Abydos Pyramid
Stargate Room
Admiral Borman motioned commander Carter over, "We're sure radio waves go through the stargate?"
"We tested it out with the first probe sent through the gate, it had no trouble transmitting back through"
Borman thought for a moment, "do we have any probes here?"
"Some remote camera balls, back in the ship" one of the pilots of said ship spoke, having come inside to view the stargate, "they work with the standard issue pads, short range only though".
"Go get one", Borman waved the pilot off and turned to Carter, "Could it be that the transmitter is too small, we're using a handheld radio after all"
"Its possible Sir, but unlikely, the actual distance is small, discounting the travel through the stargate, the receiver on Pluto station should be picking us up".
"Lets try again, someone go grab a bigger radio too"
He pushed the transmit button again, "Prometheus Expedition to Pluto Station, come in, over".
Releasing the button the sound of static came through the speaker, he listened close, was that a word?
"Did anyone hear that?, sounded like someone talking"
He held the radio to his ear and got a blast of sound, he quickly moved it away, the voice clear now.
"This is a restricted military frequency, you better have a good excuse ready" came through loud and clear.
"This is Admiral Borman of the Prometheus Expedition, who's speaking"
"Thats a good one, impersonating an Admiral who's off to the ass end of space, what's next, my ex wife" laughter was heard in the background of whoever was on the line.
"Listen here Son, this is no joke, now tell me who you are and where's Pluto station"
Something in Borman's tone must have got through to him, the laughing stopping, "Pluto Station is at Pluto I imagine, this is McMurdo station, Antarctica, MacReady speaking"
Shocked gasps were heard in the gate room, the pilot returning with a "What's happening" as he passed the camera ball to Carter.
She connected it to her pad and unceremoniously chucked it through the still active stargate.
Borman looked as the screen as he continued to talk on the radio, "Son, we're having a bit of an issue here, see if you can patch us through to Union Command".
The lights on the camera ball illuminated the small ice cavern on the other side, a stargate was embedded in the wall but nothing else was apparent, just lots of ice.
"Any ideas Carter?" he asked as he waited on the radio.
"Some, a second gate in Antarctic" she looked deep in thought, "I'm only spitballing here but it must be that the gate was moved to Pluto, there must be some minimum range and it defaulted to this Antarctic gate"
"It must have been blocked before or Ra would have just come back through there with the Egypt gate buried, climate change might have freed it?" the last part was more a question than an answer.
"We wont know more until we examine it on the other side"
"I'm not sending anyone through, I didn't see an exit there, or a dialling pedestal, let the Union dig it out first" his tone was final.
…..
Contact was made with Union command and a team was already en route to recover the other gate, it would take a few days though, the gate buried in a glacier and inclement weather slowing things.
Nothing changes for the expedition, they were already ahead of schedule, having arrived earlier than initially planned, focus returned to setting up a military base and runway near the mines.
It only took two days for the runway work to be complete enough to allow the two hundred meter long space X landing ships to use it, they were new ships, also having antigravity lift engines but earlier versions than the Skymarshalls, only able to cancel out some of the mass of the huge vessels, they still needed proper landing facilities to operate from.
The massive ships stood out like sore thumbs against the backdrop of the desert, disgorging more construction equipment and supplies, heavy trucks and excavators moving off, some to work the mines others helped construct the base, a massive sandbag wall reminiscent of old photos of bases in Iraq and Afghanistan was already up, its interior full of prefab container sized buildings.
The ships in space had already found suitable asteroids to tow to the refinery station, still being assembled in orbit, the Intrepid had joined in surveying the system, cataloguing useful resources and looking for kobolium.
Others combed the area outside the pyramid for Ra's two fighter sized ships, buried under sand in the time since they were captured by the Abydonian rebels metal detectors and memories quickly found them, they were transported whole back to orbit for future shipment to Earth, no one wanting to risk disassembly for stargate transport, lest they destroy important technology.
Even the bodies of Ra's men were recovered, but the time in the desert had left them dessicated husks, the bodies and recovered artifacts were shipped to the fleet, preliminary studies already started.
There was even talk of eventually removing the ring transporter from the central chamber of the pyramid but such efforts would take some time.
Daniel Jackson worked with civilian archaeologists who came on the fleet, including his former girlfriend Sarah Gardner, who led them, after introducing his new wife Sha're they formed a fast friendship, already they were surveying the pyramid and city for hidden chambers and information on Ra.
….
One week after arrival
Chad was dreaming again, he didn't get to enjoy it as Sgt. Brown rudely awakened him., it was hard enough to sleep in the heat, the aircon in the new barracks was woefully inadequate.
"Rise and shine Thompson, Medical leave is over"
He didn't miss rising at the crack of dawn, that was for sure, he quickly threw on his uniform and joined the rest in the canteen, dehydrated eggs and bacon was today's culinary masterpiece, it actually made him miss the hospital food.
After the breakfast and a refreshing coffee, they were assembled for their duty assignments, Chad's platoon was guarding the pyramid and stargate today, they were quickly loaded up in the newly landed trucks, large low pressure tires to handle the shifting sands, there were plans to build a road but they were far off in the future, a bumpy ride in the sweat box and they arrived.
"Wow, its huge" were Chad's words upon seeing the pyramid up close, "Is it bigger than the one in Egypt?"
"No idea, never been there" Chad's long time friend Flint commented.
"Alright ladies, listen up, I want two 5 man patrols on the outer perimeter. 5 men in the underground chamber over there" Brown pointed off in the distance, where Dr. Jackson had showed them the stargate map.
"The rest are inside the pyramid, lucky you Thompson, you get to stay out of the sun today, due to your frail condition" he guffawed at the end, Chad's medically required light duty doing him a favour right now.
They quickly changed places with the men who were returning to base, Chad got a primo spot in the actual stargate room, Flint and Brad with him too, Ramirez had disappeared as soon as Sgt. Brown walked off.
Chad kept his ear to the ground, the word was that digging out the other stargate was still days away, then add-on time to ship it to Pluto and they were looking at another week before anything could be sent through, apparently the plan was to ship one of the gates to New Hope, allowing real-time contact with the planet.
Chad took a good look around the room and spotted a good place to settle in, he sat down and waited, pulled his pad out and began to read, he was really getting into this battletech stuff.
….
Imhotep watched from the shadows, the moment had come at last, he waited as the two soldiers left before sneaking up on the fat fool Chad, a quick chop removed him from consciousness allowing him to stealthily move to the dialling pedestal, he thought long and hard before this opportunity presented itself, picking an address from memory which hopefully would be absent of Goa'uld, he would quickly dial out again on the other side, to throw off any possible pursuit, not that he thought these primitives could even follow him, their knowledge of the gates was laughable, in time he would return and show them their new god.
He had entered the final symbol, the gate loudly spinning around when he was interrupted, Major Kawalsky entering the room, he had been there helping Dr. Jackson today, the noise of the gate must have alerted him.
"Corporal, what the hell are you doing" Kawalsky shouted at him. Imhotep ignored his challenge and raised his rifle and fired off a few rounds, Kawalsky ducking behind a pillar before quickly returning fire with his sidearm.
Imhotep kept up suppressive fire as he reached for the activation rune, his gou'ald enhanced strength easily able to fire the rifle single handed, he didn't have time for this, gunfire would attract every marine in the area.
His rifle clicked dry, he threw it forcefully towards Kawalsky who had combat rolled over to Thompson's unconscious form after his pistol ran dry, Imhotep paid no heed, focused on moving to the gate, as he was about to enter the shimmering event horizon his abdomen exploded outwards, the whole right side gone, liver and all, but he would not be denied, using his gou'ald abilities he forced the host to jump through the portal, the gate disconnecting afterwards, Kawalsky looked on in shock.
…..
Colonel Méndez observed the scene, the pool of blood at the base of the stargate garnered the most attention.
"Lets go over it again" he said, Kawalsky beside him, Thompson was still being looked over by the medic but got away with a bump on the noggin this time.
"I was heading to the latrine, I was helping Dr. Jackson and the others deeper in the pyramid" he paused "I heard the sound of the stargate when I got closer, its unmistakable, especially here with no machinery around"
"Upon entering I saw Corporal Ramirez at the pedestal, he was putting in an address, I called out to him but he raised his gun and fired towards me"
"A short exchange followed, he hit the button and turned on the stargate, when his gun ran dry he threw it towards me and ran for the gate"
"My own pistol ran dry too, I moved for Pvt. Thompson's weapon instead, I managed to nail Ramirez in the side, it should have dropped him like a rock but he managed to jump through"
Méndez nodded along as Kawalsky retold the events, Thompson having joined them at some point, a bandage around his head. "And you Thompson, what happened".
"I sat down to guard the room, I'm on light duty and a static guard position was ideal, I saw Ramirez enter, didn't seem suspicious, he must have snuck behind me and took me out"
Méndez stood there in thought, Ramirez had been off ever since that bear attack and now this, it didn't make sense, Thompson had a reputation for being a lazy fuck but he was really good in a firefight, it made sense to go for a stealth takedown, didn't explain this though.
"Anything else, any detail?" he asked
"One thing, I thought it was a trick of light or something, but I swear I saw his eyes glow" Kawalsky spoke up.
"Just like Ra" a new voice said, Daniel Jackson was now behind them.
"Like Ra?" Méndez said in confusion, he recalled the reports from the first expedition, "Dr. Jackson, you talked with this Ra, he said he possessed a human, is that right?"
"Yeah, that's the spiel he gave me, with the glowing eyes too, I don't know if it was Ra in Ramirez or another of his people" The implication chilled Méndez, and the others going by their faces.
He turned to a nearby soldier, "Tell them to double time it on the recording, I want that gate address" They had the foresight to install security cameras in the gate, other places too, that would be useful right now as Kawalsky didn't see the address himself, too busy keeping himself alive.
As they waited he radioed the admiral, after a lengthy conversation informing him of what happened he pushed forth his new plan, sent a team after Ramirez, the admiral concurring, if just to stop the spread of information about Earths existence.
"Kawalsky, you have the most experience on hand with the stargate, I want you to take Sgt. Browns squad and recover Ramirez" left unsaid was his condition.
He turned to Daniel, "Dr. Jackson, I know this is a hard ask, but you know how to figure out a return address, can you go?"
Daniel took a few seconds to think, He really didn't want to leave Sha're but the idea of Ra or one of his species leading ships back to Abydos filled him with dread, they had to stop any information about them from spreading.
"I'll do it"
Unknown Planet
Imhotep flopped out of the gate, his hosts lifeblood flowing from the gaping wound where his guts used to be, he'd need to find a new host soon, Gou'ald regeneration had its limits.
He weakly climbed back onto his feet, swaying slightly, his host sweating profusely, he had minutes left to live, maybe ten, he glanced around the dark field the stargate was in, spying a primitive human village with a lake nearby.
He used all his willpower to force the dying host to stagger along towards the lights.
…..
She watched as the gate activated, a wounded man jumping out, she watched every day, the assassin still chasing her, the man there now was no ashrak, wearing clothes too advanced for the usual human world but definitely not Goa'uld, an advanced human world no doubt, there were plenty of them but Tok'ra usually stayed away.
She decided to move closer when she sensed the parasite within, Goa'uld.
Another advanced human culture destroyed she assumed, this one infested by a larva while escaping, probably from a dead jaffa, no matter, she would remove the stain on the world herself but first some interrogation.
Closing the distance as the host staggered towards the village revealed the damage, its whole abdomen was missing, a pile of shredded flesh left remaining where major organs were one located, it didn't look like a staff weapon did that.
He wasn't long for the world then, she urged her currently male host, Quinta, he had volunteered to host her while she was hiding from the ashrak, to sprint towards the gou'ald, a small push was enough to topple it.
It was clearly addled with pain as it spoke "You Dare defile your god, Imhotep, I will boil you alive for this" it was in so much pain it didn't notice she had a symbiote.
Imhotep, that was a name nearly forgotten, she remembered he was once a fleet commander for Ra, but lost a battle thousands of years ago against some alien robots, they were subsequently destroyed by Ra himself, Imhotep exiled somewhere.
Her host pulled her Zat'nit'tel and fired it once to stun the creature, she was debating whether it would be worth abandoning this refuge to drag the carcass to another Tok'ra for interrogation, she was reluctant to bring attention of the ashrak to others, like Martouf her mate.
Imhotep decided for her in the end, abandoning his dying host to attempt to take hers, she saw his worm like body sneaking out the back of the neck, she put an end to him with her leather clad foot, an ignominious stomp ending the parasite.
A quick conference with her host had him dragging the corpse away to hide, she returned to the back of his mind, thoughts turning to the ashrak again, she might be stuck on this backwater for a long time yet, for Jolinar of Malkshur it was a small price for life.
Unknown Planet
1 Hour later
The stargate lit the dark field as it came alive, the blue glow casting deep shadows in nearby trees, Kawalsky and his team exited with weapons drawn, the men fanning out to cover all directions.
It had been an hour since Ramirez jumped through the gate, time enough for Kawalsky to gear up and Ferretti to join him, he preferred someone he knew to watch his back, he shivered, the cold of this new world giving him goosebumps, he was used to the desert heat.
They were silent as they moved, the earlier camera probe they had thrown through had shown the village in the distance, stealth was the approach decided upon, Kawalsky move his hand to his temple, activating his goggles night vision mode, then cycling through to thermals.
"Sir, look here" Private Flint said in a whisper, motioned to a dark pool on the ground, a trail heading towards the village, blood, they followed, the remaining heat showing up on their goggles as a faint trail, it led them to another pool of blood, Kawalsky bending down to examine.
Beside this pool was a smaller one, he ran his flash light over it briefly illuminating its blue colour, the imprint of a boot visible in the soil, something was crushed here, the others had found drag marks while he was examining it, leading off to the dark forest away from the village, he took a small sample container and collected some fluid for study as he stood up.
The six men kept low as they followed the trail, entering the pitch darkness of the alien forest, their goggles illuminating the way.
Before long the unmistakable figure of a human was visible to their thermal vision, visible through the trees ahead, Kawalsky used hand signals to order the men to surround the figure, it seemed they were unnoticed still, Dr Jackson he motioned to wait.
…..
Quinta dug a hole, it was something he was used to, before being recruited to join the Tok'ra he worked on his farm until the day the Goa'uld needed slaves, he lost everything that day, his wife and daughter taken, his farm ransacked by Jaffa, he swore revenge but it was an empty gesture, he was powerless, that was until the Tok'ra came, offering him a way forward.
She led him here, to escape from an assassin she told him, he was grateful for any chance to hurt the Goa'uld, even if he had to share his body to do so, the satisfaction he felt when his boot crushed the worm was the best catharsis he felt in a long time.
His labour induced reverie was disrupted by large men bursting out of the undergrowth, his symbiote enhanced vision clearly able to see them, shouting in an alien language, large weapons pointed at him, the meaning was clear enough and he dropped to his knees and raised his hands, feeling Jolinar moving to take over, he retreated to the back of his mind to watch.
…..
"Prisoner secure" Sgt. Brown reported, Kawalsky was busy looking at the pale form of Ramirez beside the freshly dug grave, his earlier shot had clearly been fatal, turning towards Brown he examined the new problem he had.
Clearly dressed in peasant clothes this must be a native, from that village nearby probably, he must have seen the stargate open and saw Ramirez come out, he was debating whether they should take him back to Abydos or not but first they needed information.
Brown handed him a weird looking metal device, almost like a coiled snake, he pressed the button and the thing changed shape in his hands, it looked more gun like already, it was clearly out of place with everything else on this world they saw, not that they had looked hard yet.
"Jackson, get over here" he shouted to the bushes, Daniel shortly appearing "See if you can find out anything, command will want to know all about this world and ask what this is" he showed Jackson the device the prisoner had.
He returned to Ramirez and prepared to move him into the body bag they brought, he noticed a worm like creature, it looked squashed.
…...
Joilnar was torn, she was tempted to break free and take these men down but caution held her for now, they were clearly well trained to be able so sneak up on her so effectively, especially in the darkness of the forest.
A new man appeared having a quick conversation with who she pegged as the leader before he approached.
"Hello, my names Daniel Jackson" he spoke Goa'uld, his accent was atrocious though, must be new to the language. "Who are you?" he continued.
She tested the bindings on her wrists, she felt they could be easily broken using her enhanced strength, it would be easy enough to take this one hostage and try to escape through the gate, the men unlikely to be able to keep pace once she got to running, but for now she decided to gather information on these newcomers.
"Quinta, my names Quinta" she replied in her hosts voice, "I'm just a farmer" better to not reveal her nature to them.
Daniel nodded, "Did you see what happened to Ramirez?"
"He came through the Chappa'ai, I thought him a Jaffa at first or a servant of the Gods, I felt it best to bury him after he died of this wounds, please I beg, don't hurt me"
"Chappa'ai, that's a stargate" she heard him mutter the foreign word, "but what's a Jaffa?"
She was surprised and it showed on her hosts face, who didn't know what a Jaffa was?, "the servants of the gods, the Goa'uld"
"Goa'uld, that's what you call the gods?", "Is Ra a goa'uld?" he asked himself in English.
She nodded, internally she was confused, how had these people gotten a stargate to work without knowing about the Goa'uld, they were clearly from one of the more advanced human cultures, the Tok'ra as a rule stayed away from those, honestly it was easier to convince more primitive cultures to become hosts, but even those knew of the Goa'uld as gods if nothing else.
She was thinking hard, was this a culture that knew nothing of the Goa'uld, completely unprepared for what the galaxy would send their way, the temptation to let them go on their way was high but, and this took some self reflection on her part, she could make a difference here, gain some useful allies for the Tok'ra, even if the council wouldn't see it that way, they could harbour her while the ashrak was still after her at the least.
…..
Daniel noticed a change come over Quinta, his posture straightening up from dishevelled prisoner to something else.
"I see you know nothing of the Goa'uld, look there, that worm on the ground is one" he nodded over to Ramirez's body, the small creature beside him.
He continued, "I heard you name Ra, yes, he is one of them, parasites the lot, I can tell you more but first these bindings"
"Give me one second" Daniel said as he walked over to Kawalsky, "I think we hit the jackpot, the admiral's going to want to hear this"
Daniel and Kawalsky had a back and forth, he finally agreed, one of the soldiers freeing Quinta.
"Now, you'll tell us all about the Goa'uld?"
"That and more, but first we should leave, this place isn't safe"
They quickly made their way back to the gate, carrying Ramirez's body with them, they also took the squashed worm thing too, Daniel didn't want to be near it, fearing it returning to life and jumping at his face.
He moved to dial the gate back to Abydos, the cartouche there helping them understand how it all worked, Carter had mentioned the issues with dialling from Earth were likely caused by stellar drift, he thought along the same lines, the cartouche had proved it though.
Quinta spoke up as he reached to begin, "Hold, its possible to recover addresses dialled from this pedestal, allow me to remove them so no one can follow".
Daniel looked to Kawalsky, "He said addresses can be tracked, he knows how to delete it though".
"Fine, we're calling in first, let them know we're back"
It didn't take long to contact Méndez on the other side, allowing Quinta to come back with them. Quinta opening a panel on the back of the pedestal and doing things inside before they finally left the still dark world.
Abydos Orbit
The Enterprise
Borman sat at his desk in a call with Colonel Méndez, going over the recent events.
"We sent the creature up to the bio labs in the hospital" Méndez was saying, "Our guest we have quartered in the Pyramid, under guard for now"
"Keep it that way, and mention nothing about where we come from or our capabilities, we don't know anything about this person"
Borman's mind raced, the limited information they had gotten from their new friend had already helped immensely, help him have nightmares anyway, these Goa'uld were a bigger threat than the Cylons if he was to be believed.
A race of parasitical narcissists who pretended to be gods and had the technology to back it up, and they had just killed their leader. It might be a blessing in disguise though, the Goa'uld were prone to infighting they were told, but that remained to be seen, he needed to contact Earth immediately.
Colorado
Earth
Jack O'Neill sat outside his small cabin, he came up here shortly after returning from Abydos, returning home to discover his wife had finally left, unable to look at his face any more, he knew it was coming, ever since Charlie, he knew.
He never planned on coming back, he excepted to die there, now he sat and fished and drank his beer, there were no fish and the beer tasted like ash.
He thought of ending it all, but he was too much of a coward to take that way out.
He thought back to when they came back, him, Charles and Louis, he was thinking of telling them the nuke took out everyone just like Daniel had asked, that there was nothing to go back for, but he realised that they'd just send a ship anyway so why bother, he told the truth and that they buried the gate on the other side, and requested his long over due retirement.
They grumbled, but finally West let him go, they even asked a month later if he wanted in on the new expedition to Abydos, he actually considered it, seeing Skaara again, Daniel and the rest, but said no, he was still dealing with his own demons, let him be.
He took a sip of beer and cast his rod again, the small lake was nearly iced over already, winter coming in, he should get a motorbike or something, get his midlife crisis into high gear, it might distract him enough to forget.
The light faded and he abandoned his fish less lake, stars beginning to shine in the sky above, his telescope beckoned, the one pastime he could still enjoy.
The enjoyment was short-lived, a government sedan was coming up the trail, he just ignored them, right until they crawled up to his perch.
The uniform was new, Terran Union Marines, unusual, a major and his lackey, he heard them climbing the ladder.
"Colonel O'Neill?"
Still he didn't like the intrusion, probably some political crap he didn't want to touch.
"Retired" he didn't even look up, not worth the effort.
"I'm Major Samuels, Sir, I have orders to bring you to General West, its about the Stargate"
He perked up at that, did they discover something new? He was done with fishing anyway.
Terran Union Parliament (Former UN Headquarters)
New York
As the new parliament settled in below the real power, the Council was making decisions, gathered in a well appointed room, light and airy, they discussed the future.
It resembled the old security council in function, representatives of the most power countries sat around the table in discussion, changes would have to be made in light of new information.
"If all this is true we need to up the timetable on military centralisation and expand production" one of them was saying.
"Yes, if its true, we still need confirmation, we need to send people and find evidence" another said.
"Hmm, these reports say they found a map of these stargates, it's risky to use them, we could be inviting these Goa'uld right back to Earth" the third said.
"It's worth it, we can use Abydos or that other planet they found, don't operate from Earth at all, if this is true we're totally outclassed".
On and on the debate went, they finally agreed, the unification of Earth as a political entity would accelerate, its military folded into one sooner than previously planned, production of warships would increase, money would be made available.
A new operation would start, Stargate exploration.
Cheyenne Mountain
Colorado
They hustled Jack down to general West's office, he noticed that the place looked emptier than last time he was here, three months ago, a lot had change in that short time, the media in a frenzy about the gate, not that they knew much, all the public info was heavily sanitized, heavily downplaying the alien Ra and focusing more on human's discovered on another planet, again, the details of what the gate even was, still classified, all the public knew was that it transported people.
General West's office was the same as before, he glanced out the window down towards the gate as he entered, it wasn't there, he raised an eyebrow at West sat behind his desk, they weren't alone, another man was in the room too, also a General, wearing a Union marines uniforms, seems like there were bigger changes than he first thought.
"Jack, have a seat" West waved him in, "Meet Major General Hammond, formerly of the air force".
"I'm seeing more union troops everywhere, nice to meet you general" he shook hands with Hammond, the bald man giving a firm grip in return.
"Jack I won't mince words, I'm retiring soon, George here is taking over stargate operations, we want you back".
A bit hard to have stargate operations without a stargate he thought, something must have changed, the Prometheus expedition must have found something.
"What changed last I heard we couldn't dial anywhere but Abydos?, they found something didn't they?".
West nodded, "Yes, they found a map of stargate addresses, that'd be big on its own but there's more" West paused, removing a folder from his desk.
"Here" he handed it to Jack, "The Goa'uld, that's what Ra was, alien parasites, a whole empire of them".
Jack looked down at the folder, full of text detailing all they knew of these Goa'uld, "nah too much of a mouthful, Gould, there that's better", he wondered where they got all this info, a quick flick of pages revealed the answer, someone they picked up on a random planet.
"Do we believe this source?, seems far-fetched"
"We can't afford not to, were operating completely in the dark here" Hammond answered him, "Look son, this could all be a lie, do you want to find out?"
Jack decided he did.
Great Pyramid
Abydos
Admiral Borman stood beside Colonel Méndez, both men watching Dr. Jackson talking to their new guest, Quinta, on the security monitors.
"Commander Carter says she should have the translation program ready in an hour" Borman was telling Méndez, thus far Dr. Jackson was the only way to communicate with Quinta.
"Tell me about the weapon they found with him" Borman asked.
"As far as we can tell its some kind of sidearm, we test fired it a few times, it shot bolts of electricity, didn't seem to need ammo or recharging" Méndez scratched his beard, "As far as looks go, I see the similarities to the gear we recovered from Ra's men, its definitely made by the same people in my opinion".
"Hmm, makes you wonder where a supposed farmer came across it, or how he's so well informed about these Goa'uld".
Borman considered it for a few minutes before calling for Dr. Jackson, they were setup outside the pyramid in a newly shipped in prefab building, they were keeping their guest under guard in the pyramid itself, he didn't trust their new guest just yet.
A few moments later Dr. Jackson entered their portacabin, his excitement palpable.
"Find out anything Dr?" Borman asked
"Lots, especially on the structure of Goa'uld language, but I imagine your not interested in that" he took off his glasses to wipe away the dust, "I've learned more about these other Goa'uld, the System Lords"
Daniel took a seat, "Apophis and Heru'ur, these two are the immediate concern to us, Apophis is Ra's brother, Heru'ur his son, they are the most likely to absorb Ra's territory's"
"Quinta told me the Goa'uld impersonate gods, in this case the Egyptian ones, we can't confirm if this is true or the Egyptian mythology is based on the Goa'uld, not that it matters, but it gives us a starting point to investigate them, if the mythlogy has any basis in truth it might help us understand the Goa'uld better". Daniel reached for the pitcher of water after finishing, pouring a drink for himself.
"I'll tell the intel people to start there, but we need real info, fleet numbers, planets, population and industrial capacity".
"I've never interrogated someone Admiral, I'm trying to build a rapport" Daniel protested, heat entering his voice.
"Right, sorry" Borman placated Jackson, realising he was still a civilian, he put his hand on Daniels shoulder, "Look Dr, these Goa'uld are the biggest threat to Earth right now, we killed their leader, if they find out…" he trailed off, letting the implication hit Dr. Jackson.
Daniel nodded, "I'll try to ask, Quinta definitely knows more than he's telling us, I think he's some kind of resistance fighter"
Borman suspected the same thing, the weapon, the info, it fit.
…...
Jolinar sat in thought, thinking of the best way to reveal her true self without drawing a negative reaction, she was leaning towards just revealing it, her nature, but nothing else about the Tok'ra, the council wouldn't appreciate her revealing anything.
Better let slip the ashrak after her before it bit her in the posterior too.
She took the time after Jackson had left to go over her thoughts on these new humans, clearly advanced but not as much as others, the Hebridian's were ahead for one, their security guaranteed by Goa'uld infighting, it would take a system lord's whole force to destroy them, leaving them vulnerable to other Goa'uld taking their undefended territory.
These new humans had firearms, a common invention for unmolested cultures, these ones looked more advanced than the usual though, the damage she observed on the Goa'uld infested Ramirez was evidence of that.
She saw some type of computer equipment, most human cultures being destroyed before they get that far, but that was the extent of what she knew, not even where they were from, it was obvious that the pyramid had been recently inhabited by them, this world unlikely to be their home world.
They left her in this room, guards outside, a small metal table with a glass container of water on top, she drank some, it was cleaner than any she had outside of a Tok'ra base, they hadn't restrained her since the first time, not that she was contemplating escape at the moment.
Dr. Jackson finally returned, seating himself across the table from her.
"My superiors want more detailed information, hard numbers on Goa'uld ships and territory"
They must have suspected she knew more than was said, no farmer would know that information, she decided it was time to reveal some truths.
"Dr. Jackson let me tell you about the Tok'ra, they work against the Goa'uld, rebels in a way"
"Tok'ra? That translates to against Ra right?" he asked
"Yes the Tok'ra work against the supreme system lord Ra and all his underlings, but you must understand, not all symbiotes are evil, some work with their hosts, granting long life and health" he looked intrigued so she continued.
"The Tok'ra were formed by these rebel symbiotes, led by their queen Egeria, they work to free the humans of the galaxy from the Goa'uld".
"I think I see where this is going, are you saying your one of these Tok'ra?" his tone more cautious now.
She nodded, "Yes I am, I hope my trust in you is rewarded, revealing my nature could be fatal". She left unsaid that Egeria wasn't her progenitor, she rebelled on her own.
He took off his glasses and rubbed his temples, "That's a lot to take in, but I believe your intentions, I'm willing to extend some trust, I can't speak for the others though, they'll take some convincing"
"I'll endeavour to gain their trust then, I can reveal more information about the goa'uld, put you in contact with some of my sources in their hierarchy, slaves and Jaffa, but I won't reveal any information about the Tok'ra", she hoped the information would be enough, offering technology would need approval from the council, she hadn't been in contact with them for some time, afraid to lead the ashrak right back to them.
"There are other advanced human cultures out there too, as long as the goa'uld don't find them, they don't tolerate competition to their rule" They usually ended up as slaves or dead, the Goa'uld scavenging anything of value and destroying the rest.
"There's something else too, I am being perused by an assassin, an Ashrak, highly trained Goa'uld assassins, nearly unstoppable, I was hiding on Nasya, the world where you found me". She wondered what became of her old host Rosha, they went their separate ways in the hopes of better evading the ashrak.
"Great, a super assassin too, will it be able to find you here?"
"I removed our coming here from the stargate, but ashrak's never stop, he will come eventually" They found her before, she hoped she was safe here, "I can tell you all I know of Ashrak's, in case they can follow".
"I have to talk to my superiors, they'll need to hear all this".
…..
"So, he's one of those parasites too?" Méndez said, Daniel having just informed him and the admiral.
"So they claim, we can have the doc's scan him later, in chains or not is the question right now" Borman was conflicted, should they trust the intentions of a self proclaimed parasite, even if it claimed to help fight the Goa'uld.
"Admiral, I talked to Ra, he was a megalomaniac, evil, Quinta, I don't get that vibe, I believe he's being honest, the Tok'ra are real" Daniel did his best to convince him, he turned to Méndez.
"Juan, what do you think".
Méndez stood and paced, "Honestly, I think we should drag that thing out the back and blow its brains out, but I realise the opportunity this is if its all legit, we can give it some rope, see if it's telling the truth, if not it'll hang".
"Alright Dr. Jackson, I can talk to Earth, get them onboard" he turned to look towards the pyramid, "it's a massive intelligence coup if it's real, lets hope we're not being duped".
He sat down, "Juan, increase security around the pyramid, especially the gate if all this assassin talk is real"
"As soon as Carter's translator is done we're going to have a conversation with our guest"
Pluto Station
Sol System
The next day
Jack tugged at his new uniform, he was now in the Union Marine Corps, all stargate operations were now a union show, the American government had ensured all the top positions were filled by their people though, he heard through the military grapevine that the folding of the national space forces into one organisation was being accelerated, and now even ground forces were being formed into one.
Greater unity, what a joke, it took genocidal robots for the first bit of world unity to come about, and now parasitic aliens had sped that process up, he just thought the powers that be were afraid of things they couldn't control.
He was walking from General Hammond's office to the briefing room, they had been discussing future team compositions, who to recruit, he had some people in mind already.
He didn't expect his new post to be on a space station, they had moved the stargate here shortly after the Prometheus expedition had left, there was even talk of moving operations further away, to Abydos or the newly discovered world they had found, but that was going to take time.
Pluto station didn't even exist a few months ago, quickly put together after America revealed the stargate to the council, after the first failed trip to Abydos, it was amazing how quickly they could throw things together now, the flat disk of a station still expanding, frameworks visible through exterior windows.
He finally reached the briefing room, General Hammond entering behind him, he sat down near the end of the oblong table facing the screen at the other side of the room.
Others filed in, Jack saw Colonel Maybourne, the local spook and other new team leaders like Major Boyd, and Major Davis the intel officer here to give the breifing.
General Hammond sat down before them, starting the briefing.
"We'll go over the new intelligence we have later, first I want to go over the makeup of our new stargate teams, we expect to run into other human cultures as well as the goa'uld", Hammond paused.
"We're going to run two types of units, exploration and diplomacy teams, they'll contact other cultures and perform scouting operations, the other units will be combat formations, we're looking into procuring vehicles that will fit through the gate to supplement them" He turned to Jack.
"Colonel O'Neill will run our flagship team SG-1, we're still looking for candidates but they will be an exploration team, with all that entails, including diplomacy" Jack had some ideas for a member with a diplomatic inclination, an expert at languages too.
"Colonel Zukhov's team for example" Hammond motioned towards the Russian team leader, "will be combat focused, such teams will generally be larger and field heavier weaponry".
"We expect to begin operations in a month, make sure all positions are filled before then" Jack felt that last bit was directed at him, it wasn't his fault they still hadn't recovered the Antarctic gate yet, he had some people on Abydos to talk to.
"Alright, now that that's out of the way, Major Davis you can start"
"Thank you Sir" Major Davis stood up and cleared his throat.
"We'll go over the latest intel we received from Abydos later, first I want to go over efforts on Earth" he turned on the screen.
"Ever since the stargate was revealed to the council we had teams going over every archive looking for information that may be related to it, and we found some".
The screen showed some old looking footage, black and white, the stargate itself was present in it, a man wearing a diving suit had gone through and that was it.
Major Davis continued, "This was Dr. Ernest Littlefield, apparently they got the stargate working back in 1945, we've been able to recover the address they manually entered into the gate and cross checked with the addresses found on Abydos, it wasn't there"
"We since tried dialling but were unable to connect, the current plan is to have returning Prometheus expedition ships swing by on the way back to Earth, we were able to calculate the position to roughly 500 light years from Earth, between us and Abydos"
Over a hundred years ago, Jack thought, there was no way he was still alive now.
"Another major discovery was this" A new image appeared, Jack recognised it as the pedestal device used to dial the stargate at Abydos.
"The Russian's recovered this during the end of world war 2 from the Nazi's, we suspect it was the one belonging to the gate found at Giza, we've taken to calling it the DHD, dial home device"
"Thank you Major Davis, Colonel Maybourne you may begin" Hammond waved Maybourne up.
He gave Jack a slimy feel, he didn't like his smirk.
"Thank you General", Maybourne began, "After receiving the information about the Goa'uld from Abydos we ran it through our own databases, we actually got some hits" the screen changed to show some compound somewhere.
"In 1999, the ATF surrounded this building in Seattle, it belonged to the cult of Seth, long story short, all the cultists died during the firefight as the ATF stormed the building, there was a bomb set off, they found Seth escaping through the forest out back, they nailed him in the head" The image changed to a body on an autopsy table.
"Normally another branch davidian scandal would have been all over the news but then this came up" The image changed to a close-up of the body's head, already cut open, the unmistakable form of a snakelike creature was visible inside, a gunshot wound nearly severing it in half.
"The CIA got wind of this somehow and buried it, they still had the body on ice and a bunch of recovered artifacts, they're being transported here asap" The image now showing the artifacts in question, the now known Zat'nik'tel and staff weapons of the Gould and the disassembled form of a ring transporter.
Hammond now spoke up, "This is important people, it means the Goa'uld were still on Earth, the Union has already started screening everyone for possible infestation".
It wouldn't surprise Jack if the Council were snakes already.
Great Pyramid
Abydos
Borman was about to have his first face to face conversation with their guest, they learned her name was Jolinar, the symbiote identifying as female, and the host was Quinta, she had already gave them lots of information on the Goa'uld, they were looking at a fleet size of thousands of capital ships, thousands of planets across these system lords, thousands of light years of territory, possibly trillions of slaves and Jaffa.
The numbers were already giving him a headache, the Goa'uld had a massive advantage before they even got to the technological disadvantage Earth had compared to them, Jolinar giving some details on their ship systems, energy weapons and shields, things from the realm of science fiction a few short months ago, unfortunately hard numbers were still unknown, Jolinar only knowing so much.
Goa'uld biology was another topic discussed with her, their ability to enhance their host's past human limits, extend lifespan and even enhance intelligence, they saw that last one first hand, Jolinar learning English very fast once the translator was working for a few hours, another few days and she would be able to hold full conversations with people.
They had moved her into a furnished room outside the pyramid, another prefab building they shipped over, they had a few set up for the archaeologists studying the place, he also decided to reduce the guards around her, he was willing to extend some latitude her way as a show of trust, especially after the info she gave them, even the pencil pushers back on Earth were with him on that.
They still needed to confirm whether all of that was true though, Jolinar told them she had contacts among the Goa'uld's slave and Jaffa populations she was willing to put them in contact with, that would have to wait till the stargate teams were ready, still about a month away, she wasn't willing to reveal any other Tok'ra spies though, or any of their bases, he understood but it was still problematic.
He had also received new marching orders from Earth, some new planet they discovered between here and Earth, he had a look at the maps earlier, it was a few hundred light years off the direct path back home, it would add a few jumps to the journey but nothing too bad, they were leaving when the first freighter was full of ore, about two weeks from now, they'd leave a cruiser and most of the destroyers and frigates behind.
Those orders were part of the reason he was on the way to talk to her today, the powers on Earth realising they needed allies.
Once he was back on Earth, he'd soon after be heading to the unknown to find the colonies, and if they were still there, he hoped they had won the war.
Jolinar had mentioned other advanced human societies in her earlier interviews, so he was going to find out as much as he could about them, they needed every ally they could find right now.
The jeep taking him to the pyramid finally stopped, Borman opening the door to a blast of heat, quickly stepping out and making for the prefab building where they had setup the interview room, he moved quick to get back into the cool conditioned air.
Dr. Jackson and Jolinar were already deep in conversation when he entered, Jackson speaking the Goa'uld language like a native, the translator on the desk turned off, he heard that Jackson had been offered a place on one of the stargate teams, Commander Carter too.
"Anything interesting Doctor?" he asked as he sat down, quickly downing a nearby glass of water, that heat was something else, there was a reason he stayed on the ship.
"Ah, I was just talking to Quinta, he was telling me about life on his planet, before the Goa'uld ruined his life anyway"
"Right, anyway lets get this started"
…..
Jolinar took over, making sure to indicate to the two humans as she did so, glowing eyes and distorted voice, she was Tok'ra but she wasn't above Goa'uld dramatics, it was funny sometimes.
She took a moment to observe the human leader, ageing and bald, but he had spine, she could see it in his eyes, the determination to succeed, to win.
Dr. Jackson reached over to turn on the translation device, it was more advanced than most human cultures she encountered could produce, a product of a highly technical society, full voice translation and all in the size of a small black rectangle.
"Jolinar I assume?" the new man asked, "I'm Admiral James Borman, leader of this operation"
"Greetings, yes I am Jolinar, my host is the one you know as Quinta, I hear you have some questions for me"
"Yes, specifically about other human cultures"
"Before we begin Admiral, I do appreciate the new quarters, but I have to ask when I will be released?"
He frowned slightly at that question, "I assumed you wanted refuge from that assassin after you?"
"Correct Admiral, but I want to make sure we understand each other, eventually I must return to the Tok'ra, I have been out of touch with the council for too long as it is, at some point I will have to return"
He nodded to her, "Yes I understand, we won't keep you against your will, in fact we want you to initiate contact with the Tok'ra for us, when you feel the time is right, we hope to show you how we can help"
She considered it, she had no objections herself but convincing the high council was another matter, they didn't think highly of advanced human societies, too hard to control.
"I can bring that message to the Tok'ra, Admiral, whether they'll listen is another matter, but I'm far from ready to return to them, not with that ashrak still around, I must say though, I still know little of your people, this is clearly not your home planet, I saw the natives and they are not as advanced as you"
He shrugged, "It's hard to trust someone you just met, especially if they're the same species that takes over human bodies and enslaves the rest, but we are sincere in our effort to gain that trust with you, eventually we will let you know all about us"
She accepted that argument, she took her time to trust too, time would tell in the end.
"Very well Admiral, you wanted to know about advanced human cultures, useful allies to pursue, I will tell you all I know"
Both the Admiral and Dr. Jackson leaded forward, she had their attention now.
"We'll start small, not a nation, a man, Ma'chello, long a thorn in the Goa'uld side, he lead a major rebellion against the system lord Ares but was captured and tortured, he managed to escape and conducted many attacks against the Goa'uld in the time after, he was nearly as notorious as myself"
She paused for a moment, remembering.
"He has in the past supplied the Tok'ra with anti Goa'uld weapons, which I imagine will interest you the most, but he hasn't been heard from in some time, I don't know if he still lives, I still remember some addresses where we used to conduct business with his followers"
"Those addresses would be welcome, we can send some teams to try and make contact", the admiral said.
"The most well known advanced humans are the Tollan and the Hebridians, the Tollan have weapons to easily defeat Goa'uld Ha'tak's but otherwise stay on their world, the system lords are unwilling to lose too many ships attacking them, it would leave them vulnerable to their rivals"
"The Hebridian's technology is not as powerful as the Tollan but they have a large defence fleet, likewise the Goa'uld leave them alone, for now", She remembered that the Hebridians had an alien population too, best to tell them now.
"The Hebridian's are a mixed species nation, composed of humans and the reptilian Serrakin, they also have several colony words under their control"
"Unlike the insular Tollan the Hebridian's are a mercantile society, they might be willing to sell you technology but I severely doubt they will offer any other help, and the Tollan are likely to ignore you entirely"
"Unfortunately while they are known to the Goa'uld and Tok'ra both, I personally don't know their gate addresses, I only know their general position in space"
"It's better than nothing, we'll see how far away they are", the Admiral mused.
"There is one other human nation known to me, the Aschen, I stumbled upon one of their worlds some time ago, but I quickly left, even to me they seemed off, I did not want to wait around to find out more" She looked up in thought, "They had some advanced technology, to what extent I do not know, the world I visited was used for farming, there were only a few examples of it"
"They gave you a bad vibe?" Dr. Jackson asked.
"Vibe, yes that works, I only interacted with the farmer's, they were ignorant of the greater Aschen confederation, their overseers floated above them in a ship of some type, the farmer's revered them, told me they had been saved by the Aschen, it reminded me of fanatical Goa'uld slaves, true believers"
"We'll have to investigate them anyway, I'll tell command to be cautious"
"Do so" She contained her annoyance, Goa'uld instincts still crept through sometimes.
"As I was saying, those are the advanced human societies I know of, there are more than that, and many more primitive worlds, abandoned by the Goa'uld when their usefulness comes to an end"
She saw their interest in those abandoned worlds, "Is that common, Goa'uld abandoning worlds?" Jackson asked.
"Yes, usually when the naquadah mines run dry, they'll occasionally raid them for slaves though, mostly they are primitive and offer their people willingly, believing the Goa'uld are real gods"
"Any who resist are destroyed by the Jaffa, like Quinta's people?" Jackson asked.
"Sometimes, mostly the Goa'uld leave survivors, allowing the population to recover from the reprisal, farming your people like cattle, there are many such worlds, too many to count really"
"This information will be useful, especially those stargate addresses, thank you"
"You can thank me by hurting the system lords Admiral"
Great Pyramid
Hidden room
They found the room using laser scanners and ground penetrating radar, it wasn't long before they found a way inside, the interior covered with the wealth of ages, gold and jewels on every surface, the text on the walls inlaid with gold.
Chad found himself currently guarding that room, the engineers had looked and decided that it needed shoring up before anyone was let inside, so here he was standing outside, bored.
"Thompson, Do Not Touch Anything in There" he recalled Sgt. Brown's order, he was very explicit.
Still, he saw a huge ruby in there, as big as his head, it was on top of some kind of pedestal, as big around as a man and as high as his chest, with strange runes carved into it's surface, he so wanted to touch it, it was calling to him.
He contemplated fishing his pad out and reading again, he was reading another Battle tech book, this one about the end of the Star League and operation EXODUS, he was tempted but didn't want another earful from the sergeant.
He was still on light duty so they had provided him a chair at least, he still got tired easily just from standing, even with all the exercises they had him doing.
Flint had gone off to take a piss, his boot steps echoing around on the stone floor, Chad thought it was now or never, creeping into the room, following the siren call of the huge ruby, it's facets reflecting the room in shades of red.
His hand reached out towards the gem, fingers brushing it's smooth surface, suddenly a shock travelled through him, like touching an electric fence, he pulled his hand away shaking it, "Damn thing, that stung", he felt a chill in the room, shivering he quickly returned to his post, hearing Flint coming back.
He still felt the chill, Flint looking at him, "You alright dude, looks like you saw a ghost", Chad shook his head, "I'm fine, just tired", as he said that he was hit by a wave of fatigue, almost like a dizzy spell, "I'm going to sit down for awhile, rest my eyes for a sec, wake me if Brown shows up".
"Alright man, not for too long though"
Chad nodded and sat down, closing his eyes and leaning against the wall, it wasn't long before sleep had it's grip on him, then the Dream began.
The Dream
Chad was in darkness, he felt like he was floating in the void, before long he felt a pull, a sensation of rapid movement and then there was light again.
His sight returned, it felt like he was looking through someone else's eyes, he had no control over anything, the surreal feeling returned, the dreamlike quality as sound came to him, he felt his thoughts pushed aside, becoming a passenger in someone else's body.
"All ships report ready, General"
"Jump core fully charged"
"All docking collars secured, drop ships at jump stations"
Aleksandr Kerensky took a look at the star map, they were about to leave New Samarkand and begin their journey away from the corruption of the sphere, hopefully to rebuild one day and return, remove the corrupt great houses, the scavengers that they were, rebuild the Star League.
He turned to his long time friend, Aaron DeChavilier, "This is it, no return, I still wonder if this is the right thing to do"
"Don't worry, we'll be back, the damage has already been done, the great houses will expend themselves fighting over the remains of the League, they'll be no match for our descendants"
"I hope your right old friend"
They were ready, he gave the order to begin.
"Jump in ten seconds"
Kerensky kept his eyes on the crew of the McKenna's Pride, consummate professionals all of them, he watched as the clock counted down, 5, 4, they had a long journey ahead.
3
2
1
The whole fleet disappeared in a flash, gone on the first leg of their journey.
The instant of the jump was the worst experience Kerensky ever felt, projectile vomit spewing from the crews mouths, his too, his head pounding, pools of vomit floating through the air, he tried to keep his eyes open, the ship vibrating around them, it was too much, unconsciousness claimed him.
Chad felt himself rushing away, the nausea following him back to awareness, his eyes opened to Flint shaking him, he got a face full of puke for his efforts, Chad falling to his knees to vomit his lunch onto the dusty stone floor.
"Chad, what's wrong" Flint had taken a handkerchief and wiped his face, "I'm getting the medic", Chad blearily looked up as Flint ran down the corridor, he then fell face first into the pool of his own vomit, eyes rolling up into his head, unconsciousness followed.
Outside the Pyramid
Interview room
"I have many contacts, Admiral, it's part of my job as a spy" Jolinar spoke, "among the Jaffa, human slaves and even Goa'uld themselves, mostly the technical and merchant class"
"Technical and merchants?" he asked
"Surprised, most Goa'uld are not system lords, most of them are the technicians and commanders of the Goa'uld empire, and the facilitators of trade, governors of worlds, you get the idea"
"I see, anyway lets get back to these contacts you have, you offered to put us in touch with them?"
"Yes, some of them, I know of a Jaffa warrior you would want to meet, others would be harder to arrange" She paused "Some of them believe me a Goa'uld, they wont be included"
"Lets move on then, we can go over this contact when our gate teams are ready" he wrote in his notepad, still preferring paper over digital.
"What about technology, can you provide assistance?"
"The short answer is no, I will need approval from the Tok'ra high council" she shook her host's head, "even though Goa'uld have a genetic memory I'm not a scientist, I could reproduce their technology with their tools, any other help would need professionals, like Anise".
"I will mention one thing though, the Tok'ra have access to technology to safely remove a symbiote, I'm afraid any attempts you make yourself will lead to the death of the host"
Any further discussion was stopped as the guard outside opened the door, "Admiral, there's a call for you".
He acknowledged the soldier, "I'll be right there", he turned to Jolinar, "we'll have to cut this short, I'll talk to my superiors, speed up getting you clearance, I'm satisfied about your sincerity"
She bowed her head, "It is appreciated Admiral, safe travels"
He excused himself and left the room, Dr. Jackson staying, a short walk saw him in the command post for the pyramid, a radio handset waiting for him.
"Borman here, what the issue"
"Sir, we just detected a ship jumping into the system"
He frowned, was it the Goa'uld?
"Did you get an ID?"
"No sir, it's jumped in too far out for our sensors, we were lucky the Intrepid picked it up as is"
"Put the fleet on alert, I'm returning right now"