Sobek the Immortal [Closed]

[hi_there_aliens]

Planet Designation: Kalimba Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Extensive flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Unknown
Sentient Life: Ruins and step pyramids suggest the presence of intelligent life at some point. Currently: Unknown.
Water: 70.2% of the planet's surface. Heavy rainfall/monsoons.
Climate: Earth-like.
Landscape: Primarily jungle and swamp, some plains, severe arctic conditions in northern and southern poles.
Air: Type I (breathable)
Sky: Blue-green.
Warnings: Medium to high levels of megafauna. Watch your step. Conditions in the atmosphere make several forms of orbital scans and equipment unreliable.
Mission: Archaeological investigation of step pyramids and ruins, investigate for signs of source of abnormal energy signature in target area.

The first thing the group would notice was that Kalimba's air was humid and heavy, with a light breeze. The morning had long since burned off most of the mist, and in the distance, clouds lazily drifted onwards towards the horizon. The typhoon season was a long ways off.

The undergrowth was tangled and dense, seemingly impassable in places. Vibrant flowers and vines took up residence where some of the tree cover faltered. With limited sunlight available, it was every plant for themselves. Disturbed by the archaeology group, "birds", each easily half the size of a person and more salamander than avian suddenly took to the air in a flash of brilliantly colored wings. They were gone almost instantly, slicing through the air and leaving only the ear-splitting shriek behind.

The hill sloped down. The cover of trees broke as they came out onto the stone remains of path that must have once been heavily used. Now, just like everywhere else, massive roots and tanglers tore at the ground, slowly swallowing any signs of civilization back within itself. There were trees of all shapes and sizes as far as the eye could see, a rolling wave of jungle and rainforest. Tan and dirty gray step pyramids, all more massive than those found on Earth, and the occasional obelisk rose through the canopy cover like claws, dotting the landscape.

Stac's scans indicated much of the planet was covered in these structures, with the largest in this location. Aside from the archaeological mission, her scans also indicated the presence of an abnormal power that may be of interest.

Comments

[hi_there_aliens]

"Jackal, not a dog. Probably multiple gods or different aspects of the same body, with the crocodile being most revered," he said absently. Eva hovered around his shoulder briefly, keeping an awkward foot or so between them while trying to get a closer look, before trailing back towards the table, then the crack. Daniel barely noticed. His fingers traced the minute cracks in the ceramic. It felt perfectly smooth. The cracks, while visible, didn't even register. The shape and dimensions were one to one with the same relics found back on Earth.

Daniel held the jar up to the light, turning it in his hands. Not quite enough light to make out the inscriptions. "It's a canopic jar. These were used during mummification by the Ancient Egyptians, namely to store specific human organs."

Wandering away from the table, eyes only on the find, Daniel stepped out into the room's open space, closer to the window. He held it up again. There, better. Sure enough, Ancient Egyptian writing graced the sides. It took him a second to get the basic gist: the writing was similar but not quite the same as the writing back home. It wasn't quite what he'd expected from a funerary object. Something about the nameless owner being erased from history, which was weird, because why bother going through all the trouble of the jars if you were essentially condemning someone to the worst death.

"The practice of using the four sons of Horus on the seal really only came about during the late Eighteenth Dynasty. I think this Duamutef, who protected the stomach. You don't see the significance of finding this here?"

[vissernone.livejournal.com]

Funny, running her hand over the general area of the place she got snagged, she can't seem to find any cracks or rough edges. It seems almost like she must have gotten caught on something that intentionally protruded, although she hasn't quite found what yet. She's about to get her flashlight out when Daniel's words make her whirl around on him.

"You think I don't see the significance?" She blinks at him, then puts her hands on her hips.

"Well. Golly, Daniel. I didn't recognize what dynasty an obscure Egyptian God came from, so clearly I'm too stupid to figure out simple math, like that the number eighteen is a larger number than..." she pretends to count on her hands, making a face like she's thinking really hard, "fifteen, sixteen, seventeen...is eighteen a bigger number than seventeen, Daniel? I don't know, I have a shriveled up little walnut of a brain because I was such a nitwit and studied politics in school instead of investing all my time in archaic dead people! Maybe if I'd bothered to memorize everything about King Tut and Hatshepsut, I'd have noticed that that jar was from the Eighteenth Dynasty, but don't worry, dear, I'm too busy standing in a corner being stupid to one-up your incredibly manly and completely impressive scholarship."

To cap it off, she strokes her chin and pouts. "Besides, I don't want to strain myself thinking about anything harder than Reader's Digest or baking pies."

She turns back around and continues examining the place that caught her.

[hi_there_aliens]

A stunned silence followed. Daniel went ram rod straight, frozen mid step, fingers tightening on the canopic jar. That wasn't what he meant! Well, okay, maybe a little, the dynasty and identity of the lid head said a lot about the relic already, but the rest took the wind out of him. Mostly in surprise. Maybe Eva had gone into a career that he secretly wasn't too thrilled with, but looking over it again, he had to admit that he was maybe a little biased against politicians just because of his experience with them back home. He wasn't trying to imply she was stupid, but most people generally didn't know anything about Egyptology, so usually he had to explain. Although maybe it would've helped if he hadn't spoken to her like a first year student.

"I was talking more about the fact that we have a Eighteeth Dynasty-style canopic jar, an Ancient Egyptian practice, of all things, here out in another dimension and on another planet-" Daniel started to say heatedly. "I wasn't calling you stupid, I was trying to start a conversation with you-"

He barely heard it: the sound of a faint click, and a mechanism coming to life. A familiar sound suddenly filled the room, a droning hum that made his skin prickle. Daniel had the briefest second to look over at Eva, to see her hand fall from the wall, and then feel the floor suddenly spreading like triangular petals of a flower right out from under him. “Wait-“

There was nothing else, no surge of energy or the sound of rings. With one foot inside the opening ring, he didn't have a chance. Daniel didn’t have time to even wonder what went wrong with the ring platform before he fell through. He was only aware of a rush of air, the canopic jar tumbling out of his grasp as he hit part of a jutting statue support on the way down. There was a sharp burst of pain in his back and then strangely enough, nothing. He caught flashes of gold and yellows, coins? Hoarded offerings? Right before Daniel hit the slope hard. He lay there, stunned.

[vissernone.livejournal.com]

Eva's so ticked off at him that she's hardly listening to whatever Daniel's nattering at her about right now. She's just la-di-da running her hands over that part of the doorway in the dark, looking for whatever caught her so she can punch it into the wall or something. Meanwhile, Daniel's going on like that teacher in the TV version of Peanuts: wah wah wah wah wah.

She feels something flip under her hands, like a switch. Her hand falls as she feels a sound, more than hears it. She turns, suddenly keenly aware of the noise Daniel makes.

"Daniel!" Caring little for her own safety, she rishes to the edge of the petal-shaped pieces of floor, catching herself from tipping forward on the ledge with one hand far, far too late to catch him.

"Daniel! Oh god, are you alright?" He's not moving. She can see him from the edge and he isn't moving. If he has a head injury he needs medical care sooner rather than later. "I'm finding a way down. Please be alright!"

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel groaned, head lolling on the slope. Disturbed by the motion, a few coins slipped and slid down like grains of sand. Awareness rushed back. His face stung. The room swam into a blur but didn't get much better. It took him a second to realize why. His glasses were missing. The frames must’ve been ruined in the fall. Some of the glass shattered, which explained why his face hurt. A few fragments had embedded themselves in his skin. Daniel reached up to try to pull them out. His hand didn’t lift. He tried again, but could only barely lift his head to see that his arms weren’t actually broken. They looked...fine. They didn’t even hurt. Pulling himself up did nothing. His legs wouldn’t respond.

“I can’t...” Daniel considered his next words very carefully. “I can’t move my legs.”

Couldn’t move them, more like he couldn’t even feel them. Daniel was incredibly proud he managed to keep his voice steady. The first read implied they were just broken. He needed Eva to keep calm and go get help, do something other than panicking, because he had that base pretty much covered. It started to churn his gut, threatened to close off his throat. He couldn’t feel his hands, couldn’t feel anything past his collar bone. Daniel wasn’t a medical doctor. Not by a long shot, but if he had to guess, he had a major spinal injury. Paralyzed from the neck down, Stacy, they had Stacy, she had to have something onboard, this wasn’t permanent. She was an alien ship with an incredibly advanced medical bay with all kinds of technology that put Earth's best medicine to shame. There had to be something- But who was he kidding, this was desperation talking.

Other than the spinal injury, on the plus side, he didn't think he'd completely cracked his head open.

"Go find Eneesh or any of the others. Don't try to climb down."

[vissernone.livejournal.com]

"Oh God." But Eva's seen worse, much worse than this. Much worse has been done by her own hands, and so she doesn't panic. She tamps down the fear and nods. "I'm finding a way down. If I have to carry you out myself I'll find a way to manage it."

And that's one thing the temple should be afraid of. Once Eva has a goal in mind, she's very hard to dissuade. And she doesn't want to go looking for Eneesh because she doesn't know if she could lead them back to this location, and either way, just leaving someone in a pit without seeing if you can get them out first is not exactly kosher in her mind.

"Keep talking so I can hear my way to you." She starts to trace her way out, looking for stairs. Taking a quick mental stock of how far down Daniel seems to be, she starts on the nearest set of stairs. The steps are a bit too far apart, as if built for someone much taller than her. Getting on the same floor seems to be the right idea, at least.

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel had to try very hard not to thunk his head backwards in frustration. The one time he needed Eva to listen! What if there were other dangers? He was the trained archaeologist here and he'd been taken unawares himself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Those designs around the hidden ring transporter should've been obvious. Although Eva's desire to help was admirable, it was dangerous. The chances of Eva dragging someone of his height and weight weren't good.

Daniel waited. It wasn’t like he was going anywhere, the hysterical corner of his mind blurted out. Daniel did his best to squash it and remain calm. After a few minutes of constant contact, Eva seemed to vanish into the labyrinth, and silence fell. Not even an echo of her footsteps. It was so quiet that you could almost imagine she didn’t ever even set foot in the chamber. Just his thoughts and the designs on the ceiling, which wasn’t really...

That’s when he heard it. A sound of something moist slapping around stone and gold, disturbing pottery. Daniel turned his head and went very still. The remains of the canopic jar lay on the floor below. It must have impacted on the way down and then rolled against a pillar. The top was cracked clean off. The rest had shattered into an irreparable mess. The loss of an important archaeological find was the furthest thing from his mind. Daniel squinted. Something flopped around in the shards, reminded him strangely of a fish. Something pale. It righted itself. Whatever it was, was long, thin, with a flared head, spines maybe, and almost the length of his forearm-

Oh. Oh shit.

The realization was like a gunshot. Eva. Where the hell was Eva?! Getting help, which wasn’t going to bring anyone back so soon. Big pyramid (step pyramid), plenty of ground to cover, the comms unreliable. Maybe it would move on. The Goa’uld righted itself. He hoped to God it didn’t notice him yet. Keeping absolutely still wasn’t going to be a problem. Maybe it wouldn’t if he stopped breathing for a few seconds. The snake’s head swayed to the left and right. The movement was sluggish. It was also getting stronger with each swerve.

Daniel didn’t need to his glasses to know when it spotted him. The Goa’uld’s head stopped. He could feel its eyes light on his body. Worse, he felt when its eyes locked on his own. It actually met his gaze. Then horrifyingly, it glided across the floor, slow at first, then gaining strength with each foot. It was like watching a spined viper on the hunt. Daniel tried to push himself up, get away, anything, everything that his mind and baser survival instinct wanted to do. He couldn’t even sit up. He could only lay there. The archaeologist’s heart did its best to escape from his chest, his heart beat hammering away in his ears as he could only watch as it drew closer and closer.

The Goa’uld slithered up the pile of treasure, coming right at him. He couldn’t breathe. The last thing Daniel cried out in his terror was a strangled “Jack!”