Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Eric Vought
25 Nov 2013
Abstract
A fan-ction set in the Stargate Atlantis cton.
The
Contents
Contents
ii
Preface
iii
1 Painful Lessons
2 Resistance
10
3 Soul Asylum
20
4 Leadership
30
5 Blind Men
37
6 Burned Feathers
46
7 Spoils of War
57
8 Thwarted Intentions
67
ii
Preface
The sapphire sphere of the Earth was visible in the lower-left quadrant of the viewport. The terminator was a sharp, black line cutting
through the Mediterranean, the craters of London and Paris only
visible as gaps in the glowing web of light that was the cities of
Europe. Snow on the Alps was painted with the faint rosy hue of
sunset. All this moved visibly below as the Jacob Carter shot past
in its low, fast orbit, leaving behind, too, the vast spidery framework of Miolnir, Earth's rst orbital construction yard, far above
them.
Crew members moved in and out of the instrument-lit space
of the Bridge with purpose but no great hurry, carrying reports
or checking readings.
iii
iv
PREFACE
Muttering
Repeat,
clearing the bay and heading for the stream of gliders. More would
be ready to launch in minutes, but they did not necessarily have
minutes. A fresh set of impacts from sta blasts made up his mind
for him.
Alright, enough of this: I'm missing the kicko. Hold on, people, activating the Miagi program! That was when things began
to change quickly.
Another blue vortex opened up in front of them and Carter
accelerated into it. Their view of Earth vanished to be replaced by
a black stareld and a sliver of the moon. Then the ship rotated
underneath them, bringing the edge of North America into view,
spinning rapidly away. They had passed entirely through the Earth
in an eye-blink and put themselves in an eccentric, elliptical orbit.
PREFACE
air and ames. Some of them jinked back and forth against their
base vector to avoid the sudden menace.
Now they were coming up on the three motherships which had
been ring at them. Asgard beams lanced out just as the missiles
launched earlier were reaching the end of their ight path.
Far
after the attack began, all but two of the vessels, damaged and
leaking air, as well a shattered squadron of eager-to-surrender gliders, was all that was left of the enemy in orbit. Shepherd scanned
the Chair's mind-link quickly for damage reports, secured the ship
from General Quarters, and brought himself back into the physical
world. He blinked for a moment at the sudden intrusion of the now
bustling activity of the bridge and then headed into the main corridor, leaving Colonel Snoodgras in charge of cleanup operations.
vi
PREFACE
systems crunch all the game statistics since the dawn of football
and come up with the spread: I can-not lose.
The lift stopped, the door opened, and Shepherd walked out of
the lift, calling over his shoulder, and what in hell are you going
to do with twinkies and coee if you win?
Sure, rub it in why don't you.
vii
PREFACE
Course,
then I could forget about that weird dream I had involving Jennifer
Love Hewitt, a row boat, and a bucket of fried chicken... oh, and
a whale. The chicken ended up having lemon in the batter and I
started breaking out in hives in the middle of...
Rodney, Carter interrupted him, not now.
Uh, right, well, anyway, Sam's right, the Miagi program worked
awlessly, even if I had to nd out by going through the logs after
it was all over, having been rudely swapped out when it suddenly
sucked up all the computing resources in the ship...
I didn't even know you were here. Besides, it was rather important, Shepherd interrupted him, But what concerns me more
is that the shields seemed to be drained more by our hyperdrive
than by enemy re.
viii
PREFACE
Absently, she toyed with a plain silver crucix and a tiny reliquary
on a chain, The Asgard never got the technology working. Even
with the newest Computer Core they gave us there wasn't enough
processing power to calculate precise hyperspace windows one after
another in combat, close to a big gravity well, dumping exactly the
right amount of inertia to change orbits and so forth. In fact, there
wasn't enough processing power in the whole universe to do what
we just did...
Enter, said Rodney triumphantly, the UMP, which uses multiple universes, an innite number actually, to do the calculation
for us without blowing up any solar systems in the process: 100%
environmentally friendly, non-cataclysmic computing. But it does
use a lot of juice.
Carter cut him o, The bottom line is that it did work, even
if we weren't intending to test it for another month and I think we
can ne-tune from here. How did the Ancient-interface work?
Not bad. I ended up having to choose pre-selected attack patterns because it was too much work to tell the Core what I really
wanted it to do, but it did a good job of tting the pattern to
the tactical situation. I think we can work up a better selection of
patterns with some sim-time and training. I might even be able to
teach Major Smurfette here to y it.
Major Hailey glowered at him.
inspecting an o-world outpost when she had been turned brightblue by an alien plant. Given her size and color, the General had
come up with the nickname and it had unfortunately stuck.
General Shepherd suddenly became thoughtful, How did we do
ground-side?
Not great, Sir, Hailey answered as she pulled up another hologram. This one Shepherd did understand, being a view of Africa
with a disturbing number of ashing red circles, They were targeting IOA headquarters in North Africa. The shield held o most of
the bombardment, but there were civilian casualties in surrounding areas, especially families of personnel outside the Green Zone.
ix
PREFACE
Their orbit, the display zoomed out and showed a track cutting
across the equator and toward Antarctica, would have taken them
past IP-COM and McMurdo, which they clearly knew was oine
or they would have taken it out rst.
Chapter 1
Painful Lessons
I materialized in the Atlantis gateroom with a rucksack on my
shoulder amid a dozen other new personnel, including an attractive
young doctor. Along with almost everyone else, I stared around,
mesmerized for a moment by the colored light ltering through
the windows onto the softly glowing, symbol-encrusted steps, the
graceful sweep of balconies and archways, the smell of the salty
breeze. A trio of marines stood watching us as we waited for someone to tell us where to go, what to do, and what forms needed
to be lled out. I wobbled for a moment on the Canadian crutch
and readjusted the load of the rucksack, took a deep breath and
steadied myself, feeling the still unaccustomed feather touch of an
alien mind as it adjusted my blood ow and dampened the pain.
I'm Amelia Banks, welcome to Atlantis. Everyone please follow
me to the inrmary where you will get your nal clearance from
the Chief of Medicine. If you leave your bags where they are, they
will be taken to your new quarters.
Um, Amelia?
Chief of Medicine.
Ah, yes, Dr...
Keller, Right?
Welcome aboard.
Everyone,
CHAPTER 1.
PAINFUL LESSONS
hand and then up to me, Except for `Jason Higgs'. You've been
pre-cleared. Master Sargeant Bolton will be here in a moment to
take you to your assignment.
I gave a thin smile and waved away Doctor Keller's concern.
She was one of only a handful of people on Atlantis who knew who
and what I was. I did need to visit the inrmary, but I would do
it when it was a little less...
crowded.
moved to sit on the edge of a step as everyone else led out. Closing
my eyes, I breathed in the sea air and imagined the Outer Banks,
the rush of the surf and the heavy feel of sand on my sneakers as
I jogged through the dunes.
Mr. Higgs? a marine extended his hand to me as I akwardly
rose from the step, Master Sargeant Bolton.
CHAPTER 1.
PAINFUL LESSONS
paused as people gasped and let that number sink in. The number
of lives lost was much higher than the total populations of their
ten respective planets, Six million people were executed in death
camps for being of a race, culture, or religion people found unsavory. But it gets worse. It ended in this:
A view of a Japanese city lled the pedastal, a perfect miniature complete with bustling trac and plumes of smoke from the
factories. A bright light seared everyone's eyes, a soundless, colorless ame burned bright in the heart of the city for just an instant,
and then the terrible shockwave tore out from the center, scattering buildings, vehicles, people like a vengeful child tired of his
playthings. A thing as great as any of them had seen on their own
worlds was replaced in a moment by smoke and ruin. They saw people running to the river as their skin seared and their hair burned
away. One of the o-worlders screamed. Several wept openly. I felt
tears wet my own eyes as I remembered a village far away which I
had never seen destroyed from orbit.
The atom bomb, I said quietly into the now silent room, Our
people spent decades with thousands of these weapons pointed at
each other, an eyeblink away from extinction. We still have them,
are still working to settle dierences widened by the blood of innocents even as we face alien races far older and far more advanced
than we are. I am told that some of you know how easily that can
begin.
his eyes o of the oor, But know this: as far more powerful as
we are over you, the Wraith are that much more powerful still. If
we don't stand together against the Wraith and against other enemies just as nightmarish, all humans everywhere may be reduced
to slavery and cattle.
to toy with your lives as the `Ancestors' did, but to meet you as
equals, to teach... and to learn.
Dr. Weir does not think we should be doing this, said Nola
quietly.
No, she does not. She believes we have already made too many
CHAPTER 1.
PAINFUL LESSONS
mistakes where you are concerned, that if we teach you too much,
too quickly, you will destroy yourselves like we almost did, like you
almost did. The IOA... thinks dierently, and so do I. At least, I
believe you deserved the knowledge of what the consoles were and
the choice of whether to go back to your worlds in peace, to be left
alone by us or to join us in ghting. It is your choice.
Now, you have enough to think about for the moment. said
Dr. Weir, entering the room, A lunch has been prepared and, at
least today, we will feast in your honor. Many of you have brought
samples of food from your homeworld to share and we have recently
brought food from Earth. It is not the best of what Earth has to
oer, I am afraid, but we are a long way from home and what we
bring cannot be fresh. That is one of the things which each of you
has to oer the people of the City of the Ancestors.
I looked at Dr.
had gone, I closed my eyes, leaning back against the wall, and
slowly sank to the oor. A wave of foreign images paraded through
my head: places I had never seen, people I had never met.
The
most disturbing were the unbidden smells, the acrid smell of fresh
tunnels, of hot alien spices, of stale shipboard air.
Mr. Higgs? a female voice said kindly but insistantly at my
ear, I think you've been avoiding your appointment.
***
Well, the nerve regeneration is proceeding faster than even I would
have thought, but you are not well yet, Dr. Keller said as she went
over the recent scans on a datapad, I noticed you've stopped using
the crutch.
I nodded, I still have trouble with balance and have been keeping the cane handy, but I've been getting stronger every day.
Is it still... quiet? she asked, hesitantly.
Mostly, I nodded again, I've been having strange dreams and
ashes of odd memories. I know something is there that doesn't...
belong... but it, he, stays under the surface.
CHAPTER 1.
PAINFUL LESSONS
That will probably continue until most of the damage has been
restored. But I've only seen one case like yours and I have no idea
what normal even is. I want you in here every day.
Yes, ma'am. I said meekly, hoping that if I went along she'd
let me go back to my work, Have you gone over the samples left
by Dr. Carson?
Dr.
Three of them are still in the morgue and they all support the
conclusions we came to on the Odyssey.
always focused on saving lives, not on nding the best way to end
them.
Even Wraith? I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Even Wraith, she replied rmly, I can't help think that there
are real people in there somewhere, like that one Dr.
Becket's
Go
nish your report, she stood up and began looking for her next
task, then stopped and put her hand briey on my shoulder, But
I want you back in here tomorrow.
I nodded and escaped while I could.
***
Nine of us sat around the conference table underneath the Gateroom. Doctor McKay and Ronon were clearly bored, Colonel Caldwell oozed barely controlled hostillity, and Doctor Keller was uncomfortable and dgetted restlessly.
So, bigger bullets make bigger holes? A little surprising, isn't
it? Dr. McKay said as he tossed several pictures of ballistic gelatin
tests onto the table.
CHAPTER 1.
PAINFUL LESSONS
It's not the size of the hole that matters, precisely, but the size
of the `permanent cavity', the volume of destroyed tissue. Our data
shows that Wraith heal very quickly from penetrating wounds but
that it takes longer for them to recover from tissue which is actually
ruptured sometimes days longer. Dr. Keller responded.
Right, I said, looking to Colonel Shepherd for support, The
P-90's smaller 5.7x28mm bullets actually do better in this respect
than the 9mm ball in your sidearms because they tumble, but larger
calibers with hollow points or big, slow slugs do even better.
As long as they get through the Wraith body armor, Shepherd
put in, The P-90 has done a real good job of that.
The 9 mm
specic bullets which should both penetrate the Wraith armor and
produce the kinds of wounds they can't readily recover from. It's
actually very similar to changes being made in the Milky Way for
ghting Jaa.
OK, so we start mixing heavy weapons in both outgoing teams
and city defense teams.
leaning on the table.
Dr.
Weir asked,
beauty and the forcefullness of her personality, especially her devastating use of the eyebrow.
The US Air Force or any other military has a hard time ordering large amounts of hollow point ammunition without drawing
Can we
CHAPTER 1.
PAINFUL LESSONS
Their
CHAPTER 1.
PAINFUL LESSONS
sprayed in the face or eyes, like the Iratus bug that was attached
to...
Me, said Shepherd, Pardon me if I don't want to carry a
Super Soaker into combat. What about stakes through the heart
and that sort of thing?
That, actually works, Dr Keller said, At least it keeps them
from regenerating as long as you don't take it out. So would chopping o their head and a number of... she grimaced, more gruesome things people do in stories.
So you think there actually might be signicant information in
Bram Stoker? asked Weir.
Dr. Jackson does, yes, I said, and added, Your people held
onto signicant information about the Goa'uld and the Asgard for
thousands of years.
it was a mistake as soon as I said it, with both Caldwell and Weir
looking at me strangely.
Well, said Weir, cocking the eyebrow again, I think that's
what we had on the Agenda. Dr. Zelenka, I want a report on your
jumper modications later today.
I met Caldwell's eyes briey and ed the conference room as
quickly as I could in a dignied manner. It suddenly seemed much
too crowded in my head.
***
Make a hole! I said as I came up on a group of scientists clustered
near one of the common rooms. They quickly swirled apart as I
jogged on and down toward the North Pier.
elated: it had been years since I had been able to run. I tried to
get caught up in the pace, to just get lost in the thump, thump of
my sneakers on whatever it was the Ancients had used for ooring,
to absorb the sea breeze, and smell of, what?
Lavendar?
that
the Ancients seemed fond of, but layers of thoughts and memories
swirled and clamored for attention.
I thought of time in North Carolina learning Forensics and
spending every spare moment in the woods or weekends out at
CHAPTER 1.
PAINFUL LESSONS
no, that
Memories
You knew it would come to this. This was the price. We need
to work together.
I touched the tiny reliquary hanging around my neck and felt
blackness rise up.
Chapter 2
Resistance
Jogging? You went jogging ?! What were you thinking? Doctor
Jennifer Keller was livid as she looked over my chart.
Trying not to think, actually, I said groggily.
Apparently I
You see, I
had this gal stuck inside of me, two people in one body you have
no idea how strange that is and she kidnapped me while I was
sleeping, decided to exercise in the middle of the night.
I sighed, What are you doing here, Doctor?
Oh, McKay said brightly, Pressure sickness. I had to do an
EVA thousands of feet under water. My hands have had tremors
all day.
I turned my head and took a close look at him, widening my
eyes in surprise, I think your eyes are bulging a little, too, might
10
CHAPTER 2.
11
RESISTANCE
be intracranial pressure.
You really think so? I knew it! What if there's brain damage?
Do you realize how critical this brain is to the success of the mission?
out of the room. I smiled to myself, scarfed the other energy bar
sitting on his tray, and collapsed back into the headrest.
For a few moments, experimentally, I let the other part of me
dominate. It was like sinking beneath the surface of a still pool, like
I had been treading water for weeks and just let it go. But as the
water closed over my head, it was very hard to control the panic.
The ow of images was easier to handle but still overwhelming. I
was a control freak, and I knew I was way out of my depth.
Chu Chi Chen, trying to let the form still the roilling surface of
my mind.
CHAPTER 2.
12
RESISTANCE
The rst
approach. I learned many traditional and primitive skills to understand the people I was studying. Along the way, I learned Kung Fu
and fencing that's traditional sword ghting on Earth before
my...
injury.
When she spoke to you, you felt that she gave you
her undivided attention and you had the same feeling when she
listened.
Then perhaps you would enjoy a partner? I would like to learn
this `Chu Chi Chen'.
She was an extremely good student and an eective teacher as
she demonstrated a similar Athosian empty hand form.
By the
end of the session, she had mastered the basics of Chu Chi Chen,
had started on Zong Chi Chen, a more complex form with leaps,
chasing movements, and more advanced footwork.
grace and reexes were superb.
Her natural
CHAPTER 2.
13
RESISTANCE
had not only regained much ground but that in some ways I was
faster and more uid than I had been before. We spoke a bit as we
worked, I about places I had been on Earth, she about growing up
among the Athosians and with the constant threat of the Wraith. I
started describing my time in South America and broke o when I
didn't know how to navigate the various conversational landmines.
We spent a few minutes sparring with the Bantu sticks, where
I was soundly trounced, but I was getting better. Finally, I backed
o and bowed in respect, I'm afraid that's all I can do or I'll end
up in the inrmary again and I think the good doctor will have my
head.
When I rst saw you in Atlantis, you were hobbling on a crutch.
Now you are making me work for my hits. This is a remarkable
recovery, she said, dropping the sticks into her bag. I knew she
was subtley... and politely shing for information, trying to gure
out who I was and my role on Atlantis.
I was badly hurt in South America, but I also discovered some
things which got me involved with the Stargate program.
That
opened up options for treatment most of my people never experience, it was only a small lie.
I know Dr. Jackson's command of history made Earth's use of
the Stargate possible and lead to the discovery of Atlantis, but it
wasn't your skills as a scientist that got you sent here. Again, she
was shing, poking at something specic she knew or suspected.
No, the IOA believed I had some unique skills to oer.
As a trainer of... Guerillas ?
The shock must have shown in my face because she waved it
away and continued, Colonel Shepherd has also done some work
of that kind in a place on Earth he will not discuss.
He turned
the IOA down when they asked him to take charge of training the
people here. He has suspected from the beginning that you were
sent here in his place, that you were also military but for some
reason no one wanted to admit it perhaps because of things you
have had to do in the past.
CHAPTER 2.
14
RESISTANCE
Jason, for the workout. If you wish to talk, I believe you can nd
me. Among the Athosians, trust begets trust.
And I still had some trust to earn, went the unspoken thought.
***
I knew I looked like death warmed over. I had spent the entire night
in long and heated conversation, working out the details of my next
mission and the details, too, of an interpersonal relationship more
intimate than any I had ever experienced. Hopefully I would handle
it better than previous relationships, but so far I was not placing
bets. I stopped to pray briey before leaving my quarters, which
itself devolved into an argument, so I was a bit frustrated by the
time I got to the Mess.
accident but did not think anyone noticed. It was early and the
tables were mostly deserted.
Doctor Higgs, I turned at my name, noticing my mistake too
late. Dr. McKay beckoned me over to his table. Habits are hard
to break, he said, You did your dissertation at Duke University,
but it's sealed, even to someone with clearance to the Stargate
program.
I sat my tray down and played with its contents.
You have no rank, no insignia, he continued, but you are
authorized to carry a sidearm, even here. Your le says you have
diplomatic status, but not from whom. It was true, as a diplomat,
my symbiote was entitled to a security detail and I, Jason Higgs,
was it.
legal issue, You were a quadriplegic less than a year ago, perhaps
CHAPTER 2.
15
RESISTANCE
It has
been very hard for me to surface until now due to the extent of
the damage which had to be repaired. Dr. Keller monitored my
condition in transit on the Oddesey.
identity should be kept quiet for the time being and, well, the
Tok'ra...
Aren't usually keen to announce themselves, anyway, McKay
nished for me.
I nodded deeply, the way my Cifu, my Kung Fu instructor, did
when he was pleased with a student's answer: an odd gesture which
felt completely foreign to me.
Don't worry, your secret is safe with me, but you so owe me a
Power Bar.
***
CHAPTER 2.
16
RESISTANCE
City of the Ancestors, the people Teyla Emagen has chosen to join
and ght alongside, and I come to oer help, I paused to let that
sink in, but I cannot oer you safety.
CHAPTER 2.
17
RESISTANCE
CHAPTER 2.
18
RESISTANCE
than yours, older than the Tau'ri who occupy the ancient city.
Not as old as those you know as the Ancestors, but as old as the
Wraith. I have lived for over...
seven hundred of your cycles and have spent most of that teaching
people in villages just like yours to ght a race of monsters called
the Goa'uld and their fearsome armies of Jaa. The People of the
City and people you know such as Teyla Emagen have experience
ghting the Wraith. Together we can be strong.
There was still a measure of doubt. Some people were won over
by my arguments, but some doubted my claims, We are supposed
to believe that a man who appears no more than twenty Cycles has
lived since the last culling...?
Slowly getting used to the process, I drew inside, not from inside, but more...
symbiote have full control. I felt a brief but heady rush of strength
and euphoria. My eyes ashed brightly and my voice vibrated with
power, If you like, I can prove that I am not entirely human...
People stepped back, including, briey, Lorne, even though I
had already lled him in (some) on what I had planned to do.
Then Fel-thas released control back to me, more gracefully than I
had yet learned, ...but I would rather prove to you that together
we can kill Wraith, I said, back to a normal tone of voice.
It was very smoothly accomplished.
Their crafts-
CHAPTER 2.
19
RESISTANCE
who spent his days teaching the younger. Some of the afternoon
was spent discussing tactics for attacking Wraith soldiers using
pairs of humans with a long rie and a double smoothbore between
them. The old man wanted something concrete to show that I knew
how to ght, not just as an individual, but as a leader of men. I
gave him tactics which had been deployed time and time again by
mere mortals against well-armed and trained Jaa.
We stayed through a meal overall a productive day and
then returned to Atlantis to nd that Shepherd's team was overdue.
dashed to the control room and Weir to report in. I went down to
one of the deactivated Ancient labs one that had nearly ascended
(or killed) Rodney McKay to try to accomplish another part of
my mission.
Chapter 3
Soul Asylum
You're in need of some
direction
There's a place where you
should go
There's a bright spot on the
dark side of a long and
winding road
Soul Asylum, Directions
fretted. Several times today I had said I referring to past experiences of Fel-thas, and I had just said we to Major Lorne referring
to the Tok'ra. The worst part is that it had not felt unnatural. I
was becoming more and more comfortable with the layers of foreign memories and more and more comfortable with the foreign
presence in my mind. I did not want to be. I wanted to resent it
more. I did poorly with housemates, let alone... whatever this was.
And now I was o on a secret Tok'ra mission without Weir's
permission and expressly against her standing orders. Oh, the mis-
20
CHAPTER 3.
21
SOUL ASYLUM
sion was not a complete secret. There were a few members of the
IOA who knew what the Tok'ra really wanted in Pegasus, what
made it worth sending me, er... one of their best operatives all this
way, that is, assuming I even knew the full extent of what they
intended.
Given
our relative levels of experience at this whole blending thing, I suspected that it was.
I did not get any real sense that my symbiote was duplicitous.
There was a level of arrogance, not the domineering megalomania of
the Goa'uld, but simply the self-assurance that Fel-thas' experience
of centuries vastly outweighed anything I had come up with in
my one brief lifetime.
Fel-thas
might bend here and there, but the same assumption was always
the starting point for the next issue.
I had had an opportunity to speak with Carter/Selmac before
their death and my rebirth. I know that Carter had regretted the
politics of the fragile Tau'ri Tok'ra alliance, but there were no
misgivings about the choice to blend with Selmac in the rst place.
The younger Carter, too, had a rough initiation to the Tok'ra but
also seemed to genuinely respect them (us?) as a race and people.
General O'Neill, in a brief conversation, had minced no words.
I now knew that, though Selmac spoke no ill, there had been
bad blood between the two Tok'ra. Fel-thas had been undercover
on a planet seething with discontent. Selmac had been particularly
aected by the attrocities committed there because of the relatives
of his then host and had urged action.
CHAPTER 3.
SOUL ASYLUM
22
The
CHAPTER 3.
SOUL ASYLUM
23
It was
clear that the 'Ascendication' device did not have the capabilities I needed, but there was a more disturbing revelation: even the
Altarans never really understood how the communications stones
worked they had borrowed the technology themselves. But from
whom? And how had the technology been reverse-engineered? It
was clear that the communications stones worked on something
much more fundamental than the level of DNA. Anubis had known
something, perhaps something gleaned from the ascended Altarans.
He had made a `clone' of himself with all his memories intact, but
cloning DNA by itself did not copy memories. Perhaps the Dakara
`weapon' might have contained critical information... before it was
destroyed by the Ori.
trinkets, but was not likely to help the Tok'ra; somewhere the original answer lay hidden.
I touched the reliquary at my throat on the way back up the
corridor, What we need is here, Egeria, and we'll nd it, I say
quietly.
***
It was a busy week.
panded with tools from Atlantis' fabrication facility. The rst runs
of ammunition were ready for shipment back to Atlantis and the
local population was also manufacturing quality home-grown boltaction ries based on .308 Springeld cartridges they were already
making for the alliance.
between the two nations, but having a shared cause allowed them
both to move forward.
Next, I returned to Lenir, my test case for the anti-Wraith resistance. Progress here was slower, but the main town was now the
CHAPTER 3.
24
SOUL ASYLUM
We needed a
better way to make new tunnels quickly and have them be consistent
from facility to facility. The metaphor of planting a seed seemed
tting.
time.
Once again, I 'remembered' a young woman by a lake, dark
hair and lithe curves, gathering lillies in the sun. Then the smell
of burning crofts and lillies on mounded clods of earth.
An hour later, I was adapting the ring platform to run o of a
portable naqueda generator. Now I just needed the generator.
Later that evening, however, a sonic boom like far-o thunder
announced the arrival of the intergalactic delivery service and I
was meeting Colonel Ellis at the gangway of the Apollo. His aid
checked o items on a list as they were unloaded, including the
portable generator and ten pounds of US silver coins.
CHAPTER 3.
25
SOUL ASYLUM
What's this? I asked, indicating a piece of equipment consisting of several interconnected tubs, motor-driven paddles, and a lot
of tubing.
A portable bio-diesel rig.
Then I
six diesels with a few IOA-added bells and whistles. Finally, Ellis
handed me a small pouch containing data storage crystals. These
would contain any new orders and briengs from the Tok'ra high
council.
Colonel, what was that being assembled on the ight deck?
It had looked suspiciously like a MRV, a multiple warhead nuclear
weapon, much larger than the X-303's usually carried.
Not your department, Ellis answered briskly, We're due at
Atlantis with the rest of the cargo.
CHAPTER 3.
SOUL ASYLUM
26
would take a truck for a spin to the next planet and try out the
dashboard DHD.
***
A deer trail lead through a clearing ahead and then down to a small
stream. The vegetation near the large oak had been trampled very
recently, the outline of booted feet visible in grass stalks which had
not yet sprung back upright. I would have preferred to have Ronan
Dex here. I was a passable tracker and Fel-thas had centuries of
experience, but Ronan knew Wraith. He knew what their prints
looked like and he knew how their minds worked, what they would
have been thinking as they stood here for a moment.
One set of prints seemed lighter than the rest. The Wraith soldiers carried more weapons and armor; they were built more solidly
than the scouts or ocers. It seemed likely that the group's leader
had stood here, next to the oak, and looked down the trail. Two
Wraith soldiers stood protectively nearby and three more (four?)
took up positions on the trail to watch for enemies.
Enemies
scu mark in the softer dirt by the tree, then they had gone on
their way down the trail and into the clearing.
I looked at Orin, one of the local militia recruits. I mimed the
Wraith going down the trail to the stream. Then I mimed us going
o trail and cutting them o where it looped back. He nodded and
pointed past the tree to where an older track ran. I gestured for
him to take point and for the team to expect enemy contact. We
had done small unit training in this exact area a few days before,
but Orin still knew the land, every root and bramble, better than
I did.
musket and proceded softly into the brush. There was tension in
the set of everyone's features, a tightening of the grip on their ries,
but also excitement and anticipation that they would soon be able
to prove themselves and put paid to the invaders of their homes, if
only a handful.
CHAPTER 3.
27
SOUL ASYLUM
The day was stiing hot, the forest air was still and close. No
birds or animals made noise, already driven o by the intrusion of
the Wraith. Mosquitos whined around us, sucking in small quantities what the Wraith would drain in full. We passed soundlessly
through low ferns and more slowly through a patch of bramble,
over the crest of a small hump of decaying trunks of trees fallen
long ago.
pointed stunner. The Wraith had arrived through the stargate and
headed to the small village for a snack only to nd it empty and
deserted. Puzzled, they had begun searching the surrounding area
as we hoped they would. They must have caught a villager coming
or going who had not been able to get to safety. They had not fed
on him yet presumably because they wanted information rst.
Orin looked at me questioningly. I shrugged and raised my .40
S&W, silently clicking o the safety.
The clatter of
The
CHAPTER 3.
SOUL ASYLUM
28
leader and three soldiers went down quickly, one was wounded and
one had escaped harm. One of my men was down from a stunner
blast. I red the last two rounds from my magazine at the uninjured Wraith, striking him in the chest, and yelled, Charge!
as
CHAPTER 3.
29
SOUL ASYLUM
Fel-thas was
I was frantic.
Perhaps destroyed?
Chapter 4
Leadership
"On the other hand, a
leader never second-guesses
himself, and I think I'm up
to the challenge..."
Rodney McKay, Reunion
I hobbled into Dr. Weir's oce, noting the recent repairs. The
Atlantis engineers had been careful matching materials, but a good
eye could still pick out the patches of high-tech spackle. A partiallylled basket of fruit sat on a table by the door, the hand-woven reed
basket typical of one of the Game Worlds.
A stack of personnel
30
CHAPTER 4.
31
LEADERSHIP
CHAPTER 4.
32
LEADERSHIP
CHAPTER 4.
33
LEADERSHIP
syringe with the ATA retrovirus which had been set aside for me.
While Dr. Keller was distracted, I palmed a second syringe, this
one with the Hoan drug. Fel-Thas was condant that he could
control the drug's side-eects and that it would provide at least
CHAPTER 4.
34
LEADERSHIP
in this room and Colonel Carter decided not to change the order.
Can't say I blame her: Dr. McKay can get a little carried away at
times.
I was just nishing here, anyway, I said, stepping into the hall,
What can I do for you, Colonel?
CHAPTER 4.
35
LEADERSHIP
it's a bit
more.
But you think you'd lose that last little bit of yourself and go
over the edge if you continued doing it...?
He stopped short and looked up at me in some surprise.
I read one of the early mission reports out of the SGC of a black
ops specialist who went all `Apocalypse Now' and started enslaving
the natives. SG-1 had to go in and take him out, I explained.
Well, it's not like I'm afraid I'd start looking for people to
worship me or something... now, Rodney maybe...
Fel-Thas cut in briey, and my voice changed, Believe me,
Colonel, I do understand. Everyone has to know where their own
boundaries lie.
Out there...
the ocean and beyond, it can be hard to keep your perspective. I
have a great deal of respect for your decision: A warrior without
CHAPTER 4.
LEADERSHIP
36
Chapter 5
Blind Men
When the blind men had
each
felt a part of the elephant,
the king went to each of
them
and said to each:
'Well, blind man, have you
seen the elephant?
Tell me, what sort of thing
is an elephant?
The Blind Men and the
Elephant
CHAPTER 5.
38
BLIND MEN
She
McKay's
CHAPTER 5.
39
BLIND MEN
For that
Another me
appeared, sitting in another chair, also sipping tea, but his eyes
glowed, not the incandescent glow of the symbiote, but the red
glare of something from darker dreams.
talk.
I had a sudden ood of images through my link with the symbiote: dark images of war, depravity, and torture, of slavery, betrayal, and rapine spanning centuries across most of a galaxy.
What is this? I gasped, reeling.
It is the memories of the Goa'uld, Egeria's heritage carried
within you by your `symbiote.' It is an inescapable part of what it
means to be a Tok'Ra, Athar said quietly, sipping her tea.
You hid this from me? I asked Fel-Thas.
The other me spoke, shrugging apologetically, I hide them from
myself. We all do, from the moment of our birth. Before we take
our rst host, we learn to supress the Goa'uld memories, searching
them sparingly and only at need in our ght against the Goa'uld
lest they twist even us with their depravity. But every one of us is
only a few thoughts away from any reminder we might need as to
why we ght and why Egeria turned away from the others.
But those memories...
they contain...
enjoyment, pleasure,
CHAPTER 5.
BLIND MEN
40
Fel-Thas turned and xed his eyes squarely on mine, Yes, Jason
Higgs. I have had to search through those memories several times
over the course of my life, over the lives of many hosts, looking for
information to support our cause. I cannot examine the knowledge
and not sense the emotions behind them, not sense that acts of
depravity felt good, the ecstasy and intensity of causing pain to
another, the thrill of power. None of us can. Egeria's training, the
iron discipline we learn, is the only thing which keeps the darkness
at bay. We are all a lapse of will or a use of the sarcophagus away
from the Pit, and then accusingly to Athar, Why do you bring
up this thing? Why disturb that which sleeps?
Because you seek to disturb things which now sleep, and your
host deserves to know the whole of it.
Alter-me was silent for several moments, holding his cup in both
hands and staring at his feet, We are not proud of what we come
from, he whispered nally, but we are proud of what we are, or,
perhaps, of what we choose to be, despite that which we are.
Athar sat back in the chair and smiled, Well-spoken, child of
Egeria. Ask me what you will.
You will tell us what we need to know? I asked.
I did not say that, she said, and I am still bound by our laws
to not interfere in the lower planes a law I sit here imprisoned for
having broken. But we and I personally do have an interest in
what you have to say. I may exchange some knowledge of history
and philosophy in exchange for some of your own.
You asked Dr. Weir about religion. You wanted to know all
about the beliefs which have developed on Earth since the fall of
Atlantis, Fel-Thas prompted.
Yes, Dr. Weir was most helpful. I read the holy scriptures of
many cultures while I visited the City.
But why, I asked incredulously, would you care about religion? You have Accension.
Why do you still wear the sign of the crucix on the same
chain as Egeria's reliquary? she asked, spreading her hands, You
CHAPTER 5.
BLIND MEN
41
who have been granted the power and long life which people have
worshipped in `gods' ?
his-the hand.
No, you know I don't think that. But science can only answer
the How. It cannot tell us Why or tell us whether to be men or
monsters with what we know.
Once again, Fel-Thas waved dismissively and turned back to
CHAPTER 5.
42
BLIND MEN
Athar, But you have not told us what interest you have in any
of this. What do the beliefs of billions of superstitious humans, or
of this superstitious human, mean to ascended beings? And what
does this have to do with...
universal look of the hard-drive busy light on his face, Ah... The
Ones-Who-Came-Before, the Ancient Ancients. The transference
and storage of memory you learned to manipulate but which was
already there in the rst evolution of human-kind. That is what
this is about, isn't it?
other
things.
How did you discover the Well of Souls? I asked, What lead
you to suspect that such a thing was possible?
Shortly after our taming of our own solar system shortly at
least, in the span of our own history and memory we found a
naked singularity, an astronomical curiosity which we soon determined to be articial.
I'm sorry, a what?
A naked singularity, Fel-Thas entoned in his teacher's voice,
is a 'black hole' which rotates so quickly that its event horizon
becomes a torus, exposing a window through its center, a holewithin-a-hole and warping space time around it. We have suspected
for some time that such a singularity might have been the basis
or perhaps the template of stargate technology. But how does
CHAPTER 5.
BLIND MEN
43
CHAPTER 5.
44
BLIND MEN
***
On the jumper ride back, Lieutenant Hailey glanced over at me in
the co-pilot's seat, I'm sorry you did not get any answers to your
questions.
What?
A species of
CHAPTER 5.
BLIND MEN
45
Chapter 6
Burned Feathers
If we burn our wings
Flying too close to the sun
If the moment of glory
Is over before it's begun
If the dream is won
Though everything is lost
We will pay the price,
But we will not count the
cost
Rush Bravado
CHAPTER 6.
47
BURNED FEATHERS
other Ancients who wrote portions of the Game, and I can't reach
anything from their records either. But, doing a separate search, I
found something else.
She brought one of the background displays forward and I scanned
the Ancient text quickly, then stood up and thought for a moment.
There were two at least two factions of Alterans here in Atlantis before the war with the Wraith, the Icarii and the Dedalii.
Janus was one of the Icarii, and had philosophical dierences with
the others. We already knew that he was punished for the stunt
with the time machine and that he was forced to destroy some of
CHAPTER 6.
his work.
48
BURNED FEATHERS
thought like Janus and who were also punished, more than once,
and that much of their work had been hidden or destroyed by the
Alteran council. This `Game Room', in particular, had been closed
o several years before the Atlanteans lost their ght with the
Wraith and left for the Milky Way. Like Janus, some of the Icarii
probably continued to work on their projects in secret.
So if we can nd remains of the Icarii's labs and notes, we may
be able to better understand how this system works, I said, but
how can we get into the locked database entry?
Well, rst o, I think we know more about these factions than
we think. Look at these words. She rearranged the text to put the
two faction names next to each other in their rough transliterations:
Icarrii, Dedalii. Think like a human, not a Tok'Ra, she suggested.
The two brothers, Icarus and Daedelus? You think the Earth
legend is connected to the Alteran dispute?
imprisoned on an island.
OK, that's a
CHAPTER 6.
49
BURNED FEATHERS
hmmm...
better to avoid
I wrote
most of the code for the SGC DHD and I dug through the original
dialer code with Ba'al. The gate crystal won't even have a contact
to send it a ninth symbol. You said there was something about a
specic planet?
Your mini-me managed to unlock some notes in the database
about a special power source, a planet with a naquadria core. Unfortunately, the Icarii blew up the rst one they were playing with
and were hoping to nd another, but the rest of the entry was
deleted and thoroughly erased.
That doesn't make sense. Naquadria is articial. How can they
CHAPTER 6.
50
BURNED FEATHERS
not
Carter asked
on purpose.
CHAPTER 6.
51
BURNED FEATHERS
And then
they left: some through the gate, some to other villages, leaving me
lying where I had fallen by the old lake shore.
My fault. My fault.
Teyla leaned closer, What is he saying?
Dr.
consciousness.
damage.
He'll make it? Colonel Carter asked.
The burns are minor.
Tok'Ra but it's lucky no one else went with him through the
gate.
I've ushed his mucus membranes as much as I can and I have him
on medications to chelate bind and remove the radioactive isotopes, she shrugged, There isn't much more I can do. Now we
just wait and see.
Carter's earpiece chirped.
Carter. Go ahead.
She stopped
decision, set the bag down in the corner, and gestured with the
CHAPTER 6.
52
BURNED FEATHERS
stay in control. Teyla takes an involuntary step back but does not
go. It is always war and we are always on the brink of disaster. I
have expended lifetime after human lifetime to make a dierence.
People who trust me die...
CHAPTER 6.
BURNED FEATHERS
53
Blaming
the leader who abandoned them, the leader who is part Wraith,
part monster herself, the leader who allied herself with aliens from
far away. That is what she most feared, what she could least endure. I shudder and get control once more, letting the sticks clatter
to the ground.
I clasp her shoulder, meet her eyes for a moment and walk out
of the gym.
***
I am sitting in Atlantis' small chapel when Colonel Carter nds
me. She sits down beside me, making the sign of the cross, bows
her head for a moment, then asks, Am I interrupting?
I didn't know you were religious, I say, a little taken aback.
I'm not especially. My mother was Catholic and my dad went
along to humour her when he wasn't deployed somewhere. My mom
before she died, my brother, and I went to church and I got sent
to Sunday school. I wanted to believe in something. I still come in
here once in a while and see if I can catch a piece of whatever it
was that gave my Mom such... serenity and purpose.
But you don't nd it, I oered.
No, she said, chagrined, I like solid proof, tangible evidence.
I don't believe in anything unless I can take it apart. I took the
stereo apart when I was a kid. God, was my mother mad, but I just
wanted to see how it worked... and I did put it back together. I
tried to do the same thing to the Bible, but it didn't work the same
when I was done. It's just so full of inconsistencies and unanswered
questions: where did Mrs.
How can
CHAPTER 6.
54
BURNED FEATHERS
there have been 'day' before the Sun was rst made?
Why are
there two geneologies for Jesus and why don't they match up?
Your Sunday School teacher must have loved you, I laughed.
She sniggered, It was agony. I was bored. I got in trouble for
asking too many questions... and I took all of the screws out of the
teacher's desk... But at the same time, I can't look at the sky and
not feel a sense of wonder. Did you ever read C.S. Lewis?
What, like `the Lion, the Witch, and the Warddrobe' ? Doesn't
every kid?
I loved that book, she said, Dad would read them to me when
he came home. I went around poking the backs of all the closets
to see if there was a secret world somewhere, a doorway I could
just walk through and explore. The space program was the closest
thing I could nd to being able to visit another world.
Hmm, Dawn Treader was my favorite; I've always loved the
ocean, I sweep my arm in the general direction of the tower and
the gate room, Now you've got the stargate: you walk through a
doorway and go places, see wonders, meet strange beings. Fauns
and talking beasts must not seem that fantastic anymore.
I know. My dad kept thinking I was heart broken because I
didn't get into the space program. I couldn't tell him that NASA
had been my second choice anyway, that I had actually found the
wardrobe! But I never found a big lion to tell me what it all meant
or to bail me out when I got in over my head.
It's never quite that easy is it?
you listen for him; He'll act through you if you can let go of control
long enough.
I'm not very good at letting go of control... or of listening for
secret messages. My own mind doesn't shut up long enough. she
pauses for a moment and looks at me hard, Do you really think
that everyone who doesn't believe in God is damned?
I look at the non-descript altar at the front of the room, think
of the dierent people who use it, most of them Christian in this
facility, but not all. I think of the hundreds of worlds which have
CHAPTER 6.
BURNED FEATHERS
55
your belief was sincere or not. If you just fake belief because you're
afraid of dying, I don't know that it will count for much.
We both fell silent for a moment, watching the icker of candlelight from the small side table.
You've heard about Weir and the duplicates the Replicators
made? she asked.
Yeah, I talked with McKay when he was working on that tracking device. Being brought back from the dead like that... for that
matter, the other team members nding out that they were manufactured clones: pretty freaky. Makes you wonder what we are,
what actually makes us us.
It also makes you wonder how they actually did it. Sure, we expected them to copy Elizabeth's memories, because she had nanites
insider her, working in her brain, but they made new bodies and
transmitted memories into them.
...and when did they have a chance to make complete, recent
copies of the other team members? I ask.
It seems unlikely the Assurans would have been able to scan
the complete contents of their brains, she suggests.
Which means that the Replicators have the technology I'm
looking for, I nish, The tracking device tells us where all their
ships are. I need to capture a ship and its database intact.
The Oddessey and the Apollo are on their way to Atlantis to
CHAPTER 6.
56
BURNED FEATHERS
Chapter 7
Spoils of War
It is well that war is so
terrible, or we would grow
too fond of it.
Robert E. Lee, as attributed
by Edward Porter
Alexander
Several dozen ships are visible in the viewport against the backdrop of the planet. Beneath swirls of cloud, the large landmass illuminated by the primary is crisscrossed by networks of lines and the
geometric shapes of heavy industrial development. There is a striking lack of green for a clearly inhabited planet. Most of the ships
are Ancient Aurora-class warships. Several other kinds of vessals
are maneuvering in and out of them, including Wraith hiveships,
Earth's X-304s, and several smaller capital ships of some unknown
design.
57
CHAPTER 7.
58
SPOILS OF WAR
attacking capital ships, intercepting each other, dying in brief reballs of their own.
Suddenly the battle shifts as most of the Ancient-design warships stop maneuvering and cease defending themselves.
What the hell? Major Marks exclaims.
Rivers of glittering particles stream from these Aurora-class vessals, converging on the landmass below where a vast city of technological marvels is dying.
Colonel Ellis grins, Son of a bitch!
For
CHAPTER 7.
SPOILS OF WAR
59
I switched displays to show the ship systems and damage indicators. The hyperdrive was oine and inoperable, a major control
link showing damage, Team 2, Team 1 Actual. As we expected, the
primary control link is severed forward of frame 32. The replicators
have already begun work rerouting hyperdrive functions. Execute
repair plan. Execute repair plan. The clock is ticking. Over.
Wilco, Team 1. Executing repair plan. Team 2 out.
Team 1 out, I reply, and turn to the others in the control
room, switching back to the short-range team channel, The life
support umbilical will be under that console. Make sure your O2 is
topped o. We don't know how long it will be until we can aord
to get life support back online.
We take turns hooking up to the oxygen line as we work, our
suits modied ahead of time to use the damage control facilities
of the Ancient ships which we hoped the replicators still copied
faithfully. I unstrap a tablet computer and hook it into the console,
activating several pre-congured database searches and beaming
the results back to the Apollo. If we cannot get the replicator ship
underway by the time the planet is scheduled to explode, then we
might still get some useful information. I watch the progress on the
repair and listen anxiously to the eet-level comm chatter as Dr.
McKay prepares to overload the ZPMs and destroy the replicator
Blobzilla.
By this time, we have a chat program running on the shipboard
computer system where we can communicate between the teams,
view eachother's displays and directly collaborate on the repairs.
Lieutenant Hailey has managed to reroute all of the hyperdrive
systems through an alternate network, but the alternate link was
not designed to handle all of the data from the navigational system
on top of its normal functions.
improvised network and systems are failing all over the ship. We
start shutting down as many systems as we can to reduce trac,
but the whole network is now running sluggishly and the oending
systems don't always respond to their shutdown commands.
CHAPTER 7.
60
SPOILS OF WAR
A few lines of text come painfully through the chat link, OK,
the problem is that the hyperdrive core is now locked up and needs
to be cold-booted, but I can't transfer enough data over this link
to boot the system, even if we shut down everything we don't need.
All of the subsystems are trying to reinitialize at the same time.
What Would a Replicator Do? Brody asked.
What?
OK, he continued, Assuming the replicators knew what they
were doing, they had a way around this.
the network over the same links we were going to use. They had
a plan. Down on the planet, BlobZilla was sinking into the crust
and the ZPMs did not overload like they were supposed to. That
gave us a little more time until Carter and McKay came up with a
new plan. The ship shuddered from an impact with oating debris,
the shields not responding properly. Probably not much time.
I look carefully at the damage control console, at the list of
activities the replicators had underway before we arrived. Most of
it we had ignored: we did not need re control, for instance, and
did not have enough crew to simultaneously x so many dierent
systems.
Aha!
The
green crystal. I hand the crystal to Brody and open the channel
back to Apollo, Apollo, this is the Boarding Party. Brody requires
transport to our Hyperdrive Core.
The scientist vanishes in a ash of light.
In a few moments,
The
CHAPTER 7.
61
SPOILS OF WAR
I am
CHAPTER 7.
SPOILS OF WAR
62
materials tracking?
Yeah, what of it? Rodney shoved various oddments aside to
set down his tray.
This seems to be a log embedded in the ZPM rmware. There's
a date and what looks like a location code. I think this was made
just over three hundred years ago and... see here, perhaps that was
when it was actually installed in the ship.
Well, we knew the Replicators had the means to make these
puppies. We probably just destroyed the last manufacturing facility
in two galaxies.
Maybe not. This location code? It doesn't match the Replicator homeworld.
Well, what does it match?
Nothing in the database, and look... Zelenka switched the display to another, similar log, This is from one of the depleted ones
that was here with the city. The date says it was manufactured...
...before Atlantis left the Milky Way. McKay cut in.
Precisely.
And this...
CHAPTER 7.
63
SPOILS OF WAR
The jumper cleared the puddle, the view instantly changing from
that of the Atlantis Gateroom to the hollow of a large asteroid.
Gantries and docking facilities had been partially constructed. Spacesuited workcrews scurried over habitat modules at the far end of the
hanger and around the battered 'Lantean Battle Cruiser parked in
between. Shepherd smoothly piloted the jumper toward a docking
collar in the side of the cruiser.
Did Jamus' people do all this? Carter asked, looking in wonder at the ongoing construction.
Most of it, Shepherd answered o-handedly, A good bit was
hollowed out with Asgard beams.
stored in that device thingy, almost two hundred of them had space
construction experience. What else were they going to do?
I met the two of them at the airlock. After pressure equalized
with a hiss and the door slid open, Carter and Shepherd stepped
onto the optimistically named Hymenoptera.
Permission to come aboard? Carter asked.
Welcome, Colonels. How do you like what we've done with the
place? I asked, and moved to introduce...
Captain Rogers, Carter beamed, Still impersonating an ocer I see?
No, sir, he said, ngering his collar insignia self-consciously
I have these for real this time. A number of us stayed on after...
that business. We couldn't stay on Earth and home... wasn't the
same by time we got back.
I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm glad to see you're doing OK,
Carter ignored his extended hand and gave Rogers a brief embrace.
I looked back and forth between them a few times, and then
recovered, backing down the hall. Well, as you know, the goal of
seizing this ship in the rst place was to try to grab a Replicator
database fully intact and raid it for knowledge of their humanform
construction and cloning techniques... I stopped at a door on the
opposite side of the hall, This, is the ship's computer core...
I palmed the access plate and waited for the door to swish
CHAPTER 7.
SPOILS OF WAR
64
CHAPTER 7.
65
SPOILS OF WAR
you, especially after what happened last time, but I argued with
the IOA against having any other copies of the macro. It's just one
more chance that the Wraith can get access to the entire network.
Dr.
patiently.
Yeah, I know, Carter responded.
***
Hailey, Carter, and I sat in the Hymenoptera's Ward room amid
the wreckage of an excellent meal, Nolan, Baden, and Shepherd
having already gone on their way. I sipped at an excellent local red
wine.
up, lose the edge of sarcasm she often wielded like an axe, and I
began to wonder idly what she hid behind the brittle armor she
always wore.
Carter put down her glass and picked up the tablet she had
protected closely throughout the day. After going through several
layers of security, she handed it across to Hailey and I looked over
her shoulder.
then added
sheepishly, Ma'am.
Right under our noses.
The
It's appropriate.
CHAPTER 7.
SPOILS OF WAR
66
We
Chapter 8
Thwarted Intentions
I hear some noise. Lady,
come from that nest
Of death, contagion, and
unnatural sleep.
A greater power than we
can contradict
Hath thwarted our intents.
Come, come away.
"Romeo and Juliet", Act V,
Scene III
motorized chair struggled up the slight slope with a low whine from
the electric motor. Major Carter followed a few steps behind as I
navigated between two headstones to my destination.
A Marine
CHAPTER 8.
THWARTED INTENTIONS
68
and fading more quickly, but I had nally nished translating the
cartouche which had resulted in my death.
How far along was she?
believe I had actually heard the words, my head still spinning from
failed eort.
I opened my mouth several times to retort but couldn't nd
words.
copy of the lab results had been destroyed. Even Ruth's mother
had not known.
Still on her knees at the graveside, she shook her head, I saw
a copy of the note she left behind in your CIA le. It's the only
thing that made sense. She shifted with her hand on the arm of
the wheelchair to put her face closer to mine and lowered her voice
further, Well, that and the rue, she said, gesturing to the owers,
Ophelia?
I shook my head and recited:
Poor queen! so that thy state might be no worse,
I would my skill were subject to thy curse.
Here did she fall a tear; here in this place
I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace:
Rue, even for Ruth, here shortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.
Richard the III, I corrected her, when the Queen hears the news
that her husband has fallen at Bosworth eld.
Ah, she said, mollied, and sat back, Well, it was a good
guess.
CHAPTER 8.
THWARTED INTENTIONS
69
Seven weeks, four days, I breathed, No one knew not even
me until... afterward. She had a miscarriage just after she got the
news that I wasn't going to make it.
We stayed there quietly for several moments as she looked at
me with the piercing blue eyes, considering the new information,
Subject to thy curse... Jason, she made a choice. It wasn't your
fault.
I shrugged, She had just lost me or that's what she was
told and she had just lost our child. When I last saw her, she
told me she didn't want me to go back to the jungle, but she hadn't
told me why and I wasn't really listening.
Now you have a chance to live... she said.
But I'm not sure I want to, I nished.
She nodded and stood up, dusting the dirt o of her Air Force
blues. We remained in silence for some time as the rose of sunset
began to kiss the cold marble.
So what will you tell her?
What? I asked, startled.
She left that note for you, thinking you would never read it.
What will you say to her?
Will that make her happy, do you think? her voice was low, but
had taken a cold edge, unyielding, And what about the other life
you have a chance to save?
I've told you all I can about what's at stake.
I can't make
your choice for you, Doctor, Carter said, turning and starting
back down the hill, but neither can she, She patted my shoulder
gently on her way past, but kept walking.
I sat for a few moments more and then, awkwardly, powered the
chair around and followed her to where she stood with the Marine.
I just turned to Carter and nodded, not trusting myself to
speak.
Carter turned to the Marine, Doctor Higgs will be away on
assignment for some time. He needs to know that his ance, she
gestured back behind us, will be taken care of while he is gone.
CHAPTER 8.
70
THWARTED INTENTIONS
Do you understand?
The corporal turned a serious eye on me, Yes, ma'am, I understand perfectly, and then, Should I bring more of, um, those,
Doctor? he said, owers not being his strong suit.
Daisies, I said, Please bring her daisies. She'd like that.
I'll see to it, sir.
***
Carter was now gone. Hailey and I were in the small lounge near
our lab where one or the other of us would often catch brief naps
when we were absorbed in the data mining project.
A bottle of
Hallonan mead, spicy, avored with citrus, was being added to the
Geldaran red wine we had emptied earlier in the evening.
So, what was she like? Hailey asked, passing the bottle back
to me over the heap of paper I still thought best on paper
printouts.
What?
This dead chick you're pining for. What was she like?
I shook my head, trying to clear it.
into these conversations? And which one did she mean? I chose
my human past.
She was beautiful and delicate, like a snowake, or frost on a
window. Luminous.
Ah, Hailey said, taking the bottle back now that she had distracted me from taking a drink, So: fragile and high maintenance.
I gasped for a moment with the surprise of the blade sticking
between my ribs. I snatched the bottle from her and took a long
pull, Yeah, I suppose she was, but I loved her.
In some ways,
CHAPTER 8.
THWARTED INTENTIONS
71
in their eyes when they look at you. After a while, you internalize
them and it just becomes a part of what you are, even if they aren't
with you anymore.
`I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when
I am with you.
yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the
part of me that you bring out, ' Hailey said sleepily.
I sat up a bit in surprise, I wouldn't have expected that to
come out of you.
It didn't, she yawned, Elizabeth Browning Barrett... Barrett
Browning... something like that. Lieutenant Elliott really liked her
pottery... po-e-try. Victorian. Dead. Boring.
Eliott...
from the depths where he was lurking, He was a host to Lantash.
Rather briey.
She nodded, Everybody in Pegasus has lost somebody. Sometimes lots of somebodies.
I nodded.
Maybe Hailey wasn't the only one walking around with a chip. In
the scheme of things, my losses were par for the course, at least
here.
I've hated her, spent most of my career in her shadow. Being
compared to her. I wanted to see her shown up, to be better than
her, but damn she's good.
hadn't kicked me in the ass when I needed it, Hailey said, slowly
sliding down the wall, her voice coming from farther and farther
away.
I know where I'd be, I said, nding the bottle now empty and
screwing up my eyes to set it on the oor without upsetting the
papers, She saved my life.
Hailey squinted back at me, You and half of like three galaxies.
Take a number, the eye snapped shut again, I'm not sure some-
CHAPTER 8.
72
THWARTED INTENTIONS
times whether to look up to her or just hit her with a stick and
hide the body.
I followed that rabbit for a bit, thinking about the academic
legend I had worked under for my doctorate. It seemed like there
had been nowhere on Earth to get out from under his...
well, I
Ancient chick that had us for tea and didn't tell us anything?
Hailey paused and seemed to rummage a bit in her head.
I stopped breathing, resisting the urge to put her under a bright
spotlight and throttle her until she got to the point.
Athar, she brought out in triumph, Anyway... she yawned
one last time and sank to the oor, one arm splaying out, I think
maybe... she designed the Goa'uld.