V is for Voice, Bra'tac (and Jaffa) Alphabet Soup submission
For SG-1 Gen Fic Day, and the Alphabet Soup du jour (Bra'tac and the Jaffa), I present V is for Voice.
V is for Voice
There had never been such a thing as a voice of the Jaffa people. The Jaffa peoples were divided and at war with one another throughout their known history. Loyal to this god or that one, and filled with bitter mistrust and scorn for those so misguided as to worship any god which was not one's own.
Even within the ranks of Jaffa loyal to the same god, there was no true voice. The words of a First Prime were listened to with respect or fear, but he spoke only as his lord commanded. In his waning days as First Prime of Apophis, Bra'tac had had questions and misgivings to which he dared not give voice. He saw similar questions sometimes in the eyes of the men he commanded, but their silence was even more certain than his own. He might dream of speaking out; they would never dream of so doing.
As the Free Jaffa gathered and organized and recruited and planned, many individual Jaffa found their voice. They orated and persuaded and argued. They were loud and fierce and proud. A new kind of pride, centered on free choice rather than service to a god. But too many of their voices were silenced in the bloody battles that followed. Their words, their leadership, seemed to pass from memory. In that time of upheaval and rapid change, the tradition of honoring the past was set aside, and fallen heroes were simply fallen.
Now the battles have ended. They have won their victory, and, for the present, peace reigns. It is time to unite - to create a strong nation that will never again be oppressed, that need fear no enemy nor rely on any ally. Once again, voices rise.
Smooth. Insinuating. Smug. Self-aggrandizing.
The loudest voices of the Jaffa Council are as the voices of braying animals, filled with wind and empty of sense.
So now it is Bra'tac's self-appointed mission, with Teal'c and a few trustworthy others at his side, to ensure that the ultimate, lasting voice of the Jaffa people will be the voice of reason. He is confident that he will succeed.
No matter how many skulls he must crack together in the pursuit of reasonableness, Bra'tac shall, in the end, prevail.
This entry was originally posted at http://sid.dreamwidth.org/249367.html.
(there are currently
comments at Dreamwidth.)
V is for Voice
There had never been such a thing as a voice of the Jaffa people. The Jaffa peoples were divided and at war with one another throughout their known history. Loyal to this god or that one, and filled with bitter mistrust and scorn for those so misguided as to worship any god which was not one's own.
Even within the ranks of Jaffa loyal to the same god, there was no true voice. The words of a First Prime were listened to with respect or fear, but he spoke only as his lord commanded. In his waning days as First Prime of Apophis, Bra'tac had had questions and misgivings to which he dared not give voice. He saw similar questions sometimes in the eyes of the men he commanded, but their silence was even more certain than his own. He might dream of speaking out; they would never dream of so doing.
As the Free Jaffa gathered and organized and recruited and planned, many individual Jaffa found their voice. They orated and persuaded and argued. They were loud and fierce and proud. A new kind of pride, centered on free choice rather than service to a god. But too many of their voices were silenced in the bloody battles that followed. Their words, their leadership, seemed to pass from memory. In that time of upheaval and rapid change, the tradition of honoring the past was set aside, and fallen heroes were simply fallen.
Now the battles have ended. They have won their victory, and, for the present, peace reigns. It is time to unite - to create a strong nation that will never again be oppressed, that need fear no enemy nor rely on any ally. Once again, voices rise.
Smooth. Insinuating. Smug. Self-aggrandizing.
The loudest voices of the Jaffa Council are as the voices of braying animals, filled with wind and empty of sense.
So now it is Bra'tac's self-appointed mission, with Teal'c and a few trustworthy others at his side, to ensure that the ultimate, lasting voice of the Jaffa people will be the voice of reason. He is confident that he will succeed.
No matter how many skulls he must crack together in the pursuit of reasonableness, Bra'tac shall, in the end, prevail.
This entry was originally posted at http://sid.dreamwidth.org/249367.html.
(there are currently
comments at Dreamwidth.)