trans_9 | Sobek the Immortal [Closed]

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Master did hesitate, just a bit. But it wasn't a loss of nerve; instead, he slid a look toward Sobek, his eyebrows raised in slight surprise, like a dog who wasn't sure the bone he'd been given was really his.

It was only a glance, though, before he moved over to the machine decisively and began inspecting the controls, nodding with approval and pointedly ignoring the Doctor's looks. It didn't take him long, of course, to puzzle out how it worked. Soon his fingers were dancing over those controls.

He did look up, eyes meeting the Doctor's, mouth twisting up in a smirk and the drums thundering in anticipation, as he entered the final command into the machine. He didn't want to miss a single second of this.

The hesitation did not go unnoticed. The crocodile helmet's servos whirred as the face plate swiveled and focused down at Smith. The metal face nor glowing eyes offered any sign of what he should, could do, much less whether this was a trick or not. There was no hint encouragement for him. Smith stepped forwarded and considered the machine while several eyes burned against his back.

Given time, Smith figured out the very basic controls. Better, he figured out what his task was. Now it only took the entry of the command to take the first step towards showing himself faithful. The System Lord had made sure that Smith didn't have access to anything sensitive or anything that would kill the Doctor. He would not waste his God's time trying to conduct an interrogation.

This was merely a demonstration, to prove himself, to both his God and to his former crew where he stood.

For the Doctor, several things happened at once. Something metal and slimy, like a slug, pressed right against his temples and a metal cord coiled around his neck. The first began to produce a high pitched sound against the side of his head, growing increasingly painful. While the noise grew, what might have been a pleasant warmth from the coils began to grow, burning hotter and hotter.

The Doctor had time to meet the Master's smirk, his eyes lifting, before this round started.

He choked on his gasp as the plug against his head squealed at a frequency that felt like it was tailored to making a Time Lord's brain boil inside his skull, the coil around his neck burning as he tried to spasm away and found that it was all rather difficult when you were effectively tied down. The Doctor jerked against the restraints. Agony coursed through him starting from his head and working his way down to his toes and then right back up again because apparently this was a round-trip marathon and no one had the courtesy to tell him anything.

It took him a long while to realize that eventually the machine had shut off, perhaps on a timer. Perhaps Sobek had enough time to start getting it through that helm that Time Lords were different and that he needed to adjust his approach.

The Doctor coughed, chest heaving as he opened his eyes, struggling to breathe as his hearts fluttered. Head hurt. Thinking hurt and while that was normally a good thing because it meant he'd actually been given a challenge, this...probably wasn't one of those times. Right. The Master and Sobek. He was just starting to remember where he was, his limbs trembling as he tried to get his body under control.

He might need more than a moment to find his voice again, his hair slicked down with sweat as he tried to make sure his brain hadn't liquified. It hadn't, right?

The Master watched it all, not flinching, but actually leaning forward, reveling in the Doctor's discomfort with avid eyes. It was clear to anyone observing him that this was not about 'serving his God'. This was personal. This was a vendetta appeased, at least in part.

The whole process was making him feel so much better-- watching the Doctor writhe in clear agony, helpless to stop the assault on the senses. But it was over far too soon, and the Master reached for the controls again, eagerly. Not even giving the Doctor a moment to collect himself.

Sobek watched the display without twitching a muscle, standing as still as the very guards lining the room and showing just as much emotion. The Doctor's suffering was just another occurrence in a long line of agony he'd seen in his life time, another mortal, and too bloodless, not nearly enough stoke the urge to rend and tear. But this wasn't about the Doctor this time or getting information.

The Doctor had proved resilient to this point. A simple procedure such as this would not get him to talk. Kill him maybe. Enough stimuli and he could stop both of those hearts. Sobek remained unconcerned. Death was not something a God needed to concern themselves, not when they had the ability to control life and death. What the God noticed was Smith's reaction to his test.

Smith's getting off on it, Daniel thought. Daniel watched alongside the System Lord with something like surprise and then disgust. Daniel may not have been as experienced with sadism in its purest form before Sobek. Now he was. Intimately. He saw it playing out in their minds constantly, daydreams, glories of the past, plans for the future, all violent and reveling in the gore, but that was a Goa'uld for you, and an old one at that. Seeing it so blatantly on another crew member's face wasn't something the vessel expected. Sobek's mouth twisted with displeasure behind the mask.

The slave wasn't doing this for his God's sake. He even reached for the controls, as if his God had given him permission to do so.

The guards that came in with Sobek and Smith stepped forward and swung their staff weapons at the back of Smith's knees, intending to stop him and bring him kneeling to the ground, show him that was where he belonged.

And the Master 'obeyed', falling to his knees with a soft grunt. He swung his head around to stare at Sobek and for a split second it wasn't just surprise on his face but rage. The sort of rage a small child might express when a favorite toy was taken from him. All too quickly it slid away, replaced by a simpering smile.

"Of course. My apologies."

Immediate rage, a shadow of his own when denied a kill. Not reverence or instant mortification followed by groveling, but irritation. This was not a man who switched sides as easily as he acted. Convenience, but not full devotion for a God who had been merciful.

"You are done here at present, slave." No sign that he'd passed or failed. The fact that he was still alive was a good sign, but the System lord didn't seem quite convinced that he could be fully trusted. He could be useful. But trusted to serve him as faithfully as those born into servitude for the Crocodile God? That remained to be seen.

The God left the Doctor where he was and turned to leave. "Come. You will entertain your God."

Edited 2012-02-04 05:52 (UTC)

'Entertainment'. He didn't much like the sound of that. The Master rose, his gaze slipping surreptitiously from Sobek to the Doctor and back again. He wanted to stay longer, to make the Doctor writhe and scream... but he couldn't. He wasn't allowed. That burning resentment returned to his expression as soon as Sobek turned his back. It was one thing to wait-- it was another to be commanded to wait. And yet another to be corrected in front of the Doctor.

It was humiliation or death, and for a moment the Master hung back. When the guards prodded him forward, though, he followed suit reluctantly, trailing behind Sobek but his eyes hungry and fixed on the Doctor as he exited the chamber.

Sobek the Immortal [Closed]

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