A/N: I know it's been a long, much too long time since I updated this story. The story was at a halt, and I felt more connected (at the moment) to my other story (The one on . Same pen name as here, see my profile.) But I decided that I wanted to at least try to finish this story, to bring it to a successful end. I don't know how this chapter fits in my not-yet-existing megalomaniac plan for an ending, but at least there's some action in it. I hope that it's readable.
Reviews are Welcome!
Chapter 38 – An Unexpected Attack
Minos woke up early. It was a beautiful morning, sunny, like usual when you're on a desert planet, but not too hot. Minos prepared himself for another day full of meetings and plannings and talkings and all kinds of things that bored him out of his skull. He wasn't a sitter or a talker, he wanted to do something. Perhaps that was his still-young body speaking up, or perhaps he had always been that way. He couldn't really remember.
After a nice breakfast Minos took a short walk - well, a detour over the rooftops was more like it- before he had to head back to the palace for the talks to start. He felt ill at ease, even though he was on his own planet. Maybe it was the fact that he was now sitting on top of a five-story high building without a ladder, but he had done that before. Many times, in fact. That couldn't be the thing that made him uneasy. So what was it that upset his nerves?
He mused about what could have set his nerves to act so strange when he saw a small shadow moving in the skies above. He looked closely, focussing on his sight as much as possible because the shadow was still very far away. He immediately guessed that it was a ship. Probably Goa'uld in origin, most likely an Ha'tak. It wasn't Asgard, that was for sure because those ships were both bigger and more elegant than the plump form of the Ha'tak. And it wasn't Tauri in origin either. They would have called ahead and inform him if their new ship was going to hyperspeed for its first test.
Minos had seen the blueprints for the first ship the Tauri had come up with. They had made plans for a hyperspeed-capable ship delightfully fast. Not more than a few weeks had gone by since the Asgard sent one of their own to help designing the new ship. The fact that they even sent one of their own engineers to the Tauri to help was quite a feat in itself. They didn't usually do anything remotely like that, but these were strange times that called for strange measures.
Minos could see that the ship was moving towards the planet and he acted immediately. The emergency control room was in the palace, and from there he could set out the alarms and activate the shields. The most important thing now was to get there as quickly as possible, before the ship was in firing range.
He jumped down from the building as smooth as a cat, ignoring the fact that the building had been around fifty feet high before landing without a hitch. He sprinted off immediately, heading towards the palace.
The first few streets he had raced through had been fairly calm, almost deserted even, but as he neared the market square it became busier and busier. Soon Minos found himself slaloming between the people. He was moving too fast for shouting to have much effect. By the time people heard him he had already passed them.
After a few ducks and jumps through, over and under a particular dense group of people Minos reached the stairs that led to market square. He saw that it was very busy, probably because today was a large market day. He slid smoothly over the stone walls that bordered the stairs, controlling his speed with expertise and precision. Who said that sliding down the stairs when you're young was a bad thing? With his superior agility and control he could slide them with ease. And it provided you with an extra method of transportation.
When he had reached the bottom of the long stairs all that was left to cross before he reached the palace was the market. It would be completely pointless to try and worm a way through the mass of people that had assembled around and between the stalls, so Minos chose a different way.
With a large jump, spanning several metres, Minos jumped onto the first market stall, using the eerily thin wooden top bar as footing. With surprising speed, even for him, he ran over the thin wooden planks towards the palace, taking an occasional jump over a pathway where there were no stalls.
When he had crossed the market stalls he realised how lucky he had been. The top bars from the stalls weren't even supposed to hold a person half his weight, let alone him. But they had held, for which Minos was thankful. Sometimes it paid off to be a lightweight, he mused. More than once his low weight had saved him from a painful fall because he could stand on thinner planks and weaker floors than his enemies.
He entered the palace on the same speed with which he had crossed the market square. He ran straight towards the control room, using the walls and pillars to make corners faster.
He stormed inside the control room, stunning the guards that were inside. It was quite a crude control room, all the technical stuff was hidden behind thick walls. Only several screens were visible, and there were a few people in front of them, watching the screens.
The guards were capable people that knew what they were doing. Minos had trained most of them himself, so he knew that they were at least capable of reacting if necessary. The fact that they looked at him completely surprised because of his sudden entry testified that they had had no idea that there was a ship coming. It had probably been cloaked or hidden by some kind of new device. He should really update the scanners and sensor arrays to prevent this kind of thing from happening.
Minos moved over to the control panel that held the shield systems and smashed his hand on the necessary buttons to raise it.
The shield was quite an ingenious thing. He had thought of the idea a very long time ago, but he had had a lot of trouble fixing all the problems and bugs in the system. It worked flawlessly now. The shield could hold all energy-based attacks, but it wouldn't use a lot of power unless it was hit. The shield would form itself just before impact, strengthening only the areas that were hit by weapon fire. The good thing about the system was that it was hardly detectable unless one started firing on it.
Minos looked around, thinking what he could do more to deal with the Goa'uld Ha'tak that was on his doorstep. Then he saw the strange and questioning looks from the people in the control room .
"There's an Ha'tak coming." Minos said.
"A Ha'tak? But our scanners detected no such a thing!" One of the guards said.
"It was probably cloaked. I saw it drop out of hyperspace only a minute ago."
"But my lord, there's still nothing visible on the scanners. Even the close-range ones."
"Have you tried shifting the frequencies to the high-band? I know Goa'uld cloaking devices don't use those frequencies, but maybe this one does."
"Ah, yes. I've found it. The Ha'tak is heading towards us. It's not powering weapons, my lord. What do you suggest we do now?"
"We wait until it's closer to see what it wants." Minos answered.
"All-right, My lord." The guard said.
"My lord, the ship is hailing us."
"Open the channel. Let's see what they want now."
The channel popped up on the screen in front of Minos, showing the beautiful face of Bastet. Well, beautiful for as far as Goa'ulds can be called beautiful.
"Surrender your planet, and no harm will come your way." Basted started, using her usual opening when encountering a new planet. Minos had seen it often enough.
"No." Minos replied casually.
Bastet seemed taken by surprise by this answer. She quickly regained her composure, however. "You would do unwise to reject a god." She said on a soft but eerily scaring tone.
"And you would do wise to get the hell out of my property." Minos replied dryly.
"Very well. You will face the wrath of a god." Bastet said.
"My Lord, the Goa'uld ship is firing."
"Will the shields hold?" Minos asked.
"Yes, my lord. The energy blasts dissipate without effect."
"What kind of trickery is this?" Basted said angrily through the connection. "Which devilish arts do you practise?"
"The devilishly funny art of fooling a stupid Goa'uld." Minos said casually. "Launch the weapon. Keep the ship whole, and keep its occupants alive. I'll deal with them later." Minos said to the guard.
"My lord, all the ship's inhabitants but one have been transported." The guard replied after a few moments.
"Aha. Seems that dear Bastet has a trick up her sleeve. Very well. If she wants to play it that way. Activate the transporters, please. Beam me directly to the bridge of her ship." Minos ordered the guard.
"Yes my lord."
Minos felt the usual light tingle from the transporter and before he knew it he was on the bridge of Bastet's Ha'tak.
"Good morning, Bastet."
"What have you done? Where are all my Jaffa!" Bastet screamed.
"Now, now, Bastet, don't be so angry. They are taken care of. Besides, they'd only ruin our fun."
"I am a god! I cannot be touched!" Basted screamed.
"Shall we see about that?" Minos said with a grin that didn't reach his eyes.
Bastet reacted faster than Minos had expected her to. He was taken quite by surprise by the suddenness with which she used her Kara Kesh. She blew him away using the usual attack Goa'ulds start with. Minos could deal with it perfectly fine, but in this case it was a disadvantage to have a relatively low weight like him. The blow had more effect on him than it would have on a heavier person. Although, maybe it was only an advantage because he was lighter and more agile, so he could catch himself without hurting.
Minos was pushed back hard and he flew several metres through the air before regaining control of himself and landing as smooth as a cat on the control consoles of the bridge.
"How! That is not possible! No mere human has that kind of agility!" Bastet raged as she saw that her opponent had caught himself easily after her attack.
"Appearances can deceive, Bastet. For example, I know that you are naught more than a mere snake, a parasite, dependant on its host to live and prosper. I know that you will die when you leave your host."
"If I chose to leave my host, the host will die, not I." Bastet retorted.
"Wrong. Why don't we try it out right now? I'll kill your host, seeing that you have had this one for about a thousand years or so I think she has lost all the will to live by now. I'll give the host mercy by killing her, but let's see if you can survive the whole ordeal."
"You fool! You cannot touch me! I am an immortal god!"
"Let's see exactly how immortal you are, Bastet." Minos said as he reached inside the coat he was wearing. He grabbed his favourite sword, Excalibur.
"No! That cannot be! That blade was destroyed!" Bastet panicked when she saw the sword Minos was holding.
"Wrong again, Bastet. This blade wasn't destroyed. It's still very much alive." Minos said with a grin as he saw what effect the mere sight of the blade had on Bastet.
"How can that be! I saw the blade being destroyed! I destroyed it myself!" Bastet raged.
"The thing that you destroyed was naught more than a mere copy, incapable of doing anything besides looking exactly like this sword. I know it, because I made that copy. I fooled you, Bastet. How do you like that, being fooled by 'a mere human'."
"That is impossible! The sword has been lost for ages and you are not even a man. You're a child, not even old enough to have a beard!"
"Appearances can deceive, Bastet. I not only made the copy of Excalibur, but I also forged this blade myself. I wielded it throughout the ages and eons, killing all that needed and deserved killing. And now I'll add another Goa'uld to the list."
"HA! You still cannot touch me! You are merely stalling!" Bastet screamed, a glint of craziness in her eyes and voice."
Minos swung his famous blade with deadly precision and unsurpassable speed, slicing clean through Bastet's head in one go. Both host and Goa'uld died instantly, and completely painless.
"Wrong again, Bastet." Minos said when his opponent fell to the ground, dead.
A/N: Bad? Good? Completely terrible? Awful? Please review!