STARGATE: EXPLORER

by Lady Grey
Alpha/Beta by Jude

May 30

The Next Day

Gaia Conference Room

The connection to the council was made right on schedule, and a hologram of the group appeared in the middle of the table in the main conference room on board the ship.

Daniel barely recognized Jack, whose face was covered with a neatly trimmed full beard, his hair gone mostly white and now well past his collar, forelock trimmed into bangs that fell near his eyes. He looked like a mountain man, tanned, lean, and full of energy.

He smiled into the video device and gave a friendly little wave. "Yo, Gaia. Daniel and company. How's tricks?" He barely paused when he leveled Daniel with a stern gaze, his friendly grin vanishing. "You been behavin' yourself, keeping out of the hunt for you-know-who?"

With a sigh of resignation, Daniel nodded. "Strictly archaeological pursuits as ordered, yes," he informed his friend, "and we've made a discovery that the entire Furling nation needs to be made aware of. I see you have their Alpha representatives present, as requested."

Each of the four clans were embodied by at least one member at the table. Tiny Sky Clan were barely visible, hovering near the shoulders of Grass with their s'resh-lights on to make them more easily seen over the holographic connection.

"Of course," Jack returned. "So,” he rubbed his hands together, obviously ready to get down to business, “what's up?"

Carolyn Lam, seated at Daniel's left, answered the question, her gaze shifting to Jarvik, who sat next to her. "We're sending you an upload of information obtained at a Furling colony called Con Thien. We were able to obtain complete records of the project they were working on that inadvertently caused the Ancients to attack them."

She nodded, and Jarvik manipulated the controls on the sleeve of her s'resh to send the data through the conference uplink.

"Oh? That's pretty… significant. Big and honkin', even." Jack glanced at some of the diminutive aliens seated among the humans at the table.

"You have no idea how significant," Daniel agreed. "The biggest 'big' ever!"

Jack's dark eyebrows lifted beneath his shaggy silver bangs. "That's pretty obscure, even for you, Daniel."

"I'm not going to spoil the surprise," Daniel shot back, grinning wider. "This is Doctor Lam's show."

Carolyn chuckled slightly. "This is really the Furlings’ show," she countered. "They ought to be telling this, but they thought it’d be better coming from me, so…" She shrugged and gave Jarvik a pat on the shoulder.

The little Grass Clan healer smiled and bowed her head.

Daniel knew Jarvik had a right to the pride glowing in her elfin face. He still couldn't believe the data he'd seen with his own eyes. So many questions had been answered for him in the past few days, and he’d made so many startling realizations, his head was still swirling with them.  He closed his eyes and just listened, unable to wipe the grin off his face.

"A long time ago," Carolyn began, "four great races met in this galaxy and began to exchange information. Each realized the potential of the others; at first, they celebrated their differences while still seeking ways of understanding each other. We saw this in the aap, the universal language machine that SG-1 found with Doctor Ernest Littlefield. After meeting the Furlings, we learned the aap was their design, a first attempt at bridging the language and culture barriers between the Four Races."

Jack nodded. "This isn't news, Doc."

"Everything in context," she promised, leaning forward slightly. "I have to start at the beginning, or the rest of the story won't make sense."

The General sat back in his chair. "Go on."

"At this point, the Asgard had already committed themselves to cloning as the only approved method of reproduction," she added. "They were great geneticists, but with limited imagination. The Asgard focused on cleaning out the complications of gender behaviors from their species, but didn't look far enough ahead to see that this would be a genetic dead-end for them. By the time they realized that, they were on their way to extinction."

She stared into the video capture device at the center of the hologram on the table. "The Furlings wanted to help, so they began experimenting with a way to bring gender back into Asgard DNA. They found volunteers among their own people who agreed to have their DNA manipulated for the sake of their alien allies, and the DNA re-sequencers were built."

"I thought that was so they could adapt to different alien environments?" asked Doctor Lee from the hologram.

"So did we, at first," Carolyn agreed, nodding, "but I kept coming back to the presence of the null genders in the Furling population. What possible biological purpose could they serve, since they’re incapable of reproduction?"

She held up her hands, palms outward. "But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself here."

"I'm dyin' to see where this is going," Jack added, his voice edged with sarcasm. He looked a little bored, his chin now propped in his hand, elbow on the table, doodling on a pad with his pen.

"Buckle your seat belt, Jack," Daniel advised lightly. He glanced at Doctor Lam and nodded for her to continue.

"The Furlings combined their own DNA with that of the Asgard," she announced. "Their eyes became bigger. Their pupils changed shape. Their noses got smaller, and so did their bodies. That's when they got the bright idea to use the re-sequencers to help them adapt to planetary conditions; doing that marked the origin of the four Clans, but that was just another step in an incredibly complex biological puzzle that has only recently been completed." 

At the Alpha conference table, Furlings began to speak softly to each other in their native dialects. They were concerned where these ideas were headed, yet anticipation was high. Daniel understood their comments, and waited with Carolyn for their discussion to finish.

"Please, listen to Doctor Lam," Scout admonished them from Daniel's right. "Your questions will be answered, as ours have been."

Silence fell on the other end of the wormhole transmission, and all eyes returned to the video device.

"There's a gap in the research history," Carolyn told them. "Some of the machine memory was degraded, so we don't know exactly where the original specimens originated, whether they were created in a Furling laboratory or were the result of some incredibly artistic and detailed gene manipulation, but… from the data we examined at Con Thien, it seems the Furlings concept of a universal means of communication between the Four Races was carried from ideological concept to an actual physical bridge between species."

Dr. Lam beamed. "They created us, General O'Neill. The human race."

The reaction at Alpha was instantly animated and riotous. Human scientists and Furlings alike were dynamic in their discussion, which became louder by the moment. Some stood up, hands waving as they sought to make points, deny, laugh, argue.

Scout barked an order, a single word in the Forest dialect.

Instantly, the Furlings at Alpha hushed and resumed their seats, attention directed at the camera.

The humans took a little longer.

Jack stood up and steered the Alpha council back to their chairs, demanding quiet. When decorum had been restored, he returned to his seat and eyed the Gaia connection. "You got proof of this?"

Carolyn nodded. "Yes, Sir. It's in our genes." She leaned over to Jarvik and whispered in her ear, then straightened up, pointing to new holograms rising up from the projector on the conference table, mirrored at the Alpha site.

"These are several human DNA samples from our database. I've highlighted key areas on each sample that are markers from each of the Four Races. We all have them; they just hadn't been identified until now. Some genes are active and responsible for specific physical attributes. Others are inactive, but still present. They're present in every human DNA sample I've examined, without exception."

"But…" Jack's eyebrows darted downward in resistance and confusion, "Daniel didn't have the Ancient gene Doctor Beckett discovered. He couldn't activate any of the devices."

"His is switched off," Carolyn explained, "but still present. Our electron microscopes weren't capable of locating the inactive marker, but the Furling analyzers clearly show--" She pointed at Daniel's sample.

"So that whole Adam and Eve thing is wrong?" Jack looked doubtful. 

Scout waded in for the theological discussion. "I've read your Bible," he announced quietly, "and this history could still be accurate. I believe our Creator may well be the same as the One mentioned in your Christian doctrines. If our el, the one you call God, created my Furling ancestors in the image of the Divine, and then we went on to create humans, can it not also be said that God fashioned your species, using us as a tool?"

Jack shook his head. "Kinda boggles the mind," he returned, turning his gaze to his old friend. "You sure about this?"

Daniel held up his hands. "The Furlings who died at Con Thien told us where to look," he told Jack. "I didn't understand at first, but you'll find it in the data burst we sent you at the beginning of this meeting. There's a recording of Grass Clan scientists who were working on the project, under attack by the Ancients. One of the geneticists makes this hand sign,” he demonstrated, his right hand in an inverted "peace" sign, his left making the American Sign Language symbol for the letter 'o', backs of his hands touching, “while declaring that the data they were working on was protected."

"And this means..." O'Neill shrugged.

"Look at it, Jack!" Daniel told him, smiling softly, holding his hands higher. "It's the stargate symbol for Earth."

"I don't know," Jack returned with a slight shake of his head. "That seems like an awful big leap."

"Verification is in the files we uploaded to you," Carolyn promised. "Every detail of the process, beginning to end, except for that one little gap." She flashed a secretive half-smile.

“And then there's this.” Carolyn turned to Jarvik with additional instruction, and the Furling opened up a hologram of the pyramid crystal Daniel had found in the second set of ruins the Gaia team had explored. "The first time we examined this artifact, the only image we thought it contained was the DNA helix for Virus A," she stated. "Daniel found another encryption in it that unlocked five other data points. Very important ones."

An image of the pyramid appeared on the table beside the hologram of the Alpha council. The lines of the clear crystal were inscribed with light, gleaming and beautiful, straight planes with sharp edges glinting with the colors of the spectrum. Inside the heart of the crystal, a single helix rotated slowly.

Daniel stared at the three-dimensional picture as he spoke. "Remember when I found the key to the stargate glyphs, Jack? Six points in space, with a seventh determining the point of origin. I drew a funny little cube to illustrate the concept for General West and all the other brass, including you."

"Yes, I remember." Jack's voice was low and calm. "Seems like a lifetime ago."

"I didn't think about it at first, but there had to be a reason for the choice of the pyramid shape for the crystal," Daniel mused, "otherwise, the Furlings would have chosen a sphere to store the DNA data for the virus. The pyramid has four corners on the base, one for each of the Four Races. Follow the lines upward, and they all merge into a single point at the top. Four points become one, with the aid of the converter at the center."

Daniel huffed an amazed little laugh. "We're the Fifth Race, Jack. The Asgard told us that a long time ago; They just didn't tell us what it meant. Our destiny is to become the bridge between the greatest races in the galaxy."

"What about the virus?" asked Doctor Lee. "Where did it come from? Why were the Furlings studying it?"

"They created it," Carolyn verified, her voice edged with sadness. "They were working on a cure as part of the development process when the Nox interfered. It wasn't supposed to be released until the remedy had been produced and verified." She sighed. "The virus acts as a catalyst, changing only a tiny fraction of the DNA of infected individuals. It's designed to broaden the recognition coding on the protein coating of haploid cells -- that's sperm and egg cells, in layman's terms -- so that interbreeding between species would be possible."

"And why would we want that?" asked Jack.

She grinned. "Don’t you see, sir?  The Nox don't have to die out. The survivors of Earth don't need a genetic lottery, or enforced breeding, or any of the other unpalatable options we've discussed. We can produce offspring with both the Furlings and the Nox, and they with us."

"That's the point of all this," Daniel interjected. "They were trying to build common ground for the Four Races. That's why they developed the aap on Ernest's planet. Becoming a single race -- for the Furlings, that was the key to understanding the other three races -- to become them."

"Well." Jack turned to eye Doctor Warner. "I guess that explains it."

Alpha's Chief Medical Officer was grinning from ear to ear and nodding. "I guess the hell!" Warner chuckled as he turned to face the Gaia link. "We had an unexpected pregnancy reported yesterday and have been trying to figure out… um, how it happened. The woman swore she hadn't been intimate with any of the men on base, wasn't on the lottery list, but the test was absolutely positive. I guess we were just looking in the wrong population for the father. Nobody suspected one of the Furlings might be responsible. We hadn't even considered the idea, because they're so biologically different from us." 

"I've begun to suspect anything is possible, with them," Daniel murmured.

"You've given us a lot to think about," Jack stated, leaning back pensively in his chair now, fingers interlaced over his flat belly. "We've had some things going on here, too. The results of the recently-held elections are now official, and thank you for sending in your votes. I'm officially retiring in a couple of weeks, when I hand off command of Alpha to our new Chief here.” Jack nodded at Sergeant Harriman, who smiled and ducked his head slightly.

A ripple of congratulations sounded on both sides of the wormhole connection.

Daniel glanced at Colonel MacFarland, sitting across the table from him. "Rose has told us she's being recalled to serve on the Cabinet." He stood up and reached over to shake her hand. "I'll miss you, but I know you'll do great things on Alpha," he told her warmly.

"Thanks, Dan'l." She winked at him. "Y'make a great cheerleader, son."

"And as soon as I get done here," Jack continued, "I'd like to pay a visit to Gaia, if that's okay with the Captain, and take 'er for a spin, see a bit of the galaxy."

"We would be honored to have you among us, General O'Neill," said the Mountain Clan commander.

"I'll let you know when to expect me, then, and you can send me coordinates when it's time." Jack glanced around the table at the council members and their Furling guests. "Anybody else got anything, or is this enough to keep our heads spinning for a while?"

After a brief discussion, the meeting drew to an excited close, with a promise to come together again soon for more Q&A.

Daniel felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment settle over him. Important questions had been answered for him over the last few days, and any lingering doubts about the Furlings had vanished. Soon he would say farewell to his new friend, Rose, and welcome two old teammates aboard Gaia. Teal'c would also be returning to the ship soon, at the invitation of the Furlings, reuniting the majority of SG-1 again.

The thought of their reunion lifted his spirits. He felt Sam's loss keenly, but it would be great to have most of the old gang back together. A flutter of hope was brushed quickly aside, but returned forcefully to cling to his heart.

Maybe, just maybe, if Jack and Teal'c were with him, he might be able to return to the hunt for Zeus, and finally have a chance at justice for Earth.

June 12

Two Weeks Later

Gaia Transporter Room

"Greetings, O'Neill," said Teal'c from beside the shipboard stargate ramp. "It is good to see you again."

"T! Buddy! Been a long time." Jack gave the Jaffa a quick, back-slapping hug, then reached out to do the same to Daniel. "You been behavin’ yourself, Daniel?" He dropped a large duffel bag on the floor and slipped a backpack from his shoulders as he glanced around the spacious arrival center. "Nice place. Sparkly." 

Daniel grinned. "The Furlings don't do anything halfway." He reached down and took the duffel bag, hoisting it over his shoulder while the official introductions were made.

Jack shook hands with Captain, his officers, and Scout, congratulated Rose on her new position, and stepped aside as an outgoing wormhole was established that would take her back to Alpha.

"I'll see you soon," Daniel promised her, enveloping her in a firm, affectionate hug.

She gave him a crooked smile. "I'll believe that when I see you comin'," she shot back playfully, her arms tightening about his waist. "Damn sure better write to me, or send me video messages or somethin', though. Promise?"

"I promise." He leaned in and whispered where only she could hear, "Thanks for watching my six. I know I don't make that an easy job for anybody." 

She patted his cheek with one hand and gave him a warm smile. "You're like a son to me, Dan'l. I'm sure that's just what Jack intended. You take care out there, ya hear?"  

"Yes, ma'am," he promised, "and I will come see you, soon as I can."

She just nodded, turned away, and walked into the rippling blue of the event horizon without a backward glance.

Daniel aimed a fixed smile at Jack, glad to see him again, but feeling more than a little awkward at their changed circumstances. O'Neill was no longer his commander, and he wasn't a civilian consultant attached to the military. If anything, Daniel was more in charge, and Jack was an observer. "Let's get your gear stowed away, and I'll give you the grand tour. Then we can have a little chat about a few things."

"Uh-oh," Jack deadpanned. "Do I need a seat belt for this, too?"

"Probably wouldn't hurt. C'mon. Let's get you settled."

"Lead the way, Daniel. It's your ship, after all."

Laboratory Fourteen

Daniel took a deep breath, his guts clenching as he led the way into the room, with Jack, Teal'c and Scout right behind him.

"This is my workshop," Daniel told them with an expansive gesture.

Jack moseyed over to the counter in the middle of the small room, studying the object sitting on top. "And what sort of toys do you build here, Santa?" he inquired lightly, but it was obvious by the intensity of his gaze that he recognized the small machine.

"You know what that is," Daniel answered, glancing at Teal'c's face as the Jaffa approached the workbench. "This room is in a different… um, area of space, if you will, so we can keep its contents protected. If it works as planned, and I'm pretty confident it will, then we'll have nothing to fear from the Ori, ever again."

"They have a new Supergate," Jack observed, gaze still on the machine, hands in his pockets. "Maybe we can christen it for 'em."

Daniel shook his head. "This machine is a slightly different design," he said softly. "Merlin's device was engineered to destroy the Ascended. This one…" He smiled. "I had something else in mind for them."

Jack picked up an elegantly detailed screwdriver with a tempered cobalt blue glass handle trimmed in silver. "I'm listening," he said absently, then set the tool back on the counter and made eye contact.

"The Ancients -- and presumably, the Ori, too -- ascended in order to escape certain death," Daniel told his friends. "The Furlings now have a cure for the plague that was killing them. There's no reason they can't return to the mortal plane now, and finish out their lives like everyone else, is there?"

Jack's dark eyes flickered with understanding as his imagination led him to a startling conclusion. "You're going to manually descend them with this thing?"

"Yes."

O'Neill's eyebrows lifted. "Gentlemen, I think this calls for a beer. Maybe a whole keg." He glanced at the elder, standing at Daniel's side. "You folks do have beer, don't you?"

Daniel cleared his throat. "Actually, no, Jack. They don't drink. Alcohol kills brain cells."

"Well, crap. I knew there was somethin’ about 'em that bothered me." Jack stuck his hands into his pockets and pulled a frown. "So what do you folks do to let your hair down?"

el-Mikha opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, Daniel cleared his throat loudly and hurried over to Jack.  "You really don't wanna know."  He towed him toward the door by one elbow. "Let's get something to eat," he suggested.

Jack let the remark pass and called over his shoulder to the others, "You guys comin'?"

Hoping Mikha would keep his mouth shut and not take the opportunity to educate his human audience for once, Daniel glanced over his shoulder at the elder.

Teal'c studied Scout with one eyebrow lifted. "Indeed." He gestured toward the door, respectfully allowing the Furling to precede him.

"Permission to enter," called Scout from the open doorway of Jack's new quarters a few hours later.

"I'll never get used to not having doors," Jack confessed. "C'mon in, Scout.” He waved the alien into his foyer.  “Take a load off." He set a small stack of metal picture frames on a low table, watching while his guest entered.

"I won't stay long," the elder declared cordially. "You seemed to want to speak to me privately. Did I read your body language correctly? I'm still learning human gestures and expressions, but many are very similar to the People's."

Jack nodded. "Yep. Thought we might have a chat about Daniel. How's he been lately? Doc Lam says he's not showin' signs of the telekinesis or lightnin’ shooting out his fingers anymore."

Scout nodded. "He’s achieved control of those abilities, though it was a difficult ordeal for him. Why do you ask me, and not Daniel himself?"

One by one, Jack opened the stands on the backs of the picture frames and set them up along the rear edge of the table. "You're the one he spends the most time with," Jack stated, avoiding the elder's eyes. "You'd know best what his state of mind is, and frankly, whenever I ask Daniel himself, his pat response is always, 'I'm fine.' Figured if I wanted to know what was what, I should check with someone close to him."

"Daniel's been through a great deal of trauma," Scout observed, clasping his hands behind his back, his expression cool, unflappable. "He's adjusting very well and is a functioning member of our society. He has tremendous reserves of strength, no doubt due to the many obstacles he's had to overcome in his lifetime."

"You care about him," Jack assessed, making a final adjustment to a photo of Charlie, his late son, and straightening up to meet his guest's eyes. "Well, so do I." He put his hands on his hips.

The elder tilted his head and flashed a half-smile. "Is this a…" Scout's left hand made a few small circles in the air as he searched for the proper slang term. "I can't remember the phrase. Something about bodily waste and competition."

"Pissing contest?" Jack shook his head. "No. I just wanna make sure the Furlings have his best interests at heart."

"We do." Scout's humor faded. His amber eyes gleamed, his dark green eyebrows dipping lower. "In fact, we've been waiting for the right time to speak with you regarding Daniel's clearance to pursue Zeus.

“We have information on the Goa'uld's location. The People are following him now, but we haven't reported his location to Alpha, because we thought his capture and punishment should rightly belong to Daniel. Do you agree?"

Jack knew what Scout was asking. He quickly weighed and measured and considered, then made his decision. "Yes," he said softly. "Let's go get the son of a bitch. It's what Daniel needs. Maybe it'll give him some peace."

"Arriving at Zeus’ location will take us some time," Scout informed him. "If he moves elsewhere, we'll have to adjust our course, but eventually, we'll intercept him. There is no place he can go where we won't find him."

"Then consider Daniel un-grounded."

"Done." Scout gave him a slight bow, a gesture of respect from one elder to another. "Is there anything else we can offer that will make you more comfortable, General?"

"Just Jack. And unless you folks can whip up some beer, I think I'm good."

"I'll see what I can do about the beer.” The alien chuckled.  “Welcome to Gaia, Jack." He turned and left with silent steps.

For a moment, Jack just stared at the doorway, thinking about their conversation. So damned much had happened over the past eleven months. Few things still had the ability to make his insides knot up, but the thought of Daniel facing off with Zeus was one of them. He didn't know what seeing the Goa'uld up close and personal would do to his friend, or how Daniel might react when he finally laid eyes on the asshole who had destroyed his world, his civilization, almost everything and everyone he held dear.

It might send Daniel over the edge.

It might also free him from the incredible burden he'd been carrying for almost a year.

There was no way to tell which way fate would take him, a flip of the coin either way, but Jack knew pursuing Zeus was something Daniel had to do. Jack would be right beside him, ready to pick up the pieces, if necessary. Either way, it would put an end to the matter once and for all, and that was an absolute must.

Justice or revenge would plot their course through the stars, and in short order, Jack would know which way the winds would be blowing.

End Chapter 35
 

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