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

[bonnypiperlad]

Don't worry, Eva. If there's anyone who's bound to go and ask questions at at time like this, it's Jamie. And, once Eva accepts the neckerchief, he goes and does just that, complete with a rather puzzled expression. "What's a toe...a toe crawl, ye said?"

Okay, so maybe he's not the best at getting the pronunciation down exactly right when it comes to saying new words he doesn't understand. But given the conversation it should hopefully be close enough that Vala'll understand what he meant by it. He turns that same puzzled expression towards the Doctor, who more than anyone would be used to that particular quirk of Jamie's.

"Have ye heard of something like that, Doctor?"

[syncopath]

The Master slides a glance Eva's way, impressed despite himself by her priorities. Saving Daniel should be the last thing on their minds, but knowing the Doctor, it'll be their first order of business. He simply can't help but interfere.

"I'm afraid nobody's answered my question," he reminds them. "What is a Goa'uld?"

[valaunbound]

"Daniel doesn't need to die!" Vala snapped at Eva. Perhaps she was too emotionally invested in Daniel to think straight, and perhaps her priorities should be eliminating the Goa'uld, but no... to put aside that goal from the outset was just wrong. Even if there weren't any Tok'ra, there were other options, albeit risky ones.

"I'm all for eliminating the Goa'uld, but he's strong and he can survive this and come out of the other side. And don't even try to tell me about being a host to one. What would you know? I've been one. Seven years."

The confession came flooding out with little forethought, it was reactionary and far too emotional a subject for her to brush over with ease. "Obviously dislocating your jaw on metal bars is a much better plan, though. Let's all try it shall we?"

Vala couldn't help herself, she was the only one here that seemed to even have a clue about the Goa'uld, and it was Daniel who'd been infested, her Daniel. Vala was on the edge of breaking down herself. She needed to calm down and think.

"They're a parasitic race who enter through the throat or neck of a human host and wrap themselves around the brain stem and spinal chord. They take control of the body, but leave your mind intact. They're sadistic and power hungry and will stop at nothing. Their 'god' powers are from a substance in their bloodstream called naquadah, it's a powerful energy source that is used to activate their weapons and healing devices. The Tok'ra are a race of similar symbiotes that choose willing hosts and live in unison, they can sedate the Goa'uld for extraction stopping it killing its host."

"There. Everybody up to speed now? Good. Maybe we can actually think about how the hell to get out of this mess then."

[vissernone.livejournal.com]

"Seven years? Congratulations. We should make some embroidered jackets for our little club of histrionic former hosts to alien slavedrivers," Eva shoots back, eyes narrowed. "I'm done with my tantrum. Are you quite finished with yours?"

Obviously they're all a little tense. Granted, they're all in a prison. And one of their own has been turned into a slave. They have reason, but it won't get them anywhere.

And yet Eva wants to lunge at Vala and rip her face off over the implication that recovering from infestation is a matter of strength. It isn't strength. Eva has - Eva had, once upon a time - strength and will to spare. It wasn't her strength that let her down. It was everything else.

"I never said Daniel has to die, so stop putting words in my mouth. I don't think it could take much more damage." She unfolds the kerchief and inspects the blood on it, out of something to do besides glare at Vala rather than out of actual interest. "But the greater threat is that the Goa'uld are here. We can't afford to turn this into a rescue mission if it comes at the cost of loosing them on more innocents than they already have been."

But she is listening to what Vala tells them. "This naquadah, is there a way to neutralize it?"

Sorry it's short guys. :( I can write gud today?

[makeherblue]

Death would be a mercy for Daniel? The Doctor begs to differ. He shoots a frown at the Master, who right now is showing a bit more of a priority on, well, priorities than Eva here. They need to know the who and the what before they can really do anything about this whole mess, even for a pair of Time Lords. The only thing is he has absolutely no idea - not even a niggling feeling or a clue or anything! -- if the Master will help or he'll...do whatever it is the Master decides to do. He wouldn't expect anything less from the man.

Still, he's not quite sure what to do with two human women who are suddenly giving those looks at each other and they both have perfectly good points, to make it difficult. The Doctor nurses his nose and looks back and forth from Vala to Eva to Vala again, and finally at Jamie. Naturally the human assumes he's seen everything and anything and all the stuff in between in the galaxy.

Which might be closer to the mark if they were back in his home universe. The Doctor shakes his head, almost reluctantly.

"No, Jamie." He veers back to the subject of the Goa'uld. "You mentioned sedation. How do the Tok'ra deliver it? Could paralyzing the Goa'uld let the host take control?"

If he could figure out what setting to use the sonic (once he fished it up again, wherever it had gotten itself lost to this time), maybe there's a chance for Daniel. As far as he knows, this isn't a fixed point in time, which means the human can be saved, one way or another. Preferably without breaking the laws of time.

lol 'short' shut up

[syncopath]

The Master frowns right back, thinking of his Anetrizine despite himself. Thanks for reminding him, Doctor. "You want to sedate him. And how do you propose we do that? Slip something into his tea?"

Still, his mind is racing, taking in all the possibilities as he turns away, looking out through the bars and tapping his fingers against his thigh. Sedation-- impossible without an effective sedative and the means to introduce it. Neutralization-- same problem. Killing Daniel still seems the most likely to succeed.

"You mentioned healing devices," he turns back to Vala. "How powerful are they?"

In other words, how broken would Daniel's body need to be to kill the host in turn?