EXT. DESERT — EXCAVATION SITE — DAY
The earthmovers have cleared away the overburden of sand, exposing the bare rock where the long-vanished river cut its course. Now it's down to manual labour as the workers remove sand from the mound remaining in the centre of the excavation. We begin to discern regular outlines — a flat roof, sloping walls. Sutekh's fastness looks like a mastaba of vitrified stone, plain and undecorated.
Daniel and Kawalsky are shovelling sand into the maw of an earthmover when a cry sounds out from one side of the mastaba. They race over. Rothman's found an indentation. Working like fiends, the trio clears away the rest of the sand.
ROTHMAN
Looks like an entrance.
Indeed it does. An inset slab of vitrified stone blocks it, a round red gemstone inset with the icon of Sutekh in the centre.
KAWALSKY
The opening's a bit too narrow to send a bulldozer against it. We'll need to bring in C-4.
ROTHMAN
You're going to blow your way in‽
KAWALSKY
I don't see a doorknob, and there's no keyhole — even if we had a key. What else is left?
Daniel standing close to the gemstone, both it and his Eye of Atum pendant begin glowing, resonating with amber light. The sergeant and doctors step back as the panel trembles, ancient machinery groaning in protest as it begins rising, opening a doorway into blackness. Rothman and Kawalsky look to Daniel; he looks down at his pendant; the glow subsides, leaving it an inert piece of jewellery once more.
ROTHMAN
I take it this has never happened before.
Time passes.
A reconnaissance team's been assembled. Suited up in ABUs, the airmen armed with P90s, Carter, Daniel, Kawalsky, Sha'ure, Rothman, and four non-coms stand before the dark doorway to Sutekh's fastness.
SHA'URE
(looking at doorway; wary) I imagine that thing could come down much quickly than it went up.
Carter takes point. Raising her P90, she cautiously steps past the threshold.
INT. SUTEKH'S FASTNESS/ENTRANCE HALL — DAY
Detecting the captain's presence, light panels on the walls/ceiling activate, chasing the shadows away. Carter finds herself inside a low, narrow tunnel, the end hidden in the distance. Switching off her light, she looks back through the door.
CARTER
Step into my parlour, said the spider to the fly.
The eight others file inside.
INT. SUTEKH'S FASTNESS/ROTUNDA
Reaching the end of the tunnel, the team emerges in a small rotunda. Congregating in the centre of the room, they examine their surroundings. The walls are blank; the only passage leads back the way they came.
CARTER
Daniel, now what?
DANIEL
(looking up) Now that.
As if triggered by his voice, the ring transporter activates. Aperture opening in the ceiling overhead, ten rings of black naqahdah descend onto the nine. With a flash of pearlescent light, they disappear.
INT. SUTEKH'S FASTNESS/ANTECHAMBER
As the ring transporter deactivates, the team finds itself in absolute darkness.
A shaft of soft light comes into existence metres across from them. Within it stands an intimidating figure. He wears tall metal sandals, a red kilt, decorative metal arm-&-wristbands, and a pectoral collar; the exposed skin of his arms and legs is dusky; the helm of gold naqahdah resting atop the collar is fashioned in the likeness of the enigmatic Set animal. The mechanical head of SUTEKH looks up, eyes blazing white as he addresses the intruders in High Kemetic.
Their past experience with Imperial guardsmen unforgotten, Kawalsky reacts automatically; bringing up his P90, he opens fire. The hailstorm of lead cuts through Sutekh.
DANIEL
(awed) It's fascinating.
CARTER
No kidding.
Sutekh remains standing, unmarked. Lowering her gun, Carter walks up to him. She brings up her hand; it passes right through him, distorting the light which makes up his being.
CARTER
(cont'd) A projected hologram with no silver-halide coated plates, no photo-polymer film, no —
The hologram blooms. The glare is intense, but subsides quickly. The image of Sutekh stands altered. The crystal helm is gone, revealing Sutekh's true face. Eyes accented with kohl, thick-lipped, wearing the distinctive skullcap of Imperial guardsmen, his is the likeness of an Olmec stone head brought to life. The hologram resumes speaking. Life-like though it is, it's only a recording, without any sentience.
CARTER
Daniel, what's he saying?
EXT. IUNU — STREETS — DAY (FLASHBACK)
Iunu, the first human city. A resplendent metropolis in its heyday, it's fallen into squalor in the centuries since Atum's abdication. The citizens have lined the streets for a special event. With them is THABIT and his MOTHER. In a tattered, soiled dress and shawl, the emaciated woman holds her son's hand. Twelve years old but small for his age, naked and filthy, he's only slightly better fed than his parent.
DANIEL
(V.O.) His name was Thabit. He lived 2306 years after Atum's arrival on Earth.
At the controls of an antigrav chariot, the falcon god HERU directs a REGIMENT OF ARMOURED HERU GUARDS into the city.
DANIEL
(V.O.; cont'd) One day, Heru arrived from the stargate. Moving through the city with his corp of bodyguards, he selected hundreds of people for a "special honour."
The zealots of the city are at the forefront of the lines, begging to be chosen; these volunteers, mostly older people, are passed over by Heru in favour of stronger, younger bodies.
DANIEL
(V.O.; cont'd) Thabit's father was dead. His mother was ill, barely able to care for herself.
Taking her son in her arms, Thabit's mother holds him high for the guardsmen, crying out for them to take him. Finding him acceptable, the Heru Guards collect him.
DANIEL
(V.O.; cont'd) She had no idea what was in store for her son, but she was prepared to embrace any fate for him other than her own.
EXT. GREAT PYRAMID — DAY (FLASHBACK)
The captives are shepherded across the grasslands to the Great Pyramid. Thabit looks up. The sun situated directly overtop the polished white pyramid, the boy's struck dumb by the edifice's awesomeness.
THABIT'S P.O.V. — BEAM (FLASHBACK)
Entering the stargate, Thabit's caught in an extradimensional slipstream. Whizzing through a starfield, Thabit passes a number of rainbow halos along the way. Before long, He's carried through one of these halos.
EXT. BEHDET — STARGATE PLATFORM — DAY (FLASHBACK)
Thabit emerges from the stargate. Doubling over, he retches.
ZOOM OUT
As the stargate disengages.
The stargate's situated atop a tall stone platform, a pair of ramps leading down from either side of the gate. Surrounding the platform, a compact city. Colossal metal towers flank the stargate, with Heru's pyramidal palace-ship in the distance behind. Beyond the city limits is nothing but barren salt pan.
MONTAGE — VARIOUS (FLASHBACK)
We watch as Thabit grows up under the tutelage of the Heru Guards, the feeble youth reforged into a brawny man as he receives brutal instruction in hand-to-hand combat, wilderness survival, and knife and gunfighting.
DANIEL
(V.O.; cont'd) He was conscripted and trained in the art of war.
INT. WADJET'S PALACE-SHIP/THRONE ROOM (FLASHBACK)
Flanked by her Nekhbet Guards, servants huddled at her feet, the muscular WADJET is seated in her throne, her semitranslucent gold asp helm deployed. Before her stand two men, Thabit and her FIRST PRIME. Each armed with a dagger, neither men wear any bodily protection, standing completely naked. Saluting their mistress, the men face each other, saluting each other in turn. Then they enter battle stance.
The duel commences. Wadjet's first prime is a mighty warrior, earning Thabit many lacerations and bruises, but in the end, Thabit's the victor. Seizing the other man in a full nelson, Thabit applies pressure, dislocating his opponent's shoulder. The man howls. Grabbing him by the hair, Thabit then slams his face into the polished marble floor repeatedly.
Time passes.
Thabit and Wadjet are now alone together. Suited up in the armour of an Imperial guardsman, Thabit kneels at Wadjet's feet, gazing up at her. Helm retracted, her handsome ebony face revealed, Wadjet places her hand upon the crown of Thabit's head, sealing her crest in place over his skullcap. As she removes her hand, his silver naqahdah helm deploys, assuming the likeness of an asp.
DANIEL
(V.O.; cont'd) Inducted into the goddess Wadjet's elite entourage, he became her first prime.
EXT. NUBT — SETTLEMENT — NIGHT
Nubt, a planet currently experiencing an ice age. In a region cleared of glacial ice, a stone pyramid rises from the permafrost. Close to the pyramid, a sprawling city of pre-fab buildings. A fierce blizzard buffeting the structures, a pyramid ship's descended through the clouds. An immense vessel, twice the size of any of the luxurious palace-ships seen thus far, it bears down on the city, deploying its udajeets. The inhabitants below, tiny and indistinct in the windblown snowfall and glow of the warship's drive, flee as the automated fighters open fire with their blasters, laying waste to the settlement.
DANIEL
(V.O.; cont'd) That was until reports of a rebellion on the planet Nubt spread throughout the empire. Sekhmet had slaughtered the entire colony in a sea of blood.
INT. PYRAMID/STARGATE CHAMBER (FLASHBACK)
Activating the stargate, Thabit steps into the shimmering puddle.
DANIEL
(V.O.; cont'd) He defected. Returning to Earth, he claimed a new name: Sutekh.
INT. MUD-BRICK BUILDING — NIGHT (FLASHBACK)
Shed of his Imperial raiment, Sutekh sits on the floor, writing on pages of papyrus by lamplight.
DANIEL
(V.O.; cont'd) Sutekh kept a hidden journal, detailing the truth of Atum and his origins.
INT. GREAT PYRAMID/STARGATE CHAMBER (FLASHBACK)
Heru Guards are taking yet another group of colonists through the active stargate.
DANIEL
(V.O.; cont'd) As disaffection grew, he began to organize a resistance.
One of the colonists takes care that their copy of Sutekh's journal is hidden on their person before they're shepherded into the energy field.
EXT. GREAT PYRAMID — DAY (FLASHBACK)
The Rebellion on Earth's concluded. Numbering in the thousands, the rebels have overwhelmed the guardsmen patrolling the pyramid. Revelling, they victoriously hoist the mangled corpses of their oppressors in the air for all to see.
DANIEL
(V.O.; cont'd) Revolutions sprang up across the Imperium, but only the rebels on Earth were successful in throwing off their chains.
EXT. GIZA PLATEAU — SUNSET (FLASHBACK)
The rebels haul the stargate out here. Under Sutekh's direction, they drag the gate to a large pit dug deep to the bedrock, pushing it in.
INT. SUTEKH'S FASTNESS/ANTECHAMBER
DANIEL
(cont'd) He knew one day he'd leave our region of space. He left the stargate and the key to his fastness for us to find. The Imperium's wealth of knowledge is stored here. (beat) "Use wisdom with this knowledge. Liberate our brethen seeded across the stars."
At that, the hologram disincorporates, the shaft of light winking out. As it vanishes, hidden light fixtures illuminate. The team's in an antechamber much like the rotunda they left — without doors. Then, as if by magic, doorways appear in the walls, opening passages to the greater compound.
CARTER
Teams One & Two, secure the immediate area.
INT. SUTEKH'S FASTNESS/ATRIUM
Following one of the passages, Team One comes to the atrium. The atrium is a rectangular silo, consisting of eight levels. Kawalsky, Rothman, and one of the airmen stand on the fourth level. Situated overhead is a transparent dome. They can view sunlight filtered through green seawater.
ROTHMAN
(awed) I've a feeling we're not in the Empty Quarter anymore.
INT. SUTEKH'S FASTNESS/HUB
Carter, Daniel, and Sha'ure enter the room. Within is a hexagonal platform bearing a metal chair.
