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Chapter 3: A Sith in Lady Kali's court

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Part 3

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Slavna Zemq

Perun's throne world

Milky Way Galaxy

Fucking oil! I should have seen that coming! Earth of this ear, the USA in particular... of course, oil would be somehow involved! However, spending decades in a galaxy that used sensible power sources, made me forget that Earth of this era was stuck relying primarily on fossil fuels. Building the infrastructure for storing oil, and distributing it to thousands of tractors, and mining machines, was out of the question. That would be true even if I went with the deceptively cheapest and most unreliable option – buy fuel from Earth. The other option, - developing extraction, refining, and distribution infrastructure from scratch. Of course, doing that in the first place would largely defeat the point of buying equipment from Earth – I wanted to save time and industrial capacity for other projects!

Depending on if the Tau'ri could come in with a useful enough electrical engine or not soon enough, I might have to bite the bullet. Like it or not, I might have to pay the full price for modern Serrakin equipment. At least, in that case, there should be no trouble powering up the equipment.

Anyway, that mess was out of my hands for now, so I could focus on other issues.

While my scouts did find more lucrative targets to hit, doing so right now wasn't wise. I needed to wait for my Legionaries, and already captured loot to leave quarantine. That, among other things, would release my available safe storage facilities, so they can receive new loot for examination.

My Jaffa training continued apace, my uplift program was plodding slowly forward, slowed down by lack of qualified personnel.

That left me with my self-imposed overseer duties, which nowadays I had mostly delegated to my Heralds, and setting up the foundation for future growth. Unfortunately, for many of the ideas I had or wanted to explore, I would need competent R&D teams, including an engineering corps. The latter was going to build prototypes for field testing, as well as did their best to figure out engineering issues.

Over the preceding months, I finally got Lyda and her host properly subverted, and the same was true for my Majordomo, who fed Kali what information I allowed. The above, and completing my lightsaber, actually left me with a bit of unexpected free time.

The answer to this unexpected boon was to go retrieve my to-do list, and check what was next on it. As I knew, much of what needed doing simply wasn't feasible to pursue at this time.

That brought me back to the issue of oversight. Barring a disaster, my realm was going to grow up a lot. I needed a way to keep a rein on my future subjects, especially the Jaffa, and various Goa'uld. I needed to make sure that people followed my orders. Those who intentionally shrunk their duties would be promptly discovered and disciplined.

For the time being, my Heralds did a lot of that job. Unfortunately, in the future, my Heralds were going to be busy with their primary duties as my representatives and military commanders.

I needed a new branch among what passed for my government. I also needed a new High Priests, however, after what happened to the last one, strangely enough, there weren't many volunteers that I approved of.

Thinking about the issues at hand, something prickled at the back of my head. It was as if I'd seen, or read about the answer, yet I simply couldn't recall it. That sensation made up for a frustrating and unproductive evening.

The next morning I was in no better mood, however, I got a distraction. My cloaked Al'kesh finally got to their destination, managed to contact my scouts on the ground, and had a report ready.

So far my Legionaries managed to remain undiscovered. They had many reports ready for me. The downside was that they were running out of provisions. Scavenging, or hunting for food was a good way for the enemy to discover their presence.

The current state of affairs, while expected, sped up my timetable. As soon as I could go over the intelligence windfall, I would be issuing orders to Stephan to update our assault plans, and finally go visit Kali.

I had access to passive sensor records, camera records from both the Al'kesh and the scouts, as long as their observation on enemy routines gathered over the last couple of weeks.

There were already twenty thousand hostile Jaffa on site. They were midway through building four pyramids to serve as landing pads. There were also brand new warehouses near each of those sites to resupply whatever space assets Ba'al sent all the way here. Further, the sheer amount of Jaffa forward-deployed this far out, meant that Ba'al would use at least some of them for deep strikes within Kali's domain. At the same time, he would be launching real and spoiling attacks from Stargates in his domain.

Another option was practicality. Why fill the cargo holds of capital ships with Jaffa for months on end when you can use a Stargate to forward deploy them? That way, they could keep themselves both sharp through training and in high spirits. On second thought, it was entirely possible that many of those Jaffa would board the fleet and deploy as a space-borne invasion force.

I was looking at least four capital ships, with their small craft components, an unknown number of Cheops escorts, and perhaps Tel'taks to bring in more troops and supplies. Ba'al had only a few scouts deployed near the gate. Obviously, he didn't want a brief visit to give up his presence. Until, and unless that changed, my forces should be able to secure a beachhead without having to fight their way through enemy defenses.

After I finally finished absorbing the reports, I busied myself crafting a comprehensive briefing for Kali. By the time I finished, it would be complete with viable options to ruin this part of Ba'al's strategy, whatever it was.

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Part 4

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Kalighat

Lady Kali's throne world

Milky Way galaxy

I walked out of the Stargate, right into a well-prepared kill zone. Two groups of twenty Jaffa, with closed skull-shaped helmets, flanked a long, paved road leading to the stone platform holding the gate. Beyond them, I could see low buildings with various weapon emplacements on them, all pointed at the vague direction of the gate. The elevated positions held at least a handful of Jaffa each.

At least six distinct groups of people waited for their turn to use the Stargate to leave. A small merchant caravan made its way into a square set to the side, where more Jaffa began inspecting its contents as soon as they got the pack animals and carts out of the way.

"My Lord, your name, and reason to visit Lady Kali's throne world?" A bored-sounding voice asked from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder to see a Prime flanked by two more helmeted Jaffa.

"Lord Perun, in service of our Lady Kali, with a small honor guard." I introduced myself, with a small nod to the four Custodes behind me. "I'm here to bring our Lady important news."

"Every minor god who passes through this gate comes in bringing vital news, or gifts. You'll need more than that if you want an audience with our Lady, my Lord Perun." The Jaffa sounded that he had already given this same speech a few dozen times today alone.

"Does an incursion in our realms by a hostile Goa'uld sound important enough?"

"If what you say is true, then it is. Jaffa, Kree! Escort Lord Perun to an audience with Lady Kali!" The Prime barked, and ten Jaffa marched forth from behind the gate. A glance that way revealed a small staging ground where at least a hundred more Jaffa milled around, talking quietly, eating or polished their equipment.

"Lead the way, Jaffa." I nodded politely to our escort and followed them into the bustling metropolis that was Kali's domain.

Before we got to a ring platform, I could only get small glimpses of the city around us. By my conservative estimate, it held at least as many people as my whole throne world. We passed by a few checkpoints, went right by a colorful bazaar chock-full with people from at least ten different realms if the various clashing clothing styles were anything by, then the Jaffa led us into a courtyard of a nearby military facility. There was a bunch of young Jaffa training in melee combat with staffs on the right side, while the left was cordoned off. A flash of light from above had a set of rings slam down, followed by a second flash. The rings then went into the ground, revealing an unfamiliar female Goa'uld surrounded by four much taller Jaffa. She strutted away followed by her security detail, and our guides ushered us into the transport platform. Kali's Jaffa took position beside us, and their leader activated a device strapped to his forearm. Two sets of rings jumped up, surrounding us, energy washed over us, and then there was a brief moment of vertigo, followed by discontinuity. Yet another flash followed, and we stood on a metal floor within a not particularly large, closed-off room.

"Hold still." Our chief guide said and activated the ring system again.

This time we appeared into the secure courtyard of a massive palace, nestled in a valley between tall, mist-covered mountains.

There were no mountains in sight anywhere near the city with the gate. If I was a betting man, I would say that we weren't on the same continent. Short of a proper planet killer, nothing sent through the gate would endanger Kali over here in a timely fashion. In contrast, this wasn't a luxury I could afford on my throne world. I had very few settlements away from the densely populated cluster around the gates. I wouldn't be surprised if Kali's throne world alone held more people than my whole realm combined.

If this wasn't enough to put things into perspective, I didn't know what would be.

The palace was chock-full with servants running errands, or busy keeping it in pristine condition. There were a lot of skull-heads I could see, however, they all had only staff weapons and the odd Zat I could see. Goa'uld wearing rich clothes moved all over the place as well. They were often alone, though usually, a small Jaffa escort accompanied them. Speaking about the Jaffa, many of them also carried at least a handful of stone tablets. Either that or rolls of intricately bound parchment – the preferred way to bring edicts to your heralds for further dissemination.

Our guides led us to a long and wide corridor, almost fully full with petitioners awaiting their turn for an audience with Kali. Their leader bid us wait, and walked past the crowd. A look around revealed walls lined up with small alcoves containing colorful marble statues. The smell of burning incense and herbs permeated the air.

The Jaffa soon came back and bid us follow. "I hope for your sake, Lord, that your message is important enough. Lady Kali doesn't suffer liars to darken her doorstep." He warned me, puffing with pride.

"I'm not here to waste our Lady's time." I shot back, earning myself a small nod of approval.

We walked past the petitioners, including groups of impatient Goa'uld, who threw me in particular, all kinds of dirty looks.

We soon entered a large audience chamber, lit up by golden braziers holding glowing crystals. In the far end of the chamber stood an elevated platform. It held a large, ornately carved throne, richly decorated with gems, and gleaming rose petals made of pure silver. Kali herself wore a form-fitting purple dress. It shimmered with embroidered silver and gold vines entwining together into glimmering tree branches covered in sapphire leaves, that gave the impression they held her breasts. A transparent veil of pearls covered her lower face, hiding little. Her dark eyes haughtily studied the various people who came bearing gifts and carrying grievances to be resolved. Naturally, almost all of the latter were Goa'uld, or high ranked Jaffa in Kali's employ.

"Lord Perun, we haven't seen you in five hundred years." A honeyed voice hushed all sounds within the audience chamber. Kali's eyes stared at me glimmering with interest. A slender long finger beckoned me to come closer.

Come closer, said the spider to the fly…

"My Lady Kali," I offered my best court bow. I slowly and confidently waked forth until I reached a respectful distance from the podium with her throne. "I only wish we met again under happier circumstances."

"You claim to bear ill tidings, Lord Perun. Speak."

I looked around. "Do you want them presented to your whole court?"

Kali's eyes slightly narrowed at me. So much for keeping Ba'al in the dark about discovering he was up to no good.

"Some time ago, I dispatched scouts to evaluate the various abandoned world in the vicinity of my domain, Lady Kali. To my utter surprise, they found a large contingent of Ba'al's Jaffa setting up a base of operations on one of these worlds. I've brought recordings from my Jaffa on the ground and written reports on the intruders' activity over the last couple of weeks. As of yesterday, I have passive sensor data, and long-range camera recordings from two cloaked Al'kesh, I dispatched to the system in question. My Jaffa," I nodded at my honor guard, "have copies of all the intelligence I have, along with a comprehensive briefing on the situation on the ground as of twelve hours ago."

Now I had everyone's undivided attention, including that of all spies in the audience chamber.

"Jaffa, Kree!" Kali's voice snapped like a whip. "Prime Sanga, seal the palace. No one in this chamber leaves without my permission. Lord Perun, follow me, and bring your intelligence."

Kali stood up and walked towards a small door behind the podium. Immediately, a cluster of Jaffa surrounded her, while our guides bid us follow them. Thus far, Kali displayed an amount of competence, and foresight I didn't expect from a System Lord. This meeting was going to be even more dangerous than I anticipated.

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