EV: Interlude: Meanwhile, On Abydos. . .

Daniel Jackson couldn't believe it! His theories had proven correct! The entire Academic Community had practically laughed him out of every symposium and institution he had tried to join or had already been a part of because of them, calling him mad! He had been right, though, and everyone else had been wrong! Even the US Government seemed to recognize that much, as they'd helped him to prove his theories.

Now? Now he was on an actual alien planet! The Three Moons hanging low in the sky proved it! Of course, he'd been sent with a team from the US Military for security, which Daniel would have preferred not to have come with, but when your research was funded by the US Government, what they said tended to go. Still, as these things went, it could be a lot worse. The team the Government had sent definitely was some of the best the Military had to offer. All of them were special forces operators with highly decorated service records.

Colonel Jack O'Neill, for instance, the leader of the team, was an Air Force Parajumper and Test Pilot, while his second-in-command, Major Charles Kawalsky, was another Parajumper. Meanwhile, Captain Louis Ferretti was a Member of the USMC Raiders. There was a Navy Seal, Green Beret, Force Recon, and Army Ranger as part of the team as well in the forms of Lieutenants Brown, Freeman, Porro, and Reilly to cap things off. Really, Daniel ought to have felt safer here, with these men, than he did anywhere else.

Unfortunately, some of the team were a bit more Gung-Ho about things than he'd like. Their first brush with the natives had almost ended in catastrophe as a pair of curious teenage natives stalked up on the team's camp the second night they were on this planet. One of the teens, who they would later find out was called Nabeh, hadn't been as stealthy as he'd hoped and had woken up Major Kawalsky, who'd drawn his sidearm and a standoff had ensued. Daniel had needed to put his Linguistics Skills to the test in order to calm things down and ensure nobody had gotten shot.

That had led to the teens, Nabeh and Skaara, leading the team to the City of Nagada, where Skaara's Father, Kasuf, was the local Chief. Over the two weeks the Team was in Nagada, they did a lot of diplomacy and Daniel learned quite a bit about the state of things in the Wider Galaxy. None of it was exactly encouraging. For one thing, it seemed that not only were the people of this world, known as Abydos, enslaved to a being they worshipped as Ra, God of the Sun, but there was a multitude of these Gods out there running a powerful empire that dominated most of known space.

Daniel, getting a bad feeling about the situation, delved deeper into what the locals could tell him of this Empire of the Gods. It seemed that there were two Castes of Servants of the Gods, Laborers and Warriors. The Warriors, or Jaffa in the local dialect, which had interesting similarities to Old Kingdom Egyptian, seemed to be something more than Human, as they apparently took in the 'Essence of the Gods' as a capstone on their training, though Daniel couldn't figure out what that meant.

In the process, Daniel had found a broken Cartouche deep in the bowels of Nagada City, which had the final symbol needed to dial the Gate back home. They'd been making regular progress reports since, with Daniel compiling a dictionary to send back through the gate that would allow a rough translation for anyone who wanted to come to talk to or study the Abydonians.

Of course, it hadn't been Kasuf who had told him all this or directed him to the Cartouche, but Kasuf's Daughter, Sha're. Sha're was brilliant, a bright woman who had helped her aging father deal with the mineral quotas imposed on them by their Gods, speaking with the various functionaries in service to Ra in her father's stead some of the time. She had enough knowledge of the situation in the Wider Galaxy to help Daniel paint this hazy picture of the situation. What picture resulted worried him.

Meanwhile, Colonel O'Neill had seemingly taken a shine to Sha're's younger brother, Skaara. It helped that Skaara seemed to be a charismatic, outgoing, sort of kid. Skaara clearly had taken a shine to the Soldiers and had led his group of teenage boys in getting closer to the various members of the Military Team that the Government had sent along with Daniel. Jack in particular seemed to be fond of Skaara.

That was why, when Daniel Learned about the state of the Wider Galaxy, and that the Abydonians were essentially slaves forced to mine a monthly quota of minerals for a being posing as the Sun God Ra, he went to talk to Jack about it. After all, if they could help the locals, then Jack's inroads with the Chief's Son and his friends should help convince the team, shouldn't it?

It was worth a try at least. . .

XXXX

"Jack, got a sec?" Questioned Daniel.

"Sure thing, let me just finish here." Nodded Jack, marking down things on a crude map of Abydos.

"You've been mapping the planet?" Queried Daniel.

"You betcha. I've been having Brown, Reilly, Freeman, and Porro get the lay of the land. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Apparently, the Temple we showed up in isn't the only one on the planet. Freeman found the ruins of one out to the west of the City that looked like it'd been blasted all to hell and back." Nodded Jack.

"That's sort of what I've been wanting to talk to you about." Hedged Daniel.

"Oh yeah?" Asked Jack.

"Yeah. I've been talking with Sha're." Responded Daniel.

"Talking, huh? Is that what they're calling it these days?" Questioned Jack, waggling his eyebrows.

"Jack, I'm being serious here. Do you know anything about the situation out in the wider Galaxy?" Queried Daniel, exasperatedly.

"Skaara mentioned some mumbo-jumbo about Gods, but that's gotta be fake, right?" Asked Jack.

"I mean, if you're talking about literal Gods? Definitely. The Abydonians are an early bronze-age people at best, though. It wouldn't be hard to trick them with technology, but that's not the worst part. The Abydonians are slaves, Jack. The beings they're calling Gods are forcing them to work in mines and provide mineral resources, and from what Sha're told me, that situation isn't unique. There's a whole, Empire of these Gods out there, and all of the ones Sha're knows of do the same thing to their human workforce." Explained Daniel.

"So the Galaxy's no good, then. That wasn't what the Brass wanted to hear." Sighed Jack.

"Jack?" Questioned Daniel.

"We've been keeping something back from you, Daniel. This isn't just an exploration mission." Admitted Jack.

"What? Jack, what are you talking about?" Queried Daniel.

"The Brass was hoping we could find trade partners and allies out here, maybe figure out how advanced tech works." Continued Jack.

"Wait, you used my research so the Government could play Geopolitics in Space?" Demanded Daniel.

"Daniel. . ." Tried Jack.

"And you didn't tell me this?" Pressed Daniel, cutting Jack off.

"Daniel, you woulda said no! It's not like I wanted to keep this from you, but I had orders for crying out loud!" Snapped Jack.

"Fine. Why are we really here, Jack? I know you send reports back through the gate." Asked Daniel, scowling.

"We sent back some of the minerals being mined by the locals and it's interesting stuff. The Eggheads are asking for more of it and the Brass wants us to secure a trade agreement with the locals. Supposedly it's some kinda wonder mineral, the eggheads think it's the key to sustainable clean energy." Sighed Jack.

"Of course. It's always something like that with the Government, isn't it?" Scoffed Daniel.

"Look, I've recommended we give the locals a fair deal, and General West's passed that up the chain of command. It's not like we're gonna be pulling a Cortez or something here!" Insisted Jack.

"Fine. Sure. Perfect." Huffed Daniel, clearly done with this conversation.

"Look, Daniel. We need to be able to keep working together. If nothing else, you're the only one who can have a full conversation with the Locals right now." Frowned Jack.

Daniel was about to tell Jack that he and all the Government's petty power games could fuck off and that he was done when something happened. There was a flash of light in the evening sky as if a star had just flared up somewhere out in Abydos' Solar System for a brief moment. The flash of light faded as quickly as it arrived, but its appearance seemed to shock the locals and send them all scurrying indoors. That was enough to give Daniel Pause as he looked up into the sky.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Muttered Daniel.

"You and me both, Skywalker." Smirked Jack.

"Wait, I'm Luke, not Han?" Questioned Daniel.

"Daniel, if anyone on this mission is Han Solo, it's me." Chuckled Jack.

"Sure, why not?" Queried Daniel, nonplussed.

Jack, meanwhile, spoke into his radio, ordering Lieutenants Reilly and Porro as well as Captain Ferretti back to the Temple of the Gate to make sure that their way back home was secure. Daniel, meanwhile, was still pissed that the Government had been using his research to secure a bunch of alien mineral rights but had to put that aside for now. If what he suspected was about to happen was actually happening, then that meant that Ra was coming. Daniel wasn't a hundred percent sure, but he at least had a pretty good inkling that whatever this Ra turned out to be, it wasn't going to be friendly. Still, best not to let Jack get any ideas.

"I'm still mad at you." He warned.

"Daniel, is this really the time?" Asked Jack.

"No. We need to deal with whatever's coming first." Admitted Daniel.

"Yeah. It could be bad, given how advanced the Gate is. We need to make sure that if it's this Ra Guy, we have a way to retreat. That'll take teamwork." Agreed Jack.

"Agreed." Confirmed Daniel.

Unfortunately, they had no idea just how right both of them were. . .

XXXX

Out in Space, the bulk of Ra's Cheops-Class Battleship floated lazily toward Abydos at a leisurely sub-light speed. The Supreme System Lord was returning to one of his private worlds, and while his Palace here was not as grand as some, there was something to be said for privacy and ready access to slaves. He would dock his Cheops-class to his Temple and have his Jaffa secure the Chappa'ai to ensure that he was not disturbed as his first action. Then he would retire to his palace further out from the Slave Quarters of Nagada.

Once ensconced there, Ra would take his time enacting his vengeance on Moloc. The Pitiful Wretch had been secured in Canoptic Stasis the entire journey from his Pit of a Capital World to Abydos. Canoptic Stasis was far from pleasant, of course. The constant nightmares the drugs and machinery projected into the mind of the entombed being were a form of harsh psychological torture, but there was only so much that such things could do before it faded into a background level of torment. Ra, on the other hand, had so much more planned for the treacherous little worm that was Moloc.

"My Lord, we will be arriving at Abydos in three standard hours." Informed Anubis, his faithful First Prime who Ra had given the name he had stripped from the Arch-Traitor as a symbol of his ultimate triumph.

"Excellent. Prepare a force to secure the Chappa'ai on docking with my temple. Once we have secured it, we will head to my Winter Palace. I have plans for the fool Moloc that he will not enjoy, but that I very much will and I do not wish to be disturbed while engaging in them." Ordered Ra.

"At once, My Lord." Bowed Anubis, saluting before leaving to carry out Ra's Commands.

Neither Ra nor his First Prime realized at that moment, however, that they would be coming into conflict with an as-yet-unknown party the moment that the Team sent to carry out Ra's Order transported down into the Temple to secure the Chappa'ai. Ra had no clue that he would meet with agents of the Tauri. It would force him to postpone his plans for torturing Moloc to death and lead to further conflict with the Tauri on Abydos.

And that conflict would wind up being the spark that set off the Goa'uld Civil War. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, here's the next chapter. I promised you an Interlude with Ra's Arrival on Abydos and the Abydos Mission. There are a few differences from Canon here, mostly based on personnel assigned to the mission along with making things from the Movie fit better into the Show's version of Canon. You'll note I've used the Show version of O'Neill here, for instance. Meanwhile, the Abydonians have some level of knowledge about Goa'uld other than Ra, and the wider Goa'uld Empire, though the picture they have is hazy beyond the Domains of Ra, Apophis, and Heru'ur.

That bit about the Government trying to use Daniel's research to gain trade partners, advanced technology, and mineral resources out in the Wider Galaxy is something I added in myself, but makes perfect sense when you factor in later plots from the Show, such as the NID, whose entire mandate was to steal advanced tech from other races. I feel it adds some spice to the Dynamic, especially as Daniel was very opposed to the exploitation of various less-advanced civilizations in the Movie and early on in the Show.

At any rate, the next chapter will show how this showdown turns out between Ra and the Abydos Team. Then we'll be back with Erlang Shen.

Stay tuned. . .