Chapter 2: Practice makes perfect
Jonas's senses slowly awoke. Eyes still closed he fought to gather his thoughts amidst the painful haze that permeated his brain. After few seconds of struggle against painful consciousness his memory suddenly returned to him carrying with it giant alarm bells that sent adrenaline through his veins; he'd been kidnapped.
Jonas opened his eyes with a start and looked wildly around examining the unfamiliar surroundings. He was strapped to a chair in a concrete room; to his right was what looked to be a demented dentists chair, with it's industrial structure and multitude of leather restraints. 'Well that's not good' Jonas thought. Looking to his left he spied, a very familiar console and platform, the sight of which made Jonas's stomach sink. Nope this definitely wasn't good.
"Ah, welcome back to the waking world Mr. Quinn." came a voice from behind him.
At the sound of the voice Jonas's recognized it's owner, it was the man who had kidnapped him. Jonas heard the click of the the man's shoes as he into view in front of him, flanked by two huge menacing goons. He was a well built, sharply dressed man and his body language and decisive gait, commanded attention. The silver of his suit reflected the metallic grey blue in his eyes, which were hooded in silent examination of Jonas. Jonas matched the man's gaze, steely eyed and resolute, silently announcing his feelings of malcontent. His captors face seemed to note the expression but remained angular and stony. Jonas surveyed him in return, The tall man's stance and appearance betrayed a well-trained man, possibly a soldier, and his eyes cold and calculating glinted with fierce intelligence like those of a hawk. His hair was meticulously styled, it's sandy blonde, flecked with bits of white bearing the only hint to his age, which Jonas surmised to be around his mid to late 40's.
The man seemingly took no notice of Jonas's appraisal and shifted his stance slightly turning away from Jonas. Unthinkingly, Jonas leapt to his feet attempting to use the momentary distraction to his advantage only to be painfully reminded that he was handcuffed to the chair he was sitting in, the metal cuffs roughly cutting into his wrists in response.
The silver suited man redirected his attention to Jonas as the two other men in the room grabbed their captive and brutally hit him in his exposed gut, punishment for his fruitless attempt.
"Now, now, Mr Quinn there is no need to struggle." The light haired man chided, as Jonas gasped and choked trying to reclaim the breath that had just been knocked from his lungs. "Forgive me for not introducing myself earlier. I'm Agent Astor of the NID and I am here to help you." the man declared, an aggressive smile on his face.
"Funny I don't remember needing any help." Jonas coughed out, irritatedly.
Astor ignored him and wandered over to the sickeningly familiar alien console.
"I'm sure you recognize this Mr. Quinn, it's truly an incredible piece of technology."
Jonas looked at the device and outwardly protested what he was seeing. "There is no way, it was destroyed by the villagers on PX-" .
Astor interrupted, correcting him. "No, not destroyed. Reported as destroyed, by one of our undercover operatives on SG8. In reality, it was shipped to a secure NID facility for further study."
The man's beady eyed gaze zoned in on Jonas's questioning face. "Nirtti's research and the device intrigued us. I'm sure you understand that interest considering you experienced it's power firsthand. In fact, it was your experience that helped us recognize it's potential, and unlike the SGC we had the foresight to retain it."
"Why?" Jonas felt compelled to ask.
"I'm disappointed, Mr. Quinn, the answer should be obvious, especially to you. Imagine an army of superhuman soldiers, do you think any alien race would dare to attack us with that kind of force?"
Jonas held back an exasperated sigh at the announcement. Once again he was being held captive by a megalomaniac idiot with a penitent for power mongering, this was really starting to get old. Shaking his head, Jonas attempted to–once again–be the voice of reason, "You have no idea what this machine is capable of. It's not stable, you won't be able to accomplish what you think you can." Jonas argued knowledgeably.
"I know." Astor responded simply surprising Jonas with his admission. "At least not yet." He qualified.
"Trust me we tried, and we failed." Astor continued. "In fact we lost some of my best agents in our initial attempts." Astor fiddled with console as he spoke. 'I spent months trying to understand why we weren't getting the results we expected. In fact we almost shut down the project. Luckily, however we realized we'd missed something. Something very important. That realization we now believe is key to finally making this technology work." Astor paused and lovingly stroked a hand across the console.
Jonas waited to hear the rest of man's diatribe.
"Mr. Quinn, do you realize Nirtti, didn't create this technology, that she merely adapted it? He asked non-rhetorically. "Its roots are actually Ancient, and after a lot of research we came to the conclusion that its original intent must have been as an evolutionary accelerator of sorts. The gene manipulation was only a small facet of its full capabilities. In the beginning we tried to use that new bit of knowledge to our advantage, and yet we failed, and I watched fifteen men die slow and painful deaths."
He paused his story momentarily to input some sort of information into the devices console. After a moment he continued, "Actually it was you that provided the key to what we'd missed. In your mission report from P3X-637 you said that Nirtti identified you as different, If I remember correctly you quoted her as saying, that 'you were much closer than the others' and she could help 'complete your transformation'. Interesting isn't it?
Another dramatic pause and Astor looked at Jonas. "Jonas, do you realize that you were Nirtti's only successful test subject?"
Jonas scoffed incredulously, "Successful? If you'd done your research you would have realized it almost killed me."
Astor shook his head dismissively, "That, was an atypical reaction, the result of a small issue with Nirtti's reprogramming of your genetic makeup." Astor said with confidence.
"You see, in her arrogance she didn't recognize that she couldn't re-code you exactly as she had the others. She didn't understand that you don't require a restructured DNA strand you just need a caveat to release your potential." Astor paused and gave Jonas a piercing look. "You are very special Jonas Quinn. You have a very special gene, one that makes you the perfect candidate for this ancient technology."
Jonas couldn't believe the leaps that the man was making, "So, what are you saying? That I'm different? Seriously? I mean, did you steal Nirtti's lines along with her machine?'" Jonas prodded. "Next you're going to ask me to rule the galaxy with you, sorry to burst your bubble Astor, but I declined that offer the first time."
Astor chose to ignore his commentary and continued his story. "The question that really intrigued us was 'why were you a success?' at first we theorized you might be an ancient but you seem to lack a few chinks to make that ladder complete. You do have a genetic marker similar to both human and ancient genetics but despite its similarities, it stands alone. It confounded most of us including my counterpart Dr. Talbot." Astor was quick to add, "I believe however, that its probable that you may be the missing link between the ancients and humans, and if that's not exciting enough on its own, the icing on the cake so to speak, is the fact that you have an extra chromosome. A chromosome that is only found in one other element . . . naquadria."
"You have got to be joking." Jonas reacted clearly dumbstruck by the other mans theory's.
"I assure you I'm not. You see, the reason I have yet to create a successful super human is because our human genetic makeup can't support the transformation. You however were built for it. Whether, you choose to accept it or not, you are my solution."
"And what if you're wrong and it kills me? How many others will have to die before you finally give-up?" Jonas tested.
"I only need one test subject now and even if I am wrong about you, which I know I'm not, it doesn't matter. In the event of your death we will still learn something." Astor said hitting something on the console that set the machine buzzing into life.
Jonas's heart raced at the all too familiar sound. "Even if it works, you can't expect me to help you." Jonas levied, trying to buy time.
"Not willingly, no. But luckily, I don't need your permission or acceptance to accomplish my goals, only your genes." He motioned toward the two henchmen standing stoically beside the console and asked "Shall we begin?." Jonas guessed the question wasn't rhetorical.
