Rebellion (19 page)

"If Keogh comes looking for those blasters with troops and tanks, that's about all you'll have to resist him," O'Neil pointed out. "I can count on two hands the amount of government-issue weapons you have. I can estimate that you have maybe six blast-lances at most. That's if your people didn't break any of them because they were toys of Ra's or if the energy charge on the weapons didn't all run out." He turned to Jackson.

"You've got to convince them that Draven and Keogh won't be kidding around. Draven seems to think he's got a lock on General West giving the okay. And if the orders come through, this isn't going to be like a nice student protest from your college days. Those tanks have real cannons, and Keogh's soldiers Will have real guns-not to mention nervous trigger fingers. If shots are exchanged, well, I'll just remind you-we're a long way from government oversight." A sheen of sweat appeared on Daniel's upper lip as he argued the ways of earthly realpolitik with the Elders. But in the end Kasuf and the others would not give in. "They might have turned the weapons over to you, as a commander they know and trust," Daniel said, defeated. "They just have too many doubts about Keogh." The light of one of the suns was just about to break over the horizon when the desultory argument was interrupted by a prolonged MOOOOOOOOOOO. O'Neil, Daniel, Skaara, and a couple of the more spry Elders climbed onto the rope bridges that stretched over the gates. From this height O'Neil could see the vast cloud heading toward the city. This wasn't a windstorm, it was merely dust thrown up by treads and wheels-the signs of tanks, armored personnel carriers, and Humvees plowing through the roadless wastes of Abydos to present an ultimatum to Nagada. "I guess the orders finally came from General West," O'Neil said quietly. "I guess Draven-and maybe Keogh-feel all the better that you're trapped in here while this goes down," Daniel said bitterly. "Nothing has to happen!" O'Neil turned directly to Skaara. "You don't have to fight! Can't you turn over those weapons?" Skaara shook his head. In the predawn murk, O'Neil could see young men-militia warriors taking their places on the walls and on the taller buildings. "It is not for them to ask." A pair of helicopter gunships came whining ahead of the advancing cloud. Skaara tugged O'Neil's sleeve. "Could you truly attack friends you fought beside?" His voice was nearly a whisper. O'Neil's throat felt like stone. "If he coughed, then tried again. "if those were my orders."

Overhead, the giant horn mooed again. "Do they think we haven't noticed?" O'Neil said to Daniel. But the Abydos natives around him were turning away from the oncoming force, looking in the opposite direction.

Another cloud was rolling toward Nagada, huge and roiling, its upper layers crackling with lightning high in the atmosphere. Mutters of consternation and fear ran through the observers. "Wonderful. Keogh's sending his force right into the teeth of a sandstorm," O'Neil gritted.

Daniel jackson's face was tight with apprehension. "They're saying this isn't natural." "Then what can it be?" O'Neil wanted to know. The answer came a moment later, as Cloud Number Two thundered closer. The flickering bolts of lightning high in the air resolved themselves into a coherent shape-the form of a titanic pyramid. Skaara gasped. Several of the elders moaned. Daniel just stared, white-faced. As O'Neil gazed upward, he whispered, "Goddamn!" It was half a curse and half a prayer.

On the bridge of Ra's Eye, Hathor still shook in a cold rage. The scanner technicians had been quite clear. Their subspace readings had allowed them to follow the track of Ra's stardrive. He had arrived at Abydos. There were no drive-traces of him leaving. But more physical scans had shown a dispersed, invisible-to-the-human-eye ring of matter surrounding Abydos. The ring was composed of irradiated quartzose crystal. It was not a natural phenomenon. Even months after the fact, Hathor's technicians were able to identify the particles as remnants of Ra's flying palace. At last Hathor had to confront the fact that Ra was truly dead. Had he met some sort of navigational disaster? Her technical underlings were baffled by the irradiation of the crystal fragments. Could it have been some sort of repair that hadn't worked?

The cat goddess found it impossible to credit the fellahin of Abydos with Ra's passing. Where could they have obtained the wherewithal to harm a starcraft? Nonetheless, whether they knew it or not, they had witnessed the death of Ra. If they had correctly interpreted the flash in the sky, there would be whispers of freedom. Hathor would have to Put those whispers down-and she would do so in her own name, as the new empress. Plans quickly resolved through her mind. Abydos was a backwater world, uninviting. But it did possess the quartzite mine. As her other rivals had fief worlds, Abydos could become her base. She could bring Ptah here, set him to fashioning weapons. Perhaps she could even recruit strength from among the fellahin. They couldn't become Horus guards, of course, but they could make useful blaster fodder. Ra had done the same when he first appeared on Earth. The first order of business was to make an impressive arrival. Her scanner technicians had found perfect meteorological conditions. Hathor had brought Ra's Eye into the upper atmosphere, seeded the clouds of an insignificant storm front, used a few blasts from the secondary batteries to ionize the area, and rode down in a thunderstorm. Impressive, yes. But the energy discharges around her had blinded the ships scanners until they were almost on top of the city. Lieutenant Peter Collier bit off a curse as his helicopter jinked in a sudden gust of wind from the oncoming thunderstorm. "Trust the brass to order us out onto a desert into the teeth of a sandstorm," he muttered. "I just hope they got this thing put together right." The jet turbine overhead whined as he fed more power to the rotors. Collier was another newly minted lieutenant, fresh out of training. He toggled the radio in his helmet, trying to contact the other chopper. "Foxtrot Victor," Collier called. The pilot in the other craft was Captain Ralph Vance, a grizzled veteran who had a little experience in these oversized egg beaters. "What?" the captain demanded as Collier called in. "Sir, shouldn't we be trying to get some altitude with those clouds coming our way?" "We're supposed to be flying reconnaissance making sure there aren't any rag heads preparing surprises for our line of march." The older officer stopped chewing out the green lieutenant, apparently checking his controls. "What the hell is with this radar?" Then in a voice of true shock the captain cried,

"Ohmigod!" A bolt of lightning shot from the dark, advancing cloud. The rotors flew off the lead chopper, and its engine spewed flame as raw aviation fuel squirted out and ignited. It made Foxtrot Victor look as if a rocket were pushing it downward as the copter plummeted to the ground. The radio link was dead silent. Collier tore his eyes from his crashing companion, looking upward to see an impossible apparition seem to congeal out of the clouds. It was a flying pyramid, and it seemed to be the size of a young mountain. But it was obviously a lot more dangerous than any mountain. The damned thing had zapped Captain Vance and his crew. "Yo! Gunner!" he cried into his intercom mike. "Light up everything we got in the way of rockets. We got a big mother of a target out there! He jockeyed his joystick, trying to swing around to an attack vector. All the time Collier felt like a house fly buzzing around a cow turd. How much damage could his rockets do to this thing? Only one way to find out. "Fire!" The copter was equipped with air-to-ground missiles, tank killers, although the locals weren't supposed to have any tanks. Collier's first two shots scored without making any appreciable dent in the golden-glowing facet where they landed. But farther toward the apex, well above where the rockets had hit, a slit appeared in the pyramid craft. Collier didn't notice it until a bolt of ravening energy flashed from the opening toward his chopper. And then, of course, it was too late. Hathor stood silent on the bridge of Ra's Eye, her eyes devouring the holographic image of the sky before her starcraft.

"Scanners!" she ordered, "I want a close-up of that aircraft!" A new image appeared, a little smaller than the reach of her outstretched arms, giving better detail on the remaining flying machine. To Hathor's eye, used to the trim lines of the udajeet, this craft had a gangling look. It reminded her of the big, buzzing insects that flew over the Nile's waters in the swampy Faiyoum. A pair of bright trails erupted from under the big craft. Hathor didn't know if the weapons hit or missed. Ra's Eye pressed on without missing a beat. Nor were there any damage reports. "Gunnery," she ordered, "train one of the secondary batteries on that thing and eliminate it." According to Ra's computer records, Abydos had been visited within the decade for collection of another shipment of energy quartz. There was no way in the universe that the local fellahin could progress from copper pickaxes to flying machines-even such primitive fliers as these-in that amount of time. If these things were not built on Abydos ... A chill tingled down Hathor's bare back. Ra himself was a hybrid creature, as he'd once admitted in a moment of intimacy. His human form was-well, id possessed" was too strong a term. Perhaps id shared" came closer. In any event, an intelligent creature from beyond Earth lived in the beautiful boy god's body. Hathor knew such alien creatures existed. She had seen the almost human (but not quite) beings who had served Ra before he arrived on Earth. And, of course, she had slaughtered them probably by the millions on Ombos. Their only monument was the ruins on dead Tuat. Could it be that another set of aliens had blundered on Ra's empire? Aliens powerful enough to destroy Ra himself; But if the enemy had such powers, why did they fly on contraptions that seemed barely able to stay in the air? A bolt from one of the secondary batteries licked out to consume the crude contrivance. It fell to pieces in midair. "That seems to be the pilot!" Hathor cried as a form tumbled out of what appeared to be a shattered cockpit. "Focus on it and enlarge again!" The pilot appeared to have two arms and legs, most of the body configuration being muffled in a loose-fitting, blotched suit. But the head! So large and bulbous, and the eyes appeared to bulge out like a bubble of crystal ... Hathor thought the aliens must be insectoid. A piece of wreckage smashed into the limply falling body, shearing off part of the head-no, it was a helmet! What she had thought were eyes turned out to be a face plate-and the features behind it were definitely human. But how could this be possible? None of Ra's minions would allow mere fellahin to build such machines. And Ra himself would never allow the development of such weapons on any of the fiefs. Where could non-divine humans progress so far without being put down? The answer came to her almost in a blaze of revelation. Her lips drew back in an incredulous smile.

"They come from the First World-they're descendants of the humans who revolted after the First Time." All those years, alone, unsupervised) they'd built up their own technology. And then they must have rediscovered the StarGate. Somehow they had found their way to Abydos-right asRa came to collect the tribute of quartz-crystal. And even more incredibly, despite their primitive technology, these invaders had somehow destroyed Ra. She should be grateful to these rogue humans.

But, of course, she'd have to destroy them. The scanners expanded their range to the ground below, revealing a column of ground vehicles streaming toward Nagada. "Ammit eat my soul," Hathor muttered. "There must be a thousand warriors down there-more!" If she had the resources of the homeworld behind her while facing the rebellious minions ...

Hathor pushed the inviting notion away. These %old humans were invaders here. They would have to feel the wrath of the empire. And even a thousand warriors couldn't stand against the weaponry of Ra's Eye.

"Gunnery! Prepare all secondary batteries." The cat goddess stared down at a line of lightly armored vehicles acting as the advance guard.

Then came boxier vehicles churning sand with some sort of endless tracks. The column was spreading out, apparently moving into some sort of line of battle. Not that it would do them much good. Farther back, four heavier armored vehicles advanced in a diamond pattern around another of the boxy vehicles. Hathor's eyes narrowed. She could think of only one reason for such a strong escort. Thrusting a hand into the image, she indicated her first chosen target. "Scanners, transmit this location to all secondary batteries that can bring their blasters to bear. "Gunnery, at my command-fire!" Francis Keogh did not believe in general officers attempting to lead attacks from the front. On the other hand, he was not going to sit in a fortified camp while two battalions engaged a rabble of natives armed with six science-fiction weapons, perhaps twice as many state-of-the-art assault weapons, and a few thousand copper pickaxes. He had converted an armored personnel carrier to serve as his mobile command post, surrounded it with four Abrams tanks, and headed for the front. The security arrangements had seemed more than adequate-until a pyramid that looked more like a flying mountain had appeared out of a thundercloud. Keogh had discovered this apparition when the driver of the APC had gone into a wild skid, staring out the vision slits in the front of the armored vehicle. Flinging himself out of his seat, Keogh leapt to the open hatch on the roof of the boxy troop carrier-they hadn't bothered to run in buttoned-down mode. The general clung to the ladder leading to the hatch as the APC

lurched again. He finally managed to climb up just in time to see the last of the reconnaissance gunships blown out of the sky. Keogh screamed down to his radio man. "To all units! Disperse! We're too bunched up in column! That damned thing will blow us to kingdom come! Fall back on the camp!" Damnation, he thought, why hadn't O'Neil managed to get a couple of SAM units out here? Although he did have to admit, the missiles would probably require nuclear warheads to make any impression on that awesome bulk. The vehicle under his feet yawed again, nearly flinging Keogh out of the hatch he clung to. The general swung around to see his command attempting to scatter. Vehicles peeled off, desperately attempting to climb the faces of the dunes. Keogh's tank escorts elevated their guns, firing anti-armor missiles up at the pyramid, which seemed to hover over them like the shadow of doom. For a wild moment Keogh considered dropping back into the troop carrier and closing the hatch. But what good was an inch and a half of aluminum armor against the might of a goddamned starship? He stared upward, open-mouthed. The blasted thing was hovering-and it seemed to be shifting around, to bring one of its titanic faces to bear. Keogh could see dark lines against the glowing gold-quartz wall. Firing slits for whatever unimaginable weapons they possessed. He felt much the same emotions as the ant who sees a human foot descending his way. But like all good generals, Keogh's last thought was of history. Now they will lump me with that other Keogh, the one with Custer. A glare of incredible brilliance seemed to fill the sky above. And we aren't even distantly related.