Unity
Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. Although I love my Alternate Universe where a certain optically challenged (but certainly not colour-wise) archaeologist is still alive!!! Ah, fanfic. What would we do without it?
Rating: G
Authors' Note: E-flat. (bwah-ha-ha-ha)
Chapter 5 – Oops, did it again.
Daniel was bursting at the seams when we found him, almost jumping up and down with excitement. I glanced at Teal'c, but he remained impassive.
"What's up, Daniel?" I asked him, peering at the light show behind him.
"I was looking through the book, just trying to find some point of reference, when I accidentally touched this shape, here." He pointed at it, a small blobby shape in yellow and orange.
"And?"
"Well, just watch." He said, and touched the blobby shape, his finger going slightly through the holographic image. It shuddered and then opened up, as if it was a flower bud. I glared silently at Daniel, and he squirmed. I didn't even need to voice my annoyance at him touching things he shouldn't. He already knew he'd done something wrong. It had happened so often. I turned my attention back to the yellow blob, and stared.
"Daniel. What did you do?" I asked, staring at the picture before me.
"Nothing. Well, nothing but touch the formation representing hydrochloric acid, anyway. Do you know what this is?"
"An ex-hydro-electric formation?" I guessed, and got a sour look for my trouble.
"Not quite, Jack. It's a notation. But it's in Asgard. Which I can read."
"What does it say, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c leaned it to look, an eyebrow raised in query.
"It's some kind of…. This shape here? It represents conflict. This one, disharmony." Daniel pointed to several etched in shapes, that looked a lot like squiggles. "I think this is a record of the Asgard council meetings. But stuff that's a little sensitive." Daniel went silent for a moment, then took a breath. "The Honoured Loki interjected, saying that the conflict between the Goa'uld and barbaric races does not concern the Asgard. He continued, stating 'the Asgard have removed themselves from the concerns of the barbarian races of Tau'ri and Mo'at. The current application to assist these beings denotes a carefree dismissal of the Tau'rok Papers'." Daniel pushed up his glasses, which were half-way down his nose, and blinked.
"It goes on like that for a while, but then it mentions the Tau'rok Papers again. 'The papers were designed to minimise the Asgard affect on the Tau'ri psyche. Thor himself advocated these papers, sighting culture and evolutionary disparages.' Then there's a symbol that could represent withdrawing. Or it could be swimming. But I think it would be withdrawing in this context. 'It is the Councils decision to withdraw. The Asgard Thor and his compatriots are ordered to-' That's all that's on here. There could be more on another."
"Find it, Danny. I have a feeling it could come in handy." I ordered, then walked slightly apart, thinking.
"Sir?" Carter asked me, coming up beside me.
"Just thinking. What do you think Thor was ordered to do?"
"From that? I'd guess he was ordered to cease his assistance, and more than likely to remove himself back to Asgard."
"It would make sense, O'Neill. It would explain the Viking Gods' sudden disappearance, and the reliance on remote technology that the Asgard have left behind on many protected planets." Carter and I stared at the big guy in shock.
"That's a lot of words, T." I observed.
"Indeed." He replied, tongue in cheek. "It is also my opinion, that I felt I should offer freely."
"And we accept it, Teal'c. Thank you." Carter cut in, before I said anything else sarcastic. As if I would!
"Sir? You alright?" She patted my back as I finished coughing. Gotta stop lying to myself. It could cause some serious damage.
"Fine, S-Carter. Fine." I shot a look at Teal'c, to see if he'd noticed my slip of the tongue, but he was looking at Carter's hand. Which was still attached to my back, moving gently. Oops. I stepped away quickly, mentally apologising for any unintentional insult to my 2IC. Carter dropped her hand and stepped back, her eyes shooting down and then back up to mine. She forgave me, the look said.
"Found it." Daniel called us back, reading intently. "Looks like they were ordered to retreat from direct interaction with the Tau'ri and other races, and to leave them to their own… devices, for want of a better term."
"But they didn't." Carter objected.
"No. From what this says here, in this different writing, Thor and a few of the Asgard broke away, and while not directly interfering, they did not abandon the Tau'ri. Thor's Hammer and Chariot, for instance."
"So good old Thor's a rebel at heart, huh?" That made me feel so much better. I have no idea why, but it did. Daniel started to answer, but the place suddenly went mad. Literally. The lights above us started flicking on and off, rapidly. The floors started buckling and heaving. The window's that I could see shattered into a thousand pieces, and re-solidified in seconds.
"What the hell is going on?" I yelled, staggering over to a handy wall.
"I have… no …idea, sir." Carter stuttered back at me. We all stood there for a few more seconds, until all went quiet.
"Any idea's as to what the hell that was?" I straightened, looking around. I expected a lot of damage, similar to an earthquake. Cause that was sure as hell what it felt like we'd just been through. But there was no damage at all. The buckling floor was back to it's normal smooth self. The window's were cheerily looking out at the orange forest. The lights were shining. As if nothing had happened.
"It could be a regular occurrence of the house, Jack."
"Why would it do that regularly?" I looked at Daniel in amazement.
"I have no idea. Just tossing idea's out there." He replied, then turned back to his virtual book. He pressed a few images, but nothing happened. "Ahh, Jack?" He called me over.
"They're gone?" I guessed.
"Looks like it. Do you think I could have set off a security system of some sort?"
"It's possible, Daniel." Carter agreed. "Maybe the Asgard genetic build would have been seriously damaged by what just happened. The light show could have affected them, or there might have been some sort of sound disruption that our ear couldn't detect. That could be what shattered the window's."
"I think we need to talk to our old buddy." I decided. "Any ideas how to get him here?"
"Well, if that was a security alarm, surely the owner would be notified?" Daniel frowned from behind his glasses, his eyebrow's beetling.
"Well, back on Earth, we would. But here, you never know." I looked around, trying to identify anything that could function as a telephone in this place. I was examining a block of white material, about the size of a biscuit tin, when I heard a chime behind me. I looked around, and saw a small Asgard standing behind the rest of my team.
"Yes?" I asked him (her?), walking forward.
"If you will please follow me." The female growled in her low voice, and then walked slowly off towards the right. I gave a one-shoulder shrug and followed, my team trickling after me. The female led us into a small bare walled chamber. When we were all inside, the door closed behind Teal'c and the female turned to us.
"In these panels you will find Asgard weapons of protection." She pointed to one wall, which slid open to reveal nifty little gadgets that I, once I heard that they were weapons, was dying to get my hands on. "Here, you will find travel-devices. And here, cloth bearing manipulators." She then turned and walked through the wall.
"Hey, that's a Tollan device!" I cried to her, but I had a feeling she'd already gone.
"Carter?" I called, needing her input. She was already exploring.
"Here, sir. Take this and this. Daniel? Can you grab a few of those? We need more space. What's provoked this, do you think?" She mused as she collected and distributed items to us all. "All of a sudden we're being provided with this ordnance? There had to be a triggering factor."
"It could be that the disturbance we experienced earlier was not due to Daniel Jackson's manipulation of the book." Teal'c announced.
"What else could it be?" I asked, in all seriousness.
"I am unsure. However, the female Asgard providing us with weapons and means of movement on this planet does not indicate a trust in our safety in this place."
"That's more words that I've heard you say in a long time, Teal'c." I observed humorously. Teal'c nodded his head in reply, silent now that he'd put his two cents worth in.
"For what it's worth, I have a feeling Teal'c's right about that, Jack." Daniel said, shuffling a few of 'his' objects around. "I'd been playing with that elemental book for a while, and there didn't seem to be any disturbance."
"So what prompted this?" I asked, placing 'my' objects on a spare flat surface.
"I have no idea, but let's not look a gift horse in the mouth, shall we?" Danny's tone was facetious. Carter, who'd been silently listening, picked up one of the objects and pointed it at me.
"Whoa, Colonel!" I barked, jumping out of the way. "Point that thing some place else!"
"Sir." Carter looked slightly taken aback, then flushed. "Sorry. It's not one of the weapons, sir. It's a 'cloth bearing manipulator'."
"How can you be sure. They're all alien."
"Because this one was blue, while the other device was a bright red. Red traditionally means danger, sir." I debated the concept of arguing about alien technologies and use of colour, but decided that I probably wouldn't win the point, and let it go.
"Fine, but can you please try that thing on an inanimate object first? I don't want to find myself barbequed, after all." Carter grinned at me, then pointed the blue swirly object at the near-by pedestal. A flash of intense light, and we were staring at a darkly attired pedestal, swathed in charcoal and rusted orange.
"Well, it's better than the Tollan uniform." Daniel commented.
"That would not be difficult to achieve, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c replied, tongue in cheek. He had a point. The Silver uniform of the Tollan was a truly… lovely piece of clothing that I was eternally grateful I'd never had to put on.
"Okay, now that we've got that confirmed, back to the fountain." I ordered.
"Sir?" Carter called as she followed.
"We've been in these outfits for four days straight, Carter. I think you could class us as offensive, just by our smell."
"Oh." She replied, then stepped slightly away from me.
About twenty minutes, a wash and several different clothing styles later, we were all dressed in khaki green (which we all decided was much more comfortable that fluorescent purple), with snug black synthetic shoes.
"These feel… weird." Daniel bounced up and down on his new shoes, testing them out.
"They're kinda snug, aren't they?" I agreed, twirling an ankle to get used to the close fitting shoe. I looked at Carter and Teal'c, who had ignored their new clothing in order to concentrate on more interesting things. Weaponry.
"Teal'c!" I yelled when a piece of wall shuddered and then disappeared before our eyes. Teal'c looked back at me, then glanced at the weapon he'd just fired in appreciation.
"I am most curious to know where the section of wall has gone, O'Neill." He told me, studying the weapon in his hands.
"Teal'c? Can I?" Carter asked, holding her hand out for the thing. Teal'c silently handed it over, and Carter fiddled with it for a few seconds, then fired it again. The wall re-appeared. Not where it was originally, but it reappeared.
"Daniel?" I called, seeing a large section of wall where Daniel had just been.
"Here." Daniel replied, walking around the newly rematerialised wall. "That was neat."
"It must hold the molecular structure inside the device, somehow. This button here compresses and collects the molecules. This button here reverses the procedure."
"So if we shoot some grey butt, they aren't necessarily dead?" I clarified.
"Jack!" Daniel objected. "We aren't going around shooting Asgard."
"Just in case, Danny. Just in case." I picked up the last of our little 'gadgets'. "Now, what about these. What do they do?" I handed it off to Carter, who looked briefly at it, then handed it to Daniel.
"It has symbols on it. Daniel?" The archaeologist was looking at the device, turning it over in his hand. It was about the size of an old mobile phone – the one's that looked like a small brick – and it was a very metallic blue.
"It has a frame of location, here." Daniel pointed to one symbol that seemed to shimmer as he placed his hand over it. "And here, it looks like a field generator." He pointed to the oscillating symbol, turning slowly in it's display.
"So one says where we're going. The other says how many?" Carter peered over Daniel's shoulder.
"At a guess, yes." He and Carter began to go into detailed speculation, which I quickly put an end to by snatching the device out of Daniel's hand.
"So, shall we try it?"
"What about the difference in weight ratio's from the Asgard to us?" Carter pointed out. "There could be a problem… No, I think the Asgard would have been smart enough to give us a manoeuvring device that was programmed to our particular structure and unique genetic makeup."
"You think?" I clarified her statement.
"I'm pretty sure they would have." She assured me. Well, she tried to assure me. It didn't exactly work.
"Is there a way we can test this without hurting or turning one of us inside out?"
"Ahh, no." Daniel apologised. "If you want, I'll go first."
"No. If someone is going to get their insides looked at, it should be me." I replied, then stood in the open passageway. "Shoot me, Carter." I ordered her.
"Why, sir. I thought you'd never ask." She gushed, and shot me. To say the feeling was alien would be an understatement. It didn't feel at all like the Stargate. It didn't feel like the Asgard 'beam-me-up-scotty' device. It was somewhere in the middle. Kind of like a children's roller-coaster. Fun, you get a bit of the rush, but nowhere near the adrenalin boost a full adult roller-coaster can give you. Add to that the disappearance of your team-mates, and then the slow fade in of the bright orange tree line, now very much within touching distance, and it made for a very odd effect. I briefly held my breath, thinking that the air on this planet would not support me, then remembered our tour a few hours ago. We were outside then, with no problem. I inhaled, then grinned. I was the right way out, in another place, and I had weapons. All I needed was my team, and I was a happy man. With that thought, the rest of my team shimmered into sight.
"It worked." I told them, grinning. I was now officially a happy man.
"Well, obviously." Daniel replied, gesturing at my right-side-out presence.
"And we can transfer the transferee at the same time." Carter sounded ecstatic about that.
"The transferee?" I repeated, chuckling.
"You know what I mean." Carter harumphed at me, then turned to watch Daniel, who was studying the trees with rapt attention.
"Danny?" I called his attention back to the task at hand. He turned back and raised an eyebrow. "So, any more theories on why we got all these goodies?"
"No, Jack. But I was thinking. Why don't we go and do some exploring. Any questions we ask the Asgard High Council are sure to be influenced by the partisan they follow. If we talk to the ordinary, every day Asgard, we may get some more idea's of what's going on."
"Let's do that, then. Daniel, where do we want to go to find the common variety of Asgard?"
"Probably Odin's Hall. That's here, see?" He pointed to a space on the blue moving device, that was about the size of New York, and had some squiggly writing on it.
"What's that say?" I pointed at the writing.
"Odin's Hall. Place of the Asgard."
"Ah. Captain, take us there!"
"Captain!?" Carter spluttered. I chuckled evilly, then decided to explain before I got scalped. "As in, Captain of the ship… You know, person in charge of movement. Just take us to
Odin's Hall, Colnel." I sighed, in defeat. I saw her mutter to herself as she set the destination, but decided not to call her on it. I like my hands to be functional, not blobs of broken flesh on the ends of my arms, thank you.
The world faded in the dizzying 'beam-me-up-scotty' way that I'd experienced a few minutes before, and we were in a large city area, surrounded by an assortment of both Asgard and aliens. Some I recognised, but there were many that I didn't. We didn't earn a second glance as we appeared close to the wall of one large building. Good, blending in didn't appear to be a problem here.
"Teal'c, you and Carter head over to the west.. ah, that way. Daniel and I will canvas the area directly below that huge overpass there. Info gather, people, but don't bring attention to yourselves, if at all possible. We'll meet back here in 2 hours." Teal'c and Carter nodded and wandered off towards the large fountain and what looked to be an eating area to the west of us. Daniel and I headed towards the large overpass, navigating our way around the busy square.
"Jack, did you notice that?" Daniel asked, leaning in closer and nodding his head to his left. I looked over and saw what he was pointing out. There were a few humanoid people sitting down in what looked like an Asgard café. There were seats of all varieties arranged neatly, and people were seated in small groups. One of the humanoid aliens caught my eye and smiled a hello.
"Well, looks like we've got an invitation, Danny. Let's see where it takes us, huh?" I smiled back, and we both walked casually over to the group. The one who'd smiled at me stood up and held out a hand, palm up. I mirrored it, hoping I was doing the right thing.
"Catel Mina, Friend." The man said, nodding his head. Daniel repeated the greeting for us, and we all sat down again.
"I am Serien Do'liaan of Nuthol. This is Arwew, Niuyl and Burlios."
"I'm Daniel Jackson and this is Jack O'Neill."
"Strange names." The one called Arwew said, leaning forward and sipping her drink slowly. "You're not from Nuthol are you?"
"No. We're not." I replied, not giving them any information. "So, what are you four doing hanging around Odin's Hall?" I looked around, and as far as I could see, we were the only humanoid aliens in the area.
"We're here to pick up some cargo from the Lolithian's to take back to Iopen. Just waiting for the inventory to come through." Serien answered, picking up his own drink.
"Iopen? Where's that?"
"Other side of Asgard, just this side of the Chifrei. You been there? To Chifrei, I mean?"
"No. Haven't had the chance yet. So, what's good to drink here?"
"Oh, the Watniop, definitely. It's got a bite, but it grows on you. And the after effects are pretty spectacular."
"Sounds good, but I don't think I will, not this early in the day. Any thing a little less interesting? Danny here doesn't do too well with drinks that have bite."
"If you want something plainer, go with Riop Juice. Sweet, and got a hell of a lot of nutrients for us 'noids. Those squares the Asgard give us just don't do it, do they?"
"That's the truth!" Niuyl toasted, chugging back the remainder of his glass of Watniop. Whatever the hell that was. Serien ordered two glasses of Riop Juice for us, and they appeared quickly.
"So, what are you four doing here? What you after?" Serien asked about half an hour later, after some idle small talk. I blinked, but otherwise didn't show any surprise. Black ops trained, remember? Nothing surprises us…. Hah.
"An Asgard Mother ship." I replied, and got a bark of laughter from Burlios for my trouble. I smiled at him, then sat back, sipping the Juice. It was nice. A little bland, but Serien was right, I was feeling decidedly full from the drink, and there was energy bubbling below the surface of my skin, just dying to get out.
"Ha ha, Jack. You're a scout team aren't you? Military? What info are you after?" Serien was serious all of a sudden. I had this lurching feeling that these four were not just traders. Just like we weren't just explorers. Especially not today.
"What rank are you?" Burlios asked, leaning forward. I was suddenly aware of just how big Burlios was. Nothing to match Teal'c, but still bigger than I was, and much closer than Teal'c. Wherever he was right now.
"General." I finally answered, staring Burlios down. "This is Dr Daniel Jackson. We are a scout team, but it's not what you think. My superiors asked me to come through and make sure our enemy isn't present on Asgard, to ensure the safety of some talks they intend to have with the Asgard High Council." I decided to give them our real ranks, figuring that out here, General and Doctor wouldn't mean a hell of a lot to anyone. Hell, as far as any one knew, Daniel could have been my superior.
"Good luck." Arwew snorted, swallowing a laugh.
"What do you mean?"
"Getting the Asgard to help the 'noids is like getting… I don't know, jul'es out of a kitchu stone. Impossible. Can't do it."
"They've helped us before." I said, sounding worried and curious. Hopefully just the right amount of each.
"That was probably a few years ago, right? Now, Loki… Look, just take is as Suo that you won't get any help from the Asgard. Not while Loki holds the sway of power. And that's just going to get tighter, if he gets his way with Thor." Serien sounded bitter, almost snarling the last few words. I topped up his Watniop again, and leaned forward.
"What's he want with Thor?" I asked, looking only at Serien.
"He doesn't want Thor. He just want's Thor dead. Along with any and all of his friends." Serien replied, then sculled the newly topped up drink and belched. I got a whiff of the gasses and almost gagged. He smelt like a fermenting peach. Sickly sweet. Then what he said actually sank in. Loki wanted Thor and all his friends dead. That included us and the entire of Earth, plus everyone else we knew, basically. I shot a look at Daniel, who looked equally shocked and stunned. This could be bad. Very bad.