Take this King to the Sky [✱14]

Posted on Tue May 27th, 2025 @ 12:30pm by Captain Rovak & Doctor Intharia T'Zor & Colonel Augie Kowalski

2,007 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: The Serpent's Tooth [3]
Location: F-Dock Operations
Timeline: 2015 - MD08

“I’m reading an energy surge coming from Akhenaten’s ship.” Intharia told the room. It felt ominous. She hoped her concern did not show.

“Akhenaten's? The hyperdrive?” Rovak was confused. Was this some extra layer of treachery? He did not want to believe that the Pharaoh had betrayed them too. Having heard her talk casually at lunch of betraying and deposing her husband, Rovak had not been wholly surprised by Hera's betrayal, even if like most he was caught unaware by it. But he had sensed the sincerity of the old Pharaoh, who if nothing else, had an unflappable confidence in the Aten, his theosophical cynosure.

“No, something not connected to the ship’s main power. I can’t tell what’s powering it.” An explosion suddenly flared at the side of Akhenaten's Ha’tak as T'Zor spoke.

“I'm reading a hull breach. Something’s emerging. It’s some kind of rectangular vessel." She explained as a crude depiction appeared on the viewscreen, overlaying the sight of the Ha'tak in question.

"What is it?" Rovak asked, the viewscreen only showed a featureless polygon.

"There’s another one. And another. There’s a whole trail of them. They seem to be moving into position fifty kilometers off C-dock.” T'Zor said, the concern in her voice growing.

“What are they?” Rovak asked again.

“Unknown.. blocks. An unknown alloy with circuitry, some embedded, some modular. If these patterns keep up, there’ll be 80 of them in the shape of a ring. It has propulsion of some kind, but no internal space. T'Zor explained as the details appeared.

“What about the energy source?”

“I’m detecting a surge of verterons. It’s almost as though there’s an open wormhole in the ship’s cargo bay. It seems like that’s where the blocks are coming from.” T'Zor was baffled, none of this made any sense, yet there it was.

They watched as the shape completed. Each of the blocks sent a jolt of energy to its neighbours. They were connected, and flat regions of their surface began to glow, making glyph-like patterns.

“Another verteron surge. This time it’s massive.. there’s a wormhole forming in the centre of the ring!”

An event horizon resembling a glowing pool of water began to fill the ring from its outer edges before blasting outwards in a geyser-like splash that emerged and retreated into a shimmering surface of radiant liquid.

“It’s stable. Completely stable. Wait, something’s coming through.” T'Zor observed, somewhat awed by the sight.

Rovak too found it difficult not to be moved by the great splash of energy, and the improvised megastructure that seemed to be its source. It reminded him of his first time traveling through the Bajoran wormhole, but his kolinahr training quickly reasserted itself, muting the emotional resonance.

A ship not unlike the one that had first attacked the Atenists as they made the crossing appeared through the great portal, a larger and more warlike variety of the same sleek, utilitarian hull design. Before anything else, it emanated a pulse that seemed to pass through the crippled Pyramid ship with no obvious effects. A second pulse came towards the station, it was similarly unclear what its effects were.

The portal in the centre of the great ring vanished, rippling back into nothingness.

“This is Colonel Augie Kowalski of the USS Bra’tac. I have disabled all naquadah-based Goa’uld technology aboard, and we can have marines on your deck in five seconds. We're ready to put that Cheops out of its misery, if you'd like.” The distinctly American voice of a female commanding officer came through to every speaker in the vicinity.

"Colonel Kowalski, my name is Rovak, Captain of this station. Respectfully, I would discuss the situation with you in person at your earliest convenience before any further action is taken." Rovak said into a channel he opened manually.

"As you wish, Captain. I presume the office atop the stairs behind you is yours?" She asked.

"No. But it will do." Rovak said.

"Great. I'll beam over in five." She said.

---

Appearing in a sudden shimmer of light that seemed to be a transporter, the Colonel was suddenly there in person. Their transporters obviously worked a lot faster. "On behalf of the Alliance of Free Worlds, we extend our greetings and well-wishes."

“Colonel, welcome aboard.” Rovak told the human woman once she arrived in the ready room of F-Dock Ops. She was lean and strong-looking, a born soldier, with no apparent interest in her appearance beyond chin-length brown hair that was obviously well-taken care of. "On behalf of the United Federation of Planets, I thank you for your assistance, however I believe we have the situation under control."

"If you insist, Captain. But I should let you know from an outsider's perspective that it looks like you've got Jaffa in your halls and a complete lack of control of your own station. Except for this, lovely dock here." Kowalski observed in an upbeat way that disguised her sarcasm.

“May I ask how it is you came to be here?” Rovak asked once the immediate greeting formalities were done with, and to evade her observation.

“We call it a stargate. Well, supergate, at that size. Each of the Goa’uld brought one of the more common, smaller varieties aboard their ship. It’s an interplanetary travel device that forms an artificial wormhole. They can even go between galaxies, or as we only learned fairly recently, universes. Of course the power requirements for a trip like this are astronomical. Cost us an entire star. Not a particularly nice one, thankfully.” The Colonel said.

“Why come all this way?” Rovak asked.

“You were unprepared for the Goa’uld. We let them escape. That’s on us.” Kowalski's every gesture, even her respiration was something Rovak studied carefully, already primed for deception after the events of the evening. His impression was that she was as forthright as she seemed, and passive scanners had already confirmed there wasn't a symbiote in her head.

“Are you aware that there were civilians aboard their ships when your people began destroying them?” Rovak asked.

“Every Jaffa has known for a long time that mixing up your lot with harcesis is a dead end, for you and your loved ones. These people think they can set up camp on the rim of the volcano. That said, we've reviewed the blackbox from the ship we lost, and we only tried to disable them. Those ships were destroyed because they decided to kamikaze themselves.” Kowalski retorted.

"Respectfully Colonel, the fatalities and injuries aboard speak to more than an intent to disable, or at least an indifference to the innocents aboard." Rovak argued.

"Well equally respectfully Captain, I just saw a Cheops-class ship with a whole lotta pieces missing. I think if you're worthy of being called Captain, you appreciate that it's not a simple shot on a glowing red target to get one of those Goa'uld ships to stop. We're not generally in the business of telling people how to live their lives or order their houses, whether they're our galactic neighbours or our multiversal ones, and we'll give you back everyone aboard that ship that you blew holes in out there to prove it. We do however make an exception for Harcesis, which we will not tolerate under any circumstances." Kowalski explained without a shred of doubt. She was confident in a casual way, but not arrogant.

“What is so dangerous about these harcesis?” Rovak asked.

“In our universe, one of the earliest ancestor races discovered that sentient beings can advance through their own awareness to an ascended state where they discard their physical bodies and become pure energy. Unsuccessful attempts to ascend have been known to scour continents, or even destroy entire solar systems. And the successful ones go from pretending to be gods to having the actual power of gods. Or something close enough to it anyway.” Kowalski folded her arms.

“Normally it takes a lifetime of monastic devotion, but Harcesis are bred specifically to shortcut that requirement, and it can’t be allowed. On top of all the ascension shit, a Harcesis has the living memories of all of its genetic ancestors, and the ability to access the genetic memory of other symbiotes. That means you've got countless generations of genocidal conquerors all merged into a single identity, with all the experience and knowledge that comes with that, and more coming as often as you can get hold of another symbiote. I know this sounds bizarre and alarmist, but they're really that bad. We wouldn't have come all this way if we thought it was something you could deal with yourselves. Trust me, I'd rather be fishing. Let us take them off your hands, and we’ll be on our way.” She spoke like someone who summed up complicated ideas often.

“I have granted Akhenaten and his followers asylum, Colonel. With all due respect to your people and their experience, I feel we are now responsible for the Atenists.” Rovak said.

“The same people who had you hostage until a few minutes ago? Who still have control of most of your base's computers now?” Kowalski asked, cocking an eyebrow for effect.

“Some of them, yes.” Rovak nodded. “They are our responsibility, if any of them have committed crimes, they will be tried.”

“What if I told you these people were war criminals? Typhon, Akhenaten, Hera, all the Goa'uld. Probably a few of the Jaffa, too.” Kowalski asked.

“I would ask you for proof.” Rovak told her.

“And supposing I provided it?” She asked.

“If there was sufficient evidence of wrongdoing to warrant extradition, I would grant it. On a case-by-case basis.” Rovak said.

“Then I’d like a chance to provide that evidence.” Kowalski said.

“Very well.” Rovak nodded again. “There will be a special tribunal. You may nominate a prosecutor, we can provide any assistance you may require with our legal code, including but not limited to a legal support officer.”

“Thank you Captain. I’ll let my people know there’s to be a trial. How soon can it begin?”

“Several of my key staff have been injured. I expect we will know more tomorrow. We will have our own procedures to administer in response to this insurgency. If you feel you need longer, or time is a factor for you, please alert my staff or contact me directly. In the meanwhile, please feel free to dock your ship. Unfortunately most of our hospitality is found in areas we are still working to regain control of, but we will do what we can.” Rovak said, after considering it for a moment.

"That's fine. Just one thing, the red-headed Goa'uld, do you know what became of her?" Colonel Kowalski asked.

"Polyphron, the engineer? I believe she is in our sickbay under guard, having surrendered with the others still aboard." Rovak said.

"She's one of ours. Double-agent. She's the one who let us know things had got out of control here. We'd appreciate it if we could have her back."

"She is a Goa'uld. Is she not one of those you are accusing of war crimes?" Rovak said, narrowing his gaze with confusion.

"She's what we call a Tok'ra. They're the same species, but they've been fighting the system lords for millennia. Without them we'd never have survived as a species, let alone overthrown the bastards." Kowalski clarified.

"I see." The Captain said, weighing it for a moment. "Very well. She will be released to you once our Doctors clear her. Alternatively if you wish to send a physician to take over her care, she can be returned that way."

"Sounds good to me, Captain. We'll package everyone aboard the Cheops up for you. If you haven't got your shit together by the time we get back I'll send some helping hands. Talk soon." The Colonel said and gave a salute, before a swift cloud of light whisked her away.

 

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