Retaliation

STARGATE: RETALIATION

Bill McCay

[THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL APPEARS BEFORE THE START OF THE BOOK]

COMBATANTS IN A STRUGGLE THAT SPANS A GALAXY

DANIEL JACKSON-once an academic outcast on Earth, is now a hero to a people in need of technology and education. Torn between his new bride and a movement he cannot resist, his unique knowledge of the StarGate may be his undoing.... JACK O’NEIL-leader of the rebellion that destroyed Ra and stood firm against Hathor, finds himself faced with war of a very different kind ... when old friends become new enemies, and control of the StarGate may cost him his command, his life, and his men....

SHA’URI-anxious to help usher in a new era for her suffering people, has staked everything she believes on the promises of her new allies from Earth. But the growing strife between her and her husband, Daniel, may destroy a great deal more than their marriage....

SKAARA-having earned his militia leadership in the war for freedom, must now hold his fragile army together although waves of violence buffet the new ship of state at every turn, and the future seems doomed.... HATHOR-enraged at her failure to crush her enslaved subjects and their intrusive allies, she summons a weapon that Ra held in reserve for just such an occasion....

Sergeant Eugene Skinner, USMC, ran a baleful eye over his honor guard detachment. In minutes, a general would come hurtling through the StarGate to inspect the expeditionary force on the planetAbydos

. The first troops he’d see on this world would be Skinner’s thir-teen men.

The sergeant had been inspected by a lot of different people in some very weird places. But this was the first time he’d be on parade in a man-made cavern be-neath a five-hundred-feet-high pyramid on an alien planet. Skinner intended that everything go well.

His Marines were not in dress blues but in desert camouflage BDU’s, mottled tans and greens on a sand-colored background. Under the sergeant’s unre-lenting eye, the men had made sure that every item of kit and weaponry was in the only acceptable condi-tion-perfect.

Sergeant Skinner did not like surprises, but he tried to prepare for them. That was why his men were already in formation well before General West’s scheduled arrival at 1100 hours.

“Typical,” the sergeant muttered as a low, nearly subsonic tone announced the beginning of a StarGate transition well before the general’s official advent. “Trying to catch us looking bad.”

‘This general might be the one who looks bad,” a corporal replied sotto voce.

“Most people don’t come out too great after a ride through the puke chute.” Skinner had to admit that the Marine slang for a trip through the StarGate was right on the mark. The million-light-year transition from portal to portal was a hellish rush, combining mind-warping geometry with the bruising punishment of a trip overNiagara Falls -without a barrel.

But no matter the general’s condition when he emerged, he would find a picture-perfect reception party.

A glimmer of extradimensional energy gathered at the focus of the Abydos StarGate, congealing into a shining vortex of force that spewed from the torus of carved golden crystal to the accompaniment of a low, thrumming harmonic. Then the energy interface settled in the gleaming golden ring. It looked like soapy water stretched across a fifteen-feet bubble wand, or a reflection of rippling waters.

A silhouette darkened the iridescent energy field. Sergeant Skinner leapt in front of his men and shouted,

“Ten-hut!”

The honor guard snapped to attention, presenting arms. Off to his left, Skinner heard the local command-er, Colonel Jack O’Neil, bitching to his aide, “Where the hell isJackson ? He’s supposed to be here-“ O’Neil’s words were cut off at the appearance of the new arrival. The hulking shape erupting from the lens of energy didn’t look like a general. It was only quasi-human, a tall hawk mask of golden crystal rising from its shoulders. The figure charged with a spear-like weapon leveled as four more masked figures ap-peared from the StarGate.

Skinner trained his rifle when he realized with hor-ror that the guard was strictly ceremonial. To avoid the embarrassment of accidentally shooting a VIP, the M-16 rifles were empty of ammunition. Frantically clawing a full magazine from a web pouch, the sergeant shouted, “Lock and load! Fire at will!” A dazzling blast flared from the intruder’s lance. It caught Skinner and two of his men before they were even in firing position.

Prior to entrusting himself to the unearthly paths of the StarGate, Khonsu had forced himself through the requisite muscular and breathing exercises. Millennia of experience had taught the Horus guards how to minimize the effects of a translation through the inhu-man geometries between gates. Khonsu knew that every second would count when they arrived onAbydos . He and his companions had to be combat ready the instant of their arrival. When he erupted through theAbydos side of the StarGate, Khonsu was every inch the avenging Horus guard. He found the sentinels on the other side stand-ing rigidly before him, like targets. His blast-lance took out three men in the middle of the guards’ skirmish line almost before the Earthlings had adjusted to his appearance. Even as he fired, Khonsu charged the line of warriors dressed in colors of dust and dung.

The Earthlings were torn, unable to believe a single attacker was engaging them. Their weapons wavered from Khonsu to the masked warriors materializing be-hind him, expecting a larger attack.

Now Khonsu was through their line, covering the entrance to the chamber. Shouting in their uncouth tongue, some of the warriors turned, bringing their weapons to bear. Others, the ones apparently operat-ing the portal, leapt for weapons stowed uselessly too far from their positions. Khonsu ignored the furor, guarding the only entrance to the chamber.

His compatriots would handle the warders. His part was to keep reinforcements from arriving.

“No inspection-ready unit has ever passed combat.” That old piece of barracks wisdom kept ringing in Jack O’Neil’s mind as he struggled against the onset of in-vading warriors. A Horus guard hurtled past him as he yanked a Beretta 9mm pistol from his holster.

O’Neil forced himself not to turn after the lead man. There were other guards in the complex of passages that led to the StarGate. Let them deal with the single man while he and the surviving guards tackled the bulk of the invaders. So far only four other Horuses had come through. But the StarGate was cycling again. O’Neil aimed his pistol at a shape that solidified into a heavy-set, jowly middle-aged man in the uniform of a U.S. Air Force general. The colonel managed to ease the pressure on his trigger just before popping General West. The general staggered, nearly pitching on his face from the bruis-ing transit.

But West’s ungraceful entrance saved his life. A blast-bolt flashed where his head should have been, instead incinerating the top of his peaked cap. “General!” O’Neil yelled. Reversing his pistol, he tossed it to his superior officer. “It’s ready to go,” he called. “I hope you remember how to use it!” West’s usual poker face stretched in a tight grin as he caught the weapon. He was a veteran of the shad-owy world of special operations. Even as O’Neil dove for a dead Marine’s rifle, West calmly put three bullets into the Horus guard who’d given him such a warm welcome.

“Not as much kick as my old Army Colt,” the gen-eral commented, wheeling in search of new targets.

But the alien assault team was past them, having al-ready vanished into the next chamber after leaving two of their number stark on the floor. M-16 in hand, O’Neil considered pursuing the survivors-for about a second. Then he shook his head. The corridors beyond had lots of fighting men, and they’d come run-ning to the sound of the guns.

Now was not the time to leave the StarGate un-guarded. “Reload,” O’Neil told the surviving men in the room. Then he established the Marines and Army technicians to lay down a crossfire on anything else that appeared from the StarGate. “If you’ve got grenades, keep ‘em ready,” he ordered.

West nodded, then removed his still smoldering headgear. “No brass hats here,” he said. “Just soldiers.”

Khonsu held his blocking position for what seemed like forever. He forced himself not to turn back-that could be a fatal distraction. What was keeping the rest of his team? They should have dispatched all of the outlanders by now! The Horus tensed as he detected the clatter of on-rushing feet-more guards hastening to the sounds of fighting. A hand landed on Khonsu’s shoulder. He turned to find his comrade Neb, the leader of this foray. Behind his mask Khonsu’s face showed his shock. The strangers had killed two of their number-and too many of the gate guards still survived! With a brusque hand motion the leader gestured- onward! The three survivors rushed from the hall of the StarGate into a crypt-like chamber. Here they found another obstacle. The short-range matter trans-mitter they had expected to whisk them ahead of pur-suit had been rendered useless, totally blocked with debris. With no signs of disheartenment, the leader pressed on into the larger colonnaded hall beyond.

Shouts echoed off the stone walls as some of the sol-diers spotted him. The odd brrrrrrrp! sounds of their armament blended with crashing counter blasts from the intruders’ lances.

Neb raised his aim, firing at the ungainly lights strung in the hall.

The huge space was plunged into darkness as the enemy’s cries rose in volume. But for Khonsu and the other Horus guards, the light intensifiers in their helmet-masks turned the blackness into a green-tinted image. He saw a trio of warriors groping their way be-tween the pillars, trying to reach him. Neb aimed-but their leader seized his arm. Khonsu understood. The glare of the blast would reveal their location to the enemies wandering in the dark, seeking some target for their weapons.

Sweeping his blast-lance at the ready across his chest, Khonsu advanced on the three interlopers. He swung his energy weapon like a quarterstaff, catching the lead warrior just under the left ear. The man went down as if the weight of the world had fallen upon him. The warrior on the felled one’s right must have heard the scuffle. He called out in a sharp voice as he crouched, his weapon set to sweep the now suspicious blackness.

Khonsu thrust his blast-lance in a lunge that caught the man in the pit of the stomach. The soldier folded, triggering a burst into the floor. Flying rock chips stung Khonsu’s legs as his eyes reflexively clenched shut against the agony of the intensified muzzle flare. He lashed out into the featureless red glare dancing before his eyes and felt his blast-lance strike some-thing yielding.

“Forward!” The order came through his mask’s com-municator. Running strictly by rote, Khonsu threaded the route to the pyramid’s entrance while still blinded. His sight returned barely in time to warn him of the single guard left at the adit.

A mistake, he thought. They seek to chase the mouse when their best move would be to seal off the mousehole.

The lone guard called into the darkness. Neb fired a blast-bolt straight into the warrior’s chest. The man’s torso exploded as his body fluids vaporized, and the hall filled with the smell of roasted meat.

Yells rose from behind as the air filled with the roar of the Earthlings’ projectile guns. The three invaders darted out of the darkness and into the dim glow of a starship’s emergency lighting.

Khonsu’s briefing for this mission had covered sev-eral contingencies. One of these had been a foray into the disabled cruiser that had docked on the Abydos StarGate pyramid.

The war vessel Ra’s Eye had come to Abydos in search of Ra, the ageless god-ruler of a vast interstellar empire. Instead it had found Ra’s vessel destroyed the Abydos peasants in rebellion with the help of interlopers from Earth-the only world that, thou-sands of years before, had successfully thrown off Ra’s domination.

Khonsu had been remorselessly drilled in the ship’s deck layout. He was surprised to find improvised bar-ricades set at the entrance to the StarGate pyramid and along the wide corridor that led to the main airlock. But Khonsu was even more shocked to find these bar-riers guarded by armed fellahin of Abydos. Again, he’d been briefed on the warrior group the rebel fellahin had created, but it had sounded like fantasy. Slaves with weapons? Inconceivable! Now he faced them. But the fellahin would-be war-riors were even more disorganized than the Earth-lings. At the first sight of their ancient overseers, the ex-slaves stood like night creatures caught in a bright light. Khonsu’s leader didn’t give them a chance to re-cover. A slim hand shot out to an inconspicuous set of studs set into the crystalline wall. Fingers stabbed in the right combination, and the seemingly solid quartz surface reconstituted itself, forming an opening-an access hatch for maintenance technicians. The leader vanished inside, followed by Neb.

Khonsu waited until the first of the fellahin reached him. Seizing the luckless Abydan, he dragged him in-side the service conduit. He’d broken the weakling’s neck before the biomorphic quartz redeployed to its wall form. Stripping off the dead man’s homespun cloak, Khonsu clambered up the stanchions to the next deck. He could hear the thudding of furious fists on the panel below.