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NOTES : Set in Cordwainer Smith's Rediscovery of Man era. Consider what might be if SG-1 should one day travel far into the future. The first section is a fictional introduction for those not familiar with Cordwainer Smith. The second section is the ballad of C'mell and Teal'c.
Time had just begun when man had first gone from sailing to flying across the oceans of ancient Earth. Mankind was still in its infancy as thought turned from conquering the seas, from conquering the skies, to dreaming of conquering the vast gulfs of space. A small stepping stone on that journey was the discovery of the Stargate and the existence of other worlds, other civilizations, other races bent on conquering space for themselves.
Yet first amongst the alien defenders of Mankind's home world was the one named Teal'c. Together, he and three humans traveled the galaxy, journeying through space and even time, once even to Mankind's distant future.
Those tens of thousands of years later, Mankind had stopped dreaming of what it could be; if, indeed, Mankind dreamed at all. There was little left that hadn't already been done. And, in truth, much that was considered to be new was only the rediscovery of that which had been forgotten many times before. Mankind had evolved and grown stale; had evolved and grown stagnant; had evolved only to think of what might have been but lacking the courage to seek out what yet may be.
Mankind had fought battles and waged war against itself, against space, against even the unknown. It had challenged itself, it had changed itself, and all too frequently it had transformed its worlds and all the creatures that lived on them; not for any great reason or purpose, but simply because it could be done.
Most if not all of its many and glorious achievements were lost on those to whom it should matter the most: Mankind, itself. It had grown weary of perfection, it was tired of homogeneity; everything was uniform, emotions were marshaled, thinking was controlled. There was freedom but no one was free; there was everything but spontaneity.
So it was that there came the time when Mankind would have it all again.
The past was remembered, re-imagined. Mankind was imprinted once more with desire. Individual nations were re-established, languages recreated. But more than that, individual man himself was reborn with hopes and fears and dreams and ambitions.
This was the era of The Rediscovery of Man.
And of all those that lived, there were but a very small few who knew the complexities of Mankind and those that lived with him. And of those few there were but two who understood: there was the one whose name must not be said or even thought; and there was the other, the Lord Jestocost, a Lord of the Instrumentality that ruled all Earth and wherever Mankind dwelt.
And of those who knew, perhaps the most well known and the most modest of them was the underperson C'mell...
Her name was C'mell,
for that was her nature.
Bright and beautiful she was,
with flame-red hair and creamy
complexion;
light on her feet with grace and poise she was,
with the
guile to steal the heart of a man,
with the smile to reveal the
contempt of a woman.
As blithe and
mysterious as any cat
that ever did walk, she was.
As beguiling and
bewitching as any girl
that ever did beckon, she was.
And the life
and the love of the lord Jestocost she was,
though such was
forbidden.
And neither did know nor ever discover
that she in return
never did hope
to love any other.
But then came one who perplexed and bemused her,
who charmed and
confused her;
whose name she did hear and thought she could love,
whose name she did read and knew was beyond her.
The C, you see, in C'mell stands for cat.
For that was the nature of the wondrous C'mell.
Mankind had evolved and so had their pets.
Not, of course, by any
natural selection,
but by the tinkering and tailoring
of what was
inside them.
They grew and were grown to help and to serve;
to be
friends and companions, to be workers and slaves.
C'mell was a cat grown to seem human,
to talk and to walk, to greet
and to meet,
to give and to live that Mankind might reason.
And
reason they did, but before then, one day,
from the center of nowhere
the strange creature came.
His name was Teal'c, which was wrong as you see:
not after the T was
the apostrophe.
Yet so strong and so tall and ferocious was he,
that
the T stood for tiger; obviously.
Straight away, naturally, C'mell fell in love.
Yet as they did talk,
it soon became clear
that he was not T, instead was he L.
And for
C'mell a lion of great courage and heart
was more than she dreamed
of, even right from the start.
And as they did wander and as they did
roam,
her thoughts turned to family, to happiness and home.
And while she enjoyed his good company,
in truth his name did end
with a C.
Perhaps he was cat, and all could be well;
if only she was
simple and unable to spell.
And then she did fear that her reason was
treason;
true human he wasn't, but never together could ever they be.
And when he had gone, she thought of him still.
Not tiger, not lion,
but more than a man,
there was no doubting that.
From the back to the
front of him
- at least for C'mell -
Teal'c was all cat.