I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to be made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – May 2002
Janet Fraser scowled at the Commander as he checked his watch and announced he had to gear up straight away for an offworld mission, apologising sardonically that he didn't have time to stand there for another five minutes and be berated by an over-protective parent before he turned and left the lab leaving her and Cassie alone, the researcher that had been monitoring the girls psionic progress having earlier surreptitiously fled as soon as Doctor Fraser arrived and began to accuse Sharp of trying to turn her daughter into some kind of walking WMD. ‘I don't know why you like that man Cassie’ she stated. ‘He's only interested in your mind.’
‘Can't be many teenage girls whose Mom's say that to them’ Cassandra replied. ‘Shouldn't you be warning me about older guys trying to get in my pants?’ she asked with a grin. She was still sat in a chair with numerous electrodes connected to her head in front of a bank of computers and machinery. Although progress had been made in the direction of ordinary humans using psionics, field testing was already underway, none of them even came close to Cassandra’s potential, the teenaged Hok’taur was simply in a class of her own and hence the subject of continued research and investigation.
’This isn't funny Cassie’ Janet told her seriously.
‘It's funnier than you think’ Cassandra told her with a giggle.
Janet sighed. ‘You're just a weapon to him Cassie not a person, it's like someone stripped part of his soul and all he cares about is winning.’
‘That's not true’ Cassandra replied with certainty. ‘Well maybe about the winning part’ she conceded, ‘but he's not as bad as you think’ she asserted. Cassandra knew that X-COM considered her an extremely valuable resource, with months of training in X-COM’s “Psi-Labs” the very best human psionics could cause a subject to panic, even take control of another being for a short while if they concentrated hard enough, Cassie on the other hand could look right into a persons head and read their thoughts with ease and make “suggestions” which would have a person singing songs from West Side Story, the video of Colonel O’Neill involuntarily singing “Gee Officer Krupke” being a smash hit in the SGC. She was even showing signs of the telekinetic powers she had manifested during the “Mind Fire” returning, although that did take a lot of concentration, and was haphazard as yet. Being able to make a pen levitate for a few seconds had led to some awestruck looks from Doctor Bill Lee, and a round of applause from everyone else present, but it wasn’t all that useful given that for the most part it was far less effort to walk over and pick it up in your hand if you wanted it.
Doctor Fraser tried to make herself sound as reasonable and sympathetic as possible. ‘I'm sorry Cassie’ she began, ‘I know you're bound to have a soft spot for him because of what he did to Nirrti to get her to save you but..’
‘Mom, I'm not guessing here’ Cassandra interrupted her.
‘Cassie you're too young to really understand’ Janet responded, ignoring the girl’s rudeness and trying not to sound too condescending, that never played well with Cassie. ‘It’s like...’
‘You're not telepathic enough to understand’ Cassandra interrupted for a second time. ‘You're guessing, I'm stating a fact’ she maintained forcefully.
‘What?’ Janet responded in surprise.
Cassandra indicated the device she was plugged into. ‘Did you see me switch this thing off when you came in here and gave the Commander a piece of your mind?’ she asked. ‘He was so annoyed about it, he forgot it had a Psi-Amp built into it as well as the monitoring gear’ she said.
Janet blinked. ‘A psionic amplifier?’ she said slowly, looking at the machine. ‘You were reading his thoughts?’ she asked, eyes widening.
‘Not at first, but I got bored listening and I started to wonder what he would have been saying if you'd given him more of chance to get a word in’ Cassandra told her with an impish smile. It had been pretty funny to watch her Mom direct one of her well-meaning, but overly-protective maternal tirades at someone that wasn’t her for a change.
‘You can't do things like that Cassandra’ Janet declared sternly. ‘It's an invasion of people's privacy’ she said.
‘I prefer to think of it as practice’ Cassandra replied. ‘So I guess you don't want to know what he was thinking?’ she asked sweetly.
‘No… I mean… ‘ Janet Fraser replied awkwardly.
‘You probably wouldn't have liked the part where he was wondering if the reason you got divorced was because your ex-husband got sick of being lectured’ Cassie observed.
Janet's face instantly shifted into a mask of fury. ‘That son of a…’
‘Then he decided you were only looking out for me and it was nice you cared that much seeing as how I'm only adopted’ Cassandra added. ‘He thought it was sweet.’
‘Oh’ Janet responded, her anger fading. She did try to treat Cassie no differently than she hoped she would have her own flesh and blood in different circumstances.
‘Then his mind started to wander because you just kept talking at him and he decided you were hot too’ Cassie told her, continuing her tale. ‘He had this vague idea of kissing you because it might stop you talking but it was just a random thought… not like when he started wondering what you were wearing under your uniform which is pretty much when I decided to get out of his head’ she continued, ‘I didn't want all the mental imagery he headed into after that’ she stated with a grimace. ‘I know they say men think about sex all the time and I guess it’s true’ she reasoned wondering if that was what the boys at school were thinking when they were just talking about random stuff, if so she was a mixture of sort of pleased and very disturbed.
Janet looked mortified. ‘You can't ever do that again or tell anyone about it’ she said, starting to blush. ‘It's wrong Cassie.’
‘From what I saw before I decided to get out of his head the adjective I’d have gone for would have been “uncomfortable” because that desk over there isn’t padded’ Cassandra told her, very much enjoying just how uncomfortable in a different way her Mom now looked.
‘Cassie!’ Janet exclaimed. ‘Enough’ she told her sternly.
‘Hey I learned all sorts of other things when his mind wandered’ Cassie replied, changing tack, ‘his new boots aren't properly broken in yet and hurt his feet, he thinks Jack is funny but tries too hard at it’ she said. ‘He cares more about losing people than you think because he was worried about not everyone coming back from his next mission’ she continued, ‘he feels guilty he’s here fighting the Goa’uld instead of Loki because Jaffa are less dangerous than Sectoids... and I learned that Canadians say MILF like Americans’ she added, earning exactly the look on her mothers face she was hoping for.
‘I said that was enough of that Cassie’ Janet told her, blushing again.
‘Mom that was important’ Cassie replied with fake sincerity, ‘my cover story is that I’m from Toronto not Hanka remember’ she said. ‘I should know these things’ she said. ‘It’s like when I watched Ice Hockey because people expect me to understand the game’ she said. ‘I hope someone comes back and disconnects me from this thing soon’ she said, shaking her head slightly so the wires connected to it rattled, ‘Jack forced a hotdog and huge Diet Coke on me in the canteen earlier and I don’t know how much longer I can go without needing to visit the restroom’ she announced.
Janet frowned. ‘I’ll do it’ she said reaching over.
‘Better not touch it Mom’ Cassandra warned, fending her off. ‘They spent fifteen million dollars putting together this gear after I kept melting the stuff they tried before’ she said. ‘They’re making a portable unit I can carry like a normal Psi-Amp’ she told her mother. ‘That’ll be so cool... you know I mean if I don’t accidentally melt it’ she added.
‘They’re weaponising you’ Janet responded, ‘making you field deployable’ she continued.
‘Have Super-Psi-Amp, will travel’ Cassie said, beaming. It was like being a super-hero or something, saving the human race from the evil aliens with her mutant psychic powers, X-COM meets the X-Men, she thought.
‘I need to put a stop to this’ Janet declared. ‘It's already gone too far’ she said.
‘You’ll do no such thing’ Cassandra replied curtly. ‘You know I want to help’ she declared. ‘This is how I get to pay everyone back for what they’ve done for me, good or bad’ she asserted. ‘Besides what are you going to do?’ she asked, eyes showing amusement. ‘It looks like venting on Commander Sharp only makes him... libidinous’ she pointed out, using the word her mother had used when explaining the facts of life. ‘So if I got Jack and Sam in here together want to bet I already know what they’re thinking when they look at each other?’ she asked.
‘Don’t you dare Cassandra Fraser’ Janet told her daughter, putting her foot down. It would be a gross invasion of their privacy and after working with the two of them for years it was a waste of effort anyhow, she thought, you didn’t need to be telepathic to read those two when they were in close proximity.
‘Spoilsport’ Cassandra replied, playfully sticking out her tongue.
‘You're not reading my mind right now are you?' Janet asked suspiciously as the thought occured she might very well be.
‘Nah’ the teenager denied. ‘Why? Are you lying to me?’ she replied in amusement.
‘Don't be silly Cassie, I just don't think that's an appropriate ability for anyone let alone an impressionable young girl’ Janet told her.
‘You're not thinking about doing things on that desk too are you?’ Cassandra asked with a giggle.
‘No!’ her mother vehemently denied.
‘Okay then’ Cassandra accepted. ‘So can you find a geek to get me the heck out of this thing before I explode?’ she requested with increasing urgency.
‘Maybe I should let you suffer for all the teasing’ Janet suggested.
‘Hippocratic Oath Mom, remember that one?’ Cassandra reminded her. ‘Do no harm’ she added.
‘I knew I'd regret taking that one day’ Doctor Janet Fraser replied with a sigh.
Free Jaffa Camp – P8X-987 (Hanka) – May 2002
‘She is a proud woman’ Bra’tac noted, ‘she would not accept a prim’ta from a Jaffa still loyal to the false gods we slew in battle’ he said, standing outside the tent where Drey'auc lay recovering.
Teal’c nodded, his wife’s stubbornness was either a character flaw or one of her most admirable features, whether it was one or the other depended largely on circumstance. She was very far from the subservient ideal of a Jaffa woman and their verbal sparring on occasion made most of the battles he had fought pale by comparison. He loved her dearly but sometimes it was tempting to want to shake some sense into her. ‘It is well that the Tau’ri have taken many Goa’uld larvae from the waters of their ancestral homeworld for study’ he said. ‘When you contacted us I was able to procure one readily’ he noted.
‘I do not understand why they would be fishing for Goa’uld in the manner you described’ Bra’tac responded quizzically.
Teal’c crossed his arms. ‘They seek large numbers of Goa’uld since they are trying to develop biological weapons with which to combat them’ he said. ‘The waters of P3X-888 teem with them, they use high explosives because the concussive effect brings many to the surface unconscious where they can be netted in safety.’
‘But surely many Goa’uld also die’ Bra’tac suggested. ‘It seems wasteful’ he opined.
‘There are plenty and the Tau’ri of X-COM seem to greatly enjoy throwing their explosive grenades into rivers filled with Goa’uld’ Teal’c told him. ‘The wild Unas of that world often gather to watch with some amusement I am told, and they consume the dead symbiotes afterwards so the waste is minimised.’
Bra’tac raised an eyebrow. ‘The cross-marked warriors in the service of Sharp of Canada are becoming renowned among the Jaffa for their savagery as well as their undeniable skill in battle’ he said. ‘When I have led Free Jaffa into battle alongside the Tau’ri they appear to relish in the mayhem and destruction they wreak’ he said disparagingly.
‘Amongst many of the Tau’ri who are not from Commander Sharp’s forces the soldiers of X-COM are regarded as being of dubious sanity’ Teal’c told him. ‘They have seen too much battle and have been injected with drugs that enhance their combat skills but may negatively effect their reasoning.’
‘The Tau’ri leaders force these drugs upon them?’ Bra’tac asked in surprise.
‘No they take them willingly without duress’ Teal’c told him.
‘Then they are insane’ Bra’tac declared. ‘A warrior does not give up his mind and soul for victory’ he stated. ‘If he does he has already lost the thing most worth fighting for’ he said. ‘Our numbers continue to swell’ he noted, looking around at what was rapidly becoming a virtual tent city. ‘The war between the Council of the System Lords and Apophis has greatly weakened the false gods and made many bold enough to publicly doubt their divinity’ he said.
‘The victories won by the Free Jaffa should not be discounted either old friend’ Teal’c responded. ‘That so many of our people fight in their own name rather than as slaves for another is a cause for great joy and pride’ he said.
Bra’tac smiled. ‘The truth of that is undeniable’ he agreed. ‘Only last week Rak’nor, M’zel and myself led near five hundred Jaffa into a great battle with the armies of Apophis, defeating a numerically superior foe and taking a Tel’tak and a pair of Al’kesh as trophies.’
‘M’zel?’ Teal’c queried. ‘I do not know that Jaffa’ he said.
Bra’tac sighed. ‘You have been away from your people too long’ he said sadly. ‘M’zel served Heru’ur before his death, later Terok until the many defeats Terok suffered at the hands of Apophis confirmed to M’zel that his new master was far from being a god’ he told his former apprentice.
‘A good warrior?’ Teal’c asked.
‘Courageous and skilled in battle but more importantly he is wise beyond his sixty years’ Bra’tac replied. ‘I suspect that one reason our forces do so well against the deluded loyalist Jaffa is that we now promote our combat leaders based solely on ability not sycophancy or excessive reverence of age’ he said. ‘M’zel has become well respected among our ranks because he leads by example not through fear and holds deep conviction on the importance of freedom to choose which resonates well with our forces.’
Teal’c nodded. ‘Wise indeed for someone so young’ he agreed. ‘Do you remember me at sixty?’ he asked with a smile.
‘I thought you were never going to grow up’ Bra’tac told him with laughter. ‘It was infuriating.’
‘I am still surprised you didn’t give up on me’ Teal’c replied, chuckling himself.
‘So am I’ Bra’tac told him, his expression becoming more serious. ‘There are continued rumblings of discontent that you do not take your place among your brothers’ he said.
‘If it was not for the Tau’ri we would not be where we are today’ Teal’c replied. ‘I serve our people best by keeping a foot in both camps’ he said. ‘The Tau’ri are a bridge that links us with other enemies of the Goa’uld, the Tok’ra and Asgard’ he continued. ‘The Free Jaffa need allies and friends of such power.’
Bra’tac frowned. ‘Many of our people regard the Tok’ra as little better than the Goa’uld’ he said. ‘They also complain that while the Tau’ri give them their most fearsome weapons, they only supply us with staff-rifles’ he noted.
‘Have not the staff-rifles proven effective?’ Teal’c asked.
‘They are clearly superior in accuracy to the Goa’uld staff-weapons they are made from’ Bra’tac conceded, ‘but we know the Tau’ri could supply better, leaving their forces with an advantage if we ever came to blows in the future’ he said.
Teal’c nodded. ‘It is likely that was part of the reason’ he replied. ‘Commander Sharp and the other senior officers of X-COM regard all non-humans as a greater or lesser threat to their world’ he said. ‘It is fortunate they are restrained by their political hierarchy and moderates such as the Envoy and Scholar Elizabeth Weir.’
Rya’c put his head out of the tent. ‘Mother says she is near recovered from the implantation of her new prim’ta’ he told his father. ‘She would like to see you’ he added.
Bra’tac smiled. ‘I will take Rya’c on a tour of the camp to leave you and Drey'auc alone to talk’ he said. ‘The boy has not had much opportunity to look around since he came here’ he noted. ‘Like a good son he rarely left his mother’s side during her illness.’
‘I would very much like to learn more about the martial art of Mastaba I have seen warriors practice Master Bra’tac’ Rya'c requested.
The Jaffa Master nodded. ‘Although it came to us from the false god Imhotep in the guise of K’tano it's effectiveness has meant that many have chosen to adopt it nonetheless’ he said.
‘And I would like a staff-rifle’ Rya’c requested. ‘I have only a zat’nik’tel and a bashaak training staff’ he said.
‘When I was your age I would have be grateful for either’ Teal’c told him. At the boy’s age he had been a refugee living in far worst circumstances than these after his mother had fled with him to Chulak following the murder of his father by Cronus.
‘That was a very long time ago father’ Rya’c responded. ‘Things have changed since the days Unas were everywhere’ he said in much the same tone as a child on Earth would have remarked that his parents remembered woolly mammoths.
Bra’tac laughed. ‘And so life turns full circle’ he said. Teal’c had been a sarcastic little bastard sometimes too when they first met over eight decades beforehand he remembered.
‘You will still be here when I return?’ Rya’c asked his father.
‘I am not due to return to the SGC for three days’ Teal’c replied.
‘Good’ Rya’c replied. ‘Go to mother’ he said then paused. ‘She is not in a good mood’ he warned.
Although he remained impassive on the outside Teal’c inwardly grimaced. He knew he had not exactly been the most attentive husband or father and he was deserved anything he got in the way of complaint on that front.
Which is not to say he wasn’t really annoyed when his wife asked suspiciously why he always seemed to have that Tau’ri warrior woman in tow, she was there to assassinate him? A likely story, Drey'auc said scornfully.
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – May 2002
‘Perhaps someone could tell me exactly why we have an archaeologist that probably absorbed enough radiation to make him glow in the dark in the infirmary?’ Commander Sharp asked, dropping into a chair in the briefing room next to General Hammond and looking directly at Colonel O’Neill.
‘Daniel needs to be placed in a sarcophagus immediately’ Carter told him. ‘It’s the only thing that might save him right now, he absorbed at least seven grays and that much will kill him’ she said.
O’Neill glared at Sharp. ‘We were told he had to wait his turn’ he said.
‘Both of them are already in use’ Sharp replied. ‘I’m told we took a lot of casualties in a UFO retrieval mission just before you came back through the gate.’
‘Danny is going to die’ O’Neill stated through clenched teeth.
‘As I told you earlier Colonel the two people already in the sarcophagi are already dead and they’ll stay that way permanently unless they’re given priority treatment’ General Hammond reminded him. ‘Doctor Jackson is in a lot of pain right now but I’m told it’ll be many hours, perhaps days, until he dies’ he said. ‘If he starts to go down-hill quickly we can bring in one of the X-COM medics trained in the use of the hand-held healing device to stabilise him’ he added.
‘Sir the longer it’s left the more severe the damage to Daniel’s cells and genetic structure will become’ Carter told him. ‘Teal’c and the Sergeant are with him now’ she said. There would be at least one of the team with him every moment until it was over.
‘We’ve got two of the damn things Major’ Commander Sharp pointed out, ‘we can leave him in one of them for days until he’s fully healed if we have to’ he said. ‘We just can’t do it until the poor son-of-a-bitch using the thing at the moment is breathing again.’
‘We’ve got the Redemption ready to beam Doctor Jackson directly to Area 51 where one of the sarcophagi is located as soon as its current occupant is ready to vacate it’ General Hammond said. ‘He was the least damaged physically so he should be the first to recover.’
‘Look I know how you feel Colonel...’ Sharp began.
‘Bullshit, you couldn’t care less about casualties’ O’Neill spat back.
‘You’re out of line Colonel’ Hammond told him.
‘I don’t let it cloud my judgement, or effect my decision making, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care, it just means I don’t let my caring kill anyone else’ Sharp told O’Neill coldly. ‘Now I still want to know why exactly one of my people is hurt and am I going to have to do something unpleasant to someone else because of it?’ he demanded to know.
Carter checked the expression on the Colonel’s face and decided he was calming down before explaining. ‘Well it’s like this Sir’ she began. ‘You know about naquadria?’ she asked.
‘Weird heavy isotope of naquadah, got the geeks buzzing with excitement, I read the preliminary report’ Sharp replied.
‘Yes Sir, it’s extremely unstable but potentially makes naquadah look like yesterday’s news’ Carter replied. ‘We could be looking at orders of magnitude more energy per unit of volume than weapons grade naquadah’ she told him.
‘Think grenades that could turn a major metropolis into a smoking crater’ O’Neill interjected.
‘More powerful shields and more compact hyperdrives is what we really need Sir’ Carter responded.
‘The Kelownans are thinking bombs Carter’ O’Neill pointed out. ‘They want a super-weapon to scare the crap out of their neighbours’ he said.
‘Terrania and the Andari Federation’ Carter explained. ‘The three powers are in a sort of armed standoff, like a Cold War that could go hot any minute because they haven’t got nuclear weapons as a deterrent’ she said. ‘Their technology is roughly Earth in the 1940’s, they’re working on Jet Aircraft, long range rocketry and the like’ she continued. ‘We had the Manhattan Project, they’ve got their naquadria bomb.’
‘So was there an accident with the bomb?’ Sharp asked. ‘Like they had with the early A-Bomb programs?’
‘The Kelownans say that Daniel was irradiated while trying to sabotage the weapon’ O’Neill replied with a growl.
‘Okay, just playing devil’s advocate for the moment, was he?’ Sharp asked. ‘He is a civilian and his politics and philosophy aren’t as... okay I’ll give it, they aren’t as fascist as someone like me’ he said. ‘If he thought the Kelownans were going to blow a few million people to pieces are we certain he wouldn’t have tried to do something about it?’ he continued. ‘I know Doctor Jackson might be willing to entertain us nuking the Goa’uld back to the Unas age but these are people we’re talking about here.’
‘If Danny had done that he’d have told us’ O’Neill responded. ‘He’s got the courage of his convictions.’
‘What does he say happened then?’ Sharp asked.
‘He won’t say, he says it doesn’t matter’ O’Neill replied.
‘Well if he won’t say get your sorry ass back to Kelowna and find someone that will’ Sharp replied.
‘We could try Jonas Quinn Sir’ Carter suggested to O’Neill.
‘Who?’ Sharp queried.
‘Kelownan geek that was part of their Research and Development Team, Daniel liked him’ O’Neill explained.
‘If you don’t get anywhere, invite him or one of their government officials back here and I’ll get Cassandra to take a look in their head’ Sharp replied. ‘I need to prove to Dwoskin that she’s worth what we’re spending on her anyway’ he said. The X-COM Finance Director was always writing Sharp nasty little memos asking when they were going to concrete results from all the money they were ploughing into Psionic R&D.
By the time O’Neill returned again, alone, pissed-off and empty-handed from Kelowna Daniel was starting to hallucinate, or at least he thought he might be because if he wasn’t he’d been having a conversation with the ascended being Oma Desala for the last hour. It all seemed real enough but one of the effects of large doses of radiation was that your brain swelled and being still confined to your skull this caused you to go more than slightly deranged.
Daniel wasn’t quite certain if he was going to die, they might bring him back in a sarcophagus which given the severity of his radiation damage might mean days in there followed by weeks of serious withdrawal from the side-effects, but more than that he wasn’t even completely sure it wouldn’t be better if he just gave up. He knew others thought he’d contributed so much, helped so many and he had to admit that the way he ended up absorbing all the radiation was a nice example of self-sacrifice which he hoped Sha’re would be proud of, but in many ways he still thought of himself as a failure somehow. For some reason Oma Desala seemed to be trying to persuade him otherwise, offering to ascend him to her plane of existence, but she was apparently hamstrung by the fact he didn’t think he was worthy of it. This did of course imply that all ascended beings must be egotistical but he decided not to point this out for the sake of diplomacy, and whether she was the product of a delusion or not Oma was the only source of conversation in town because he was by now far too drugged up with morphine to talk properly to any of his friends.
Driven by guilt Jonas Quinn arrived through the stargate with the truth of what had happened with Daniel and all the naquadria he could bring with him. He requested asylum and was granted it, this soured relations between Earth and Kelowna for some time but they eventually contacted the SGC begging for help against a new foe in their midst that could not be deterred by a naquadria bomb or any other technology they had, genetically the people of the world Langara were very interesting and that led to attention from a quarter they neither wanted nor could ever have expected.
One thing that was very annoying about Oma, Daniel decided, was that she all too often talked in what most resembled Zen Kōans, these were very poetic by some terms of reference, and undoubtedly contained great wisdom, but they were cryptic as hell and one of the reasons he still preferred ancient Western Philosophy to Eastern. The thoughts of Plato, Socrates and Aristotle might seem to lack the soul of Buddhism in some ways but by God they were more considerate in saying what they meant to say without expecting you to have some kind of revelation first. Fortunately Oma, delusion or not, eventually realised she was going to have to stop talking like a fortune cookie if she wanted to talk Daniel around and she did have a very good reason for wanting to do so that she was annoyed she couldn’t tell him.
‘You said I was the only one qualified to judge myself? So, how ever much I want achievement enlightenment or whatever you want to call it, what happens if I look at my life and I don't honestly believe I deserve it?’ Daniel asked.
‘The success or failure of your deeds does not add up to the sum of your life. Your spirit cannot be weighed. Judge yourself by the intention of your actions and by the strength with which you faced the challenges that have stood in your way’ Oma replied.
Daniel sighed, that could be a problem, he thought to himself. ‘What if I can't?’ he asked.
‘The people closest to you have been trying to tell you that you have made a difference. That you did change things for the better’ she said. That was true enough, there had been a steady stream of visitors giving him pep talks his entire time in the infirmary. Andianov had done hers in Russian so the medical staff couldn’t understand, it was sweeter than he would have expected of the gun-slinging Sergeant but it was also a pain in the ass because she had kept him awake when what he wanted to do was get a couple of hours sleep.
‘Not enough’ Daniel stated. Maybe if he had managed to save Sha’re it might have been different he thought to himself wistfully.
Oma smiled. ‘The universe is vast and we are so small. There is only one thing we can ever truly control’ she told him.
‘What's that?’ Daniel queried.
‘Whether we are good or evil’ Oma Desala told him.
Daniel nodded then frowned. ‘You do realise that if the genetic determinists are right that a lot of what we think is moral behaviour is encoded into our DNA so the choice isn’t fully ours?’ he asked.
Oma grinned. ‘Yes I know a great deal about what behaviour is coded into human DNA’ she replied. ‘Who do you think put it there?’ she asked rhetorically. ‘Trust me you are worthy, more worthy than most of us that are already ascended’ she said. ‘You want answers and I can give them but only if you accept the gift I’m offering.’
‘Why? Why me? Why, why give me this chance? Daniel asked nonplussed.
‘Anyone can reach enlightenment. Anyone prepared to open their mind as you did when you first came to Kheb’ Oma told him. ‘The Asgard told Colonel O’Neill that your race had true potential and they are right, even if they did monumentally screw up their species by seeking a short-cut to immortality through science.’
‘They're going to save me. They're preparing to transport me to a sarcophagus’ Daniel said.
‘Then your journey will continue as before’ Oma told him.
‘What if I don't want it to? Not that way’ Daniel replied.
‘Walking the Great Path brings great responsibility. You cannot fear it nor hesitate in your resolve’ Oma told him.
Daniel nodded. ‘I understand. I'm ready to go with you’ he agreed.
‘At last’ Oma responded with relief, sensing his sincerity. ‘There’s something you need to know about who you are’ she told him. ‘And now I can make you one of us I can tell you’ she said.
‘Me?’ Daniel asked. ‘What’s special about me?’ he asked.
‘As an individual more than you give yourself credit for but I was talking about humanity as a whole’ she told him. ‘You’ve guessed who we are? The ascended beings I mean?’
‘Nous ani Anqueetus’ Daniel replied. ‘We are the ancients’ he translated.
‘Right’ Oma told him. ‘This is what I looked like before I ascended’ she told him, indicating her appearance.
‘We’re the second evolution of our race?’ Daniel asked in surprised.
‘You didn’t evolve’ Oma told him, ‘well not really’ she continued. ‘We helped a lot, tweaked your DNA over millions of years so you ended up looking like we did.’
‘God made man in his own image’ Daniel remarked.
‘We’re not gods’ Oma told him. ‘We’re a long way from being omniscient or omnipotent’ she told him, ‘the real secret is how we changed you to be not like us’ she said.
‘Dumber?’ Daniel reasoned.
‘No’ Oma replied, ‘we made you better... in some ways’ she said.
‘What ways?’ Daniel asked in surprised.
‘Heightened aggression, propensity to violence, strategic and tactical thinking, improvisation’ Oma listed. ‘Everything that was a weakness in us we fixed in you’ she said.
‘Those are negatives’ Daniel responded forcefully.
‘You only think that because you haven’t met the Wraith or the Ori yet’ Oma told him. ‘And there are other races out in the universe that make them look cuddly’ she added honestly.
‘You created us like the Goa’uld created the Jaffa, or Loki created the Sectoids!’ Daniel exclaimed. ‘We’re war toys’ he realised.
‘We gave you the freedom to choose’ Oma told him, ‘we just equipped you better to meet the universe on its own terms than we were’ she said. ‘We had technology you couldn’t dream of but we were forced to flee one galaxy after another because we’re not like you’ she said. ‘Ascending in itself was another way to run and hide in a way’ she continued. ‘We had to start again from scratch, create a new type of humanity, and here you are’ she said proudly. ‘We don’t interfere in what you might call the mortal planes much any more, we left you to your own devices, but we also left you better able to handle the dangers than we were’ she said.
‘Enemies of the Ancients, fear their children’ Daniel said quietly.
‘Appalled by the news?’ Oma asked.
‘Yes’ Daniel freely admitted.
‘I’ll break it to you about Anubis after a nice slice of apple pie in the diner’ Oma told him, her appearance changing so that she was inexplicably dressed like a waitress. ‘It’ll soften the blow.’
The members of SG-1 gathered around his bedside were expecting Daniel to disappear in a flash of light but they were expecting it to be a transporter beam from the Redemption not an ascension from archaeologist to higher being. Daniel did leave a note of sorts, appearing in Jack’s mind to say goodbye first and explain as much as Oma let him.
He also went behind Oma’s back and sent a message to Cassandra, knowing that she would be able to receive a psychic communication that others couldn’t because it was deliberately not much more than a gentle wave on the psychic tide.
“AG-3 powered by heavy liquid naquadah” he told her. The very best war toys have initiative he thought to himself with a smirk, and sometimes ascended beings tell you more by accident than they may have actually wanted you to know.