STARGATE: EXPLORER

by Lady Grey
Alpha/Beta by Jude

August 24

The Next Day

The visitor's body was burning with fever.  He lay keening in agonized delirium, with several members of Grass and Sky Clans watching him, and waiting.

“He has a benevolent nature,” Claire declared firmly, hovering above the bed in the faint early morning light. “He is kind and did not hesitate to rescue another, even though he had been injured himself.  Our test was successful.”

“Is brave,” agreed Hunter, stroking his beard thoughtfully with finger and thumb.  “Wait and see.  Will sacrifice himself.”  He crossed his arms over his chest and lifted his chin in satisfied self-assurance. 

“He will have to heal before he goes further,” said Jack, alighting on the edge of the bed. He leaned wearily against Claire, making no effort to stifle a huge yawn.

“You were not supposed to warn him,” the lavender-haired one reminded her subordinate with a frown, nudging him with her elbow. “We were to watch his reaction to another in danger, not to interfere.”

Jack sat upright and shot her a glare. He crossed his arms over his chest, but made no retort.

“Sh’khan would have taken our visitor's head off,” countered Hunter in a low mumble.  “Is good this one helped,” he gestured toward Jack, “but should have lured smaller adversary.”

“We are at the edge of the grasslands,” Lapis pointed out with a wave of her hand toward the direction they had come. “Not many predatory creatures overlap the lands between Sky and Grass, and the sh’khan was the best we could do on short notice. Perhaps Forest will have better luck, when we reach their territory.”

“No need to see him fight more animals,” Hunter shot back emphatically as he shook his head and waved one hand dismissively. “Need to see reaction to conflict, how he choose sides. This will tell us much.”

“Agreed,” said Claire. She nodded at Jack, who prepared to begin the nightly scan of the visitor’s memories.

He moved to stand near the top of Daniel's head, balanced on the framework of the makeshift bed, and extended his arms, activating the controls in his black s'resh uniform.  Once an alpha state had been induced and was being maintained in Daniel, Jack monitored the alpha cycle and initiated a brainwave scan, feeding it into the system and downloading the data into the proper catalog for study and storage.

Daniel’s early memories had been reviewed, and now those with the highest emotional resonance were to be sought out and examined. The analysis was conducted at advanced speed until the images were verified as significant. Claire ran the first one back at slightly faster than real time on the inside of her visor, describing to Grass the events as they unfolded. Her voice changed from factual reporting to breathless wonder as she finished the narrative.

With trembling fingers, she opened up her helmet and made brief eye contact with the larger alien. Then all eyes turned to regard the stranger as he lay shivering and whimpering in his feverish dreams.

For a long time, no one spoke.

“This changes everything,” Claire declared gravely. She turned her attention to the elder from Grass Clan. “Have we heard from the Council?”

“Soon,” Hunter stated with certainty. He eyed his patient, who was trembling and pale beneath the blankets they had put over him. “He must drink more taimin tea now. Everyone help. We must not lose him.”

Roused to semi-consciousness, a delirious Daniel tried to shake them off as they propped him into a sitting position. He jerked away from their touch, complaining and whining in his own language, but Claire spoke softly into his ear, offering comforting words, while Hunter stroked his hair and gently poured the brew into his mouth, a few drops at a time.

Getting the vile liquid down required some time, but they were a very patient people.  They had learned to wait for generations, the price they had paid for the trust and passion of their past.

Perhaps soon, their exile would be over.

Two Hours Later

Three of the elders sat in the Council chamber, watching the playback of the latest of their visitor's holographically recorded memories.

"This is unexpected," observed the Sky elder. She turned wide turquoise eyes up to the senior member of their group. "What does it mean?"

The Mountain elder's gaze did not waver from the images radiating with light in the center of their circle. He waved a hand over the controls, running the second event back a little, then starting it up again. "We should make ready for a great journey," he rumbled quietly.

Seen through their visitor’s perspective, they found themselves looking into the large, intense, blue eyes of a golden-haired female of a similar mold to the one called Daniel Jackson. He and she were engaged in a conflict, though at the moment they both stood still, just staring at each other. The female wore the face of a familiar friend, but he did not allow the affection he felt for the original affect his feelings about the duplicate, for this one was his enemy. She was not human, as he was, but had been made to look like someone he knew. This being was a machine, and the battle between them was taking place inside him, in his mind.

He pushed and strained at the direct force she applied, while a small, subtle part of him wormed its way into her consciousness, searching for a key. 

"Gotcha!" he whispered harshly at the moment of triumph.

She knew instantly that she'd been beaten. Furious, her arm formed into a sharp, pointed blade, and she thrust it into him, piercing his heart. He crumpled to the floor, his victory complete, his sacrifice made willingly.

This conflict had not been about power, or about winning for the sake of conquest. It had been about saving others, giving his friends time to take the actions necessary to vanquish a dangerous, deadly enemy, one that threatened all life in the galaxy.

He’d given his life to save billions of others, staring his enemy down, looking his own death in the eye and acutely aware of the price he would pay before the battle had even begun.

Then, at the last moment, as he lay dying on the floor, his body disappeared in a flash of light.

Mountain held the image there, thinking about what he'd seen.

"This one has an important destiny," the Forest elder observed, a note of wonder in his voice. "To have been offered such power and then to relinquish it speaks greatly about his character."

"He has given his life many times," agreed Sky. "He thinks nothing of sacrificing himself, if it is for the good of others.”  She cocked her head, studying Mountain.  "Yet he loves life and learning.  Perhaps our veil of tears may finally be lifted."

"Or perhaps they are just beginning," he returned sagely. "With great destiny comes greater sacrifice. Are the People truly prepared for such a journey?"

Forest straightened, lifting his chin. "We have been preparing for millennia, friend. We are ready."

Mountain met his steady gaze, eyes narrowing. "This path will return us to our past, and lead us to our future. The quest will be a terrible one, filled with danger and death. It is ironic that this journey should be guided by one who is not of the People."

"The weight of an entire race is a heavy burden for one being to carry," Sky cautioned with a sorrowful sigh as she gazed down at the frozen image, "especially when he has carried so much already."

"If we do not tell him," Forest suggested sympathetically, "perhaps he will not notice the extra burden on his soul."

Mountain ran through the images one more time, for the benefit of the Council. The human had once suffered a violent, agonizing death through radiation poisoning, in order to save the lives of an entire world, a people he barely knew, fully cognizant of the consequences of his actions as he did so. Years later, he had fought the one-on-one battle for control of a tide of alien machines, stopping them just long enough for a weapon to be activated that would destroy them, once again ensuring the safety of countless other lives at the cost of his own.

He had suffered other deaths as well, but these two were most significant to the People. With these, he had shed his body and become light. This was a great warrior, indeed; one filled with cosmic purpose. It was the People's duty to offer him aid.

The decision of the three elders was unanimous; they would befriend him and support him in his quest, whatever that might be, for his footsteps would shake the cosmos.

Sky turned off the recording. "I will carry a message to Grass, instructing him to bring our new friend to the city of Shahr."

"I will make a place ready for him when he arrives," volunteered Mountain, "and see to it that preparations for the journey are made in Ahmega."

"I will meet the travelers and guide them here," Forest added. "He will be welcomed among us as one of our own." The elder paused, head cocked, thinking. Then his lips curled as he asked the others, "Should he be given the jing? Only the greatest among the People are allowed that privilege."

"Perhaps the jing might keep him with us longer," suggested Sky. "If we are in agreement, I will carry it to him."

"It shall be done, by and for the People, and also for the All," said Mountain gravely with a nod of agreement.  "And so it begins." 

The elders vanished from the council chamber, and one by one they departed on their various missions to make the one called Daniel Jackson at home among them.

End Chapter 9

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