A/N: Xover, SG1, Distant Past, Season 3 Ep 3, Fair Game
Title: Overcoming the Lack of Foresight.
"The Lone Traveler: Young man who tried to change the past and save those he loved… plan failed and became the Lone Traveler, wandering through time and reality, making a difference wherever he went… very powerful… defeated a powerful Dark wizard styling himself a Lord… swept along the path he walked by a spectacular aura of blue light."
'Legends & Myths of the Wizarding World' by Gertrude Yolanda
FF St ID 2673584 – Chap 9 – The Professional Modified FF St ID – Chap 58 - Dunuelos
The assembled being celebrated the report that they had just been given. For many years, they had been worried about ensuring that their society would survive and the answer had finally been provided.
Before much else could be said, a sudden light appeared before them. Those watching felt astonishment as a figure appeared before them – one which harkened back to the Ancients that they had been allied with so long ago.
The man looked around for a moment before saying, "Er. Hello?"
One of the assembly, the War Master, approached. He stopped three yards away and replied, "Hello, Visitor. Might we know the name of our new guest?"
The man turned and, with respect, bowed his head. "Yes. Hello, my name is Harry Potter." The man paused. "Where exactly am I? And, if it's not too rude – who are you all?"
The figure before him stood tall and said, "I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleets. I am charged with ensuring the safety of our people. You see before you the Asgard High Council."
The man stood there and said thoughtfully, "Asgard. Asgard. Where have I heart that name before?" Those watching waited patiently for the man to think. He had a sudden look of comprehension. "Oh! I remember! You guys are one of the Great Races! I was kind of sad because I never got to meet you!"
Thor asked curiously, "Why is that?"
"Because the time I visited this universe – or at least an analog of it – your people had just mass suicided the year before. None of your people were left." Harry had a sudden idea of why he had arrived where he had.
The listening Asgard stilled at the man's statement. What would cause them to do such a thing?
"What do you know of the circumstances which caused us to act thusly?" Thor asked.
"Because you had finally conceded that the damage from your cloning processes were irreversible and you were about to die out anyway. The decision to allow yourselves to die was to give you a chance to arrange things so that your knowledge and other resources were taken care of in such a way as to not allow them to be misused. Or at least that is what I was told."
The collected Asgard, almost as one, sat down heavily on their chairs as they contemplated what was just said. "Then, perhaps, your arrival is fortuitous. For we, just now, had voted to allow the recently perfected cloning process to become the method by which our society could be maintained."
Harry nodded. "Yes. Even though I was never told exactly what your problems with cloning were, I do believe I can make a guess which might shed some light on it."
"Please do," Thor said.
"The thing your people forgot in all of this is: There is no such thing as a perfect copy. It is, on a quantum level, impossible. Every copied generation will have some degradation from the generation before. Imagine, if you will, if you relied only on a copy as a new source for furthering the copying process. How much loss could you expect after each generation?"
Immediately, the genetic scientists who had brought forth the cloning process had immediately started conferring with each other, trying to plan out how to avoid the circumstances that their visitor had just described.
Harry said, "I do have an idea of something that you should do immediately – if you wouldn't mind me speaking to you privately."
Thor nodded respectfully and the Asgard Council broke up.
Harry stayed with the Asgard for a few weeks, while they came up with a system which should have quite a few more safeguards against the obvious errors which their visitor had alerted them to.
Harry had worked with Thor to create one such safeguard, and only one or two other Asgard had ever been told of it. Thor had agreed to have the information removed from his mind, or at least locked with a password which would prevent the safeguard from being activated prematurely.
Harry had been told, those many thousand travels earlier, that Thor was still a prominent Asgard and so he thought it unlikely that the information could be lost.
Harry had moved on from that visit, hoping he had prevented the loss of such a great society.
However, the safeguards were put in peril due to the replicator problem. The two Asgard who had record of the password within their minds were both lost in the war and, when the issue had come up as a major problem and the need for the safeguard was remembered, there had been no way to retrieve it beyond one very hidden trigger.
"And in conclusion, I'd like to say …." Jack O'Neill suddenly stopped when he realized he was no longer at the podium and he was somewhere else.
After his discussion with Thor and before he was transported away, O'Neill made a side comment which he thought was witty. With a grin he said, "It's nice to see that someone has transporters just like the movies."
Thor paused for a moment and asked, "Movies? What are movies?"
Jack, with some embarrassment replied, "Er. Stories told through moving pictures. Our people include quite a number whose whole lives revolve around creating fictional stories and attempting to tell these stories through visual means. Many technologies that our story tellers considered unreal by means of our current technology are described by these story tellers. This includes 'Transporting' … the ability to move people or objects through space via an energy transfer."
Thor replied, "Fascinating. Once this current crisis is resolved, I will wish to speak to you of movies."
O'Neill shrugged. "Sure."
As it happened in many universes, the meeting between the three Gould and the Tauri allowed them to continue their travels through the Stargate with the understanding that any found elsewhere were subject to whatever the System Lords decided to do with them. Those who worked the Stargate program accepted that. It was pretty much what they were already living with anyway.
Suddenly, once the Goa'uld had disappeared through the Stargate, three Asgard appeared. "Greetings, O'Neill. I am to assume that the negotiations were concluded successfully?"
With a grin, Jack nodded. "Pretty much what we were already living with. Thanks for the help, buddy."
Thor nodded. "Now that that matter is concluded, now I wish to speak to you of 'Movies'."
Most of the Stargate personnel were confused but Jack just accepted that they were curious. "Sure. What do you want to know?"
"Can we see an example of such a thing?"
Jack said, "Certainly. What type of story would you like to see?"
Thor paused and looked at his fellow Asgard for a moment before answering. "Do you have a system where one can search for certain types of movies?"
Jack chuckled. "Thor, old buddy, I think you need a lesson on the Internet."
Compared to the Asgard computers, Earth computers – especially those for consumers – were quite primitive. The Internet wasn't all that old and much of what was easily found was porn. But, using a few phrases remembered from all those thousands of years ago, Thor found the Movie he desperately hoped held the answers. He pointed to a name on the screen and said, "Can we see this one?"
Hammond, O'Neill, Carter, and Jackson looked at the name curiously but finally Jack shrugged and said, "Give me a couple hours to see if the local Blockbusters has that."
The Stargate personnel were curious as to why an advanced race such as the Asgard would want to see a movie about an innocent man sent to prison.
It was three hours later when the Asgard and SG1 were watching the Shawshank Redemption.
The SG1 rather enjoyed having a movie night, even if they didn't know why there were having one. The Asgard sat and watched stoically. The telling of stories in such a way was enjoyable to them, even if they missed many of the cultural references. The basic idea did come through strongly.
At one point, near the end, Jack noticed that the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet had a sudden reaction. He had no idea why because the images on the screen, at that moment, were fairly peaceful. After the final portion was shown, Thor was as he originally seen – he had calmed down.
Thanking his hosts, Thor returned with his people to his ship and ordered a scan of the Sol system for one particular feature.
The Asgard scanners were quire powerful and within four hours, Thor had ordered a course to a particular location and ordered his crew to scan. It was as he expected.
Thor hadn't needed the other Asgard – Asgard ships could be run with one Asgard alone – but he was happy to have his fellow Asgard there as he ordered contact with the High Command.
Holographically, Thor appeared before the fellow members of the High Council.
"Thor. You requested this meeting of the High Council. What word do you bring?"
"First, of secondary importance, the Tauri have negotiated successfully for inclusion in the Protected Planets Treaty. They have maintained their Stargate with the understanding that any of their people found elsewhere are subject to whatever the Goa'uld might wish to do to them – a matter which seemed to worry them very little."
"I see," Heimdell replied. "That is quite interesting. But it is not of sufficient import to require the full Council to meet. What other matter do you wish to speak of?"
Barely containing his excitement, Thor replied, "I have found the Asgard Genetic Repository which contains genetic material from every one of our people from before we began cloning. What do you wish me to do?"
The High Council was astounded.
A/N: Just because I am feeling ornery – I am leaving this as a cliff hanger even though this chapter and the next will be very, very small by comparison. I wonder if anyone can figure out, from what I wrote, the clue which Harry envisioned which allowed Thor to find the correct password to retrieve the information from an Earth movie. I will sit back and snicker whilst you readers rack your brains. I will either update tomorrow – or maybe next week. Depends on what I feel like. (Insert evil laugh.)