Fairy Tale
Month of Nu imperial calendar(Seventh month by Tau’Ri reckoning): Triangulum Galaxy - Wuji
Castle Pengu
The last month had been one of debate, something Isis rarely indulged in for she didn’t quite have the patience to talk with inferiors the way her husband did, or Horus for that matter. Yu was the exception, she valued his mind even if she couldn’t understand why he would occasionally consult with everyone within eyeshot of him on a matter, including sometimes even his own Lotar. The Heavenly Kingdom was a strange place to her, for it possessed a clear and well-defined social order as the Empire did and yet, it seemed at times to be order from the chaos.
Everyone knows their place in the Heavenly Kingdom Princess, and each has dedicated long centuries to a craft or a discipline or a set of observations that in turn makes them an integral part of the center. Bra’tac once told her. Utility she supposed meant that social lines could be crossed, but the concept of seeking council even from the rudest of society on even rude matters seemed almost to be a breach of the order that kept their universe together. It at once fascinated her and concerned her, but she was not her brother and she would never turn a blind eye to the value of her uncle’s council solely because he did things differently, not when she owed so much to the being, not when she admired him so.
“To the Lotar and to many sentients outside the Empire we Gods, our religion spreads across the stars and yet, the closest of us to true Godhood since father’s death, one is missing still and the other refuses to call himself as such.”
“Even if I am worshipped against my will!”
Isis turned to the tired bear like scribe that was King Yu, and her eyes glowed a bright white in welcome. Any other Goa’uld stupid enough to enter her apartments without her leave even a System Lord on his own Crown world would be met with retaliation for that (she might have been remarkably promiscuous, but she was no common street walker) “I see that I still haven’t fully swayed you, Great King.” She teased lightly, Yu had been supportive of the idea since she arrived but his reluctance was abundant all the same, or perhaps he merely wanted to debate her, to get her to go through the rigors of her request.
“Not since we abandoned Tau’Ri have I involved myself in imperial affairs in a…What is the term those Peacekeepers use? Domestic policy…Ah yes there we are. In the sense of your internal affairs. I have fought every battle commanded of me by my elder brother, my realm as often acted as a shield to yours from invaders that come from the lawless galaxies. I have never complained, but Dakkara is a temple built on a sewer much like half my wives and I endure enough of that nonsense in the bed chambers I am required to visit once a century. You ask me to endure such inanity without even pleasure...”
“Careful uncle that septic temple is the center of all civilization in the known universe!”
“Precisely”
Isis laughed. “And it’s my home!”
“Bah you are Tau’Ri Isis, as with your sister and Amaterasu that pretty little backwater is in your blood, not just that of your host. You may reside in Dakkara, but your home will forever be a world we abandoned.”
From anyone else, that would have been an insult. Yu was especially grouchy this morning, which made sense. Two of his queens had announced they were pregnant and Mei’lyn was pushing him to allow her to expand her domains into the last remnants of her corner of the Galaxy that were untouched. This was the Yu she remembered and adored, the eternally grouchy, stressed old Goa’uld who doted on her. “You’re right, but I’ll settle for a Dakkara that is not an irradiated wasteland because my uncle got delusions of grandeur.”
“Hn! Your brother remains an idiot though.”
“Be nice to Horus, he means well, and he is an honorable being.”
“He is a naïve fool. Tell me why I cannot ignore your entire family feud again?”
“Because dear uncle.” Isis began with the patient tone she’d occasionally used on her children when she could be bothered to pay attention to them, crossing the room she slid her arms between his left limb and leaned against him as she often did as a child. “Because if he starts a war with all creation, think of all the refugees that will flood the stable parts of it? Think of all the protestations and banditry and what happens when the Asgard inevitably get involved?”
“hmm..it’s almost worth it.”
“Uncle!!” Came the indignant cry.
“Flailing child, I was merely lamenting. Very well, but I want assurances that you and your husband will be guiding him to make sure he doesn’t ruin the empire financially or go on a damned idealistic crusade against The Ashen Confederacy or some other minor powers for no other reason than that they offend his sense of honor.”
“Well, we won’t have to worry about The Ashen at least. Macello and Lenea destroyed them.”
“Really? Ah! That explains the influx of refugees through the Galaxy Gates..” Galaxy Gates being Yu’s term for the immense industrial scale Stargates on Crown Worlds like Chulak and Dakkara that were designed to move large numbers of people and commodities across not only the main Galaxy but others as well, their power sources were incredibly sophisticated, the latest generation of Naquadria using power plants no larger than a staff weapon yet they could power a hundred Gates. Of course, given how energy intensive they were, every hub for the gate system in known space received an alert, Dakkara contained a detailed record of almost everyone’s travel through such gates. “I should have figured, my Jaffa physicians spent the better part of a year restoring the genetic damage and sterility issues of some four million humans…Though I should call them Lotars now, most are sworn to Mei’lyn and Oshu now, many had plagues that even my technologists were hard pressed to eliminate… “
Which meant Yu was alerted, yet he didn’t care enough investigate why. It surprised her, that only four million got out, the Ashen themselves had a population of twelve billion and they ruled over another fifty billion. That was no doubt the work of Lenea, who was arguably the greatest bioweapons expert since the elder days. Macello was all technology, radiation burns and obscure nanite weaponry were his handy work. “There’s a bounty on Macello’s head uncle, his nanite gel weaponry went rogue and began absorbing entire worlds. We did kill the machines and were able to put a stop to it, but not before two worlds on our fringe needed to be reengineered. They went fugitive after the war ended and Aris Boch has made it his personal mission to hunt down those two.”
“Ahhh Aris Boch, I should invite him to feast with me sometime soon.” Llempiri were a long-lived race, it wasn’t uncommon for Goa’uld to forge odd friendships with them, as they were among the few species for whom lifetimes weren’t measured in decades and it was nice having company you didn’t have to mourn in a short amount of time. Yet the honor with which the legendary lawman was treated bordered on the perverse in her mind. “He helped me track down a Child of Egeria who placed one of Macello’s weapons in the water supply of a city on Xian’ken”
“Truly?” Isis breathed, that was disturbing news. That was an unforgivable and incredibly dangerous crime…”He died slowly I take it?”
Yu nodded his jaw set. “I do not like this, it’s as if our enemies are growing more and more bold all at once. As if there’s a hand guiding it that we cannot see.”
“Martouf seems to think so.” Isis remarked, which of course meant Ba’al had already suspected it and was investigating it. “Martouf being a chamberlain, another reason why you should involve yourself in our affairs more often. A former Ashrak, uncle, a chamberlain to a System Lord.”
Yu grunted; Ra had been very clear on that from the start. It was an idea put forward by Anubis, one of the few Yu disagreed with. Any peer who dedicates his or her life to intelligence forfeits any inheritance that would put him within striking distance of Governance. No one who worked the dark side of imperial defense, the arts of espionage, assassination and the dirtiest aspects of intrigue was ever allowed to wield executive authority. It was why Goa’uld who became Ashraks were seen to be super patriots, for they took on the role of assassin and sullied their names and hands and forever barred themselves from ascent to governance and yet they served none the less. Yu didn’t particularly have an issue with Ashrak’s ruling worlds or managing holdings, but many viewed Ra capitulating to Ba’al on this front to be an unprecedented move and one that sullied the honor and integrity of the Imperium. -Have we merely been forestalling civil war in an era of peace?- some of their rigidity may have fanned the flames that Apophis currently gorged himself on. Banishing the thoughts from her mind knowing Yu would disagree there she bowed. “I must return to my temple built on a sewer, but I must ask.”
Yu gave a reluctant growl. “We stand at a crossroads, something is wrong. I do not like it, I like involving myself in your realm even less, but I believe ignoring things will only serve to bring it to my doorstep.”
“Mother and Ba’al continue to say this, even Garak, if you also believe it then it must be accurate, but the question is what? Who would gain from our downfall?”
Yu wanted to laugh, in his youth he’d have been tempted to reprimand her harshly for such arrogance, yet he remembered the horrific state the galaxies were in prior to the Empire’s ascent. -One does not easily topple the column of civilization without a heavy price- Ruling over the ashes was something he had done and Ra’s absolute refusal to even consider doing so again was something he fully endorsed.
“The Peacekeepers may not be a threat to us today or tomorrow, ten thousand years from now? Who knows..The Tau’Ri’s return to the Galaxies may also herald their move…both are incredibly young nations, there are others as well out there in the dark who likely believe being king of the ruins puts them and their progeny in a unique position. They are correct, more so than they can imagine. But they’ve no idea the true extent of how horrible such a kingdom is. There was a Tau’Ri phrase to describe it, but I have forgotten it. Perhaps the Jotunn have returned and gone mad…”
“I know the one you’re thinking of uncle, but this is a mystery worth unraveling. Come, walk me to the gate..that is, unless his majesty would rather breakfast with my aunts?”
The thought of being anywhere near his legion of nagging wives made the old king pale and he was all too quick to extend an arm to Isis.
……………..
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