“Do not be afraid, Ericaceae,” she smiled at her duplicate. “You have made me proud, as always.”
“We were being herded,” Daniel said, despairingly. “Jack, she’s known all along.”
“Of course I did,” she told him, raising one eyebrow very slightly.
Her eyes were gray, like frost on steel.
“I am not sure which I find the most insulting,” she continued. “That I should find assassins on my ship, or that it should be a pair of ridiculous dullards like you.”
“Hey!” Jack looked hurt. “That was uncalled for!”
“Be silent,” she snapped. “And stop aiming that weapon at my sister.”
Daniel saw him hesitate. It was the wrong thing to do: in a heartbeat one of the Minotaurs was on him. It’s head-sized fist closed around his forearm, wrenched him back, lifted. The zat tumbled from his grasp as he was dragged into the air.
Hera caught it. She turned it over, studied it for a moment or two. “Crude.”
Daniel stepped towards her. Instantly every weapon in the room was aimed at his face. He stopped, raised his hands. “I promise you,” he said, trying to keep his voice level. “We are not assassins.”
“Daniel,” grated Jack. His boots were a half-meter from the floor. “Don’t tell her a damn thing!”
“Daniel,” she repeated. Her lips curled in a smile. “Here are your choices, Daniel. You may ignore your… Well, whatever he is, and tell me which of my enemies sent you, or you may heed his words and watch my Minotaur pulls his arms out of his sockets.” Her head tilted, quizzically. “I wonder what you will do?”
“No-one sent us,” said Daniel desperately. “I swear to you, we aren’t assassins.”
“Given the evidence before us all, I find that unlikely.” She drew closer to him, looking up at him with those frost-gray eyes. “So was it Lord Anshar or that effete fool Tsukiyomi? One last chance to make your choice, Daniel — delay me further, and the next choice you make will be which of his arms comes away first.”
“I don’t know either of them.”
She smiled again. “I can make you choose, you know. I can make you do all kinds of things.”
He looked up at Jack. The man’s face was white with pain.
“Don’t,” he gasped.
There was no choice to be made, despite Hera’s words. No choice at all.
“We seek the Ash Eater,” Daniel said quickly.
The smile fell from Hera’s lips. She opened her mouth, closed it again, then span on her heel. “Clear the chamber!”
One of the hoplites stiffened. “My Lady?”
“Has my voice suddenly become unclear? Leave the chamber!” She pointed at the nearest man. “Not you. Disarm them first, thoroughly. Then take the slave with you. Only the Minotaurs are to stay.”
Daniel stood, perfectly still, while the Jaffa took his weapons. He was watching Hera. She was with her duplicate, her sister, and was whispering to her. He saw Hera stroke the other woman’s face, a gesture of incredible gentleness and affection, and then the sister bowed, and hurried away.
“Let him down,” Hera said finally, when all the hoplites had gone. “Slowly.”
The Minotaur lowered Jack to the floor, then moved back from him, the bronze head dipping in reverence towards his Goddess. O’Neil sagged, almost fell, but then straightened, stood with his right arm dangling by his side, rubbing his shoulder with the hand that still worked.
“You okay?” Daniel asked him.
“I’ll live.”
“Such optimism,” Hera growled. “Now, what do you know of Neheb-Kau’s demon? Quickly, and do not try to deceive me.”
“Neheb-Kau?” Daniel had heard the name, but not in relation to any Goa’uld. Neheb-Kau was said to guard the entrance to the Duat, the underworld, to have power over snake-bites and venomous stings, to be two-headed and uncontrollable. Binder of ba and ka after death, and protector of Ra as he travelled under the Earth. “I don’t know him, I’m sorry.”
“The blame for that abomination lies with him. He sought it out, and saw fit to loose it upon his betters.” She lifted her head, narrowed her eyes piercingly. “Now, if you do not know of Neheb-Kau, what do you know?”
“The Ash Eater resides in a structure called the Pit of Sorrows.”
“A crude translation.” She shrugged a little. “But adequate. Continue.”
“The Pit was opened on our world, by some scientists… They didn’t know what they had found, and the Ash Eater killed them.” Daniel wondered how much he should tell the Goa’uld, and how much he should conceal. He decided to keep things simple. “We were investigating their disappearance. I think we tripped some kind of failsafe device, because the Pit of Sorrows… It took off and flew into the sky.”
“And you chose to follow it. Why?”
“Two of our friends are still in there,” said Jack.
“Ah… And to save your friends, you stole that wreck of a ship from Apophis?”
She’d found it, of course. Daniel could only hope that she hadn’t found Bra’tac too, although that was looking less likely by the second. Hera still displayed the classic Goa’uld need to self-aggrandize. If the old warrior was in her custody, he was sure they would have heard about it by now. “In a manner of speaking. It, ah, kind of broke down.”
“Indeed. I’m surprised it even got you this far. In one way, Daniel, you are extraordinarily lucky.”
“Only one?”
“Oh yes. Your luck has truly deserted you now. You have trespassed on my flagship. Do you really think I can let that go unpunished?”
“You could give it a try,” Jack nodded.
“No. I cannot.”
“But we seek what you seek,” said Daniel. “Look, we’re not your enemies.”
Jack was rolling his right shoulder around. It looked like the feeling was coming back. “Just got off on the wrong foot, is all.”
Hera grimaced. “In many ways, human, you owe your language to us. To hear it so abused is painful.” She turned away, fixed her gaze on the viewports. The space beyond them was almost free from ships now. “In a very short time,” she said quietly, “this fleet will enter hyperspace and travel to a planet that has no name. That is where I shall find the Pit of Sorrows. And once I do, I will use the Auger to drill a thousand kilometers into the crust of that world, and then I shall drop the Pit of Sorrows into the borehole and blast the surrounding surface with staff-cannons until Neheb-Kau’s abomination is buried, utterly and forever.”
Daniel stared. “Why? Why would you do that?”
“Because I have seen what the Ash Eater can do. I watched it devour a world, human. I was on Setraxis… I saw every living thing on a thriving planet reduced to oceans of dust, mountains of ash. A storm of black fire, roaming, unstoppable…”
“Are we talking about the same demon here?” Jack asked. “Because the one that I saw could barely eat three people. It lost interest halfway through the last guy.”
“You doubt me, human? You doubt what I have seen?”
“No,” said Daniel, hurriedly. “But the Ash Eater is contained. There is a pillar, a golden cylinder at the heart of the Pit of Sorrows. It’s locked up in there. It’s safe.”
“Safe.” Hera snorted a laugh. “Contained. Is that what you have been telling yourself, while you chased the memory of your friends? That the Ash Eater is locked away in Ra’s little tomb, and can do no-one any harm?” She shook her head. “No. The Pit cannot be opened. The risk is too great — I will not unleash that horror on the galaxy. Not again.”
“But —”
“No, human. Accept this as truth, and say your farewells. Perhaps it will make your captivity easier to bear.”
“Ah,” Said Jack. “So we’re not going to go with the whole ‘letting us go unpunished’ thing.”
“We are not.” She raised a hand, still without turning from the viewport. “Minotaurs? Take them into the dark.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,
” said Daniel, as the massive figures turned towards him. Behind them, Hera turned her head, looking back over her shoulder at him.
“There are worse places to be, human. There truly are.”
Chapter 15.
Frozen
There were four Jaffa guards outside Neheb-Kau’s throne room, in addition to the rows of gold-clad warriors lining the walls like malevolent, serpent-headed statues. Kafra nodded to the new arrivals as the doors to the throne room closed behind him, and walked past them. They fell into precise formation behind him, in two rows. Before she knew it, Carter found herself surrounded by warriors.
“Kafra,” she began.
“Be silent.”
“You think I’m a threat?”
“I do not.”
“Then what’s going on?”
He snarled, and stopped dead, spinning around on his heel to face her. The four guards clattered to a halt also.
“Human,” he hissed, his face very close to hers. “You owe me your life. Hear this: your words about what happened in the Pit saved me from humiliation before the God, perhaps worse, but that debt has been paid. Do not presume upon my good nature further!”
“What are you talking about?” she snapped. “Saved my life? You just threw me to Neheb-Kau!”
“Better him than Djetec” He glanced warily past her, back to the doors. “He had no intention of schooling you in anything. You would have died at his hand, after he had stripped all the knowledge from your mind.”
“He didn’t seem to think much of me.”
“Do not be fooled. The man is a trickster. I have known him too long. He has the ear of the God, and whispers poison… Trust me in this, human. In thwarting him, I have bought you time. How you choose to spend it is up to you.”
Carter put a hand to her head. There was a dull pain behind her eyes, and a weakness in her legs and shoulders. It had been bothering her for a while now, but it was starting to get worse. Dehydration, probably. “Kafra, I have to get off this ship. Teal’c, too.”
“That is impossible. Even if your presence here were not willed by my master, where would you go? The planet below us?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of taking a ship.”
“With the fleet of a rival System Lord heading directly towards us?” He shook his head. “Human, accept your fate. You will accompany my master on the journey back to his domains.”
“I don’t even know what he wants from me!”
One of the guards chuckled, and odd, metal sound from within his helm. “Perhaps he intends taking you as his queen.”
“Silence!” bellowed Kafra. “How dare you presume to know the mind of your God? Any of you?” He snorted, and turned away, resumed his pace along the hall. “Although, in defense of this fool, you would make a fine host.”
She glared at the back of his neck. “I’d rather die.”
“I have heard those words many times,” he told her, wearily. “It is surprising how difficult they are to put into practice.”
Past the transporter platform the hallway sprawled out into separate corridors. As Carter and her unwelcome guardians neared the platform a Jaffa hurried out from one of these, dropped to one knee in front of Kafra and uttered a short series of Goa’uld words.
“Rise,” said Kafra. “Speak the slave-tongue.”
“Forgive me, master.” The man got to his feet, but kept his head lowered. He looked very young.
Slave-tongue? wondered Carter. She never heard her own language referred to as that. Then again, the use of Earth languages among the Goa’uld had been a matter of fierce scholarly debate in Stargate Command for some time. Carter stored the fragment of knowledge away. She would torment Daniel with it later, she decided.
Should she ever see him again.
“Is your mission complete?” Kafra was asking the man. In response, the Jaffa shook his head, eyes still fixed on the floor.
“My lord Kafra, I have failed you.”
“Explain.”
“The sensors in the Vault still do not respond, and the ch’epta who entered have not returned.”
“Hm.” Kafra clapped his hand down on the man’s shoulder. “The inefficiency of the ch’epta is no reflection on you, Jaffa. When I have secured this prisoner, I shall give them cause to hurry.”
The man raised his head. “The God will fear for his prize.”
Prize? Carter felt a jolt. That was the word Neheb-Kau had used, when he had heard of the approaching fleet.
“The God knows no fear,” Kafra was telling the young Jaffa. “Return to the Vault, and I shall meet you there.”
Carter stepped forwards. “Wait.”
“Behold, the God’s new plaything,” Kafra muttered, with exaggerated weariness. “What is it now, human?”
She ignored the insult, and spoke directly to the younger man. “The Casket… Look, when the sensors failed, did they register a drop in temperature before they went dead?”
He blinked at her. “They did!”
“Human,” Kafra grated, his eyes narrow. “What do you know of this?”
Carter returned his gaze. “Your master’s prize is loose in the Vault.”
“Impossible!” There was a shifting around her, a click and clatter of armor. The Jaffa surrounding her had reacted to her words, stepping slightly back, as if the very mention of such an event could cause them harm.
“Kafra, I was in there with it, before the Casket was sealed. The Pit of Sorrows was buried under hot sand for five thousand years, and we only found it because it was freezing cold. The Ash Eater feeds on energy, remember? Including heat from the air…”
The young Jaffa swallowed hard, and reached up to his neck armor. There was a series of sliding clicks as his helm rose to cover how pale his face had become.
“Listen to me, all of you.” Kafra was leaning in slightly, drawing the warriors closer. “Our lives are forfeit if Djetec learns of this. We will deal with it ourselves, quietly. Do you understand?”
“But the God —”
“Is concerned with other matters. And once we are successful, he will be doubly forgiving.” Kafra smiled. “Now we will go to the Vault, recapture the creature before it can do any harm, and be at our barracks before the throneship enters hyperspace. Agreed?”
“As you command,” the young man breathed, his voice unsteady behind the impassive serpent faces of his helm.
“I’m coming too,” said Carter.
Kafra tilted his head. “For what reason?”
“Because I can help. I know your technologies, remember. And you don’t want to have to waste a man guarding me while you could have us all down there.”
“I will stay,” said the man who had joked at her expense earlier. “It is my honor.”
“You have none,” growled Kafra. “Human, so be it. Jaffa, kree!”
The Vault was only four decks down from the throne room, no more than a few hundred meters by corridor. The Jaffa ran all the way, their pace unhindered by the weight of their armor and the ungainly length of their staff weapons. It was a testament to their strength and stamina that they were not even out of breath by the time they reached their destination.
After her recent ordeals, Carter was in far poorer shape. When she got to the Vault’s hatchway the sprint, and the thought of what she might be heading into, almost took the strength from her.
She wasn’t even entirely sure why she had demanded to accompany the Jaffa. The idea of facing the Ash Eater a second time was, quite frankly, terrifying. The image of Anna Andersson’s body sliding into dust under her hands would not leave her, nor that of Greg Kemp’s wrecked face or Laura Miles’ vanished, crumbled arm. Oddly, though, it was the fate of Lucas Harlowe that disturbed her even more than the others, in that no trace of him had been found at all. Teal’c had found the powdered remnants of his gun at the foot of the ladder, but the man himself no longer existed, even as a shape. He was a couple of kilos of dust, nothing more.
And there wa
s every possibility, given where she had fallen, that Carter had brought a sizeable component of him out of the Pit with her.
That thought caused her empty stomach to clench painfully. She winced, suddenly weak, and a wave of giddiness swayed her. She stumbled away from the Vault’s massive, armored hatch to steady herself against the nearest wall.
A shadow loomed next to her. It was Kafra. “I’m fine,” she told him.
“You are a danger to us.”
“I told you, I’m okay.” She fought the weakness down, and straightened up. He was peering at her carefully.
“When did you last consume food?”
“What? You think I’m hungry?”
“I think your species is weak, and must be replenished often.” He took something from his belt, and held it out to her. It was a small bar of yellowish matter, like modeling clay. “Eat.”
“Thanks,” she said, waving the bar away. “I’ll get drive-through.”
“Human, you will eat this and be sustained. Otherwise you endanger me and my Jaffa.”
She no longer had the strength to argue. She took the bar from him, nibbled off a corner. “There. I’m eating, okay?”
The stuff was sugary, with a slightly spicy tang. Not unpleasant. As Kafra turned away, Carter took a bigger bite, and then put the rest of the bar into her pocket as she chewed.
She watched him open a panel by the side of the hatch. Behind it, a slab of smooth, matt glass glowed softly. The Jaffa placed his palm flat against it, until it pulsed and gave a single, harsh chime.
The door slid aside, slowly, as if it was immensely heavy. Beyond it was more darkness. Carter sighed to herself, and rubbed the bridge of her nose absently. Neheb-Kau’s funereal choice of décor wasn’t improving her headache at all.
Lights flickered on behind the door. Carter walked over to get a better view, and saw a chamber being gradually revealed as a series of illuminated panels switched on in sequence. “At least there’s still power,” she said.
STARGATE SG-1: Oceans of Dust Page 23