6 Plots and Plans

Rubbing my weary, droopy eyes, my back relaxing in the wooden chair, I grabbed the disposable plastic coffee cup and took another sip of the black coffee.

I glanced at my bed, strewn haphazardly with thick college textbooks in a variety of science subjects, some open and spilled onto the floor near the bed. I sighed helplessly, switching my attention back to the primitive computer screen in front of me.

Savoring the bitterness of the beverage after taking another sip, I placed it on the side of the table and sat upright, my fingers spread on the keyboard as I started another round of typing.

Clicks and clacks filled the room as my fingers rapped against the keyboard keys rapidly, my eyes fixed on the black screen as lines and lines of binary code ran across it as quickly as my fingers moved.

As the pace of my aching fingers increased, the sounds became louder, and as they did, I found myself delving into my thoughts.

It had been two days since I crash-landed on Earth, and it hadn't been much fun. With all the disturbing memories and images running around in my head, I hadn't been sleeping much.

The most I'd been able to lie down, close my eyes, and sleep was only three hours before screams and live renditions of pain, torture, suffering, blood, guts, and orbital bombardments moved in and took over my mind.

It was doing wonders to my sanity, and it only served to increase my hatred for the Goa'uld even more with each passing second. I never really liked the Goa'uld, even when it was all just a show with them being one of the major big bads and all.

But now, seeing and experiencing all they'd done and were doing to humans all across the Galaxy, over and over again, it made me hate them. I hated them more than anything, and it was only increasing every second I lived.

I wanted to make them pay, make them pay so much they'd regret ever laying their beady eyes on humans. I wanted to eliminate them from the face of this universe, every last one of them.

The memories were changing me, turning me into something else slowly; I could feel it. My mind was taking its time adapting to it, carefully incorporating it fully into my psyche, and it was making me afraid.

I couldn't call myself a good guy, I mean, who really was? But I could confidently say I wasn't a bad guy either. I grew up in a military-inclined household with some pretty deep ties in the Russian Orthodox church, so while I wasn't religious, I had some pretty good moral standards.

I had a good sense of right and wrong, and I was afraid it was all going to be twisted completely given time. Even now, some things had changed.

A couple of days ago, the thought of using my Harakesh to brainwash people to get what I wanted would've sickened me, but now, it was normal.

Sure, I knew it was bad, but it didn't feel like it. It was just normal, like it was only right for me to use it to my advantage.

I had been using that feature of my Harakesh more frequently now. That was how I even got this original Mac computer. It was necessary; I needed it for something important, so automatically my mind just deemed it logical to use it and get it.

Luckily, I still had a sense or knew it was wrong, so I didn't abuse it. Only using it when it was necessary, but still, the fact that I'd reached this stage was, to be honest, frightening.

In time, more and more of myself would be changed. For the better or worse, I didn't truly know, but I was putting more of my money on the latter.

Luckily, my core personality didn't seem to be changing that much, so my love for the Goa'uld and their ways would always be in negative digits. I just hoped it would stay that way. Otherwise, I might just become an even bigger monster...

So, moving on to less depressing subjects, I'd been reading a lot lately. Seeing as I couldn't sleep because of all this, I decided to spend the time meaningfully.

Hence, first of all, the books from the local library. I wanted to kill time by learning or reading something, and it was working perfectly.

That was how I found out that the near-perfect memory I thought only applied to my Goa'uld memories, fortunately applied everywhere. My brain had it.

I could recollect everything I'd read with near-perfect detail. It was incredible and made the learning fun and surprisingly not so boring, but funny.

Funny because, whatever I read, especially in the scientific fields, was so primitive that it cracked me up a couple of times. Human understanding of the universe was so small that it was almost inconsequential, and it made me realize fully the scope of the disparity between the Goa'uld and human science.

It was just too low. So low it was pitiful. The Goa'uld were just too advanced. Humans hadn't even achieved stable nuclear fusion yet, and it would take decades, centuries even, before that could happen.

Yet, the Goa'uld were already out there, holding much of the Galaxy by the balls, conquering planets by the day, and even terraforming some of them completely if they were important.

That was just how it was, and it would take countless millennia naturally for them—Humans— to even reach half their level.

Fortunately, that wouldn't be the case for me. I had their knowledge; I knew their strengths and weaknesses, and unlike them, I wasn't too proud to deny them. I had their experience, so there was little chance I'd repeat their mistakes.

With enough time and resources, I'd reach and surpass them eventually. By my estimates, it wouldn't take more than a couple of decades. I had the time to make it so, but the resources were an entirely different matter.

As it stood now, I was broke, very broke. I had nothing. No identity, barely enough cash, and zero supporters or help. If I wanted to gain enough power to hold my own against the forces of this galaxy, I needed a lot more than this.

For the past day, after getting bored reading the books here, I started thinking, plotting my next moves. With my memory now enhanced, I thought back on the show and remembered some pretty crucial stuff right here on Earth that'd help me in my journey.

This little green planet tucked away in one of the remotest corners of the galaxy had some pretty awesome stuff just tucked, hidden, and buried away on it. A whole slew of alien tech.

There was the other Stargate and DHD over in the Antarctic, a living but frozen Ancient, and an Ancient outpost all hidden away in the Antarctic alone.

Then there was the overpowered Ancient healing device buried in a temple in Honduras, Hathor in stasis in her Sarcophagus buried somewhere underneath a temple in Mexico, Osiris Teltak concealed just under his temple in Egypt, and Avalon—Merlin's legendary treasury—hidden just underneath Glastonbury in England.

These were all right here on Earth, but nobody knew of them, just me, at least for now anyway. And I'd be a fool if I left them all just buried and hidden where they were until someone else got hold of them.

They were all going to be mine; there's no doubt about it. But not now. They were too far away, too out of my reach right now, and until I became stable here and got some starting resources, they'd have to remain hidden.

I had to take it one single step at a time. I had it all planned out, planned out to the letter. Now, the first thing I needed to do was build a stable foundation. It was like starting a company; you needed start-up capital first.

I didn't have it, but I knew where to, and I wasn't talking about robbing a bank. No, I had something far better. There was a Goa'uld here, a Goa'uld right here in the US.

His name was Setesh. One of Ra's underlings and the brother of Osiris, who had been living in hiding here ever since he set his brother and his mate up for Ra to remove the competition in his plot to usurp him.

Even after the humans on Earth rebelled, driving the Goa'uld away, he didn't leave with them, fearing Ra would take his life, and continued to stay here with the humans with his limited resources.

For thousands of years, he'd been living here, creating cults and religious groups as he moved from place to place, continent to continent, always leaving as soon as he attracted too much attention.

From what I could remember, he eventually settled down here in the US and created his cult again. Where particularly, I didn't remember, but I was going to find out.

Despite the fact that he was living in hiding from Ra, Setesh was still a Goa'uld, and as such, he still had a lot of riches and an impressive cache of Goa'uld technologies.

In the show, he had everything from Zat'nik'tels, Naquadah bombs, gold and jewels, a Karakesh, Transportation rings, and a whole lot of stuff. They were things I really needed to set up my foundation, and I planned to steal them all from him.

Then kill him. The fewer Goa'uld there were on this planet, the safer I'd feel.

So for the last couple of hours, I'd been trying to hack into the CIA database to get some lead on him because knowing them, they'd by all means have a file on him as a cult leader.

It hasn't been easy. As impressive as this Mac was in this time period, it was still primitive. The fact that the Internet wasn't for public use just yet only made things harder.

Till now, I was trying my best to dumb down my coding into a form that this computer would be able to handle so that I'd be able to hack into the CIA network.

That was the hard part about the whole thing, using or creating a very primitive programming language when I had access to tons of advanced methods or coding languages from both twenty-first-century Earth and Goa'uld computer sciences. That was what was bothering me..

Chuckling at the thought, I shook my head and increased my typing pace again, lines of code flashing ever across the screen. Finally, after an additional half hour, the blackness disappeared and a new interface popped up on the screen as I gained access into the network.

"Yes!" Grinning, I cracked my neck by tilting it both ways, and my knuckles. "It's time for the fun part." I whispered and began another bout of typing.

Utilizing a bunch of advanced network scanning techniques and algorithms, I identified potential targets and pinpointed the numerous security flaws and vulnerabilities within the CIA network system.

Quickly, I exploited those flaws using overflow attacks, SQL injections, and a load of techniques, and gained access to the CIA database.

Instantly, I ramped up my authorization level to the highest and began meticulously covering my tracks, employing countermeasures to evade detection.

After I'd done all this and was assured of my security, I started searching for the Cult Of Set in the database. It didn't take long until I found the file and opened it.

I quickly scanned its contents, noting all the details to memory, and immediately left the database and network, erasing each and every trace of my digital existence.

I switched the computer off and relaxed in my seat, my hands over my neck, and nodded in satisfaction, a dark smile spreading across my lips. I'd gotten everything I needed. Now, It was time to prepare for a raid.

"It's been a while since I went to Washington. Hope the weather in Seattle is nice this time of year."