SGC, Earth
June 2010
"Unscheduled offworld activation" came the technicians voice over the comms that was heard throughout the Cheyenne Mountain complex. A year ago it was determined that for more SG teams from all IOA nations to work together the SGC required more room, so NORAD was moved elsewhere and the SGC had been given command of the entire mountain. Many conspiracy nuts went crazy when they learned that another base nearly the size of Area 51 had been classified top secret, what they didn't know was that the base was actually classified above top secret which really spooked many of the actual spooks who had top secret security clearance. Even with the many people in the military, politicians, and civilians have been given the necessary clearance to know of the gate many still aren't privy to the knowledge among the governments of the world.
General Landry stepped into the command room overlooking the gate. The man was thinking of retirement, though he may still be considered young the five years commanding one of the most stressful bases in the Galaxy had taken its toll, his hair had turned completely white and though he wouldn't admit it his daughter has been worried about his heart. The gateroom was filled with men and women charged with defending the gate should anything get past the formidable shield designed after the Ancients gate shield on Atlantis and past that was the Iris, the newest incarnation of the shield defending Earth was made of the Asgardian metal that gate the Iris a nice white hue compared to the gunmetal grey that most things built for the SGC had.
While looking the same the gateroom actually has an arsenal hidden in its walls that would give any would-be invader trouble, four automated staff turrets that can be dropped down from the ceiling, shields for all surfaces in the room, sensors in the walls and floor to detect anything cloaked or otherwise that may enter unannounced.
"Colonel Mitchell on the line, says he's got six injured an SG trainee team and Dr Kavanagh" said the technician as the General arrived
"Lower the shield" said Landry, only the commanding officer could get the shield lowered when it was an unscheduled offworld activation, a strange protocol yet one everyone on base observes nonetheless.
"Cougar incoming" said the technician over the gaterooms speaker, making sure the men watch out incase the thing ever came in speeding and hit one of them. And it did, the cougar came through the gate at nearly 50 km/hr and dead stopped showing how much of a technological marvel the machine is.
Mitchell jumped off the driver's seat and went to check on the six injured that were on the Cougar in various arrangements Dr. Kavanagh, Miles, and William were completely out, Kate and Alexander were in the front with Mitchell with cuts across their face yet that didn't stop them from sharing a cigarette, as for Jen she was in the back with the three knocked out men looking them over, her legs were clearly shown to have been crushed.
Out of the side room came teams of military doctors, the best in the world for what they did. They quickly surmised the most hurt of the six and split up accordingly, two to look at Kate and Alexander, one to Jen to move her to a bed and then to the actual infirmary, two each for Miles and Kavanagh and one to William miraculously seemed fine.
"Watch it with that one, he was hit by some Ancient beam in a bio lab" said Mitchell warning the one medic to what occurred to William.
"Isolation Hood" the medic called out and a specific bed that had a folding plastic hood that came with its own air supply came by and William was quickly deposited into the thing. The last time someone was in a biological research lab it was from a Human world destroyed by something, they currently weren't able to figure out what, either way they were in the 1960s level technology and one airman from SG-13 managed to actually find a lab where they were experimenting with a virus that remarkably looked like the black plague, no one was harmed due to the advanced Ancient medical equipment installed in the SGC but it was still a scare that new protocols were inplace, ones that Kavanagh ignored a half hour ago.
Eventually one by one the six injured were wheeled out on beds, the medics had a hard time removing Alexander from his cigarette to patch up his split lip as he was concussed and confused, eventually they just knocked him out.
"Mitchell my office in an hour for debriefing" said General Landry over the comm
Mitchell was grabbing the laptop that Kavanagh was holding like him life depended on it when they found him, he looked up at Landry
"Yessir"
And so after getting cleaned up and stowing his equipment Mitchell took a short visit to Dr. Lee the man had been promoted to head of SGC research after Carter got the Hammond to do with what she pleased. Mitchell dropped the laptop off to the aging man who has been with the SGC for nearly a decade and had asked him to take everything he can from it. After that he went to the infirmary to get an update on the six men and woman, when he was about to enter the infirmary he ran into Dr. Lam.
"How they doin Doc?" asked Mitchell
"I was headed to the General to report, you can come along as well so I don't have to repeat myself" replied Dr. Lam with a commanding tone that told Mitchell he wasn't going to get a minute of information out of her before they were both in front of Landry.
Eventually they were
"Alright Mitchell go over what happened" said Landry, sitting behind his desk the rather modest accommodations still had the air of unimpeachable command, perhaps that was what the General was trying for or perhaps the fact that this office was home to some of the greatest men the SGC had seen.
"Sir got a message from 2nd-Lt Cole about how they found the research lab they were tasked to look for and that it was a biological research lab. It seems Kavanagh ignored protocol and entered without waiting for experts when Cole reported it. I told him to drag Kavanagh out if he had to, apparently Cole was grabbed by some sort of Ancient device in the lab and collapsed. Trying to get him out Kavanagh activated the self destruct on the lab and eventually the machine was done and Cole was knocked out. So they ran before the lab blew and took quite the amount of hurt when it did, they were just on the edge of a large crater when I got there sir, surprised they were alive" said Mitchell
"Well are they alive?" asked Landry looking to his daughter and chief medical officer at the SGC
"Yessir, the worst was Kavanagh he has bruised ribs, one cracked, a broken arm and swelling in his brain, the nanites lowered it and we're still watching him but he should be fine" started the Doctor, one of the first medical marvels coming out of Area 51 after the fiasco with Henry Wallace the man who kidnapped McKay and his sister to help his daughter with nanites he was able to get ahold of. His reasoning wasn't bad, there were stories of tiny robots fixing people from the inside for decades and now they had the tech to do it at least after a few years of building the code from the ground up.
"Miles Heans was the next worst, broke his left arm and I have surgeons rebuilding that hand, was really one of the worst injuries to an arm I've seen" continued Dr. Lam
"Found that arm underneath a fallen tree" stated Mitchell
"Is there any permanent damage?" asked Landry
"Perhaps a dulled feeling of touch in that hand but he should be fine after the surgery and two months or so of nanite assisted healing. As for Jen Karla she had a few scrapes and bruises that needed stitches but the damage to Miles' arm is mirrored on her leg, the bone broke in two places, she will be out for a month. As for Kate Olins and Alexander Alexi, they were the best off, a minor concussion for Alexander was the worst they got" said Lam the accelerated healing abilities of the nanites proved the little things can do amazing things and at the moment the biomedical engineers at Area 51 think that they can double the speed in a few months time.
"As for William?" asked Landry
"Perfect health" said Lam which surprised them both
"Not a scratched?" asked Landry
"Miles was shielding him when I got there sir" suggested Mitchell
"Nope that wouldn't have done much, but his health isn't the strangest part" continued Dr. Lam "He… grew"
"What?"
"Sir when Cole signed up with Homeworld Command he was recorded at 180 pounds and 6ft 1. He is now 6ft 7 and 190 pounds" said Dr. Lam
"Wait. One doesn't just gain half a foot of height Doctor" said Landry, figuring the extra weight was just a difference the few months had done to Cole.
"Apparently they do" said the Doctor "It has to be something to do with the device whatever it was"
"And it blew up…" said Landry
"Kavanagh had a laptop with him, I gave it the Lee before coming here maybe he found something on it" suggested Mitchell at that very moment Dr. Lee came running into the Generals office "Speak of the devil"
"Colonel, we need to get back to this Lab where is it?" asked Lee ignoring the General which he was fine with, whenever the scientists ignored him it was usually something very exciting that they just couldn't wait to get to the bottom of.
"It blew up doc, what did you find?" asked Landry which caused Lee to do a quick look around and he realized he was in the Generals office.
"In short sir, Captain America" said Lee,
"The General knows nothing about comics Doctor Lee" said Lam knowing that it was a comic and nothing more.
"Oh.. right… Well sir the lab basically makes a person a super soldier" said Lee
"What do the Ancients need super soldiers?" asked Mitchell
"Well not super soldiers per say" backtracking Lee said
"Well why don't you get to it doctor" said General leaning back into his chair, he knew this will be a bit. As for the consequences, it was going to be a pain of epic proportions in terms of reports.
Observation Room, SGC
A few hours later...
There were a couple of people looking down into the room that held a sleeping William Cole as he hadn't woken up yet. In the room there was Colonel Mitchell, General Landry, Dr. Lam, and Dr. McKay who was brought back from the Alpha site where he was studying the Tria which was quickly becoming a can of worms.
"Well that just isn't fair" said Dr. McKay for the fifth time since he arrived at the SGC
"What we need to be prepared for is the possibility that McKay is right" said Lam ignoring McKay, he had been complaining since the last time such a device was found it didn't increase height or muscle mass, Cole was now up to 6ft 8 and 210 pounds. The amount of muscle mass increase was so great that they had to start feeding him intravenously as most of his fat reserves were used up.
"How fast can we get him to Atlantis?" asked Landry
"The Hammond and Victory is slated to leave in three months to relieve Daedalus and Apollo sir. We can throw as many supplies as we can on one ship and send her along with the other following with the rest of the supplies when we put them together" suggested Mitchell, Since Atlantis arrived in the Pegasus the ZPMs that once powered her to fly back to the Milky way and use the wormhole drive were nearly burned out, all below 5%. Now the protocol is to have Atlantis only dial Earth when a catastrophe may happen. As for the SGC there were still years away from having a Neutrino Ion generator built that was large enough to give them the power to dial Atlantis.
"It doesn't matter either way, the machine was torn apart" said McKay to the others surprise
"Why was it torn apart?" asked Landry
"Weir didn't want any more accidents with it and I wanted to study it..." said McKay
After a few seconds of silence "Well?" said Mitchell
"There are many things that I can do, but an Ascension Machine is not something that any human can understand" stated McKay defending himself
"So he is a dead man" said Mitchell, at that moment the door to the room opened and Kate with Alexander pushing Jen in a wheelchair walked in and quickly froze when seeing who was in the room
"Sorry sirs" said Alexander backing up Jen
"No problem son, come on in" said Landry "He's your squadmate right?"
"Yessir the three weeks of SG training squad Dragon" said Jen as the three entered the observation room, part of SG training was that they were split up into squads of five, each one named after a mythical animal. There was Manticore, Basilisk, Thunderbird, Phoenix and so on. For William, Miles, Jen, Kate, and Alexander they were given the name Dragon. Other than giving a designation to that squad there was really nothing else to the name, what the trainees didn't know was that SGC psychiatrists had suggested giving each squad a name so that the trainees may form bonds with the people of their squad and have a sort of comradeship under Homeworld Command before even joining whatever outfit they would be officially assigned to.
"I haven't heard what's wrong with him" asked Kate
"Well what do you know of ascension?" asked Lam being the doctor she was use to telling bad news
"Only Ancients and those helped by Ancients can ascend" said Kate, when she first joined up as a Marine she was fascinated with the old four races and learned everything Homeworld Command had about them, at least at her security clearance level.
"Well technically anyone who is sufficiently evolved can Ascend but the Ancients were just the first. You see what's fascinating is that there may possibly be…" said McKay
"McKay" said Mitchell cutting off the scientist from one of his long tangents.
"Wait Cole is human and he's not millions of years more evolved than the rest of us. What does this have to do with Ascension?" asked Jen
"Well four years ago we found a device on Atlantis. During the Ancients research into ascension they built a device that could artificially advanced the less advanced among them to a point at which they could ascend on their own" said McKay "and that was the kind of machine that the Lieutenant was hit with"
"So he's going to ascend?" asked Kate surprised, she knew strange stuff happened all the time with Ancient tech involved, but this…
"Nope, to ascend there is a required spiritual component that apparently as a young race Humans do not have" said McKay who was quoting from research notes from said device on Atlantis
"So he's gonna be more advanced than the rest of us then?" asked Jen
"Again No, there's a point at which the mind can only take so much, at least a human one. When Cole reaches the point where an older race like the Ancients may ascend he will… die" said McKay bluntly
"Fuck" swearing and speaking for the first time was Alexander in his native Russian
"How long until he dies?" asked Kate she was rather clinical about it, she had lost friends in the middle east before, she even lost a man during training so this wouldn't be her first time in either respect.
"Well last time this happened it was me and I had a few days before I would've died" said McKay
"So we can fix him?" suggested Kate realizing McKay was fixed so why not Cole?
"Dr. McKay fixed himself using the same machine that changed him and with a greatly elevated intelligence that put him above and beyond anyone" stated Dr. Lam
"Well maybe not so greatly…" said McKay which resulted in him getting glares from Mitchell and Dr. Lam.
"So we need to use the machine…" said Jen knowing the thing was vaporized along with anything in three hundred meters "This machine should be a million years older than the one on Atlantis right?"
"Probably more so, what's your point Lt?" asked Mitchell
"The older model is always the simpler one" said Jen which was followed by McKay snapping his fingers repeatedly and having a eureka expression.
"That's true, we know the Ancients only started experimenting with ascension when the plague hit them. This machine may not do what we think it does and we know it also is making him into Captain America…" said McKay turning to the door and walking toward it "I need to look over its database"
The remaining in the room watched him leave
"Captain America?" asked Kate
"Whatever he was hit with, it's changing his body in ways I've never seen before. He is gaining both height and muscle mass at an astounding pace, the body should be damaged at this point but he is healing himself at the same time" explained Dr. Lam
"So he may yet live?" asked Alexander
"I wouldn't get your hopes up son" said Landry who put his hand on Alexander's shoulder in which Alexander had to suppress a flinch, the native Russian may be young but he still had a few prejudices from his parents "There are many things we can do, but there is still a lot we can't" and with that he left, he had paperwork to do.
"Will he wake up?" asked Jen
"Should have by now, but he is showing signs of malnutrition due to the changes" said the Doctor
"So he is starving?"
"Yup, gonna need to find a more direct method in saturating his body with nutrients… We tried nanites, they can carry more dense nutrition and release it at a rate that won't shock his system but they were immediately attacked by his immune system, also more advanced" explained Dr. Lam
"Or we may feed him McDonalds. No?" asked Alexander who looked into the room where William was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Dr. Lam quickly left the observatory and went to William, Mitchell walked up to the wall and pressed a button, the trainees quickly realized it was so they could listen in on the room.
"How you doing Lieutenant?" asked Dr. Lam walking into the room and taking his pulse, she could've just looked at the machine to do so but this way it gave the patient the feeling that they were safe.
"Fine… a bit hungry. What happened?" asked William still waking up
"You were knocked out by an Ancient device and brought back to the SGC" said Dr. Lam "Look right here for me" as she checked his eyes to see if they reacted the way they should.
"Ya I remember, thing grabbed me and I guess knocked me out. Anyone else hurt?" asked William
"Everyone is fine, a bit banged up due to the lab self destruct being flipped. You are the fourth to wake up actually" replied the Doc still looking into his eyes, there was something not right about his reactions that she couldn't figure out why.
"Well that's good…" said William, the observation window was a mirrored surface so he couldn't see his teammates behind it. "So am I alright?"
"Well… William that device is making you evolve and at this current rate you may reach a point where it will overwhelm your body and you may die" said Dr. Lam trying to put it as gently as possible
"Ohh… well that sucks…" said William to everyone's surprise, Dr Lam usually gets an immediate reaction of shock or anger. Not once has anyone learned of their impending death and they immediately were sad about it. "I feel so great though…" Now fully waked up William noticed how he actually feels and it was great, and looking down he noticed that he may be larger than he should be… "What happened to me? I'm larger than I should be..."
"The machine not only forcefully evolved you but it also changed your body so that you are growing, your now 6ft 8 and nearly thirty pounds heavier than you were a few months ago" said Dr. Lam and now began looking at William with a quizzical look, he actually look depressed.
"Well this is strange…" said William looking at himself "Why would an Ancient machine do this…" from somber tone to an inquisitive one... which was even stranger.
"Well we can figure that out later I need to run a few tests and perhaps get you into a scanner" said Dr. Lam
"Alright"
It was half an hour later that McKay came walking into the infirmary, William was lying in the Ancient medical scanner and in the bed next to him Miles was knocked out, he was surrounded by Kate, Jen, and Alexander. Dr Lam was on the other side of the infirmary looking into the diagnostic of the scanner.
"Oh hell remember the first time in the cafeteria?" asked Alexander, they were all laughing about the different stories they were sharing with each other, for Alexander and Kate it was marine stories, for Jen it was residency stories as a training nurse. Now they were on to a week ago with the zats.
Laughing Jen talked through the gasps "You were knocked out and in your potatoes for an hour by the time the drill was over" pointing to Kate who herself was smiling
"Not as bad as dropping when your half naked" said Kate remembering when Mitchell had combined both a 5 am wake up call where they were meant to get dressed and equipped for battle asap before the 'enemy' had time to attack, after three minutes they came barging in all the barracks with zats firing.
"Ah I got so close to getting one of them that time…" said Alexander
"What five meters?" responded William looking at McKay who walked up to the scanner that was at the moment at the foot of the bed and activated it, William quickly laid down as the thing began moving up the bed.
"What you looking for Doc?" asked Alexander
"Possibly something amazing" said McKay just a Dr. Lam walked up
"Well I just went over the scans and cross referenced with McKays scans from a few years ago, It seems that it isn't the same at least at this moment. The first scan was a day after McKay was hit so maybe it will be more similar tomorrow" said the Doctor looking to William who was lying down
"So anything interesting Doctor?" asked William looking to McKay
"Yup" said McKay turning his tablet to Dr. Lam who went wide eyed at the screen.
"So good or bad?" asked William
"Well I'd say good Lieutenant, you're an Ancient" said McKay to the confusion looks of everyone in the room.
Area 51, Earth
A week later…
William had spent the following week going through multiple tests and being passed around to nearly every biologist at the SGC and eventually at Area 51. The news that a Human was turned, DNA and all into an Ancient made waves across all of Homeworld Command. What William had explained to him was that the machine was made during the decline of the Ancient empire in the Milky way. The plague that had broken out at Vis Urban had spread across the empire, all quarantine protocols failed, all cures didn't work, all the technology of the almighty Ancients had failed them in the end. As for the machine, it was the brainchild of an Ancient scientist who thought that only a being with a perfect genetic makeup could survive and fight off the plague and that was the purpose of the machine, not to ascend but to perfect, it failed of course. It was able to give people the ability to fight off the plague at first which brought the scientist great fame and many of the Ancients used the machine to turn into the new 'perfect beings' but eventually every defense fails and when the genetic makeup was undermined billions of Ancients were susceptible and what the Asgard found out millions of years later the Ancients learned at that moment, the technological manipulation of DNA made ascension impossible and removes any other possible routes to help oneself. Which is why William was relatively fine, the machine didn't modify his body to make it the most advanced as it could be like the one on Atlantis did for McKay, it rebuilt his DNA from the ground up making him not only into an Ancient, but also what one particular biologist said 'a perfect specimen of Humanity' even though he wasn't a human anymore.
As for William it turned out that the machine had a strange effect on him, he had limited telekinesis or as Miles said 'Bloody hell its the force.' He was also an empath, a word he learned from Dr. Lee, he could sense others emotions and unfortunately it affected him. When people in his vicinity were sad he was sad, when they were happy he was happy. After a week of growth he was determined to be a grand total of 6ft 11 and around 320 lbs, he ate a lot of food this past week, all his senses were heightened and his mind sharper than it was. The strangest part was that most of his weight gain was muscle, he had the body of a greek god and the powers to go along with it and he hated every minute of it. At the moment he was at Area 51 in front of the chair taken from the Tria and now controlled all drone weapons at Antartica.
"So when you're ready Lieutenant" said Dr. Leed, the older gentleman has been the head researcher at Area 51 for quite awhile and since William had returned to Area 51 he more or less claimed dominion on the new Ancient. William sat in the chair and it activated without a second of delay.
"Good. Good... only five others had been able to activate it without effort" said Dr. Leed, obviously this included General O'Neill, Colonel Sheppard, and Dr. Beckett what William didn't know was that the other two were scientists that were stationed at Area 51 and were ready to be called upon to use the chair if the top two were not available.
"Well Doc what now?" asked William, he was happy but he also knew that was just the bleed thru from Dr. Leed and he tried to suppress it, but it was really hard to.
"Alright the chair is disconnected from the Antarctic, I need you to look through and find the simulated drones" said Dr. Leed and that was what William tried to do.
"How many drones did you give me?"
"Should be a thousand lying in wait in the 302 Hangar above us, you don't need to go further"
"I am reading nearly a million… they are in the Antarctic. And the thousand above us, but they're fake…"
"How did you get past my lockout? I'm reading it's still up" asked Dr. Leed
"I don't know Doc but I'm seeing the million drones, and I somehow know they are real and the thousand up above us are fake"
"Amazing, the feedback coming from the chair is telling me as much as well. It seems you can break out of my lockout without me noticing and can tell the difference from fake drones to real ones…" smiled Dr. Leed "No one has been able to do that"
"That's good right?" asked William perky, before suppressing the emotion knowing it was again the result of Dr. Leed.
"Alright for now only focus on Nevadah then" said Dr. Leeds and William did
"The hell is this?" asked William solely focusing on the area within a few hundred kilometers from him and underground, where he was, he could feel responses from a dozen different items that were real.
"I have no idea, giving you access to the holograms can you show them to me?" asked Dr. Leed, all his computer did was itemize what was connected to the chair and it did show him the dozen items, but not where they were. With a quick button press the Asgard holograms connected to the chair were reconnected and William quickly modified them to show the position of the dozen items, all either on the same level or below them.
"I don't have sensors so I can't give you anything about layout, just direction and distance" said William
"Well I know these five right here" said Dr. Leed pointing to a grouping below them "They're the damaged jumpers we got from Atlantis…"
"So I can pilot jumpers remotely?" asked William this time actually surprised
"That wouldn't make sense, probably just a connection for quick diagnostics" said Dr. Leed "We should get back to the task"
"Alright a thousand drones a few meters above us" said William focusing on the fake drones, it was a strange feeling when focusing on them, one he only experienced in dreams. He knew that they were fake, so obviously fake, but they were real enough that he could almost feel them. His mind screamed at him to get away from the reality offending item.
"Alright, two Ha'taks and compliment attacking. Go" said Dr. Leed
And that was what William saw, he immediately knew that these Ha'tak were of Anubis upgrade along with five Al'kesh, all having cloaking devices, and out of the Ha'tak came two dozen death gliders. He chose targets based on what he figured he could do and if these ships were filled with actual people they may have laughed at the amount of weapons coming after them. Ten drones flew out of the hangar and shot toward the attackers.
First up were the Death Gliders, usually the Al'kesh and Death Gliders would attack together, but it being a simulation they sort of arrived in waves. The two dozen Gliders fired at the drones and hoping to destroy them but they moved the second the Gliders fired, their firing track determined and course correction plotted and executed to get out of the way of the bolt. What happened next was something amazing.
The drones in themselves are made up of a number of different components, the most important one for fighting Wraith is the strange skin of the drone that heats up and can burn through armour and hull with ease. Usually this effect only works for a few second before the power capacitors are depleted for this particular task and the drone detonates using a different capacitor for energy. What William had done is drained the explosion capacitor and poured as much energy as he could into the engines and skin.
The results of this work was that the drones quickly skewered the Death Gliders and then running out of energy embed themselves into a few unfortunate Gliders killing their virtual pilots. As for the end result, seven of the ten drones were gone and the two dozen Gliders were dead. This was a complete shock for Dr. Leeds who now only noticed the second wave of thirty drones coming up behind the first. This is the moment at which the bottom usually falls out of first time users, the Al'kesh cloaked. For others they never had the time to do an in depth look at the attackers but William had that knowledge feed to him almost immediately after they arrived so he knew they had cloaking devices. What he had done was spread out the drones so that they had a large gap between them, but not enough for an Al'kesh to pilot through. The massive net that he made allowed him to catch every single one of the Al'kesh in a record winning time.
Next up was the Ha'taks, usually most first timers send massive numbers of drones to tear through them to bring them down but William had a better plan. Splitting the remaining ten drones into five each, he targeted the anti-gravity drives on the Ha'taks and using their shield ignoring abilities quickly took out all of the devices that a few scientists named 'Newtons bane'. And then the Ha'taks were turned into a half million ton rock and dropped.
"Done" said Wiliam with a slightly smug smile.
"Well… I have to admit I'm speechless" said Dr. Leed
"So we done?" asked William
"Yes I'll take take the inputs and outputs then put you on the ranking, I'd imagine your the new benchmark given your an actual Ancient" said Dr. Leed
"With DNA only doctor" replied William, he hated being called an Ancient. True he wasn't Human by DNA but that also meant that everyone with the ATA gene wasn't fully Human, so it was a stupid specification he thought.
"Yes yes Lieutenant, Well that should be it for the day" replied Leed only to look at his watch "Damn really late…" it really was late and most people would have either gone to their assigned quarters or have been flown home.
William for his part slept on base along with most scientists, yet he wasn't headed to bed yet due to the simple fact that he only really needed five hours of sleep, one of the actual perks of being an Ancient, he could sleep in an extra three hours and still be considered 'on time'. At the moment William was headed into the lab area of the base where Mark was hanging around in Felgers lab. The rather strange man having one of the most lax rules for his lab and really that means he has no rules for his lab so Mark had a small fridge full of beer. When William walked into the lab Mark was working at a computer that had a small hologram showing a schematic that William didn't recognize, when he entered Mark looked up and William felt for a second, a short burst of a feeling, this usually happens when the person has an intense feeling like...
"Was that fear you son of a bitch?" asked William smiling
"You can't blame me I'm not use to this yet" replied Mark gesturing to William "You left ten days ago and you come back nearly a foot taller and twice the weight, you're massive"
"Ya well it kinda sucks for me to ya know?" said William walked to the fridge and taking out a bottle of orange pop and a beer he handed to
"If it sucks why not drown it out in the sweet embrace of alcohol" smiled Mark while he opened his beer and took a swig
"Another one of the shitty aspects of this. I can't get bloody drunk" said William taking a drink from his pop
"Well sucks for you nerd" replied Mark going back to his computer
"So what's this for?" asked William looking to the hologram "I thought you don't get holograms"
"We do if we request one from manufacturing, installed the thing myself today while you were trapped by Dr. Leed" said Mark "He has been giving us a lot of leniency with our new project, hasn't made a single ultimatum on this new one as he did with the APBs"
"By your project I'd imagine you mean Felgers, speaking of which how many APBs you got left to play with?" asked William looking around the lab after the destruction of the twentieth APB Dr. Leed was no longer happy with Felger wasting resources and told him he could only have five more APBs and if they were all destroyed he didn't get any more.
"Down to one and it is our project I'm doing half the design for it"
"So what is the new project?"
"It seems we've been assigned the shuttle project with our brothers and sisters in the Fatherland" said Mark with a bad German accent
"Ah good ol German efficiency eh?" asked William noticing Marks irritation both through his new powers and his many years of being friends.
"It's not them that's the problem it's what the big wigs are asking for, we got the original specs of the shuttle Destiny uses and they are asking for something similar to that" said Mark
"That shouldn't be hard, the thing is what three million years old?" asked William
"Closer to four but it has a shield that hugs the frame instead of a bubble like ours, we have no clue as to how that works or how the sublights it is using work. And we can't ask for a back and forth from the Destiny as they nearly die every other week" replied Mark
"Well I'm sure you'll figure it out" said William looking at the hologram "Sublights?"
"Yup from the jumpers, the problem is this right here" said Mark pressing a few buttons and the hologram focused on the front section of the engine pod which was a complete solid block with no textures unlike the back part that showed multiple parts and their connections.
"What am I looking at?"
"An Ancient security system, the unintended consequence of what makes the sublights run, or the results of whatever miracle alloy that the Ancients used to miniaturize the sublights, no clue. Its not allowing us to scan it though, Goa'uld, Asgard, even one Ancient medical scanner we managed to jury-rig failed to scan what is happening in that section of the engine pod" said Mark pointing to the offending section
"So you're stuck figuring out with our own eyes" said William trying to suppress the anger coming off of Mark. Anger was one of more hard emotions to suppress William had found out, it came off people like waves and he had to really focus to stop him from being influenced by it.
"There is a reason why I said a miracle alloy, that part is encased in something that we can't take apart. Apparently Huan threw the thing into a furnace and heated it up to a few thousand degrees and it didn't warp" said Mark
"Ah a truly Human idea, throw the thing into a furnace and see what happens" said William to a smiling Mark
"Any way I think I found an answer to your sleeping problem" said Mark mentioning Williams problem in sleeping since the accident a week ago. Should someone be having a bad dream, which was a usual occurrence in this profession, within a few dozen meters of him he wakes up terrified and with night sweats. While at the SGC he claimed a room at the very bottom of the base to stay far as possible away from people as possible and at Area 51 he had permission from Colonel Yin to take a bed on the empty Sun Tzu while it was in dry dock.
"Oh what?" asked William as Mark pulled out a flying saucer looking device "The hell is a flying saucer gonna help me?"
"This is an anti-prior device, made for the Ori advanced Humans slash priests. It stopped their powers and if I think it works…" said Mark who touched the top of the device and it lit up
"Oh my God…" said William closing his eyes and smiled
"I'd imagine it works?" asked Mark
"Shut up" replied William who was enjoying the silence, since the moment he woke up he heard either the constant drumming of machines, or the whispers of people talking to themselves due to his enhanced hearing and he was also constantly bombarded with the feelings of those around him. Now however there was no emotions and no machines running anywhere in the lab section. It was pure silence and pure bliss.
"Well, I'll leave it to you" said Mark grabbing his beer and headed to bed
Area 51, Earth
The Next Day…
The mess hall was silent at this moment, they just started making lunch a few minutes ago but that never mattered, Area 51 was filled with mostly scientists and engineers responsible for manufacturing and the maintenance of the 304 ships that come and go regularly. The results of this was that there was no schedule that everyone kept for eating, they would come and go regularly taking the food from the buffet tables made by the kitchen and usually not even bothering to sit down and eat, something needing to be researched or conduit realigned. Area 51 was hallmark of busyness and not even food slowed it down, but for William he used the excuse of food to get away from Dr. Leed so he was usually in the mess hall when not with Dr. Leed eating his mounds of food that was needed to keep him from feeling hungry till dinner, another one of the better aspects of this William was one of those people who 'lived to eat' instead of the others who 'eat to live' so this was one of the few bonuses. At this moment a man with glasses walked in and stopped at the other end of the table in front of William who was eating and reading over the designs for the anti-prior device.
"Can I sit here?" he asked and when William looked up it turned out to be Dr. Daniel Jackson, the living legend who was the first through the gate and ascended twice to live among the actual Ancients, William stood in front of the man coming to his full seven foot height and towered over Daniel and he held out his hand
"Of course sir, its an honour to meet you" said William and Daniel shook his hand
"Oh ya, you don't really need to call me sir, Doctor or Daniel is just fine" said Daniel he knew that such a thing was common place for some of the newer recruits when they met him so he was use to it, he really would hate to know what awaited him if or when they eventually reveal the stargate to the rest of the world.
"What can I help you with Doctor?" asked William sitting down as Daniel slid into the other side of the table
"Well I was interested in how your adjusting to your new powers, I was quite interested when learning that someone was turned into an Ancient as I'm sure you can tell from what I hear" said Daniel
"It was certainly an adjustment but it has gotten a lot easier and not an Ancient doctor just a man with different DNA" said William ignoring the mention of one of his abilities
"That is an understatement Lieutenant, you have been turned into one of the greatest races to exist in the Universe. Especially at a point in their evolution that makes you the greatest of them, let alone the increase of your physique" replied Daniel
"Everyone with the ATA gene is at least part Ancient, I've seen reports of people in Pegasus that are part Wraith that doesn't make them those races even with the DNA" responded William
"None of those people have had their DNA from the bottom up rebuilt to look like a different race, you may look the same as Human and your body may, in some aspects, act Human but you are anything but" countered Daniel to Williams increasing annoyance.
"Yet this was the result of a machine, I was born Human and still am just with different DNA" responded William a bit forcefully.
"I guess…" responded Daniel now realizing Williams forceful remarks and deciding to change the subject "How are you adjusting to your abilities?"
"The empath thing was annoying and the telekinesis was limited so it kinda sucks" replied William with a smile
"Can you heal, Rodney and most advanced beings we've encountered can heal by only touching that damaged part" asked Daniel
"Nope"
"Did you try?" asked Daniel
"Sure I did"
"How?"
And as a result William showed the top of his left hand to Daniel and taking his right pointer finger and drew a line across his hand while making a squelch sound.
"You cut yourself?" asked Daniel with a shocked tone
"Don't make me sound like some emo teen Doctor. It barely hurt and I hela naturally much faster. But still I wasn't able to heal and now if I get this to work I'll never have any other abilities" said William gesturing to his tablet
"What do you mean?" asked Daniel
"This" replied William lifting the activated anti-prior device from the seat next to him and putting it on the table so Daniel could see it. He immediately knew what it was as he used it multiple times and had it used on him once before.
"You are blocking all your abilities?" he asked
"Yup. Best day of my life when I found out this was a thing. Just need to find a way to miniaturize it and I can put it in a watch maybe... " responded William
"Your abilities are the results of your ascension to being an Ancient. They should be fostered instead of suppressed" said Daniel what he said was more of a visceral reaction to finding out what William was doing, not really thinking his statement through.
"And when you 'ascend' to an Ancient you can deal with the abilities but at the moment I am not dealing with this" responded William with an accusatory tone.
Daniel finding the hostility and realized that it may not be best for him to try and force William had decided to back off "Alright Lieutenant, but I want you to consider that just maybe that this is a gift, just maybe"
"Ya, of course, can't sleep peacefully for most of the week after this happened. Certainly a gift Doctor" said William
"Alright, I guess I'll see you around Lieutenant" said Daniel who got up an left, he had to talk to Dr. Leed.
The first race has arrived! It may take a bit for the second and third, as for your comments...
Chloe: For Edora I realized my mistake the moment you said that and realized that Langara was suppose to have the 2 billion population, but I have decided to stick with it with the reasoning that there must have been many times where primitive populations were saved from the slavery and needed a place to be settled away from the Lucian Alliance so the SGC put them all on Edora which also helps in what I want for Edore, a planet greatly in debt to Earth and is happy to help them in anyway.
As for the Daedalus and Coalition, it wasn't shown off as the meeting was underground and it is technically impossible to beam hundreds of people at the meeting place onto a Daedalus and there may come a time when it will happen but with a smaller amount of people.
MrBogus: Ya I tried to set up for the new races but at this moment it just keeps on getting longer and longer till they could all come back. At this moment I laid out a point soon where there is gonna be a 'fast forward' and there has been hints of the returning races if you have been paying attention…
