A/N: This chapter was a breeze to write. I hope you like it.
Chapter 31 – The Village
Minos woke up with a shock. He sat upright and tried to comprehend what had happened to him. He remembered that Gannos had put him in a dream, and he could still remember the dream, but what was it about, and who were those men?
It was fairly obvious that the ugly men on stage were devout servants of the Ori and that they had both the guards and the general population under control, but who where the ones that had planted the bomb? If there was a resistance against the Ori in their home galaxy, maybe he could use that in the war. He'd always liked stealth just as much as using excessive violence on his enemies, but it had been a long time since he fought of an enemy as powerful as the Ori.
Minos decided that he'd check it out later. The conference, and of course the dream afterwards too, had drained his energy reserves pretty much. He needed to eat, soon. He'd often say that his metabolism was in 'permanent overdrive' mode, since he always had energy to spare, but it required food. 'Solid food and no sugar!' had been the message all those years ago, and he still pretty much obeyed that rule. When it suited him, of course.
He returned from the Grand Hall to his palace, walking a comfortable pace through the city. The Grand Hall had been a good idea to build. Especially the subspace beacons and the holographic map of the galaxy had come in handy. He'd had to have drawn a map of the galaxy if the conference was held in the palace. Besides, the palace would have been way too warm for everyones liking. It could get bloody hot there sometimes. Especially the races not used to the desert-like conditions that ruled over Avalon had benefited from the climate control. The Nox were more used to a tropical climate, and the Ohnes were of course used to an aquatic climate. Minos, on the other hand, was so used to these conditions he didn't even sense them. He hated cold, even though he had plenty of defences against it. He continued musing on the way to the palace.
Two hours later, Minos was refreshed and walked towards the gate. It was evening already in Avalon, and he had no idea where to go besides to the gate. He'd see it from there. He had prepared himself for almost everything. He had both Excalibur and Durandal tucked away, as well as multiple other weapons and, of course, several packages of sugar.
He arrived at the gate a few minutes after he had left his palace. If only he knew where to go. Minos stood in front of the DHD, thinking about where to go. Suddenly he pressed some buttons, eight to be precise. Minos was sure he didn't know the address, but it seemed awfully familiar to him. It wasn't the one he'd gone to when he had spied on the Ori because Gannos had made sure all memories of those locations were erased.
Minos shrugged any doubts he had off, off towards the back of his mind. He suddenly felt the need to make haste. He ran towards the gate, the eternally liquid puddle of blue, and jumped through.
When he appeared on the other side of the Stargate in the Ori galaxy after a journey that lasted slightly longer than he used to, Minos switched into stealth mode. He ducked down in a reflex, observing for ambushes in the proximity of the gate. It was night on the planet he had landed on, so someone most likely had heard his coming. To his left was a pretty dense wood, seemingly, and to his right was an pretty much open piece of land, save for some trees here and there, and of course the bushes that covered the ground.
Minos sprinted towards the wood for it offered the best chance of protection against unwanted observers. The ground in the forest was not covered by bushes, and the trees were pretty big but placed relatively far from each other, so there was little protection on the ground. However, the trees were carrying leaf and it was pretty thick. Using his agility Minos climbed in the tree, disappearing between thick layers of leaves and branches.
Tree climbing had always been one of Minos' favourite activities. He'd been very good at it, for one, and it was a useful skill when you were spying. Of course, Minos' low weight and fit condition also helped with him being able to reach places others couldn't come.
When Minos had ascertained himself that no one was coming to check out the gate after fifteen minutes, he was ready to move. He'd detected lights on the far side of the open field that was directly in front of him, so he guessed that there was a village situated there.
He made his move, he jumped out of the tree he was hiding in, creating as little noise as possible. He stayed low when he sprinted over the open path in front of the Stargate and made a final jump to a thick layer of bushes. The firm and strong bushes, covered by thick leaves and shadows, quickly hid his relatively small form.
There was still quite a distance for him to go, but the bushes were high enough to almost walk upright. Minos stood up and made his way towards the village under cover of night and shadow.
He had reached the village one hour later, but it wasn't starting to light up yet. He figured that most of the village would be asleep now, so it would be a perfect opportunity for him to check out the village unnoticed. He would just have to be very quiet.
He came close to the outer houses of the village. They were made of stone, with wooden roofs. The wooden roofs would make it harder for him to go unheard around the village, but it would still be possible. He would just have to try harder.
It wasn't necessary just yet to use the roofs as a means to go around unseen, so Minos chose the easy option –walking. He hid in shadows for most of the journey to the centre of the village, just in case someone saw him. If he would be detected it could be disastrous. The villagers here would probably bring him to one of the local servants of the Ori, and they would take him to... well, they'd probably torture and execute him. That was not a pleasant option, so Minos chose to remain unseen.
He neared the centre of the village, a pretty large open square with some kind of temple on one end and a large, flat surface in the middle. He didn't trust it completely, so Minos climbed up to one of the roofs of the houses made entirely from stone. It certainly wasn't hard for him, but he had to made sure he couldn't be heard or seen.
He had only just reached the top of the roof when he saw a patrol of five guards marching over the square. They were carrying the same staff weapons as the guards in his dream, though these could probably hurt him more.
The patrol remained on the square, probably guarding it against intruders like Minos. It would severely limit his movement options. Minos decided it was best to wait. The house lay too secluded from the other ones to make the jump without causing any noise at all. He could have made the jump easily enough, but it would cause enough noise to awaken the ones who owned the house.
After one hour had passed, Minos was severely bored. He'd counted the stars he could see with the naked eye (which were 58.910), he'd fantasised about everything he could think of and he had thought of nine-hundred and twelve ways to kill the guards on the square. But he was still bored, and only approximately one hour had passed. It was starting to become lighter, but it would still be at least one hour before people would start waking up.
Suddenly, Minos heard soft, mumbled voices coming from inside the house he was lying on.
"Shht. Quiet. If you make any more noise the priors guards will come. You endanger the entire operation."
"It is night, Selus. The guards won't hear us. They are just stupid people that do nothing else than follow the words of the Priors. We are smarter than them."
"Don't speak like that, Tamara. We may believe different, better, things than they do but they are with far more people and they still have the technology."
"You mean the technology they stole from the Alterans, Selus. They didn't invent it themselves."
These people sounded like they would be part of the so-called resistance. They sounded like they hated the guts of everything that followed the word of the Ori. And they mentioned the Alterans. On Minos' previous trip to this galaxy he hadn't seen one reference made to his ancestors, not even indirectly. And these people just mentioned them, and they said the Ori stole their technology. If these people were indeed what Minos suspected them, they could prove a valuable ally in the battle against the Ori. Something told him to take the risk, and show himself to these people.
Minos silently climbed down from the roof, still under cover of the night, and looked for a window. He needed to hang upside-down from the roof to be able to access the window. He made a small knock on the window. The hushed voices immediately stopped. Minos knocked again.
"Who is there?" the male voice asked.
"A friend." Minos answered.
"How do we know we can trust you?" the female asked.
"The fact that I haven't smashed in your window yet."
"What do you want us to do?" the male asked.
"Open up this window. I'm hanging upside down from your roof, and that isn't the most comfortable position I can think of."
The window swung open, luckily without a sound. Minos made half a flip while holding on to the edge of the roof, flew silently through the open window and landed on the ground without a sound.
"Hi." Minos said softly after a short pause in which he had observed the two people in front of him. One was a woman, blonde hair, slender figure and average height for as far as Minos could tell. The other was a man, brown hair, slightly shorter than average. They both wore the same style robes, which looked like they came directly from the middle ages on Earth. Minos could still remember those times, he had been on Earth during them often. He had disliked the fashion in those days, and he still did.
"Hi. Who are you?" The man asked.
"I'm Minos. I heard your conversation about the Alterans and the Ori, and I agree with you. The Ori are a bunch of blood-sucking, moronic, idiotic, dickheads."
"That is ...unexpected." The woman said. "But who exactly are you and why do you despise the Ori so much as we do?"
"As I said, I'm Minos. I'm one of the archenemies of the Ori. I'm way older than I look, and my hate against them goes deeper than almost anything."
"Are you one of the unbelievers of which there are rumours in the book of Origin?" the man asked.
"I haven't read it, and I'm not going to either. But if the unbelievers in the book of Origin were 'defeated' by the Ori a very long time ago, then yes, I am one of them."
"Tamara, I think we must warn the Resistance. We have found a solution." The man said.