To live is to die.
It was more than law or belief. It was fact, simple and inarguable, the truth of their kind. If the Children lived, if they left the protective waters of the Mother's pool, they died. It was as simple as that.
It was a truth that strengthened Attis-Anari when he decided to capture the human females. No, not decided, knew. He knew they had to take them, along with the seed ship. The Ursini would have taken all the humans if they could. Or just one. But, the females—two females—was a miracle that was almost beyond belief. After so many ages, when all hope had died, when the Ursini themselves were on the verge of death, now, at the end of all things, hope had come.
Attis-Anari was the only one of the Children, the Dying, among the Ursini on the ship, the only one who had survived. A hundred pod ships had been sent out to try and reach this seed vessel, the occupants frozen in hopes of evading their enemies. Cybele, the Great Mother, had brought out twenty of her Children to help, knowing she was condemning them to die, a greater sacrifice than had been seen in generations. Attis, alone of the twenty chosen, had emerged alive from a pod ship. Of the other six that had made it to the seed ship, the rest were the True Living.
Attis knew what being Chosen meant as he was drawn out of the warm waters, away from his sibs. He twined around the fingers of Mother Cybele. "Little one," she whispered in her weakening voice. "The time has come. Are you ready to die?"
So, he was given life. He felt the welcome of his host's mind as he entered, experiencing all the wonders he had been told of—sight, sound, smell, touch, the subtle feeling of vibrations. He felt his host's mind open up to him. This was Anari, a male of the Ursini. Anari left behind a wife and three children, two female, one male. Attis felt Anari's intense love for them. It was the reason he choose sacrifice, to fight for their chance to live. It was the echo of Attis' own determination to save the Mother and his sibs.
The joining was both like and unlike the Mother and her host. The Mother, after all, measured age in millennia. She was older than the civilization of the Ursini themselves. Attis-Anari was already dying.
They're chances were slim. Despite the gifts of the Mother's wisdom, Attis had little hope to offer. But, it wasn't hopeless. There was a chance, a chance to save all the Ursini.
But, not the Mother. And, when the Mother perished, all the Children would die, too.
Till the miracle happened. Till Attis-Anari was given the chance to save the Mother.
The others had recognized the strangers as creatures like the Great Mother, though they had turned to Attis-Anari for confirmation. These creatures, after all, were smooth skinned and strangely colored. Though they had the strange, slender growths, like the hungry strands of sea-grass, on their heads ("Hair" the Mother called it), theirs was brown and black and a strange gold almost the same color as the Ursini's shells. None of them had the Mother's ice-white.
"The Great Mother is old, even as she reckons it," Attis-Anari told them. "The color of her hair, the condition of her skin, these are all characteristics of the old. These—these are young."
They had consulted quickly among themselves. The ship was the most important thing. The humans had a ship of their own, greater and stronger than this one. But, Attis-Anari could see how suicidal it would be to try and take it. They might not know how many humans were on the other vessel, but Attis-Anari would wager it was far more than the handful who had been sent over. The seven of them could not hope to take it.
No, they needed to keep what they had. Compared to this ship, even the humans were unimportant. If they could bring this ship home, they could set up gates all over their world. Their people could escape their enemies in time. Their people would live.
If they brought the humans—any humans—the Mother would live. The Mother, giver of life and wisdom, exile of heaven, ancient and eternal. But, the Mother, like the Ursini, was dying. All her wisdom and power would soon be lost to them forever. If they failed, she would die, the Ursini would die, the Children—all Attis' sibs—would die.
Attis-Anari was the one who was sent to creep forward and try to beguile the humans while the others set up the lines to steal power from the humans' ship, distracting them and luring in the ones they needed. It was dangerous—all of this was dangerous—but it was necessary.
As he'd hoped, the humans saw him as small and harmless. He knew he was about the size of one of their own young and he tried to play the part, gaining their sympathy. It seemed to work, especially with the fair-haired female. The dark-haired female seemed more skeptical.
The dark-haired one tried to talk to him. He could hear her running through different languages. If Attis-Anari could trust his Mother-given memories of human expressions, she didn't seem overly hopeful. But, she was patient and tenacious. One sounded strangely guttural, not like anything he thought a human would use. Another had strange, fluting sounds. Attis-Anari didn't think either were human languages.
Then, she tossed out a phrase Attis-Anari knew.
"Salve. Quid agis?"
Greetings. How are you?
Attis-Anari stared at her. The accent was strange, but it was an ancient tongue no one among the Ursini—no one in all the worlds of this galacy—spoke, no one but the Mother. Even in the time before Mother Cybele's exile, it had been rare, the language of a barbaric, warrior people, the Latins.
Yet, this human female knew it.
He realized too late how he had given himself away, his surprise so obvious even his alien features couldn't hide it from her. The female's face broke into an expression he recognized as a smile. She knew that he understood her.
"Intellege me! Loqueris linguam Latinam?"
You understand me! Do you speak Latin?
Attis-Anari was saved from answering by the other humans who began firing questions at the dark-haired female. It gave him a moment to think, whether or not to reveal he really did speak this language or try to let her think she'd misunderstood him.
Silence bought time. It gave no answers for the humans to sift for lies—to discover the truth.
But—but—She spoke a language spoken by the Mother, by one of the human tribes who had worshipped her in those long ago days. More than that, she might be their salvation.
Attis spoke.
"Quis es tú? Quid nómen tibí est?"
Who are you? What is your name?
The female frowned. Attis-Anari's pronunciation was very different from hers, even allowing for the different structure of their mouths.
"Nomen mihi est Belle."
Belle. In the language of the Latins . . . that meant war. The human female's name was War.
In the hour of annihilation, the prayers of the Ursini had been answered. They had found the seed ship; as the Great Mother neared death, they had found humans; and, as the Ursini faced destruction at the hands of their enemies, War—be she System Lord, Avatar, or some other being entirely—came to them at last.
In that moment, Attis-Anari swore, they would not leave without her.
X
Note: OK, this story isn't quite set in the same world as my other Stargate/Once stories. In this one, Gold and Belle aren't living separately in their part of the ship. Gold has gotten absorbed in some project when the seed ship shows up (and Young decides not to tell him about it). The Gold in the other stories would possibly blow up the seed ship before letting Belle go alone.
This story was built around the idea of Belle meeting a Goa'uld. I know it's not clearly stated but Cybele is a Goa'uld queen. Long story short, she was exiled to the other end of the universe and had to develop a more symbiotic relationship with the Ursini to survive. But, when a Goa'uld and an Ursini join, it starts a process that will eventually kill both. Separating them kills them quicker. While not quite like the Tok'ra, Ursini and Goa'uld who join together have to do it as more or less equals to survive the time they have.
Historically, the cult of Cybele was adopted by the Romans. The Goa'uld Cybele had contact with them when they were just starting out and picked up their language. Cybele in this universe has survived a long time, but her host is dying and there's no replacement-or there wasn't until Attis met Belle and TJ.