Q is for Question
Title: Q is for Question, Quick, Quarry and Qetesh
Author: Nomad (
iamnomad )
Rating: E.
Genre: Character study
Beta: Inspired by Teal'c's best scene ever.
Continuity: Canon-compliant.
Prerequisites: Some basic Goa'uld history.
Summary: You can't hide from Bra'tac's eyes.
Disclaimer: Stargate and its associated characters, locations and odd-sounding words are the property of MGM.
Author's Notes: This was supposed to be the first part of a three-part mini epic, but that proved overly ambitious. Oh well. Written for the Bra'tac & Jaffa Alphabet Soup and Gen Fic Day, because
magibrain told me to. So check out the other stuff!
"Ra will protect me," the prisoner claimed. "Your master will not survive this outrage."
It was a lie, Teal'c knew, and the kind that should have cost the man his life. But he held his ground, standing still in the shadows by the door, as his master had commanded.
Bra'tac took a step forward, eyes fixed on the prisoner.
Alone among the System Lords, Ra did not think much of Jaffa, and filled most of his army with humans. This had its advantages, since it freed him from the need to keep queens who could provide him fresh symbiotes, but it meant that his soldiers weaker, without the strength and endurance that a symbiont could give them.
They were also much easier to question.
Bra'tac crossed the dark, cold room in ten slow, silent steps, never breaking the prisoner's gaze for so much as a blink. For the first four steps, the prisoner kept protesting his innocence - claims about a secret mission, promises that the Supreme System Lord would explain all - but the pitch of his voice kept rising.
After the fifth step, the pretense collapsed. "You will learn nothing from me" quickly became "I know nothing," which became "Please, they'll kill me."
After the tenth step, Bra'tac stood eye to eye with the man, who had backed up all the way against the wall. He wasn't even bound, but somehow Bra'tac had reduced his cell to the space between their boots.
"Qer'aqa!" he exclaimed, finally, his posture collapsing although he managed to stay standing. "The naquadah mines! She promised - it was just a few bricks from the quarry! She said the System Lords would never know!"
Bra'tac leaned forward, a fraction of a degree. Still, he did not speak.
The prisoner tried to recoil into the wall. "Qetesh! It was Qetesh! I never saw her, but that's what they said. I swear, that's all I know!"
Teal'c knew better than to speak until they had left the prison cell and the doors had sealed behind them, but he could barely contain herself a second longer. "How can you do that?" he asked.
"One day, you will understand," said Bra'tac. "But there is much else you must learn first."