Stargate - Rise of the Sun God

by Arvaus

9 - Death Sentence

"That's impossible," Sam said.

"Apparently not," Daniel replied.

Sam stared at the image on the screen, unable to understand it. Since the first day she'd seen the Stargate her ability to suspend disbelief had been tested many times, but this was pushing it. She turned to the Jaffa; they had both backed away from the screen, possibly without realising it, and Koresh was eying it warily.

"How long's it been there?" she said.

"We first saw the image just hours after we crashed," Ro'shur said. "I was attempting to understand why it was not moving in the sky."

"And it's been there since?"

Koresh shook his head. "The patterns move and change," he said, "but the image remains."

"Okay," Sam said. She turned and looked up at the image again, thinking she'd have to throw out her stellar dynamics textbooks when she got home… if she got home.

"This is bad," she said.

"I figured that much," Jack replied.

"Sir," she went on, "this shouldn't be possible. When I said a star can't be alive, I wasn't joking."

"It would appear otherwise," Teal'c said.

Sam rubbed her forehead. "No, you don't understand," she said. "This isn't like hyperspace or wormholes or anything like that; this is truly impossible – at least it is naturally. There's some form of magic maintaining this."

"The magic you were detecting earlier?" Jack asked.

"Maybe," Sam said. "I've no way of knowing. But either way, any magic capable of doing something like this…"

"…Is something we should probably stay away from," Daniel added.

"Indeed," Teal'c said.

Jack sighed. "Okay, I get your point," he said. "But unfortunately, this doesn't actually give us any new options."

Sam nodded. They fell silent again, the new revelation still sinking in. As Sam stared at the shifting face looking down at them, her mind started filling with questions. What was it? What sort of magic could do something like this? Pushing the disbelief aside, she felt the familiar drive to understand.

"Colonel," she said, "whatever we do next, I need to study this. This is beyond any magic I've ever seen – it might be the most powerful magic we've ever encountered. If I could find out even a little bit about how it works…"

"I'll take that under consideration," he replied. "What did you have in mind? You got the equipment you need with you?"

"No, sir," she said. "The sensors on the cargo ship may be able to get more information if I can use them, but we'd probably be able to learn most if we were to go back up to the ship."

Daniel looked round. "Is that safe?" he asked. "It was in pretty bad shape last time we were up there."

"What was left was fairly stable," Sam said, "and it still had power. If we were only up there for a short time, then—"

Ro'shur cleared his throat; the four of them turned and found the Jaffa standing between them again. "Excuse me," he said, "but to what ship do you refer?"

"The big one in orbit?" Jack said. "Didn't you see it?"

The two Jaffa exchanged glances.

"We detected no other ships in the system when we arrived," Koresh said. "How long has it been there?"

"Eight… thousand years, give or take," Jack said.

"It was dead in space when we gated aboard," Sam explained. "You probably didn't detect it because it was powered down. Now we've turned the power on, we should be able to find it and ring back up to it."

Ro'shur eyed her with suspicion. "You arrived by Chappa'ai?" He said. "Zipacna had believed this system no longer possessed one."

"And he never bothered checking?" Jack asked.

"We did not question our god's wisdom," Koresh said. "But that is beside the point. If there is a Chappa'ai in this system which we can use to escape, why did you not mention it sooner?"

Jack and Sam looked at each other awkwardly.

"Ah, well, that's a bit embarrassing," Jack said, scratching the back of his neck.

"There was an explosion shortly after we arrived," Teal'c said. "The ship was heavily damaged, and the Stargate was thrown out into space. That is why we are trapped."

"I see," Ro'shur said, disappointed.

Suddenly Koresh stirred behind them, like he'd had an idea, and walked over to say something in his master's ear. Ro'shur raised his eyebrows.

"Hey," Jack said. "No secrets, remember?"

Ro'shur thought for a moment, then turned to Sam. "Major Carter," he said, "would the ship's long range communications still work?"

Sam started, surprised by the idea. "Actually, they might," she replied. "Most ships have redundant antennae, so there should be at least one on the intact portion. If the control systems are still working…"

"Yeah, I see where this is going," Jack said. "You're thinking you'll go up there and call Zipacna, tell him to send a pickup?"

"It will get us off this planet," Koresh said. "If you plan to stop us—"

"No, no," Jack said. "I can't say I love the plan, but… well, at least it's a plan."

"Then it is decided," Ro'shur said. "Koresh, go and ensure we can reach the ship by ring."

Koresh nodded and disappeared back into the cargo bay. The rest of them looked round at each other in awkward silence for a moment.

"Well," Jack said. "That was anticlimactic."

"So, what now?" Daniel said.

Ro'shur looked sternly at him. "I was clear that you are still our prisoners," he said. "If you do not wish to allow Zipacna to take you captive, then your only other choice is to remain here on the planet and await your eventual death."

"Right," Jack said. "Both options do sound so appealing…"

"Ro'shur," Teal'c said, turning to face him, "before you place us in captivity again and contact Lord Zipacna, there is something which we must discuss."

Ro'shor laughed. "Are you intending to bargain for your freedom?" he said. "No doubt you face the worst fate if you are captured."

"That is not my intention," Teal'c replied. "This matter concerns us all equally."

"What is it, Teal'c?" Jack asked.

"Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said, "I have been considering the nature of this world, and something troubles me. There are other planets declared off limits by the Goa'uld, such as Cimmeria, but their locations have always been known. If it is merely that the world is dangerous, then one would need to know where it was in order to avoid it."

"So why hide this one?" Sam said.

"Indeed," Teal'c went on. "This system was cut off from the rest of the galaxy, the only means of escape left on an unreachable ship, and the system's sole inhabitant is a dangerous being, possibly bound here by powerful magic."

"I see what you're getting at," Jack said. "It almost sounds like—"

"A prison," Sam finished.

Ro'shur looked confused. "Why should this concern us? If we are intending to leave anyway, what does this change?"

"Well," Jack said, "as it happens, this isn't our first time in an alien prison, and I know from experience that, when breaking out of one, you should be very careful who – or what – comes with you."

Ro'shur looked at the image of the sun again, still looking down at them from the screen. "I see," he said. "You are concerned that we may inadvertently allow it to escape. Are we even sure that it can?"

"Actually, that's the problem," Sam said. "We have no idea what we're dealing with here. We already know it can possess minds, and for all we know it might be able to use that to piggyback its way out of the system. You're going to need a pretty big ship to pick you up if it's not going to crash like you did, and if this… Ra'shek got its hooves on something like that…"

"Assuming it has hooves," Jack said.

"You know what I mean."

Ro'shur nodded reluctantly. Sam looked up at the screen again, at the face of their enigmatic enemy, but the more she considered this new problem, the harder she found it to think. There were just too many unknowns. What was it? Why was it attacking us? Without any information, she felt useless.

"Still," she said, "I agree with Ro'shur. If there isn't anything we can do to fight against it, then this doesn't actually change anything."

Jack shrugged, also looking up at the screen. "I'm sure we can come up with something," he said.

"With all due respect, sir," Sam replied, "I don't think so. Like I said, we have no idea what this thing is. We still don't know how its magic works, so we've got no way of blocking it, and as for trying to stop it… as far as we can tell this thing literally is the sun, so the only way to be confident that we'd killed it, or even harmed it, would be to blow… up…"

She stopped, barely able to believe the words that were about to come out of her mouth, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense, to the point that she could barely imagine not doing it. Moments later, Jack and Daniel jumped as the idea hit them as well.

"You're kidding me," Daniel said.

"Think you can do it?" Jack asked.

Sam ran the idea through her head again, amazed as all the pieces started fitting together. "Yeah, I think I can!"

"Second one this year," Jack said, smiling. "I think you've already got the record, but—"

"I hate to interrupt," Ro'shur said, agitated, "but would you explain what you're referring to?"

Sam turned to face him, took a deep breath, and said, "We blow up the sun."

Ro'shur looked incredulous. "What makes you think this is possible?" he asked.

"Because we have done it before," Teal'c said.

Jack raised his eyebrows. "You've heard of Apophis, right?"

Ro'shur looked confused, then his eyes went wide and he staggered backwards as if he'd seen a ghost.

"The destruction of his fleet at Vorash?" he said. "That was you? I had assumed a rival fleet must have ambushed him! You did that on your own?"

"By blowing up a sun," Jack said proudly. "It was mostly Carter's idea, or course."

The Jaffa stood silently, eyeing the four of them carefully. He looked confused, almost scared, and Jack started to wonder if they might have told him too much. But after a short while he demeanour changed and he took a cautious step forward.

"And… you think you can do this again?" he said.

Carter nodded. "Yeah, I think so," she said. "Last time we did it by dialling P3W-451… uh, it's a planet in the process of being swallowed by a black hole," she added, when Ro'shur looked confused, "and then we used a mothership to drop the Stargate into the sun. The black hole's gravity then draws matter away from the star, making it unstable and forcing it into a supernova."

"But we have neither a… mothership, nor the Chappa'ai," Ro'shur said.

"Right," Carter replied. "The Stargate was thrown out into space."

"And… straight towards the sun," Daniel added.

"Exactly," Sam said, pushing past the others and starting to pace back and forth across the room, thinking out loud. "It's pretty far away now, so it might not be that easy to dial, but we can use our Naquadah generator to boost the signal. The distance will protect us from the time dilation effects as well. As long as we're quick about it, then… yeah, I think we can do it!"

The five of them stood in stunned silence for a moment, the reality of the situation sinking in. Ro'shur continued to watch the team with a puzzling expression, and Jack was about to ask him what was going through his mind when Daniel stepped forward.

"Wait a minute," he said. "I know we're all getting excited here, but are we sure we should do this?"

"Got any other ideas?" Jack said.

"Well, no," Daniel replied, "but I don't think we should go ahead and kill this thing just because we don't have anything else to do." He pointed up at the ever-present face on the screen. "I mean, we don't know why it was imprisoned here, or if it's actually a threat to anypony else. For all we know, the attacks were just it defending its home."

Sam sighed. "Actually, he's right," she said. "For all we know, this creature might be the only one like it in the entire universe. I'm not sure I want to be responsible for killing something like that unless I know there's a good reason."

"I'm not saying we shouldn't," Daniel clarified. "I'm just saying we need to be sure about this."

Jack thought for a moment, then sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Let's call blowing up the sun 'Plan B' for now."

"Hm," Ro'shur said. "At least it is… comforting to know that, should we need to destroy it, we have the capability to do so."

"You will fail."

The five of them froze, confused. They turned to see Koresh walking back out from the cargo bay, fixing them with a fiery glare.

"No power can stand in the way of the Ra'shek," he said. "Its incarceration is merely a setback, and our presence here only hastens its release."

The five of them backed away as he advanced slowly toward them. "Careful, I don't think that's Koresh talking," Jack said.

"This world will be purged of our presence," Koresh shouted, "and then it will go forth and cleanse every world in this galaxy of the life which plagues it! Everything will be destroyed and all will be made new!"

He turned to look directly at Carter. "You work in darkness, fighting what you don't understand," he said. "You think you have power over the Ra'shek, but nothing can resist the power of the light!"

He pulled out a zat gun, pointing it straight at her. Jack leapt towards him, but before he could do anything Koresh had already shot her once. He tackled the Jaffa to the ground, grabbing the zat with his teeth and throwing it across the room, and watched as Carter slumped to the floor, unconscious.

"Daniel, wake her up!" he shouted. "We need to get this thing out of him!" Daniel leapt over them and tried to pick Carter up and wake her.

"You might as well kill me!" Koresh shouted as Jack struggled to hold him down. "My death won't stop it, and you'll just save it the trouble of killing me itself!"

"Shut up!" Jack yelled. "Fight it! You can—gah!"

A zat blast hit him in the back, and his muscles spasmed, forcing him off the Koresh. He looked over and saw Ro'shur holding the gun, pointing it at him.

"What the hell—?" he groaned.

Teal'c made a move towards Ro'shur, but he raised the zat in surrender, before dropping it to the ground. "Wait," he said.

There was a tense silence for a few seconds, then Koresh stirred next to Jack.

"What happened?" he said.

Sam staggered to her feet with Daniel's help. "How did you know that would work?" she asked.

"We have been here for a week," Ro'shur replied, pulling Jack up. "This is not the first time this has happened."

"Right," Jack said. "Boy, that stings."

He shook the remaining tingles off, then turned to look at Koresh, who was picking himself up off the floor.

"You okay there?" he asked.

Koresh gave his head a shake, then looked up at the colonel. "You… attacked me?" he said, confused.

"Yep," Jack said, patting him on the shoulder. "I guess it's your turn now. Do you think it's gone?"

"Uh," Koresh said. He stared into the distance, his eyes unfocused, drawing shaky breaths. Jack looked over at Ro'shur, expecting support, but the older Jaffa just stared warily at them.

"Oy," Jack said, grabbing Koresh and pulling him round so they were looking at each other. "Listen to me, we've still got some work to do before we can get off this planet, but we're not going to go anywhere if we just stand around staring at the bulkheads. You are a good Jaffa, and you know you don't believe anything you just said. Just forget any of this happened. We can defeat this thing, do you understand?"

Koresh gave a flustered nod. "Uh, yes," he said.

"Good," Jack said. He then turned to address the whole room and said, "Now, I think we have a plan to go over one more time."

"No argument from me," Daniel said.

"Indeed," Teal'c added.

"Good," Jack said. "It's safe to say that it knows what we're doing now, so we should be careful. Let's keep the team as small as possible, just in case; Carter and I will go up to the ship and dial the Gate. Daniel, Teal'c, you stay here. Koresh—" he turned to face the Jaffa again, "you can come and send the message to Zipacna."

Koresh nodded, but Ro'shur stepped forward. "No," he said, "I will go."

The two Jaffa looked at each other, then after a moment Koresh nodded reluctantly.

"Want to keep an eye on your prisoners?" Jack asked.

"Something like that," Ro'shur replied.

"Great," Jack said. He turned to look at the image on the viewscreen again, and could have sworn that it was looking directly at him.

"Let's get ready, then. We've got a star to kill."

Comments

[Ocean Waves]

Nooooo!

[Seeking Dusk]

You still haven't parted the Red Sea Sam! No reruns until you get a new act!

[MrAskAPirate]

How are they planning to get to the gate? The cargo ship is out; the Ha'tak isn't likely going anywhere... can they remote-dial it from the ship's command deck, or is Sam going to MacGuyver something else (see whut I did thar, ) once she gets on board?

Can't wait to find out!

[Black--Soul]

The knowledge of how to use stargates to destroy solar systems is mindblowing. That knowledge hopefully never leaves SG1 or its use is unavoidable.
Just like ww2 America used nukes before