Author's note: Thanks as ever to Teri, Jezowen and Village Mystic.
Revised 11.24.04
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CHAPTER 24: REVELATIONS
Methos waited impatiently as Thor dispatched the remaining SFs back to the base, and ushered SG-1, himself and Joe to what passed for a conference table on an Asgard ship. Well at least it was round, he thought, even if its surface consisted of what looked like stacked up metallic tiles permeated with deep indentations.
He should, he knew, be anxious to learn more about the implications of Thor's revelations for him, and for all immortals. Joe, he could see, was dying of curiosity. Instead, though, he felt utterly detached. The origins of immortals in general – or himself in particular - seemed purely of academic interest.
Instead, he was preoccupied with learning the truth about O'Neill. It was as if he had been watching a TV program about some stranger he'd come to empathize with. The latest installment of 24 perhaps. And the timer had clicked to end the hour, leaving him with the cliffhanger.
It seemed to take forever, but was probably only thirty seconds or so before they all managed to find a perch or position that wasn't too uncomfortable, stopped shuffling, and looked at Thor expectantly.
"It is true, O'Neill," Thor said. "You are indeed a product of this program. I believe that your ability to download the Ancients' database was because you have some Ancient genes as part of your make-up. As well as some Asgard material. I have always considered you to be one of our children."
The little alien turned his limpid eyes on O'Neill.
"One of my children," Thor amended. "Some of my genetic material has been incorporated into your genetic matrix."
"The resemblance is obvious," O'Neill cut in sarcastically, breaking into the moment. "The moment I saw you I felt like I was looking in a mirror."
"He didn't say he was your twin, O'Neill," Methos interjected. "Just the contributor of a few stray genes."
"Not Danny de Vito?" the Colonel said mock-sadly.
It was a good act, Methos thought. But somewhat undermined by his reluctance to meet anyone's eyes.
Methos didn't sense any signs of pre-immortality in the Colonel. But he assumed he must be - that the spaceship out there was the source of immortals. Idun had been the goddess of immortality, after all. Methos eyed Thor speculatively.
"Somewhat more than a few genes," Thor replied. "The Asgard once looked as humans do," he added, "as SG-1 will recall from the Asgard that Heimdall was studying when Osiris attacked my ship."
The Colonel was pretending to study his hands intently, Methos noted.
"So how did your genes get to be part of Idun's experiments, Thor?" Methos asked for him.
"The Asgard practice genetic engineering has been our undoing as well as our hope for salvation. But there are strict controls placed on the operations of scientists in this area. So strict that several have rebelled."
Methos could see Carter wincing. He wondered what had happened.
"Idun was a scientist working in this field. Unbeknownst to us, however, Idun had become a host to a Goa'uld. She stole the genetic material of several Asgard, including myself – and our allies – and then hid her laboratory here above the Earth. She was trying to create the perfect host."
SG-1, Methos noted, were staring at their commanding officer with a mixture of wonder, pity, and compassion. Only Teal'c's face remained unreadable.
Methos watched as Teal'c reached over from his place next to the Colonel and placed an arm on O'Neill's shoulder.
O'Neill roughly pushed it away.
"Yes, well, hadn't we better get back to the main game here, campers," O'Neill replied. "Like dealing with Mother Hubbard's cupboard over there," he waved in the direction of Thrynheim.
The rest of SG-1 looked less than ready to let it go.
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"So is it true that SG-1 are alive?" Jacob gasped out, as he crashed through the doorway of the Operations Center, trying to recover his breath as he spoke. "Sam's alive?"
George Hammond looked up and gazed sympathetically at his friend. Jacob must have taken the emergency shaft up from the SGC in order to get here so quickly.
"Yes, Jacob. They are all safe. Thor beamed them out in time, and Sam's with the rest of SG-1 aboard his spaceship."
"Thank goodness for evil gray little genius," Jacob replied, relieved. He collapsed onto a seat. "Mind you, I'll strangle his scrawny little neck when I get hold of him," he said. "Why couldn't he have called to let us know they were safe?"
George watched while his friend let off steam. He agreed wholeheartedly. Not that there was any point in raising the issue with Thor – in the end alien minds just thought differently, had different priorities. Something he'd increasingly noticed when it came to the man standing in front of him. He quickly pushed the thought away, though. For now, Jacob was acting exactly as he'd expect of the father of his Major Carter.
"Anyway, Jacob," he said, "let me fill you in on what's going on."
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This was so bizarre, Joe thought. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that he would get to go into space and meet real, honest-to-God aliens. Least of all ones that looked like the Roswell pictures. And were in some sense the parents of immortals. He looked as Methos speculatively, but the old man's face was shuttered tight. He decided to jump in, and break the awkward silence.
"Okay, so I know about the Asgard," Joe said, gesturing politely at Thor. "But who or what are the Ancients?"
"Thousands of years ago, there was an alliance of four great and powerful races," Thor replied. "The Asgard, the Nox, the Furlings, and the Ancients. Together, we kept order in this and many other galaxies. But each in turn became the subject of an enemy we could not deal with, either singularly or collectively. The Nox revere life so much that they would not fight. They chose to withdraw to the Land of Light that they created, and hide themselves from their enemies."
"We've met the Nox," Dr Jackson added. "They saved our lives from the Goa'uld."
"But will not act to destroy the Goa'uld threat," Thor replied.
Pacifist aliens, Joe thought. Now I've heard it all.
"Can we get back to the point," O'Neill intervened. "I really think we need to deal with that thing over there before it crashes into something else, let alone creates more little O'Neill twins."
"I believe it will be important for all of you to be working from the same information base," Thor replied. "Lieutenant Adams is unaware of some of this information, and he may need it if your mission to Thrynheim is to succeed."
"I haven't agreed to let the Lieutenant come with us yet," O'Neill replied. "Call me old-fashioned, but we usually shoot people who try to blow up US Air Force bases."
Joe winced on Methos' behalf.
"Such an action would be ineffective, O'Neill," Thor replied, his eyes blinking slowly with what Joe took to be amusement. "Besides which Lt Adams' presence will be essential to the success of the mission," Thor continued. "I believe that further information exchanges will prove enlightening."
"Let's just speed up then shall we?" O'Neill said grudgingly.
Thor nodded, and then resumed his story.
"The Asgard withdrew to our home galaxy to fight the Replicators. When we returned, we found the Furlings and the Ancients had gone."
"The Ancients were the ones who built the Stargate system we use to travel to other planets," Daniel said. "But it's Jack who has had the most experience of the Ancients of the unascended-kind. We went on a mission where he managed to activate an Ancient data repository. It grabbed his head and downloaded all of its contents into Jack's head. It started taking over his brain – he lost the ability to speak English, and started building Ancient devices."
"It was lucky for me that he did," Carter chipped in. "I was trapped on a planet with a dud Stargate at the time. Jack was able to send me the plans to fix it. Then he built a device that took him to the Asgard home-world, and they were able to reverse the damage the database had done to his brain."
"Focus, people," O'Neill said. "Let's not get diverted."
"So why did the Ancients disappear? Are there any clues where they went?" Joe asked.
"We're not quite sure why they did it," Daniel replied. "But as to where, they ascended to a higher level of existence. I was one of them for a while."
Joe stared at him incredulously.
"So they were not immortals then?" Methos said, looking up at Thor.
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"Let me get this straight, George," Jacob said to his friend. "Holloway was Jack's CO back before the Stargate program started, when Jack was working in NORAD?"
"Yep," replied Hammond. "Holloway was a one-star back then, Command Director of the Alpha Shift, while Jack briefly headed up Space Command."
Jacob gasped, and started choking on his coffee. George reached over and patted him on the back, grinning as he did so.
"Jack was head of NORAD's Space Control Center?" Jacob said incredulously.
"Sure was," George replied, clearly enjoying himself. "Did a Ph.D in Astronomy after he was transferred out of Special Ops for medical reasons, and moved over here in '94."
"Does Sam know any of this?" He asked. "She'll be furious when she finds out - he's got that dumb SF routine down perfectly."
He paused for a moment.
"Although it was always obvious that he wasn't as dumb as he claimed," he muttered almost as an afterthought.
'Or you would have pulled rank on our joint missions', Selmak whispered in his mind. 'True enough' he replied silently.
"As far as I know he hasn't told any of his team," Hammond replied. "Jack actually asked me not to tell them as a personal favor. As far as I could gather, Jack regarded his whole diversion on to the scientific track as a time he'd rather forget. Didn't help that he was in the middle of a major fight with Holloway when his son Charlie died. He'd been trying to appeal to General Thryceson, the then-overall commander of the Mountain, when his son Charlie got hold of his gun and pulled the trigger. I gather he just crumpled at that point. Gave up and resigned."
"So what was it all about?" Jacob asked. "It's hard to imagine Jack getting so passionate about anything. From what I've seen, he normally just buckles down and follows orders – or not – without arguing much."
"Well, now, Jacob, here's the real irony. Seems Jack claimed to have detected alien vessels in Earth's solar system. Wanted the Government to launch some probes to check his readings, and start setting up a program to help defend ourselves against potential alien invaders. Holloway didn't accept his evidence - claimed Jack was just trying to make a name for himself."
"A case of the pot calling the kettle black, if ever I heard one," Jacob replied. "I've never met a bigger publicity-seeker than Holloway."
"I agree," said George. "But he's a brown-noser – wouldn't want to support something that would be as unpalatable as Jack's message. Holloway was trying to get him court-martialed at the time he resigned. And I'm pretty sure he was responsible for suggesting him for the Abydos mission."
"But surely if he knew about the Stargate he would have worked out that Jack was probably right?"
"I don't think he did know about the Stargate," George replied. "Just that they were looking for someone with both a Special Forces and a scientific background. And someone they could send on a suicide mission."
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"Immortals?" O'Neill demanded.
"The Ancients were not immortals." Thor replied, ignoring the interjection. "Although you are correct in assuming that immortals are also the product of Thrynheim."
"So what's an immortal?" Daniel demanded, echoing the Colonel.
"Both Joe and I are Watchers," Methos said slightly too quickly. He slowed himself down deliberately. "Members of an organization that has chronicled the lives of a group of men and women who stay forever young. Immortals do die – in fact, they age perfectly normally up until the point of their first death, but then they stay the same, physically at least, forever. If they are killed or wounded, their body just repairs itself. Watcher records go back over two thousand years, and we know of immortals aged over 5,000 years old. And they are all foundlings."
"And they can't be killed permanently?" Daniel said.
"Well they can, but it's extremely difficult to do," Adam replied.
"Well that's all absolutely fascinating," O'Neill replied. "Brother."
Methos flinched. Whether it was biologically true or not, the word 'brother' would always be tainted by his memories of the men he had rode with as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Would always call to mind the twisted relationship he had had with Kronos, Silas and Caspian. Men he had killed – or arranged to be killed.
"And so when was your first death?" Daniel asked.
"I said I was a Watcher, not an immortal," Methos replied, trying to maintain his calm.
Joe looked pointedly at the ground. 'Et tu, Watcher,' Methos thought at him.
"Come off it, Adam," Daniel said. "You look exactly the same today as you did twenty years ago when I first met you."
"Well I was infested by a Goa'uld, wasn't I," he replied defensively. "They artificially extend the lives of their hosts."
Joe almost jumped up in his chair, startled. Methos ignored him.
"So just when was it that Thor rescued you and extracted the Goa'uld?" Daniel demanded. "When I interrogated you in the SGC you made it sound like you had been around when the Goa'uld Ra was finally thrown off the Earth."
Methos cursed his loose tongue.
"And you managed to survive two zat shots, and have an energy signature that exactly matches that of Thrynheim," Colonel O'Neill contributed.
"I can explain that," Methos replied, desperately scrabbling to think how.
O'Neill didn't give him a chance.
"Major Carter, I believe you have a weapon?" O'Neill said, before Methos could come up with a story to keep him at bay.
Carter nodded, and then drew out the sidearm one of the SFs had insisted she keep. She raised the gun up, and pointed it at Methos with a steady hand.
"Do I have to get Major Carter to shoot you and see if you come back to life?" Colonel O'Neill said.
"Oh alright," he said. "No need for that, I give in."
O'Neill gestured him to start speaking.
"Alright, alright, I am an immortal."
Glancing at O'Neill for permission, Major Carter lowered the gun.
"So shooting you would prove – ineffective?" he asked.
"Oh, I would die," Methos replied. "But I'd revive again."
"Terminator lives?" O'Neill said.
"Something like that," Methos said.
"So how did you come to meet Thor? Didn't you say you had been a Goa'uld?"
"I was taken over by the Goa'uld Death, did a few nasty Goa'uldy things. Then Thor rescued me. End of story." He looked around. A look of sudden understanding, and then satisfaction was spreading across Joe's face. Methos grinned momentarily at him.
"Anyway, shouldn't we be getting on with doing something about Thrynheim?" He said, desperate to move the conversation on before the memories surfaced once more.
"I'm sure we can spare a few more moments while I get to know one of my siblings," O'Neill drawled.
"We're hardly that," Methos returned. "After all, you don't have the energy signature. And I'm almost certain you are not an immortal."
"No, he is not an immortal," Thor replied. "That's why SG-1 will need your help to get on board Thrynheim."
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"What can I do to help get the bastard, George?" Jacob asked. "I've never liked Holloway, and with what you've told me now – there's no way we can afford to leave him in a position like head of the Cheyenne Mountain Center. Think of the damage he could do to Earth's security, never mind the effect on Jack."
"I know," George replied. "I knew there'd be trouble as soon as I heard he was being appointed to the Mountain. But I heard about it too late to block the appointment. Hell, I even called the President – but what with the election and all he wasn't very interested. Besides which, it seems Holloway has some backers."
"Not Kinsey again?" Jacob groaned.
"I haven't got any proof," George replied, "But that'd be my guess. He served as an attaché to one of Kinsey's Committees several years back."
"As for Jack," Hammond went on. "I'd planned to put someone else in charge of NORAD liaison – fortunately Jack's been either off world or out of commission for the last few weeks – but I was waiting to find an excuse to tell him. Well actually, I was trying to psyche myself up to telling him the news - I even made sure he didn't get the memo about Holloway's appointment."
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"See, here's where I have a problem, Thor," Jack said. "You want us to rely on 'Adams' here to get inside Thrynheim. But so far he's done his best to stop us finding it in the first place – I'm pretty sure now he sabotaged our data. Then he crashed our computers and tried to blow us up. Now you're telling me he's my long-lost brother, and has to be on my team?"
"But I thought you were Goa'uld, invading Earth," Methos protested.
Thor waved a hand to stop him continuing.
"I believe we should discuss this privately, O'Neill," Thor said. "Perhaps the rest of the group could start preparing for the assault on Thrynheim."
Jack nodded his acquiescence.
"Major Carter, the first stage is to get aboard the laboratory. I believe that this can be accomplished by modifying my ship's transporter beam so that its shielding modulation matches that of Thrynheim. If you would assist my technicians with this?"
Carter nodded her agreement. An Asgard appeared at the doorway, and she got up and left with him.
"There is a second problem, and that is obtaining the correct code to deactivate the controls on the ship. While I have narrowed the options down to several dozen permutations, the number might be further reduced with appropriate study. I have obtained some material from Idun's other records that I believe may be helpful in this regard. They are, however, written in Asgard runes. I would ask that Dr Jackson and Lt Adams study the data."
"I can probably help as well," Joe said. "If the language is anything like Norse, that is. I've got some pretty good training in ancient and medieval languages."
"Very well," Thor agreed. "I also have plans of the vessel. Teal'c, would you please study them and develop a recommended plan of action once we are onboard?"
Teal'c nodded his head gravely.
He indicated another Asgard, who stood waiting to escort them to their assigned tasks.
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"What can I do to help, George," Jacob Carter repeated.
"Well, it's like this," Hammond replied. "The Tok'ra specialize in infiltration, right?"
Jacob nodded. He was beginning to see where this was going.
"Holloway has been demanding that I appoint a liaison officer to start organizing for his precious Open Day tomorrow. He was all set to arrive at the front gate and barge in. I called General Jumper, to get him to cool him down a bit, but I figure I should throw him a bone. How would you feel about playing the defector from the SGC's camp?"
Jacob grinned back at his friend. "It would be a pleasure, George. Now how do you want me to do this?"
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"It's just me and you left, Thor," Jack said. "So tell me why I should trust Adams. Or whatever his real name is."
"I do not think that Lt Adams is the problem here, O'Neill," Thor replied. "Surely it is obvious to you that he was acting in what he thought were the best interests of Earth?"
Jack looked down, refusing to meet Thor's eyes.
"The man nearly took out the SGC," he muttered back. "He got closer to destroying our frontline defenses against the Goa'uld than Senator Kinsey, Apophis or the NID."
"Yet I don't believe that is the real issue, O'Neill."
"Oh yes it is," he replied. "It's all about trust."
He looked up abruptly.
Are you really my father?" Jack found himself blurting out.
"In a sense," Thor replied, reaching out to touch his shoulder. "Although your genetic structure also incorporates material from a number of other sources. But I am proud to claim you as my progeny, nonetheless."
Jack shook him off, and stalked over to the window, and stared out at the laboratory where he had been created. I'm no one's child – not even truly human, he thought to himself. Just the product of a test-tube.
Thor appeared again at his side.
"I, too, am the product of a laboratory, O'Neill," Thor replied. "Am I any less the product of my parents' genes for inhabiting a cloned body?"
"Mini-me certainly doesn't think so," O'Neill muttered back. "I try not to think about it."
"Are your origins really so distasteful to you, O'Neill?" Thor said.
Jack didn't shift his gaze from the view of Thrynheim.
"You are still you, after all. Nothing has really changed."
"Everything has changed," he replied. "I thought I was defending my people, my planet. But I'm not even human."
"You were defending your people," Thor replied. "And you are as human as most of the other inhabitants of Earth are, or the anomalies would have shown up in your medical examinations. There are many inhabitants on your planet who are either from Thrynheim, or descended from its creations. But in any case, being human is not solely a matter of biology. Or do you regard your friend Teal'c, or Dr Fraiser's daughter Cassandra as less than human?"
"I suppose not," he replied, reluctantly. "Maybe I just need some time to get used to all of this," Jack replied.
"Time is one thing we do not have, O'Neill," Thor replied. "We must rescue the genetic material on Thrynheim as soon as possible before the craft is destroyed in your atmosphere."
Jack shook himself. "Well in that case, let's get this show on the road and do something about that damned dalek factory over there," he said decisively.
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