for spaceship that Kasuf would understand. "Your gods chariot has arrived! Lieutenant show us the images of the pyramid again," Doctor Jackson requested and Carter displayed the recent images she got from the Eagle Eye of the Pyramid before it was destroyed.
Kasuf was speechless at the sight of his god's chariot. "It is too early, he is not supposed to come for another season, we have not built up our naquada stocks. He will also be displeased with you for killing his demon. He must not know that you are here!" Doctor Jackson translated for the rest of the Earthers benefit.
"Well it's a little late for that, and even if we try to hide it would only be a matter of time before they found us," said O'Neill.
"Maybe we can negotiate safe passage through the Stargate back to Earth," said Doctor Jackson, which elicited a few incredulous looks from the other expedition members. "It was just a suggestion."
"Doctor, as much as I would like a peaceful solution to this, they did shoot down our UAV, and have been keeping these people enslaved for over five thousand years," Sheridan pointed out. "But as you said we must at least try to negotiate with them, at least we would be able to get a better idea of what we're dealing with."
Captain O'Neill nodded in acceptance. "We'll head out when the dust storm ends and get a proper lay of the land, see if we can at least sneak our way back close to the pyramid. We'll wait until our people Earth side open the gate and we can inform them of the situation. The Amundsen and her escorts are only a couple of days away, so orbital support won't be far away. David, you up for negotiating with god tomorrow?"
Sheridan merely smirked back. "Should be interesting."
"I suggest we all get some sleep for now, it's been a long day and we could all use the rest," the captain recommended and everybody began to make themselves comfortable. Doctor Jackson was led out of the building the Earth explorers had been given by his fiancé and Jack couldn't help but quip. "Don't stay up too long Doctor Jackson, we're going to need you bright and early come morning."
The artificial storm raged all night long and only broke with the first rays of sunlight crept up the horizon. The expedition members quickly gathered everything they had brought with them to Nagada City and Doctor Jackson was quickly found half asleep, still fully clothed to Captain O'Neill's relief, with Sha're and was unceremoniously kicked out of bed and horrible military coffee rations poured down his throat to wake him up. Within a half hour after dawn Captain O'Neill and his team left the city, with Doctor Jackson looking back in longing, something the Captain couldn't help but pick up on.
"Don't worry Doctor Jackson. You may see her again, if all goes well," said the captain reassuringly.
Doctor Jackson merely hung his head and kept walking with the rest of the expedition team members, though everybody could sense the proverbial black cloud that hung over the young academic's head.
Within a couple of hours they were back at base camp, where Ferretti and his squad were waiting for them, all kitted out and ready to move out. After a few minutes rest for Sheridan and Doctor Jackson and a quick drink of water for everyone they continued on to the pyramid, once again thankful for the fully enclosed combat suits they were wearing.
After another few hours of trekking across the desert, following the still active beacon being transmitted by the probe they soon crested the final sand dune before they reached the pyramid, and the first thing they all thought was "Holy Shit."
The pictures they saw on Carters little laptop's display clearly didn't do any justice to the sheer scale of the ship that had settled itself atop of the pyramid. They watched as the top opened up, revealing a smaller pyramid inside with long windows that seemed to stretch from the smaller pyramid to just under the top.
"Wow," said Doctor Jackson in awe.
"I've seen bigger," Captain O'Neill quipped. "Ambassador I believe that this is your show," he continued, knowing that a possible First Contact situation was the reason for having the ambassador with them in the first place.
"For now I believe that just me and Doctor Jackson, along with two of your men should walk up to the pyramid and announce ourselves, while the rest stay back and cover our sixes," the Ambassador replied.
"You sure you want to do that Ambassador? Considering they just blew our drone out of the sky," the Captain challenged.
"Well, it would be a bad idea to just show up with a large group of heavily armed men. Besides just in case this Ra character turns out to be hostile you can come and rescue us," the Ambassador reasoned.
O'Neill reluctantly agreed, and the ambassador, Doctor Jackson and two more of his men continued on to the pyramid, the rest of the expedition sat tight behind the sand dune, observing the four men's progress. Soon enough they were noticed and three armoured soldiers with strange helmets that looked like the head of a bird of prey, their sharp beaks glistening in the sun, looking most impressive, walked out of the pyramid. They all carried long staffs and had some sort of sidearm on their left or right forearm.
All three aimed the end of their staffs at the four of them, the two to the sides staffs opened with a crackle of energy. The ambassador tried, through Daniel, to tell them that they came in peace, but a second later the two opened fire on the guards O'Neill had sent with the Ambassador, blasting them well back and into the sand, their tough ceramic composite armour held, but still knocked them both to the ground, pushing them deep into the sand unconscious.
The ambassador and doctor were then shot with the leader's sidearm, which fired a bolt of rippling blue energy which electrocuted them both, made them go stiff as a board then fell promptly to the ground, unconscious. The enemy soldiers then dragged them inside the pyramid, another pair came for the soldiers that had been shot and dragged them inside as well.
"Damn," O'Neill cursed quietly, grateful that his suit's HUD still showed life-signs from the four captives.
Still unconscious, the enemy soldiers tossed the two SFs into a cell and unceremoniously dragged the two civilians to a throne room, where the two of them woke up with splitting headaches and felt tingly across their skins. They tried to stand up, but one of the guards clipped their legs with his staff, forcing them to their knees before an Egyptian style throne. The walls were covered in various shades of gold and hieroglyphs, which to the eyes of Doctor Jackson and Ambassador Sheridan looked extremely gaudy. From the far end of the chamber appeared a figure in robes and wearing a pharaoh mask, surrounded by children. He came forth and sat down on the throne, his servants sitting down a second later. The one in the pharaoh costume made a hand gesture and the guards pressed a small hidden button on the necks of their amour.
Their helmets retracted into their armour, revealing them to be human, or at least humanoid. After the guards bared their faces the pharaoh uncovered his own face, the head piece retracting into his own armour, showing the face of a young Egyptian boy, possibly the same one who had been taken all those thousands of years ago.
"Who do you serve? Who dares send humans into my domain?" the pharaoh demanded in a boom box voice, Daniel translated for Sheridan.
"I am Mister David Sheridan, a representative of the Earth Alliance. You are Ra I presume?"
"I am the Supreme System Lord Ra and I do not tolerate trespassers in my realm, now tell me, where are you from and which goa'uld do you serve?"
"We do not serve any goa'uld, we're from the planet Earth, we only just recently uncovered our Stargate and this was the first address we dialled successfully," said Sheridan as Ra seemed to intimately caress the jewellery upon his right hand.
"An interesting language your people have developed, an amalgam of several different dead languages, now we may speak without the translator, now answers my questions!"
"How are you able to understand and speak our language?" Doctor Jackson asked
"I am a god!"
Ra thrust out his hand, a metallic gauntlet with a glowing jewel in its palm covered it. Out from the jewel a ribbon of energy shot out and connected to both Sheridan's and Doctor Jackson's foreheads, inducing a pain they had never felt before, a pain so great it felt like red hot knives were carving their way at their brains. As sudden as the pain began it stopped, leaving them both drained and in shock.
"If you wish to avoid such pain in the future you had better answer my questions, now where are you from and where did you get your technology?"
Doctor Jackson quickly answered. "Look, we uncovered our Stargate in Egypt three centuries ago, and it's only been just recently that we have been able to get it to work..."
"What is this Egypt?"
"Sorry that's our name for that land, you may know it as Kemet."
"Kemet? You are from the Tau'ri home world. You have come far in such a short time." He rose up from his throne and walked down to the two Earthers. "Tell me, how far have you come; did you get your technology from the Asgard?"
"We've never encountered a species called the Asgard," said Ambassador Sheridan. "In the last century, since we made First Contact with the Centauri and gained true interstellar flight we have been slowly expanding our territory and made some extraordinary progress, making contact with several other space faring races."
"Do you still worship your ancient gods?" Ra asked as he stood up from his throne and began to circle the two Earthers, like a predator eying up a tasty meal.
"No, we don't worship false gods, the practice of worshiping a pantheon of gods died out over a millennia ago, and we have evolved from those primitive beings you found ten thousand years ago to what you see today," said Doctor Jackson with a fire in his eyes as he stared into the cold dead eyes of Ra. "We are now an advanced space faring race and we do not give in to intimidation and trickery like a low-tech planet."
Ra's eyes glowed with a golden hue as the snake inside bristled with the young scholar's insolence, raised his hand and used the ribbon device on him again, making him silently scream in agony, the pain was so great he couldn't even scream out loud and he promptly collapsed as Ra disengaged his favourite torture device.
"One more second and he would be dead," said Ra as he caressed the ribbon device and smiled cruelly upon his two captives. "Now, tell me more about your world!"
The two humans stayed quiet, both decided to mutually not to give this being any more information and hoped that O'Neill and the rest of the expedition would come for them soon.
"Not so talkative now are you," said Ra as he again began circling them. "Then I will just have to loosen your tongues!" said Ra menacingly as he continued to question and torture them both for information about Earth, taking great pleasure in the screams of the young academic and the elder diplomat.