TITLE: A Meeting of Minds
AUTHOR: Bruni and Maddie
CATEGORY: Gen/ tag/missing scene
SPOILERS: The Curse
SEASON / SEQUEL: Season Four
RATING: G
CONTENT WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: Two people meet under unusual circumstances, and the meeting changes the life of one of them forever.
STATUS: Complete
DISCLAIMER: The characters are the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. We have written this story for entertainment purposes only and no money whatsoever has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the authors. Not to be archived without permission of the authors.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: We felt this has been largely overlooked and needs to be told.
FEEDBACK: Yes, please. We welcome any kind of feedback.
A MEETING OF MINDS
Egyptology was my life - until I met him.
All my life, ever since I can remember, I always wanted to be an archaeologist. More than that- I didn't just want to be any kind of archaeologist; I wanted to become an Egyptologist - the best in the world. I wanted to make people look up to me, admire my findings, acknowledge my expertise.
Until I met him. He changed all that.
At school the other kids used to laugh at me. They had great fun hiding my precious books, disturbing the little expeditions I used to make in the neighbourhood, destroying my small hoard of artefacts. To them, I was strange. I was a geek.
It was only at the university that I thought I'd finally found my place. For the first time I belonged - Dr Jordan and his prime students, the infamous trio: Steven Rayner, Sarah Gardner and Daniel Jackson. People still laughed. But they laughed at *us*, at our preoccupation with the past, at our single-minded determination to reveal every last secret of ancient Egypt. We spent every waking moment together - and some of the others, too. The three dirt-busters. The three Egypteers.
I thought it was the best time of my life.
Then it all changed. Again I was nothing. My opinion didn't count for squat. Dr Jordan turned all his attentions to Steven and my career hit a dead-end.
Until things changed again - when *he* entered my life.
I marvel at his strength, at the knowledge he possesses and is willing to share. I glory in the power he wields -- the power he is giving to me.
Finally!
Finally people are going to notice Sarah Gardner.
* * *
All around the ship there was the cold, black emptiness of space. Inside the ship it was cold, too. *He* was cold.... and weary. It had been a long time.
Slowly he sank into the cushioned seat, rubbing at his eyes, trying to chase away the ache in his head. Each movement, each jolt of the vehicle carrying him to safety, reverberated through the pounding in his skull, making him wince. He couldn't shake off the sluggishness that weighed his limbs and made him feel as though he was dragging himself through quicksand. The sensation was not new. He'd felt like this before. More than once. And he was grateful he did not have to control the vessel. It would be several hours before he was uninhibited and able to function at peak efficiency. Yet there was already one thing he was certain of: The Tau'ri would pay for everything. They would get to feel the full fury of his wrath, ruing the day they had dared turn away from their rightful gods. *Later*.
Prying open his eyes, he stared dully into the communications globe at his side, and was stunned again by the loveliness of the face that stared back at him. Even through his drugged haze, he did not fail to appreciate the sheer beauty of the creature who was now his host. This was an odd turn of events. He had always thought of himself as pure male and had never dallied with gender switching as some of his companions had. This was a host he would have gladly chosen for his mate, but time and circumstances had not allowed that luxury. Looking down at the long slender body of his new host, he was certainly appreciative of her attributes - a thought that resulted in an tremulous giggle from Sarah's throat.
"I'm flattered," she said. Her voice sounded slurred and uncertain. "Oh, god, what did he shoot us with. I haven't been this plastered since undergrad school."
It took him no more than a fraction of a second to access her memory and find the meaning of the unfamiliar phrases she had used; but then it was his turn to laugh, though the situation was anything but laughable. 'I will explain when we are both sober. For now we must make sure our escape was successful. There will be time for vengeance later. We must gather our wits. I will direct you. You will determine our course."
"Just don't make it too complicated. I think I might be space sick." she answered.
Her remark elicited another small display of mirth.
* * *
He laughed, Osiris actually laughed out loud at me - and I am not angry. I don't even mind being both the cause for his amusement and at the same time the instrument of expressing it. Though it sure feels funny.
He thinks I'm attractive. I told him I was flattered - and I *am*. He means it, that much I can feel clearly. I don't think there is a way he can hide his feelings or his thoughts - at least I'm pretty sure he can't hide anything from me. Just as all my thoughts lie open to his mind.
His brilliant, strong and powerful mind.
The blending - as he calls it - has brought me all that I have ever craved to know and possess. Through him I now have access to an immense, bottomless fountain of knowledge. He is enormously old and incredibly alien, and the confrontation with the sum of all that he represents still threatens to overwhelm me occasionally. I think I will need a bit to fully adjust to the turn that my life has suddenly taken, though I can't say I'd want to undo this strange kind of union. Already I have won too much through it.
His is the mind of a being used to ruling. Used to absolute and unquestioned power and obedience. Once he was Osiris - the first and mightiest in the Egyptian pantheon - and the simple people of ancient Egypt went onto their knees and prayed to him. Even the other 'gods' bowed their heads to him. Gods that he calls 'the Goa'uld', his race - a race of parasites which can't exist without a host. His 'people', it seems, always choose their hosts from the very best. Osiris chose me. Not that he had much of a choice at the time.
Dimly, I can still feel the shock of our first encounter.
It was already late in the afternoon, and Professor Jordan was on his way to the lab, to have the enigmatic Osiris jar scanned. The stubborn old man hadn't wanted to open the artifact. It was against the wishes of the Egyptian government, he said - and once he had made up his mind, nothing would ever shake him. He would never bend the rules, let alone consider breaking them. A careful scan was all he was willing to carry out.
As if a lousy resonance picture would reveal anything of importance.
I knew if Steven hadn't been able to change Professor Jordan's mind, then the old man certainly wouldn't listen to me. But I wanted to know what was inside the jar. Wrong, it wasn't a case of wanting to know - I *had* to know. Somehow the ancient jar was exerting an unmistakable pull on me. I *would* find out what was inside - with or without Professor Jordan's cooperation. Too much might depend on it. I think I was the only one who had seen the report on dating the jar. That seemingly simple burial pot was *10,000 years* old. Whatever might be inside could be the key to re-writing a large part of the past. With any luck it would be my hand which held the pen - my way to the top.
In the end it had been without his assistance - and the professor had lost his life in the process.
I have no clear memory of the exact events of the night and of how Jordan died; all I can remember is breaking the seal of the jar, prying its lid open and looking inside. A strange odor assailed my nerves and a curious liquid trickled out, running over my shaking hands. Next a feeling of enormous surprise followed as something jumped out at me, an impression that was almost immediately replaced by excruciating pain as that same something attacked me, entered my body and took over my mind. An alien elation combined with a mind-blowing surge of power flooded my consciousness, both frightening in their intensity, and yet at the same time welcome.
The rest is blurred, but when *I* surfaced again, hours had gone by and I was at home, with no recollection of how I got there.
But I was no longer alone...or powerless.
In the space of those few lost hours, every archaeologist's dream had come true for me. I had found a living witness to a part of earth's history that nobody even suspected existed --
- well, maybe not exactly *nobody*.
* * *
"You still have feelings for this Daniel, don't you? Even after what he did to us." He abruptly broke into her musings with his statement.
Despite its age, the small ship was still smoothly making its way to the destination he had chosen from memory. It was an old stronghold of his, far away from the well-used routes, a place where they could recoup and plan their next steps. He needed rest, information, allies, troops and a strategy - in that order. Which meant that now was the best time to get more acquainted with this new host of his, and to think over all that they had learned from her archaeologist friend.
"Daniel?" she asked sleepily.
"Yes", he prodded with uncharacteristic gentleness. "Remember him. And I will learn from your memories."
* * *
Less than twenty minutes later she was asleep at last. He was grateful for that. She needed rest and he found her current state distracting. The drug used to subdue them apparently had a more lasting effect on his host's body than his own, and despite her attempts to control it, she had developed the tendency to giggle. It also made her mind very pliant, and he had easily guided her to the memories he required. Now, he needed to think, uninhibited by the chaotic remnants of her consciousness. Not that he found her annoying. On the contrary, he was curiously attracted to his new host. Yes, despite the fact that she was female, this union had amazing potential. Never had he felt so comfortable with a host so quickly. Granted, he had always chosen his hosts with care, concerned not so much with physical perfection, but with mental compatibility. He had watched far too many of his fellow Goa'uld struggle to subdue a reluctant, and recalcitrant host, simply because they found the external vessel attractive. One lesson he had learned during his 'previous life' was that the external vessel meant little.
He stirred slightly, the memory of his imprisonment a potent poison eating an acrid hole in his self control. The rage he felt at being violated, ripped from his host, imprisoned in a drugged and mindless haze for millennia created a whirlwind of emotion that threatened to suck him into a vortex of mindless vengeance. This affront would be dealt with, he thought, imagining the relentless force of the blow he would strike at the Tau'ri.
He was startled by the violent cry that escaped his sleeping host. She stirred, as though gripped in a nightmare, and he quickly reigned in his emotions, not wishing her to awaken just yet.
He wished to sift through the information he had accumulated, order his thoughts, plot his revenge.
This Tau'ri Daniel. Somehow, Daniel Jackson was the key. Unlike others of Sarah's time he seemed to know far too much about the Goa'uld. More than he should know. It was obvious from Sarah's reaction to himself, Osiris, that the Tau'ri of this time had absolutely no knowledge of the Goa'uld. Sarah had no explanation for that.
He was not sure at first what her reaction to Daniel Jackson had been. It was obvious she had had some affection for the human at one time. But beneath the affection was also a deep smouldering anger. Daniel Jackson had wronged her, whether wilfully or innocently, he could not be certain, but he had wronged her. As a gawky young student she had been too thin, too plain and hopelessly shy, and had seen in her fellow archaeology student, a similar introvert. Yet, while they shared many interests, she had never succeeded in sharing his bed. She had tried in her humble way to seduce him, but he had never responded. The fool! Sarah had been left with feelings of inadequacy and rejection, though Jackson apparently was unaware of her reaction. In time she had let those feelings slip away. She had grown into a confident and beautiful adult, and the only remnant of those earlier emotions had been a desperate need to prove herself in her chosen field .
Eventually she had become his host. He had felt her indecision when Jackson appeared at Dr. Jordan's funeral. For a brief moment he feared she would try to betray him and he would have to force her mind into submission. But she had not. She had found what she had craved for all those many years. *Power.* And when the confrontation with Daniel Jackson was at hand, she had not disappointed him. She had joined in the attack with a long-held thirst, surprising even himself with her tenacity, as she strove to extract information from her former colleague.
If there had been any doubt in his mind of her loyalty to him, it was laid to rest the moment they held Daniel Jackson in the grip of the ribbon device, forced him to his knees, forced him to submit to her, as he would never voluntarily submit. Osiris chuckled softly to himself. Again he felt his host stir restlessly.
Yes, he thought, this would be a most interesting and fruitful union. For both himself and his new partner.
* * *
Osiris regards me as his partner. I am not just his host, a vessel he can use to his own ends - no, he lets me act independently, trusting me to do my best for both of us. Apart from all his superior knowledge and strength, and apart from the rage that I feel smouldering somewhere deep down in his consciousness, the feeling that is uppermost in his mind is one of satisfaction. He tells me that we are alike in many ways; that we share much more than just the same body. Our union is a true meeting of minds in every sense of the word. It does not matter that he considers himself a male and that I am noticeably a woman. On the contrary, I can feel him chuckling at my thought.
I know he has accessed my memories. He knows my deepest secrets, all my wishes, all my hopes and dreams - and all my bitter disappointments. He knows all about Daniel. I was so sure I had buried my feelings for him, had banished them into oblivion, but they surfaced as soon as Daniel directed that brilliant smile of his at me. All of my old infatuation returned, but also all of my pain and anger. Scenes from the past flashed through my mind and for a moment I almost regressed to the poor, love-sick puppy of those days, but then I remembered. That part of my past was over, finished, never to be re-lived again. I was a different person. I was Sarah Gardner, and I was host to Osiris. *We* were a different person. We had an agenda. We had a new destination.
The past is gone - and the future is *ours* to form.
* * *
Our little ship is slowly approaching the system Osiris has chosen. I am actually going to set foot on another planet. I am still not sure I really believe it. I mean - space travel, different planets, worlds that have been inhabited for ages, the struggles that have been going on, that even seem to be involving Earth - if what Daniel said is true- all that sounds like a page out of Star Trek. Yet, I also know it is reality. Osiris knows and through him, I do, too. It just takes some time to accept. Just as it took time to get used to the power he could - and did - bestow on me.
I don't know what is going to happened to us next, there is still much I have to learn, much *we* have to learn; but one thing is certain, we are in this together. And I also know two other things with a certainty that borders on fact: One, that I have exchanged the dull life of academia for a much more exciting existence - and the second is that one day we will be back where we belong, back to see Earth - and Daniel - again.
THE END