Stargate Reconnaissance by Bill McCay

Author:Bill McCay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Published: 1998-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

No lamplight flickered in the tent which Skaara and Kasuf shared. The older man had already gone to sleep, exhausted by his day's work. Sha'uri and Skaara stood outside the tent, illuminated by the dying flames of a campfire. They barely noticed, embroiled in a flaring argument.

"Daniel, Daniel, Daniel," Skaara snapped. "To listen to you, everything is his fault."

"Not all," Sha'uri had to admit. "It could be that we picked a bad world. Ra never chose to bring humans here. Maybe it was all right for his race, but not for us."

"I don't think that Ra chose worlds that were easy for humans to live on," Skaara argued. "That would make it too easy for us to get out from under his thumb. On Earth he terrorized a good-sized region, but he only ruled in the Nile valley—which was surrounded by deserts and cut off by a sea to the north."

"We don't know much about the other worlds in the Empire," Sha'uri said, "but we know nothing of Ballas. I don't blame Daniel for that—although he was the one who picked the name out of the list."

"If Daniel didn't find problems with this world, you can blame your friend Imiseba," Skaara retorted. "He stampeded everyone into rushing here, after seeing only what could be seen from the StarGate's Entrance Hall. And ever since he's arrived, all he has done is complain."

"You call Imiseba my friend, but wasn't he one of your followers?" Sha'uri shot back. "Wasn't he one of your militiamen?"

Skaara's lips thinned. "I've been asking around about Imiseba, especially since the town meeting. The stories are... interesting. When Father rose, staff in hand, to lead the people against Ra and the Horus guards, it seems that Imiseba was one of the last to go. He couldn't even find a stick as a weapon. Some people mock him still, calling him 'Twig' because that was all he brought."

Sha'uri had noticed Imiseba's odd reaction whenever the word came up.

"When Hathor landed her ship, Imiseba wasn't a member of the militia. But he went out to loot among the dead, and found several rifles. We took him in then, but even so, he flirted with other factions. For a while he was very friendly with Gerekh."

That was a name Sha'uri knew. Gerekh had been a profiteer and warlord, becoming more and more powerful as things had grown worse in Nagada. By the time the end came, he had controlled a sizable part of the city, with a number of armed followers.

"If he was so friendly with Gerekh, how—" Sha'uri began.

"Dumb luck. Imiseba was with me, dickering about something or other, when the city went mad. He joined the riot squad I led, probably because he didn't think he could survive in the city alone. When I went to rescue our supply of blast-lances, he was there, so he got one."

"And somehow he survived all the fighting and the retreat," Sha'uri said sarcastically. "Why do I suspect he wasn't in the front lines?"

"He managed to avoid our final attack.

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