Chapter 6.03 - Star Gate

When I reached the reception hall, I left the hosts with the jaffa guard, and went to the ship to organize the transfer of the squad in exchange for slaves. Fifteen minutes later I sent the right amount of metal through the rings, after which I took the hosts to my ship and locked them in prison cells.

Returning to the palace, I again met Apis.

“I see you have already chosen your hosts. Your order for the guns is our high priority. They will be ready tomorrow morning …”

“Wonderful.” I commented and intentionally left a pause.

“Did you say something about the desire to buy information?”

“Yes. I am interested in the gate addresses in the galaxy and the description of the planets on which they are located.”

“This is ... very expensive information.”

“I hope I can still afford it.”

“Our database has addresses of more than twenty thousand gates. Of these, sixteen thousand leads to the planets with conditions suitable for life. For the remaining four thousand addresses there is no information. Cost of every hundred addresses of inhabited planet is ten thousand tons of Naquadah.”

“How many?” I was indignant.

“I told you that this is expensive information. But I can assure you, you cannot find a detailed database such as ours anywhere else. Even the great System Lords do not have such information.”

“Well, yes, how would they have that much Naquadah?”

“Hahaha! You're right. So, will you buy?”

“I need to think. For the amount of Naquadah that you want for sixteen thousand addresses, I can buy fifty fully equipped ha'taks. I will give you my answer when I return to pick up my order.”

“Of course. Then please, have fun. Slaves here are ready to fulfill your every desires. Please note that some desires may need to be paid.”

“Thank you. I, perhaps, will return to the ship. I need to meet my future hosts.”

Saying goodbye, together with my jaffa, I left the palace and returned to the ship. Then began to study my purchase. The sarcophagus, naturally, did not show anything suspicious, but scanning with symbiote made it possible to find capsules with poison, cleverly hidden in bone tissues. I immediately deleted them. A change in the hormonal background of the organism was also discovered, which would make it impossible for me to change the host if I had lived with him for more than a couple of decades. This, too, was easily resolved, since my symbiote possessed all those abilities of Panacea.

Having prepared the hosts, I locked them in the cells, ordering Jaffa to watch them, feed them and immediately report to me if any problems appear.

The next day I visited the palace, where we went with Apis to the equipment warehouse, located in the open air next to the neighboring building. I checked all the weapons, and even tried a couple of guns in practice. When it came to the transfer of naquadak, I raised the question about buying of addresses.

“Apis, I thought about your offer to sell addresses, and decided to buy them.”

“Yes? And how many? A hundred? Two hundred?”

“Everything. Sixteen thousand addresses of habitable planets.”

“Seriously?” The eyes of my interlocutor bulged and lit up against his will.

“Yes. But I want to exchange right now. No delays, excuses or promises. Right now I will unload the Naquadah, after which I want to get addresses, detailed information on them and, of course, the ordered equipment.”

“I ... I ... well. Right now?”

“Yes. I'll unload the naquadah here. Are you ready to provide to me a database?”

“Uh-uh ... yes. I'll have to go to get it. It will take fifteen minutes.”

“Good. Then get ready to scan the load.”

I put on my glasses and through them gave the command to the ship's computer. It moved from the place of "parking", hovered above us, and then its bottom opened, and from there the cube of the naquadah with a side of forty-four meters smoothly descended. It consisted of smaller blocks, each one cubic meter which weight nineteen tons.

If recently Apis bulged his eyes, now his jaw dropped. Having stood in shock for almost a minute, he rushed to the technicians, forcing them to scan the metal. All checks said one thing - this is pure naquadah.

“You have little time.” I said him, looking at the dark gray cube. “If in ten minutes I don’t get the database, then most of the naquadah will be returned to my ship.”

Apis looked at me with insane eyes, then swiftly ran away.

I did offer with such conditions specially. The less time the goa’uld have, the greater the chances that they will not have time to figure out how to deceive me. Greed overshadows the eyes of people, and the greed of the goa’uld was hundreds times larger.

While the bosses were absent, I activated the system of remote use of the rings, starting to teleport the guns into the ha'tak, since all the equipment was put up in the open space. I used special cargo rings with a larger diameter. One by one, the guns and shield emitters disappeared into the womb of my ship. The local jaffas were worried, but since I just unloaded the payment, and the bosses were absent, they did not take any active actions.

Within five minutes, Apis, sober, rushed to me, dragging a local analogue of the flash drive. I scanned it with my visor, copied the information and immediately transferred it to the ship. The on-board computer analyzed the entire package of information and issued a positive opinion on the quality of the data.

“Well, I'm glad that we were able to agree.” I summarized, watching as the last of the guns disappear. “I will recommend a deal with you to my friends. And now, please forgive me, but urgent matters await me. I recommend that you transfer this naqadah to warehouses as quickly as possible. Such a weight will inevitably cause soil subsidence, which can destroy neighboring buildings. I declare this to you as the god of knowledge and architecture. Good luck.”

On this, me and a group of my jaffa were surrounded by transport rings, and we disappeared into the shine of light, moving to the hangar. From there I teleported to the control room, where I gave the order to depart. I left naquadah in place, although I was tormented by a feeling of greed, demanding to take all this wealth with me. So,my ‘ greed’ remained unsatisfied. If necessary, I can collect so many naquadah at any time. And after installing all the guns, I will not even need to hide. I can well afford to fall into the crown world of any System Lord and insolently rob him.

As soon as I left the atmosphere of the planet, I was surrounded by three ha’tak, and a call came to the communication system. And why am I not surprised?

“Imhotep, I order you to surrender. Immediately land the ship, or I will destroy you.”

From the screen, I was watched by a goa’uld with a powerful expression on his face and a seal of vice on him. It seems that it is Ptah himself. They came to senses and decided that since I broke up with so many naquadah, then surely I have even more on board. And they does not make mistakes.

“So this is your vaunted honesty about making deals? Initially, to sell something, and then immediately take it away? My patience is short. Immediately order your ships to retreat, or I will destroy them all. And do not say later that I did not warn you.”

“This is a bluff!” Objected Ptah. “We scanned your ship. You only have two small guns in the bow. Your ha’tak armor is also thin. This is a cargo ship. Give up and I will save your life.”

“You are pathetic. See my power, worm. To destroy your ships, I do not need even weapons.”

I broke the connection and told the computer to go ramming. The shields of the ship of the Ancients were designed for a direct collision with an asteroid, and the shaky Goa’uld technique could not harm me. The enemy ships began to fire at me.

I instantly accelerated and literally flew through one of the ships. He fell apart, then detonated the reactor, evaporating the fragments. Departing from a cloud of hot gas, I headed for the second ship. It tried to dodge, but its speed was simply not enough for this. I took down about half the ship, and the rest disappeared in a flash of a reactor explosion after a couple of seconds.

The third ship tried to go into hyperspace, but did not have time. I made a micro-jump, coming out of hyperspace next to the victim. The technique of the Ancients allowed me to do such tricks. I didn't even have to collide with the ship. The distortion of the space from my movement caused an overload of the hyperdrive, from which it exploded, causing detonation of the reactor in one.

I examined the wreckage of the enemy fleet, after which I gave a command to a computer to collect free resources, and I contacted the ruler of the planet.

“Ptah, you insulted me.” I said to the bewildered goa’uld, behind whom Apis loomed. “The next time I arrive here, you must provide me with three new ha’taks, in exchange for those destroyed by me. And if you dare to refuse, I will destroy you.”

Shining my eyes, I broke off the connection, let my ship finish collecting the debris and went into hyperspace. The absurdity of my demands should have convinced Ptah and his subordinates that it was better not to joke with me. If you know that your opponent is strong and inadequate, then you will try at least not to anger him.

Then I went to my planet. I needed time to prepare for the next point of my plan.

After landing, I gave the command to the computer to start the installation of the guns and gave the order to Jaffas to take one of human hosts I had chosen to one of the halls. The hall has been installed with golden throne with a low back. As I expected, the man quickly got tired of waiting for me, and he decided to try the throne on his ass. I was going to use the identity of the host for my own purposes, and therefore I wanted to make a little psychological preparation.

The doors to the hall opened, and I entered them in my female body. At first, the man glanced at me fearfully, and then relaxed and pretended that he was the ruler here, and I was his concubine.

“Do you like the throne, does it make your ass uncomfortable?” I asked, approaching the pedestal on which the throne was located.

“No, just right. As if specially made for me.” The peasant smiled an irresistible smile that would plunge women into the abyss of passion. But I ignored all his efforts.

“I really made it for you.”

“Made?” In confusion, he asked again, noting that I was talking about myself as a man.

“Exactly. Hail, you will become a god.” I flashed my eyes, went to the throne and began to bypass it, stopping behind of my future host. He was agitated, but realized that he could not get up or raise his hands from the armrests. “At least in some sense. And if you behave good, you can even enjoy your position.”

As this foreplay is over. I stood behind the man’s back, hugged him, leaned over to the his ear, erotically blew into him, and then her mouth opened, from there I crawled out in person. Sliding around the neck of the paralyzed victim, I drilled into his flesh. Goa’uld’s abilities allowed me to make a path in the human body without damaging the large vessels and nerves. Slipping past the collarbone into the chest, I climbed up along the spine and “connected” to the brain of my new host.

I was in no hurry, and therefore slowly and carefully subjugated a person, for one checking on his state of health with my snake body’s feeling. My previous host, the girl, was alive only thanks to the abilities of my symbiote. In general, this whole story with the capture of the bodies by the goa’uld was very interesting.

The point was that the goa’uld had no brain. That is, in general. Brain’s role was played by a ganglion about 1 millimeter size. When the goa’uld subjugated the host to himself, he first of all subjugated the brain to himself. The worm had its own astral body, its own personality, but in order to think and make decisions, he needed normal brains. After leaving the host, the goa’uld transforms from a genius creature into a dull worm, capable of thinking only at the level of instincts.

My previous host survived the overload of information written directly into her brain, because of which this brain began to collapse. At the same time, information about the language of the ancients started to arise. Fortunately, I was mostly a spiritual being, and therefore I could think clearly even with complete absence of brains. During this year I was able to copy quite a lot of information about the language into my mind, but in the end the brain destruction went so far that even its complete amputation would not have made it worse. Therefore, I decided to change the host. And since the inhabitants of my planet did not like my appearance, I chose to buy a new host from Ptah. I independently didn’t have any desire to wander around the worlds in search of a suitable host. Not just because the inhabitants of the Earth invented supermarkets, where you can buy most of the products of everyday use. It was much more convenient than dangle around the city in search of the right host.

Having completed the partial merger process, I opened my eyes and looked around. I did not drop my worm body, completely dissolving in the recipient's brain. I needed a way for an emergency retreat in case of any problems. And the problems were quite expected.

I just bought a database of addresses to look for information on the technology of creating the Stargate. And the only source of such knowledge could be only fragments of the civilization of the ancients. I knew exactly about the existence of two places where the library of the ancients was located, recording knowledge into the brain of suitable recipients. But one of these places was disposable, plus it was tied to the plot of the original story. Given that the gates there led into a small closed room, the chances of using this place were almost nil.

But the second place was more promising. It was a planet where, next to the gate, there was a huge statue, in the basement of which was the device of the ancients I needed. I am going to find this place.

I downloaded the database to the ancients navigation computer, and give task to analyze all the records and find a place suitable for the description. A second later, I was looking at a list of eight addresses that I needed to check. It is time for action.

I left the cabin of the ship and headed for the residential rooms - the only place on the ship where jaffa could be without my personal control.

“Jaffa, cree!” I called them, going into the common hall, where now five dozen warriors were preparing for further service. “I'm Imhotep, your god” In confirmation of these words, I flashed my eyes. Jaffa immediately jumped up, lined up and bowed to me. So that they didn’t have any doubts, I wrapped myself in darkness and levitated half a meter in the air. “Today you will have to serve me, applying all your abilities, skills, and dedication. You will go to other worlds for reconnaissance, to find among them the one that I need to realize my incomprehensible plans. Get ready. An hour later, the ha’tak will sit down next to the gate, and you will pass through them in groups of ten.

With this, I looked at my subordinates with a careful look, looking for doubters, and then turned, and flew away. My path lay in the industrial zone, where robots collected several useful devices. The first of these were video cameras that transmit the image by radio. I planned to throw them at the gate first, to check the reliability of the transition and the situation at the point of arrival.

The second device was a hyperspace beacon, which would allow me to calculate the coordinates of the planet and then fly there on the ship. Gate addresses were not always allowed to determine where exactly in the galaxy to look for them.

At the appointed time, the ship landed near the gate on my planet. Through transport rings, I and my army landed on the ground. It seems that the guests appeared here quite often. The terrain have old and very fresh traces of hits with the energy weapon of the goa’ulds. Good thing I set up the main base far away, on the other side of the planet. With a local primitive civilization, the glory of my reign will reach this place at best in a thousand years.

Unloaded in front of the gate, I broke my troops into dozens. At my command, the first ten stood near the gate, and I dialed the first address. After the opening of the passage, my video cameras flew into it first. The image from other side of gate was fed directly to my glasses, so for everyone else, my knowledge of what was happening on the other side looked like "Goa’uld magic."

When my camera passed gate, it immediately saw a dozen or so jaffa who aimed their weapons at the Stargate. Looks like someone is waiting here. But obviously not for me. The camera had the appearance of a sphere with a weighted lower part, which gave it the “roly-poly” properties. On the surface of the sphere there were several wide-angle video cameras, allowing to obtain a panoramic image.

And besides this, there were a lot of holes in the ball, from which needles covered with potent nerve poison would shoot. This poison was produced by one of the animals on my planet and even acted on the goa’uld, so that it acted on jaffa and hosts no worse than ordinary people.

At my command, the ball shot needles, and each of them hit the face of one of those present. Even the most primitive processor of the Ancients coped well with the calculation of the needle trajectory. Enemy jaffas are very well huddled near the gate, so that each of them received my greeting. After a few seconds, they began to fall to the ground, shaking in convulsions.

“The first and second teams at the gate. Suppress any resistance. Do not shoot at the enemy god.”

One of the people actually was a goa’uld. He had a personal protective field, so he did not get the needle. He had no weapons in his hands, but only glittered with eyes. I noticed another interesting thing. All the jaffas on the other side of the passage had the mark of Apophis on their forehead. So it was necessary to find out what was going on there.

My soldiers went smoothly through the gate and dispersed around the territory. A pair of the most enduring opponents tried to point their weapons at them, but received a charge of plasma on the forehead. After making sure that the situation was under control, I personally went through the gate, although I didn’t initially plan to do this.

“Well, well, well. Who is here with us? What is your name, my dear?” I turned to goa’uld.

“I'm Inpu.”

“And for whom were you trying to ambush at the gate exit?”

“You.”

“Me?” I am very surprised. “This is impossible”

“You are the servant of Apophis. Has he sent you to catch me?”

“Actually, no. But you better start telling about everything from the start. Who are you and why does Apophis hunt you?”

“I'm God! My jaffa host could see by the corner of his eye how Apophis devours his children. I was waiting for the same fate, but I captured the host and decided to escape. These jaffas followed me, accepting faith in a new god. I went through the gate several times and waited for the chase which Apophis should have sent in my wake.”

“So these are traitors?” I said while looking around the bodies lying on the ground and commanded “Kill them.”

My jaffas did not hesitate for a moment, following the order. For them, faith in their god was sacred, and traitors were only worthy of death. Previously, they served Apophis, but he personally ordered to serve a new god, and granted ha’tak. They did not know that I had tricked Apophis, and if they had known, they would have taken it only as proof of my strength. But the fugitive goa’ulds were rebellious gods in their eyes, in open rebellion against their father. Jaffas did not dare to raise their hand to the goa’uld, unless they directly ordered by their god. But this restriction did not concern me. I could kill any goa’uld except Apophis, and my actions would not be considered something shameful.

My warriors shot defenseless people and started pulling them together to cremate them.

“Inpu, you did not do the best thing, running away from our father.” I turned to the nervous ‘brother’. “I currently don’t have the opportunity to personally track your return, so we’ll do it differently.”

I stuck the tentacle into the fugitive goa’uld’s brain and began to subdue his consciousness, for one to neutralize the effect of the worm to the brain. As a result, I got an ordinary person with a powerless worm in his head. To prevent so the goa’uld did not run away, I injected paralyzing poison into his body. It was a small dose that paralyzed only the worm, leaving the host healthy.

“Listen to my order, mortal.” I gave my instructions to the fugitive goa’uld’s host. In each person’s brain there was an area, under the influence on which he perceived the order given to him by the absolute will of God and the ultimate truth. “Now, you will go to the planet of Apophis, personally come to him and say that you returned the fugitive goa’uld by order of Imhotep, the god of knowledge and architecture. You must not allow the goa’uld to escape. If he try to escape, you must kill him at any cost. Do it.”

The zombie bearer with a wooden gait moved toward the gate and began to type in the address. When the passage opened, he also slowly walked into it and disappeared from our eyes.

“Come back.” I gave the order to my troops.

A quick inspection of the area showed that this is not the planet that I needed. There was a huge statue, but it was a completely different form. Yes, and the neighborhood looked more like a ruined city. By the way, about the destroyed city ... Another thought occurred to me to think about.

Returning back, I typed the next planet’s address. There the camera showed the usual meadow in the forest. At my command, the third group of Jaffa went through the gate, after which they picked up the video camera and walked around the gate with it. Around the gate stood rook statue and also … a very strange picture. And it was not in the rook or metal. It was not even a statue, but a bas-relief on a rock towering from the back of the gate. It depicted the typical look of an Alien. If these creatures really live there, then I should get out of there quickly.

I gave the command to jaffa, and they closed the passage, and then opened it again from that side and returned. I extremely carefully scanned all of them, and made sure that no stranger entered here with them, and mentally took a breath.

I then proceed to the next address. The third address was exactly what I was looking for. Almost immediately, I noticed a huge statue in the distance, and when jaffa raised the camera and sent it in the right direction, then all doubts were gone. Jackpot! I sent another team through the gate, along with the hyperspace beacon, after which I transmitted through the camera an order to move away from the gate a couple of hundred meters and wait for me to arrive.

After that, I teleported myself and all my subordinates to the ship, which immediately began to go into orbit. The beacon signal was localized, and after a couple of minutes I already knew the coordinates for the hyperspace jump.

The flight lasted just over an hour. Stepping out into three dimensional space, I was in orbit around the planet. The first thing that caught my eye was the many remnants of spacecraft. I identified the "spare parts" from the goa’uld’s ships, but with whom they fought it was not clear. Anyway, now this place has been abandoned. Analysis of the wreckage showed that they have been circling here for many thousands of years.

I scanned the planet, found a gate on it, and then I started descending, immediately heading to the statue I needed. In general, it was a building made in the shape of a seated human figure. Now it lost its head and right leg, as well as most of the decorative bricks looked missing. But the most interesting thing was that the statue was a relatively new building. The foundation on which it stood was the building of the ancients almost hidden under the ground.

Having finished scanning the statue with a geological scanner, I “parked” the ship at a height of a couple of tens of meters above the ground and gave the command to Jaffa to disembark. The squad that was waiting for me on the planet had to return the equipment to the ship and install a guard post near the gate.

“Jaffa, cree!” I turned to my soldiers, lined up next to the ship. “This building is a valuable object that you must protect. It must remain intact. In the event of a threat, you must protect it even at the cost of your life. In addition, since you are too stupid to understand what you are dealing with, I forbid you to approach the building closer than twenty meters. You can approach it only by my order and in my presence. Break into shifts and arrange round the clock security. Start.”

The people rushed in all directions, depicting a stormy activity, and I went to the statue. According to my recollections of the series, the device of the ancients was under the right foot of the statue. I got to this place and found inscriptions in the language of the ancients. Well, it will be an interesting job.

Having distracted for a minute, I monitored the process of installing the goa’uld’s guns on my ship. Each of the guns was scanned by my robots for defects and unpleasant surprises, after which they were installed in hidden pockets of the ha’tak’s hull. At the moment, four guns had already been installed. Still, these devices are designed specifically for battle. Even one shot from such a gun could pierce shields and blow up a reactor. A little thought, I moved the ship, placing it directly above the statue. I do not need surprises, and so to attack this place from air would be more difficult.

At first, I read all the texts. Surprisingly, there was very little useful information. Basically, the author of this scribble emphasize the greatness of the ancients, their power, wisdom, and so on. The funny thing is, he called himself as one of the ancients. So who in their right mind do such stupid statement? Usually intelligent beings think that they are modern, fashionable, and advanced, but not ancient. Although, perhaps they achieved personal immortality, and for them all other living creatures were one-day butterflies. Then yes, the self-name of the ancients was to suppress all "non-ancient", forcing them to feel their own inferiority. In general, in my sense, these ancients were ‘high level trolls’.

So summarizing all information I can say that, this place was something of a kindergarten education system. When one of the ancients reached a certain age, a knowledge base was loaded into his mind, which gave him an understanding of the foundations of mathematics, physics, and technology. And then he continue developing, studying specialized databases or exploring something of his own.

I went to the device and allowed it to scan me. The result of this was that the scan stopped and the device continued to sleep. Looks like they don’t let non-ancients in. The first thing that comes to mind is the presence of a snake in the head. I called one jaffa and ordered him to stand in front of the scanner. This time the scan did not last one second, but two. The result was still the same.

“Bring Ulric here.” I gave the order.

Egil, Ulrik and Skuli - that was the name of the three hosts I bought. I was now in the body of Egil, and Ulrik was next in the "right of inheritance." I did not communicate with the prisoners, because I did not see much sense in it. I have enough of Egil's stupid thoughts in my head to be interested in the thoughts of two other savages.

“Hi Egil. Are you here as a boss, or what?” Ulrik greeted me when he was brought to me under a guard’s surveillance.

“I'm Imhotep.” I flashed my eyes. “Egil is dead. Stand here.” I pointed out my hand.

“What for?” Asked a talkative test subject, taking the specified place.

The device of the Ancients conducted a scan, after which the emitter showed on the wall, which began to conduct a deeper scan.

“Get back there.”

“What for? Egil what the …”

I did not let the slave finish the sentence by pulling him with telekinesis and throwing him back to the rock column.

“When I order, you must execute the order, and not ask questions. And to make it better for you, I will give you a light punishment.”

I thrust tentacle into the victim and gave him five seconds of hell, transmitting pain directly to his brain.

“Take him away, but not too far.” I ordered a jaffa. “He may still have a use to me.”

I was distracted from the mortal's laments, that almost killed himself while standing next to the device, and focused on scanning the ancient’s device with symbiote's abilities.

In general, there was nothing particularly difficult for me. I was already familiar with the design of the technology of the ancients, so that I was immediately able to recognize the source of energy, the spatial crease with equipment, and the pattern of operation of the scanner. In the scanner, I found a memory module with a program code, after which with the help of a symbiote I simply copied the data into my visor. The ancients did not expect that there would be someone capable of organizing such a trick, so the data was not encrypted or somehow protected.

After downloading the whole thing to my computer, I launched the analysis and five minutes later I received an complete list of signs that the scanner paid attention to. In fact, there was only minimal genetic resemblance to the ancients, the absence of obvious defects in the structure of the brain and ... ‘voluntary will of human’ to look into the device. The goa’ulds broke on the third condition, because the host acted under duress, and jaffa on the second, because their brains were creatively reworked to increase faith in God and obedience.

I experimented a little with the scanner, and then went to the leader of the jaffa guarding Ulrik.

“Set up a camp here. Everyone except me is prohibited to approach the statue in any circumstances”

“My god, what exactly did you find here?”

The Ulrik pricked his ears and pretended that he was not interested in our conversation.

“This is the device of the ancients. If you look into it, then man will receive the power of the gods and the knowledge of the ancients. He alone will be able to destroy hundreds of enemies and thousands of spacecraft. You do not have the right to own such power, and therefore must stay away from the statue.”

“I obey! None of us would dare approach statue without your order.”

I nodded and walked away. Jaffa gave orders, and then caught up with me.

“Why did you give us such type of order?” He asked me in a whisper. “Is it because of the slave?”

“Exactly.” I confirmed. A minute ago I gave the order to ask me a question, “saying” the right words near ear of Jaffa using telekinesis. “Let him escape and give him a chance to look into the device of the Ancients.”

“Your order will be executed.”

“And do not try to go there yourself.”

“Of course, my god. You can count on us.”

I stepped aside and began to observe the plan and device. I had to wait more than three hours. Only when it was already beginning to get dark, Ulrik plucked up the courage to slip away from under not too strict guardianship and get to the statue. At first, he doubted, but when jaffa began to cry out, in search of him, he stucked his head in the mouth of the ‘dragon’.

The knowledge archive base of the ancients itself was encrypted, and I could not copy it directly. Therefore, I carefully watched how data is recorded in the Ulrik’s brain. To my surprise, only a quarter of the brain was used for data recording. But the rest of the ‘place in the head’ was taken by the data unpacking program, which began to unpack the archive, recording the already prepared data into the necessary sections of the brain. This process was autonomous and theoretically should have been completed in about a month. That's just practically, but this was not destined to be fulfilled even by one percent.

Ulric's brain was not adapted to write such kind of data into it using the technology of the ancients. The process was clearly designed for the brain of the ancients, and not for the human. Even my first host was able to bear this procedure much better. Either she was trained in a more benign mode, or the heredity of my slave was completely nasty, so his brain began to collapse even before the process of recording data had ended.

I went to Ulrik and tried to heal him, but it was a waste of energy. His brain was decomposing right before my eyes, so it was impossible to save him.

“Take him to the ship and place him in the morgue.” I gave the order. On the ship, among other things, I organized a refrigerator where I could store organic materials for experiments.

“It will be executed, my god.” The jaffa bowed to me. “Was it a trap?”

“No. Everything I said was true.” I smiled wickedly in response. “Just a mere mortal unable to endure such power. At best, he will not die immediately, but in a few days. Only gods can have such power.”

“Yes, my god. Your wisdom is immeasurable.”

Hmm, it looks like this jaffa is not so useless. And a year has not passed, as he learned to flatter me. I honestly don't even know the name of the commander of my warriors. At the very beginning, I ordered them to choose the one who will lead them. And in case of any problems, I promised to execute the leader first. The first four applicants all together could not live on the post of commander even a week. But as he was chosen, he has been leading other jaffa for more than a year now. All the brainless power-hungry and schemers in my army have already ended or agreed with their subordinate position.