*** Just a short blurb from the upcoming Stargate fic I have planned. This scene wouldn’t leave my head so I thought I’d go ahead and jot it down. Really this is only for archival purposes, and I doubt the way I write this scene now will really be how it shows up in the actual fic. Written 01/16/05. (Updated: 02/18/05.) ***
Sekhmet stood before her golden throne, looking down scornfully at the two men who had been brought in front of her. She had well-tanned skin and large, dark eyes that glittered with some hateful emotion Daniel did not like at all. Her long, jet-black hair fell well past her shoulders, but most of it was hidden beneath the snarling lionness headdress that adorned her head and draped the upper half of her lithe body.
Daniel swiftly counted the Jaffa surrounding them, scowling at their numbers. Far too many to overtake without weapons. And he hadn’t missed the shiny gold ribbon device on Sekhmet’s left hand, either. That was something else he was worried about…
Sekhmet slowly descended the short flight of stairs from her throne to stand at their level, her eyes seeming to bore through their skulls to see into their very thoughts. Daniel tried not to look away, he tried to keep his gaze even with hers, but in the end he couldn’t bear the intense stare and turned his eyes back to her empty throne.
She studied Jack next, but the Colonel was a bit more upset then Daniel at the moment and had no trouble matching the Goa’uld’s glare. “Yes, yes,” Jack said abruptly, shattering the tense silence with his voice, “we are very happy to be here, but I’m afraid we can’t stay.”
Daniel looked to Jack nervously, but the Colonel paid no attention to the cruel look of Sekhmet or to the number of staff weapons that were contained in this room.
He continued. “You see, we know you’re not a god, so you might as well stop the charade. You’re just a little parasitic worm with some big delusions of granduer, and I feel it’s my responsibility to warn you about what we do to snake heads like you.” The Colonel smiled tightly. “We kill them. Squash them like little bugs. Or sometimes we just blow them to smitherines.”
Daniel saw several of the Jaffa shift on their feet, but Sekhmet remained motionless. Her only reaction to the Colonel’s words was the raising of one thin black eyebrow. Then she turned away from Jack, ascending once again to her throne.
“Blasphemy,” she said simply, the dual voice of the Goa’uld making her tone all the more ominous. She turned on her heel to face the two men once more, the cape of lion fur and red velvet swirling out around her before coming to rest again against her ankles. “I feel it is my responsibility to warn you that blasphemy is punishable by death.” A small smile touched her painted red lips, and Daniel frowned.
“Yah, yah,” the Colonel dismissed her words with a flippant wave of his hand. “We’ve heard it all before. The thing is, and you might want to take special note of this… I’m still alive, and lots of you snake heads are dead. Ra, Apophis, Cronos, Sakor, Seth, Hathor… need I go on? I’d say that out of the two of us, I’m the one more likely to deliver on my promise.”
Without a word Sekhmet’s right hand flashed out and grabbed the staff weapon of the nearest Jaffa. Daniel opened his mouth, but there was no time to cry out a warning or a protest. The staff weapon fired in a brilliant flash of orange, and Colonel Jack O’Neill staggered backwards into the wall, a gaping, smoking hole in his chest.
“Jack!” Daniel shoved through the Jaffa violently, reaching the Colonel just as the man hit the ground. Daniel dropped to his knees beside his commanding officer, but even as he reached forward to feel for a pulse the archaeologist knew there was none. Jack’s eyes were open, but they stared blankly at the ceiling, seeing nothing. Jack was already gone.
Tears bit viciously into the backs of Daniel’s eyes and a single sob escaped him before he closed his mouth against the choking grief clogging his throat. He stood quickly, whirling on Sekhmet, fists clenched at his sides. All fear of the staff weapons and his own possible death drowned beneath an overwhelming wave of rage and shock. He lunged at her, not thinking of his actions, aware only of the fact that he desperately wanted to beat that smug smile off her lips.
He leapt up the first stair to her throne, but then something came sailing through the air and connected solidly with his left temple. He spun with the force of the blow, landing with a grunt on his side at the base of the stairs, white flashing before his eyes as his glasses skittered across the floor. He lay still for a moment, trying to sort out what had happened while he got his breath back. He blinked at his now slightly blurred surroundings and sat up slowly, wincing as a sharp spike of pain shot into his left eye. He touched his fingers gingerly to the pulsing bruise on his left temple, but he did not need to see the bright red blood on his fingertips to know that it was bleeding. He could already feel the thin, warm trickle slipping past his ear, and soon he saw the little red drops dot the floor.
He turned his fierce glare back to Sekhment, and she smiled at him, handing the staff weapon back to its original Jaffa. Daniel squinted at her, trying to bring her into better focus as she carefully descended the throne stairs once more. He realized she must have been the one that had struck him… using the blunt end of the staff as a non-lethal, yet very effective, defensive weapon.
She came to stand next to him, and Daniel looked down to her golden sandals, thinking the long lacings that crisscrossed up her calf would be ideal strangling cords, if he could just get a hold of one…
“Your friend did not suit my purpose,” Sekhmet said, her voice low and silky. “He was a fine example of your people, but his will was much too strong. You… on the other hand…” she smiled sweetly, and Daniel gritted his teeth to keep himself from tackling her. Jack’s lifeless body still rested against the far wall, the charred hole agonizingly clear, the Colonel’s face still locked in his last expression of disbelief. Daniel felt his breath catch in his chest and he looked away from Jack’s body quickly before he lost his control. He faced Sekhmet, feeling his leg muscles coil in anticipation of his next lunge. His fingers itched to find her throat, his chest burned with frustration and hate. But he saw the Jaffa. They surrounded him, and all were on high alert now, their staff weapons held in both hands and very ready to be fired.
“You will suit me well,” Sekhmet purred, walking a slow circle around Daniel’s crouching form. “You have passion, unlike the men of Memphis, and yet you are not above fear. Yes. I think you will suit me very well.” She leaned down, taking a fistful of Daniel’s hair and tilting his head up to meet her stare. “You will make a good Ha’y to the great Sekhmet,” she whispered wickedly, and her eyes flashed white as a malicious grin spread across her face.
***
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