The time of the Asgard was nearly at an end.
Thor knew this with an absolute certainty. It didn't make the thought any easier to bear. He had stood before the rest of the Asgard High Council many times, it was not a thing that should affect him so, but the news Freyr had delivered had shaken him. Fear for his people had been replaced with the deep-seated feeling of impending doom.
None of this showed on the impassive, gray face. Like all Asgard, he had long ago mastered the art of self-control. Thor questioned the wisdom of this, now. His time with the Tauri had taught him the value of youthful impatience, of the usefulness of sometimes losing control, breaking the rules. The Asgard had once been the same, thousands of years before, when the cloning technology was still new and fresh, when their race had not yet fallen into stagnation.
His thoughts wandered to the more glorious days, when the alliance of the Four Races had maintained steadfast watch on the galaxy. The Asgard had been the youngest of the Four Races, their technological development only a few generations ahead of where the Tauri now found themselves. Thor suspected that the only reason the Asgard had been admitted to, as O'neill might have referred to them, the Galactic Members-Only Club, was for their willingness to use military force when other options had been exhausted. The Nox had always abhorred such action and the Ancients, despite their vast knowledge of the universe, had been too few in number, and more preoccupied with ascension anyway. The Furlings were a migratory race, and had little time or interest in military matters. And so the Asgard had been admitted, to address the occasional need for force with some of the less peaceful races.
For a time, it had been good. The Asgard were still young in those days, and though each generation required a little genetic tinkering to accommodate the ever-increasing memories of each individual, the degradation in physical capability had been miniscule. Yet Thor knew, now, that it was that moment that the Asgard had doomed themselves. To keep up with the power of the more evolved races, they had resorted to technological trickery. O'neill, and his simpler and clearer mind would have warned them of the danger of "keeping up with the Joneses."
Then the other races had vanished, one at a time. The Ancients had been the first to go, dying off or ascending in turn. Thor frowned for a moment as he contemplated this. Though the Ancients had been highly evolved and more advanced than any race before or since, they had also been rather foolish. Their devices and technology were so durable it lasted millenia, littering the cosmos for later scavengers like the Goa'uld to find and misuse. Soon after, the Furlings had simply packed up and left on some cosmic journey, though rumors of a few settlers persisted for a time. The Nox and the Asgard had remained on friendly terms, but without the mediation of the other two races, they had simply drifted apart. The societies were too foreign to each other without the unifying power of the other races.
And so the Asgard had carried the banner and responsibility of the alliance alone, for millenia. Genetic manipulation of their minds allowed for the vast information of lifetimes spanning tens of thousands of years to be stored effectively, but the physical degeneration accelerated with each generation. Sexual reproduction had eventually become difficult, and finally simply impossible. The Asgard population started to shrink. An accidental death away from a memory storage device meant the loss of that much of their collective species. No one, not even the Tauri, knew just how few Asgard still remained.
Even their technology had stagnated. Thor remembered the incident with Anubis, how hubris had allowed them to believe the Goa'uld could never threaten them. Contact with the Tauri had resurrected something long buried in the Asgard, however, bringing back the creativity and curiosity that had once been theirs, too. More technological advancement had occurred in the last decade than the previous thousand years, but it was simply too late.
Freyr spoke again, shattering Thor's introspection.
"Supreme Commander Thor. You know what must be done." Indeed, he did know. The Asgard would never allow their knowledge to fall into the hands of scavengers, they would not litter the universe with their creations. But neither did he want the legacy of the Asgard to die. The alliance had been maintained, even if it had only been the Asgard who had maintained it. Who would defend the less-advanced races? Who could even understand the burden the Asgard carried?
"No, Freyr. I have a different idea." Shock echoed throughout the chamber, muttering voices commenting on the unexpected development. Thor allowed the moment to pass.
"Thor, you know as much as I do, we cannot allow our technology to fall into the hands of those who would misuse it." Heimdall spoke up.
"We will not allow such a thing to come to pass." Thor answered.
"What do you propose, then?" Freyr asked, his large eyes blinking in curiosity. The need to know had indeed been rekindled in their race, and perhaps just in time.
"We will destroy our world, and everything upon it, as agreed. However, I propose we pass on a single Core interface and Matter Processor to the Humans. We will place upon it the knowledge of our race, the history of our people, everything we are." Thor replied simply. For the first time in centuries, Thor heard the council chamber roar with overlapping voices, with the collective might of the Asgard race.
"They are too young, Thor. Too young... they will destroy themselves, and all we will accomplish will be to hasten their own demise." Heimdall answered, but there was a trace of sadness in his voice. Thor knew, in the end, Heimdall would support the proposal. He, too had felt the potential in the Humans. They were more like the ancient Asgard than any in this room would care to admit.
"Remember how young we were? The Humans may not survive this threat. They are fighting the race who pushed out the Ancients. We may even say, they are fighting the Ancients themselves. There is little enough difference in power between the Ori and Ancients. They do this even without our help. When we are gone, who will help them? Who will protect the people we have saved?" Thor's voice echoed in the chamber.
"They are not advanced enough to understand our knowledge, Thor." Freyr added. Many nodded in agreement, but Thor noticed fewer and fewer were willing to overtly support Freyr.
"In time, Freyr. They will grow, and when they advance enough to understand the knowledge, it will be there for them. We shall write a teaching program to help them, too. It may even be possible to preserve some part of our personalities within the Core." That definitely silenced the hall. Ever since the memory storage technology had been developed, there had been strict prohibition against using it in such a manner, for such a method could be used to make simultaneous copies of a single individual's mind, something that has always been horrifying to the Asgard. Yet the survival of their race, even in such a basic, rudimentary form, had changed things. Instead of outrage, Thor felt his people contemplating a measure of survival for their legacy. A thin measure.
Freyr looked about the council chambers, but there were few who were now willing to meet his gaze. The vote was swift. Many had still voted against the proposal, clinging to forlorn hope that a cure for their rapidly-progressing disease could be found. Yet it did not matter if it passed by a thin majority, it had passed, and among the Asgard, that meant it would now be done without further complaint. Perhaps it was that very philosophy which had got them into this mess in the first place, but now it would save some small part of them.
In moments the hall was empty, the council having beamed away to their own homes, leaving Thor alone with Freyr.
"Thor, they aren't ready."
"I agree, Freyr, they aren't. Sometimes things must be done, whether you are ready for them or not." Thor blinked. Freyr was still unconvinced, but there was a glimmer in his eye, an understanding.
oooooooooooooooo One Year Later oooooooooooooooo
The final battleship had fallen to the attacking Ori fleet, but it had done its job well. Since the Ori had discovered the final homeworld of the Asgard, they had been relentless in their attack. Here, the Asgard had done something few others had ever managed, they had destroyed many Ori motherships. Even so, the battle would have been over. But the minds of the Asgard, though ancient in memory, were now young again in spirit. The battle was not over.
Thor remembered the lessons SG-1 had taught him, long-buried military tactics of ambush, surprise and out-thinking your enemy on a tactical level, not just a technological one. Asgard technology almost matched the power of the Ori and the Ancients, but not quite. It didn't matter. Asgard plasma beams lanced out from the surface of Orilla and destroyed the motherships just as they took orbit around the planet. Sacrificing the remaining Asgard ships had been necessary to make the rouse effective.
"They will come again, Thor." Heimdall pointed out unnecessarily. "That trick will not work again."
"No, it won't. But it won't have to. The Core is complete?" Thor turned away from the screen as the debris of the Ori vessels disintegrated harmlessly into the upper atmosphere. Ori technology may have been more advanced, even, than that of the replicators, but once they were dead, one did not have to worry about the pieces reassembling themselves. That simplified matters considerably. So did the fact that Orilla simply would not exist in a matter of hours.
"Indeed. We are ready." Heimdall replied, sadness tinging his voice. "Soon, it will be time. We could have ascended, you know, back then."
Thor's mind traveled back to that day. The last of the Ancients had returned to the Asgard homeworld, offering the last of the alliance a way to ascend, a combination of technology and mental will. A few Asgard had even taken them up on the offer, joining the ranks of the Ancients on another plane. It had been a great honor that had been granted so rarely since then. Like the humans, most Asgard just hadn't been ready to give up material existence. There was too much to do, too many people to protect, too many enemies to defeat. As ascended beings, they would no longer be able to interfere, no longer be able to help.
"The Human vessel approaches, Supreme Commander." Thor was pleased to see Freyr's face. They had often been enemies in the Council chamber, but it was good to see the face of his nemesis, and his friend, as the end approached. Freyr nodded almost imperceptibly, finally giving his support.
"I heard that they managed to destroy an Ori vessel through one of their primitive strategems." Freyr mentioned. Though simply destroying a single vessel through the unstable vortex of a supergate hardly counted as some great technological advancement, it did go far to indicate just how similar the Tauri were to how the Asgard had once been. Thor feared for them, that they might hold on to life too strongly, might follow the path of the Asgard into oblivion. He hoped the knowledge contained within the Core would divert them from this danger.
ooooooooooooooooooo 8 hours later ooooooooooooooooooooo
"You are the Fifth Race. Your role is clear. If there is any hope in preserving the future, it lies with you and your people." Thor stated clearly. Part of him hoped it wouldn't come to this, but it had. The Asgard had lived in the past for too long, chasing after a role that had left them long ago.
"No pressure, huh?" Carted answered, struggling in her human way to come to terms with the situation.
"You have earned my respect, and my friendship." It was important to Thor that the humans truly understand this. It had been freeing to interact with another race on anything like an equal basis again. Since the fragmentation of the old alliance of Four Races, the Asgard had been too alone. The humans had given them a companion in their twilight years, and he was grateful for that.
"Well, the feeling's mutual." Carter was obviously struggling to avoid showing her discomfort, her own sadness at the fate of the Asgard. Once, the humans simply couldn't stop talking and listen, they had been so impatient. But something of the Asgard had already rubbed off on them, as O'neill might say. Self-control was there, the beginnings of greatness.
"Please, do not be sad, the end of my people has been a long time coming. We have made too many irreversible mistakes in our development. Hopefully you can learn something from it." Thor paused for a moment, unsure if he should continue, but decided it was better to deliver too many words now, than too few. "My only regret is that our physical weakness have left us not being able to help you any further."
Carter's next action surprised him. It had been many centuries since his people had expressed friendship with physical contact. She hugged him softly, for his physical form was quite frail, especially with the degeneration of the genetic disease. In that moment, his uncertainty vanished. The humans would not make the Asgard's mistakes, of that, he was sure. They would struggle, and sometimes they would fall, but the fears of the others would not come to pass. The Tauri would not destroy themselves or become like their enemies. They would carry the legacy of the Asgard, and become something unique. Thor wondered for a moment if perhaps this was how it had been with the Ancients, in the dim mists of history.
Soon, however, the human vessel began to shake, the Ori had arrived earlier than expected. Thor knew the moment had finally come. Strangely, he found himself at peace, and he turned towards Carter.
"You must go." And with a flash, the technological contraptions of the Tauri was replaced with the comforting familiarity of his control tower on Orilla. The monitors were already flashing a warning. The High Council had prepared a farewell address, but there was no longer any time for such things.
Ori motherships descended onto the system, avoiding getting too close to the planet. They were intelligent and driven, they knew that humans would be a threat to them if supplied with Asgard knowledge. Thor hoped that the installation of the plasma beams would protect the humans, that the knowledge within the Core would guide them. Now, the Ori would attempt to bombard Orilla from far away, they would not repeat their first error. But once more, the Asgard had deceived them.
It no longer mattered. In the words of his friend, O'neill, it was time to press the big red button. The dubious honor was his, as the last military commander of the Asgard. He closed his eyes and moved the control device. Opening them once more, he saw that at least one, perhaps two Ori vessels would be caught in the blast, but Thor knew the entire armada of the Ori would pursue them. SG-1 was strong, they would adapt, they would survive.
The ground shook, and for a moment, all was white.
Reality seemed to fade and twist around him, and then he was sitting his chair, on the bridge of the Biliskner. It had always been his favorite vessel, even after the newer O'neill ships had entered production. In a moment, he knew he should be dead.
"No, you are not dead." A voice answered. It was a familiar voice, somehow, soft and comforting. A female face appeared, human and yet impossibly wise. Thor knew immediately that she was an ascended ancient.
"Yes. I am Oma." She smiled. Thor remembered the tale Daniel Jackson had told him, of Oma battling Anubis for eternity.
"The Others, they decided I had suffered enough. This time, they agree. All of them." Thor remembered how the Ancients had once offered to help them before, millenia ago. "Your people, have earned their place. Come." Oma smiled, and Thor felt his consciousness ascending, leaving behind the material world. Before his last, tenuous connection vanished, he felt a rush of joy. The Humans were safe, they had used the knowledge given to them to escape the Ori, pushing the envelope of Asgard technology in unique and creative ways.
They truly were the Fifth Race. And once more, the Asgard were young, fresh and invigorated, with a new existence to discover.