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Chapter 3: A Sith in Lady Kali's court
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Part 7
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Kalighat
Lady Kali's throne world
Milky Way galaxy
"I know death, Lady Kali. It holds no fear to me. And I wouldn't be here if I believed your people could capture me in a state, where resurrection would be possible."
"Such, arrogance. You believe that!" Kali's amused laughter rang throughout the room.
"While I didn't come here intending to die, such an outcome is a distinct possibility." I shrugged. "It all depends on how sure you're in your power base, my Lady Kali. Am I a threat enough to warrant destruction, or am I an opportunity?"
"Why did you come in the first place then?" Kali demanded.
"Ba'al succeeding in either dethroning or killing you, is not in my best interest, my Lady. Your very existence shields my realm, as inconsequential as it might be. Let's say, I've lost my mind, and I move against you." I spoke, fishing through the Force for a way that ended with me walking out of here a free man. "Let's say that I'm an assassin. We fight, right here and now, and I somehow come up on top, bringing you down."
As I spoke, Kali's Jaffa all tensed and were a hair-breadth away from springing at me. Kali herself, subtly shifted her stance, presenting a smaller profile. She was tense as well, like a wild cat ready to pounce.
"What am I going to do then? I am a minor Goa'uld, who has no vast armies or fleets. I have won no victories against your Jaffa, Lady Kali," My lips quirked at that, "this little sparring match doesn't count in the grand scheme of things. I am not a warlord famous for my victories, neither am I a powerful, well-known Lord with a large and prosperous realm. I cannot usurp your position! Trying to do it means that every minion of worth you have comes after me, aiming to avenge you, and use that as a foundation to attempt and seize your vacant position. Then there are the other System Lords. While they would love to take advantage of the opportunity to divide your realm among themselves, they can't let such a precedent stand. A no one, killing one of your exalted numbers, and being rewarded by taking their place?" I shook my head at that. "Killing you is the last thing I desire, my Lady Kali."
"You speak sense." Eventually, Kali admitted. Something shifted in her stance, and her eyes stared at me with interest. "As long as you aren't an assassin sent by one of my rivals."
"Like that prick Ba'al." I nodded in agreement.
"Yes, him." Kali's pearl scarf shifted when her lips twisted in distaste. "What am I to do with you, hm?"
The Dark Side sang through me, and I gave Kali a look full of dark promises.
"I can think of a few things…" I trailed off suggestively.
"You overstep your bounds." Kali declared with little heat.
"And you're less bored than you have been in a very long time, aren't you, my Lady Kali?" I reposed. "You know what I offer. I am well aware of our strategic situation. Without your wise alliance with Lady Bastet, the odds are great, neither of us would be alive to have this conversation."
"You know what they say about offers too good to be true, don't you?" Kali spoke in a voice like sweet poison.
What's with me ending dealing with all the crazies?
"It's not like I'm offering better weapons and training for your Jaffa of the goodness of my heart." I honestly chuckled at that. Ideally, I would have offered such a deal, only at a time and place, when my position was more secure.
"That you don't. I'm almost inclined to offer you a chance to get yourself killed. Yet, something tells me, you might just live up to your boasts. What am I going to do with you then?"
"I would enjoy an appropriate reward, and then we can negotiate a new deal, my Lady Kali, once I've proven that I know what I'm talking about."
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"You ask for mercy, and reward for services rendered, yet you keep showing such impudence." Kali felt torn. On one hand, a minor Goa'uld, one of her own, no less, not showing the right amount of groveling and deference, grated on her. On the other hand, it has been some time, someone showed such spine in front of her, no matter how unwise it was.
"Do you expect me to grovel at your feet and ask for treats like a pet? I'm a warrior, my Lady. I offer to help you build an army the likes this galaxy has never seen before. I offer you the tools you need to keep your position secure, no matter what."
Kali's first impulse was to strike him down at the sheer gall of addressing her as equal. Perun… no, this wasn't Perun. Whoever he was, he wasn't accustomed to submitting, even in front of those like Kali. Perun, no matter how much he had changed, would be unable to deliver what this being claimed he could offer. The stranger in front of her, on the other hand, was a wild card. There was no telling what he could, or couldn't do.
He did pass her first test. He was a warrior, that much was certain. There were just a handful of Goa'uld in her service, who could best Sanga in unarmed combat.
"I require a demonstration, my Lord. You will dismantle Ba'al's forward base, bring me prisoners and intelligence."
"That would be my pleasure. What about the orbitals? The only issue with all my plans is that I simply lack the space assets to counter more than two Ha'tak and that is if I throw everything I have at them."
Yet you claim to have plans for bettering my navy?" Kali narrowed her eyes at the stranger.
"I have plans, I also have basic upgrades ready, which can significantly improve the Death gliders. What I lack in the industry, scientists, and engineers to make them a reality."
"Dual linked staff cannons or three of them mounted on a rotating mechanism, replacing each of the two single cannon used by those death traps. The direct increase of firepower will be two to threefold. The increased fire rate would help ensure hits and kills when facing standard Death gliders. My issue is that those upgrades aren't just plug in and use. I lack people with the skills in programming and engineering to link up the prototype weapons to a Death glider in a way that will work with its systems. The weapons themselves work, and I'm already using them to increase the defensive capabilities of any fortification within my realm."
The explanation made sense. It wasn't like Kali, or her subordinates would send Goa'uld with useful technical skills to waste their time at a backwater like Perun's realm…
More importantly, the more she heard, the clearer became, that Perun's usurper, knew what he was talking about.
Making a deal with him was going to be tantalizingly dangerous. The benefits, however, could be substantial, even if he was exaggerating. And if he wasn't? If he was telling the truth? Such a path led to many dangers and new possibilities...
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Part 8
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Kalighat
Lady Kali's throne world
Milky Way galaxy
The negotiations were tantalizing indeed! Kali hadn't been challenged this way since the last time she had to endure one of Ra's tantrums, on the eve of her realm's three thousandth anniversary.
Perun's usurper kept dancing around what else he could provide if he had proper support and science personnel. All the while, Kali subtly, and not so subtly, reminded the impostor, that no matter how useful, his life could come to a gruesome end for provoking those more powerful than him.
In the end, after hours of dancing back and forth upon a blade's edge, they reached a preliminary understanding. Perun was going to provide Kali with designs and examples of the working weapons he had created. In exchange, she was would outfit his forces aimed at Ba'al, with all the upgrades they could develop and produce over the next couple of weeks or so. After that, the usurper's future would hinge upon his success on the ground. Kali and her underlings would provide a Ha'tak force to at least keep the orbitals above the targeted base neutral. In case they all underestimated what Ba'al was about to throw at them in space, then the warships would hold their position until the usurper could go back through the gate, with as many Jaffa as practical, before pulling back.
One of the first things Kali would do, before Perun could even leave her throne world, would be to send several cloaked Al'kesh to independently confirm the presence of Ba'al troops. The second thing she would do was consult with ally Bastet. If Ba'al was moving against one of them, he would at least have a distraction in place for the other.
That was perhaps the only flaw in the usurper's analysis of the situation. The base he ran into might be nothing more than an opportunistic strike meant to keep Kali distracted while Ba'al moved in force against her ally.
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It was late in the evening when Kali concluded that she might have made a wise choice by giving the usurper a chance. A few hours ago, a group of his Jaffa arrived on Khalighat bringing gifts. Upgraded weapon and armor designs, including examples of personal equipment, and prototypes for Death-glider weaponry that needed examination by people who knew what they were doing.
By the time the second moon was high into the sky, bathing Kali's palace in a soothing silver glow, she had a stack of preliminary reports to go over. Her Jaffa also had two spies to entertain in the dungeon. A rough and thorough search of everyone who might have heard the usurper's warning discovered a suspect Tok'Ra, and a potential agent of Ra. Kali's usual security had missed them both, which meant she had even more work to do now. An irrational desire to flay the messenger burned through her mind before the System Lord could push it aside. Such self-destructive episodes had grown more and more common over the past few centuries. From what she could gather from her agents all over the galaxy, some of her peers not only suffered from the same issues, but they weren't even trying to control them.
Kali glared at the stacks of paperwork, and fought the desire to leave it for later, and find relaxation among her hand-picked pleasure-slaves. She picked up a stack of stone tablets and retreated to her sinfully comfortable bed, where she collapsed bonelessly. After a few moments of relaxation, Kali grumbled at keeping her attendants away from the reports. She grumbled in disgust and tore away the upper stiffening layer of her dress. A swipe with her fingers threw her veil away, sending pearls bouncing off the gleaming wooden floor.
Kali stretched lazily, while her eyes idly tracked a rolling pearl. Compared to marble, or anything covered by thick carpets, the wood kept both reasonably warm. More importantly, the wood would give away anyone trying to sneak up to her in the night.
Finally, Kali let of a huff of frustration and began reading the preliminary reports. While dry and to the point, they all but proved that she did the right thing. This new Perun was going to be very useful. The damned thing was that many of the upgrades he had already implemented, or in the process of introducing, industrial bottlenecks aside, were deceptively simple ideas. How, and why no one thought about them, Kali might never know.
She scrunched her nose at that thought. Perun Version 2, was different. He wasn't thinking about Jaffa as personal guards or tools to keep the human slaves in line, first, and anything else, a distant second. After all, their weapons and armor were good enough for thousands of years now. Why bother to invest precious resources in improving them, when you can do the same in areas that would have better pay-off – like upgrading your navy. Well, there was the little issue of Ra being very unhappy when he got a hint that someone pursued building better Ha'taks. Curiously enough, Kali couldn't recall the same being true about small ships – like Death gliders, of Al'kesh. The same was true for the short-lived, infamous Needle-Threader concept.
It was too bad that the whole furor ended as a good way to kill your Jaffa and waste material. The goal - figuring out how to cheaply supply air support through a Chappa'ai, instead of bringing a ship in orbit, remained a pipe dream. Did her new minion have any ideas on that front, Kali wondered, while she kept studying the reports.
Just the upgraded Jaffa equipment and training, once spread throughout the ranks, might allow Kali to hold her own on the ground until her rivals caught up. Hopefully, by the time they did, Perun V2 would have more useful ideas, so they could keep their advantage.
What interested Kali, even more, were what few ideas the man had about space warfare. After all, no matter how good, or how many her Jaffa was, they could do little if some murderous bastard like Ba'al won in space and took control of a world's orbitals.
In that regard, Perun had only very vague ideas, all accompanied by the same frustrating scratches. He didn't have enough industry to even think about it, need more R&D personnel and engineers, along with various combinations in that vein.
However, even the rough ideas could be tremendously valuable if they panned out. Designing proper warships, that might be able to take on at least twice their tonnage in Ha'taks, upgrades to Al'kesh making them more of a threat to larger ships…
A concept of a theater shield, able to protect a whole city, perhaps even a continent from sustained orbital bombardment! A few such shields keeping key worlds as fortresses could buy Kali a significant amount of time to either win, earn new allies, or if it came down to it, run.
Kali's eyes glowed with desire and anticipation by the time she finished the last report. She couldn't wait to see if her new minion's ideas would pan out and if they did, then what he would think of next? At the very least, in a few years, her survival might not be left at the self-interest of allies, and Ra's dedication to the status quo.
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