Snowfur--Atlantis is never a central part of the story, but it is mentioned and glimpsed briefly toward the end.
Lord Malkor--Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying the sotry. I hope you continue to enjoy!
Darth Tic Tac--We're just getting started. Parts I-III were nothing more than the prelude leading to Parts IV and V. I hope you continue to read and enjoy.
Reviews are nice too.
Chapter Fifty-Two: The Sound of Distant Thunder
Ruby Valley Commonwealth Relocation Project, Nevada, Monday, September 4, 2006 (4 CE), 12:03 p.m. MST
The conference room in the headquarters tower was large enough to fit thirty people, so in this instance it was more than large enough to handle the Jedi. As the table glistened under a bounty of food provided by the CRP caterers, Kyle Katarn had a chance to meet the newest Jedi initiates.
Daniel Jackson was a true revelation to Kyle. A man he already knew as deeply intelligent, educated and compassionate, he now realized Daniel was strong in the Force was well. He had no doubt the scientist would make a fine Jedi.
Shepherd, for all his external bravado, was equally promising, albeit in a rather irritating fashion.
Izzie Stevens, Kyle quickly realized, was a woman of intense compassion and emotion. Like Max, Isabel and the other Antaran hybrids, she projected a great potential in the Force and he had no doubt she would be just as much an asset as the others. She was also reeling every time she looked at Michael, the clone of the man who fathered her daughter and then killed himself in despair.
Zane Peters was still so confused about 1) being alive; and 2) being an alien, that he simply didn't know how to respond to the news that his old life was over and that he had essentially been drafted into the Jedi. Nor did he know how to respond to Max, who in all things biological was completely identical to him.
Of the Antarans, though, the person Kyle was most interested in was Hannah. As her mother and the others watched, Kyle knelt down to be at eye-level with the girl. "Hello, Hannah. Your uncle Max has told me a lot about you."
"You're the alien that saved the world on Doomsday, aren't you?"
Kyle laughed. "I am. But you want to know a secret?"
She nodded.
"You're more alien than I am," he said with a wink. "We've created a special school here for Max's and the Mulders' kids. It's a school to teach them not just how to use their powers, but how to use them in service to others. To be good people and to help the greater good of the world. Is that something you might be interested in?"
"This is where I belong," she said with certainty beyond her years.
He rested a hand on her shoulder and felt the massive Force potential within her. Equal, in fact, to that of William Mulder. "Yes," he said, "This is exactly where you belong."
He stood and walked to the head of the table. Siana was there, looking pale but whole. He noted how she had sheered all her hair off in order for the newly generated follicles to grow even with the rest. However, she was still as beautiful as always. Beside her sat Delvin Ostrael, Imperial Knight. The former Imperial commander met Kyle's eyes squarely and without shame.
The rest settled in. Fox and Dana were there because of Dana's own burgeoning Force potential, and the undeniable Force potential of their young son. Dr. Samantha Carter O'Neill and Admiral Jack O'Neill were there as representatives of the Commonwealth and the Defense Forces.
He looked each in the eye, from Liz Parker to Max to Michael to Tess to Isabel. They were the first ones to find and befriend his Siana. They were the heart of the new Jedi Order, and he knew, they would be on the front line of the coming war.
"I have read all the reports en route back to the surface," he began. "I believe there can be no doubt any more. Michael, Tess, Isabel, Max and Liz, you have performed beyond my expectations and even my hopes. Max, you and Isabel, with only a little help, not only saved Siana, Tess and Michael, you stopped another world war. Liz, you not only protected all the Jedi children from an attack of overwhelming numbers, but you also saved your extended family and single-handedly destroyed the last concentration of Antaran supersoldiers on this planet. Tess and Michael—you endured your captivity and torture with grace, maturity and admirable strength. You have, all of you, performed extraordinarily."
He paused and took a breath. "Siana can tell you from her studies of history that when Luke Skywalker was rebuilding the Jedi order, the old Jedi practice of taking only children and then training them for life fell by the wayside. Siana was raised a Jedi and has always been one, but I did not become a Jedi until I was in my late twenties, and Master Skywalker named me a knight after only a few years of study. I went on to become a master soon after. The same applies here."
He smiled at them all. "You remember when I gave Siana her formal knighting three years ago. It is your turn. Liz Parker, Max Evans, Isabel Evans, Michael Guerin and Tess Harding, please stand and approach."
The Five of them walked and stood before Kyle. "Even though it has only been four years, I have no doubt you are ready. By the Will of the Force, I hereby proclaim you all to be Knights of the Jedi Order. In this galaxy or my old one, you have the right to call yourself Jedi Knights. You have the duty to uphold the laws of civilized beings. You have the right to enforce justice. You have the freedom to follow the Force. I am proud of you. I am your master no more."
Then he grinned. "Good timing, too. I've got a new class of initiates coming soon."
That elicited a chuckle before he continued. "You should know that Admiral O'Neill and I were unable to stop the Ori from breaking through to this galaxy. It is only a matter of time before they will establish a new supergate to bring through more ships." He looked each of them in the eye. "Our conflict with the Ori so far has been in ship engagements. But that will change, and when it does, you will be on the front lines. It will be war like you have never experienced. The priors in this galaxy are much stronger than in my old galaxy. If we were ordinary Jedi, we would have no hope of defeating them. But you are no ordinary Jedi."
"Do we have a plan to deal with them?" Max said.
"We do," Kyle said. "It's a dangerous one. And it will call for sacrifices. But I think it can be done."
"Then we'll be ready," Max said without hesitation.
"I know you will," Kyle said. "And you had better be. The survival of this planet rests on that very fact."
As the official briefing dissolved into a gathering of friends, Daniel stepped across to Michael Guerin. "Michael, there's something we need to discuss. It has to do with blood tests."
Jaffa Penal Asteroid, Jaffa Free Territories, September 6, 2006 (4 CE)
Prisons were relatively new experiments for the Jaffa. Their Goa'uld masters rarely kept prisoners for long. Usually, if someone was unfortunate enough to anger a Goa'uld, they never lived long enough to need long-term imprisonment.
The Jaffa realized, however, that this practice was simply not acceptable, either to their Tau'ri allies or even to their own kind. So, a prison was created with the help of Tau'ri advisors.
One of their first prisoners was none other than one Vala Mal Doran, former Goa'uld host, thief, con artist and a dishonest person in general. She was given her own cell, likely because the prison was still mostly empty, and fed twice a day. Otherwise, she was left completely alone to ponder her many, many thoughts.
She dreamed of a prince coming to rescue her. Perhaps one of those handsome Tau'ri who captured her in the first place. One of her favorite dreams was of the one they called Daniel Jackson realizing the cruelty of placing her in prison when really, how else was she supposed to make a living but to convince those people she was still their god? He would come sweeping in and take her out of there, holding her in his arms as he did so.
But she knew he would not. Handsome heroes did not rescue women like Vala Mal Doran. People like Vala Mal Doran did not really even deserve rescuing, if she was perfectly honest with herself.
When the gates of her cell popped open, however, a small part of her began to hope in spite of her innate cynicism.
But then she heard the staff weapons fire, and the screaming of men in pain, and realized this was something else. She slipped the unlocked cell door open a little further and slipped into the empty hall. The sound was coming from her right. So, turning left, she ran as fast as her legs could carry her.
She was going so fast she never saw or felt the stranger until she ran smack-dab into him and bounced off to the floor. The stranger had not moved with the impact, as if he were somehow rooted to the floor like a wall.
She looked up at his long, flowing white robes, the white cowl over his bone-white skin, and the cloudy eyes that looked down at her almost in reverence.
"Our brother told us of you," he said, almost as if praying. "His words were true." He held out a white hand. "Come with me, Vala Mal Doran. Your future, and the future of this galaxy, awaits you."
"Does it involve prison cells or people shooting at me?" she demanded.
"It involves great glory and riches," he said. "Your name will be hailed for eons to come among the faithful who walk the Path of Origin. Come with me, Vala Mal Doran, and your name will live forever."
Hmm, she thought to herself. Prison and people shooting at her, or creepy white man? "Okay," she said quickly.
Las Vegas, Nevada, Friday, September 8, 2006 (4 CE), 12:23 a.m. MST
Maria Deluca stumbled into her apartment with a curse. She fumbled at her keys, gave up, kicked the door shut with her foot and turned on the lights.
Her act was now a headliner for her small casino-hotel, meaning a sizable increase in her weekly earnings. The apartment on the top floor of the hotel was a perk of that new act. As she walked through to her balcony and slid open the glass door to allow a wash of cool desert air, she realized that she was exactly where she wanted to be.
"Nice place," a familiar voice said behind her.
Maria turned around with a startled yelp and found herself facing Michael for the first time in over a month. "You cut your hair," she said, surprised.
"I had it burned off in an explosion," he said with a shrug. "It'll grow back. I like your hair, though. Looks good."
She smiled and bobbed her chin. "How you been?"
"Okay. Blown up, tortured a little. Otherwise okay. You?"
"Rich and famous, baby," she said. Her smile had a hint of sadness. "You were part of that thing in South America, weren't you?"
"Yeah."
She started to lift a hand, then let it drop. "I'm sorry, Michael," she whispered. Suddenly she was crying, and she didn't know why.
He pursed his lips and nodded. After a moment, he joined her on the balcony and looked around the shimmering oasis of light that was Vegas at night. "Remember the first time we were here?" he asked. "I bailed on you to go gambling and ended up in jail."
"You also gave me a chance to perform on stage for the first time on the Strip," Maria said, her voice thick with tears. "You were never perfect, but you did try."
He nodded and bowed his head. Her hand lifted of its own accord and rested on the back of his neck. She could feel new scar tissue there, and knew Max had been busy recently healing.
"It was never enough for you, was it?" he said.
She was crying again. "No, I guess not." She let her hand drop and swept it across the city. "This is what I was born for, Michael. It's what I've always wanted. I have a record contract now, too. They're not trying to make me change my style any more. Billy and I have been writing together and the songs are really good, Michael. They're really good."
Her words said one thing. Her pleading eyes said another.
"Want to hear something funny?" Michael said, standing up. "We've identified a chromosome in a portion of the population that marks people as being potential Jedi. When you had your blood test a few years ago, after Siana first arrived, it was filed away in the Stargate mainframe. We reanalyzed it, and discovered you have the gene. Now, looking at you, I can feel it. You could be a Jedi. We could be Jedi together."
Maria held his eyes with hers for the longest time, before finally she looked down and then out over the city. "To be burned and tortured," she said. "Where was your Force then?"
"Not even Jedi are impervious," Michael said, proving with his ability to pronounce the last word that he had become far more than the study-impaired young man she loved years before. Then again, he always was more than he appeared.
She clasped her hands together and bowed her head as if in prayer. Then her back straightened and she wiped her eyes. She looked up at him and met his gaze, and he knew.
"I love you," he said over her head. In the distance he could see a bright star in the sky, and through the Force and his own experience knew it was one of Earth's defenders in orbit. "I loved you from the moment I hijacked your car years ago. And I always will." He held her away from him as she wiped her nose and watched her cry. "I want you to be happy, Maria. That's all that matters. And if that means being with Billy Darden, then that's what you need to do." He lifted her off the balcony floor then and kissed her with all the passion that had ignited their affair seven years before.
Then he let her slide back to the floor. She was looking up at him with something close to awe. "You've become so much more than I ever imagined," she whispered. "But this is where I want to be."
"I know." He leaned down, kissed her forehead, and then turned and walked out of her balcony, out of her apartment, and out of her life. Maria refused to watch him go, and instead stood looking out over her city. "No more tears," she said. She was lying, of course.
End Part 3
