Chapter One Hundred And Seventy

Pyramid. Goa'uld Held Planet.

Apis had never been one of the more successful false gods with the Goa'uld Empire, he'd never risen up to the rank of System Lord, nor he had conquered any worlds, no he'd become a god of livestock, and on his world the human slaves did not mine naquadah, no they raised cattle to feed the slaves of other worlds. as such his planet had never granted him much wealth or power, yet it was a comfortable enough existence.

Even the naquadah he had was sent to him from another world, one far distant from here, the naquadah would be stored away until it was collected by the Supreme System Lord Ra, but his mighty star vessel had not been seen for many years and the stockpile just kept growing until the shipments had stopped coming.

Apis hadn't bothered to investigate why the shipments had stopped, he'd just assumed that the mines on that other world had gone dry, this had happened before and when it did, more often than not, the human slaves were simply abandoned, left to fend for themselves or to die out, either way they were normally soon forgotten.

The Jaffa warriors under his command, who had a triangle symbol tattooed on their foreheads and helmets meant to make them look like fearsome bulls, had little to do here other than to keep the human slaves in line. It had been some time since Lord Ra had sent them any new symbionts for the Jaffa, and this lack of replacements had started becoming something of a problem, as the symbionts aged, Apis had to dispose of the mature ones since this world needed no more lords.

Even with these concerns Apis had little to do other than to sit in the throne room of his pyramid, eat his meals, and enjoy the attentions of his slave girls. The day to day routine was only broken when one of his few remaining Jaffa warriors came to him reporting that the Chappa'ai had opened and that something odd came through.

Taking the object into his hand Apis saw that it was what appeared to be a human skull that had machine parts of some kind fused to it. The object had been struck by a staff blast that was clear to the Goa'uld it was just the rest of the device that made little sense to him.

"Where did this come from" the false god demanded to know.

His First Prime bowed his head before replying.

"I believe that it came from the world from which we used to receive shipments of Naquadah," the warrior answered "When the gate opened this object flew around as if it was looking for something. The Chappa'ai closed once this strange object was shot at by the guards. Do you know its purpose, my lord?".

Apis didn't, only he could not admit that since he was supposed to be all knowing, so he ignored the question. Yet he didn't need divine wisdom to know that the skull had been sent here as some sort of probe, or at least that was Apis's best guess, but would even a powerful Goa'uld like the exiled Sokar be ghastly enough to use a human skull for such a purpose?

"Increase the guard around the Chappa'ai and inform me at once if anything happens" he ordered.

Apis considered going to the world from where the naquadah used to come from and seeing what was going on there, or at least sending some of warriors there, but something about the skull unnerved him far more than it should despite its gruesome nature. He did not wish to encounter whomever made use of human remains in this way.

As for the Jaffa, they were just happy to have a bit of excitement for a change.