Sequel to 7 Points
By Chaoseternus
Chapter 16: Thoughts
Kara grimaced, holding tightly onto the safety bar around the control towers walkway as she gaze across the dark, silent base, lit only by the light of Freedoms twin moons.
She felt the cigar in her mouth sag, almost cut in two by her teeth as they clenched under the stress of her thoughts.
Grimacing, she reached up to tug it out, throw it away but she stopped. She didn't have an infinite supply, they were expensive luxury items imported by the Tau'ri at a premium and she couldn't waste even a damaged one.
Sighing, she reached into her pocket and withdrew her cigar case, a present from Tyrol made from a shattered piece of the Viper she had trashed at Ragnar, bringing Lee to safety.
Frak, but she wanted to get drunk but Hel'tec was teetotal and she wouldn't wish a hangover on anyone, unless they earnt it by getting drunk themselves first of course. And if she got drunk, Hel'tec would feel it.
Damn that Asgard, damn that Loki and his frakking experiments. Damn them all to frakkin hell.
She was Kara, she was supposed to be unique not a genetically modified clone. Hell, was she the clone or was Hel'tec? Hell, was either of them the original?
That Crusher seemed competent enough but she couldn't tell, their had been to much messing around with their DNA.
Frak it, maybe the reason she or Hel'tec never knew real parents was they were bottle babies or something, created and raised by that frakhead, Loki.
Frak, maybe it didn't matter?
After all, Lee and the old man knew now and they had just shrugged it off, to them she was Kara and that's all that mattered. Not her parentage, not how she came to be, they knew her and to them that's all that mattered.
It was bad enough that she had a twin, be it a natural or artificial one but Loki's experiments hadn't ended there, oh no.
Loki had been experimenting with telepathy and empathy, according to notes found and seized by Thor, in order to create a more efficient and less painful conscious transfer process.
Kara shivered, that didn't feel right with her.
An entire civilisation that could no longer procreate naturally, instead cloning bodies and moving their minds from body to body over the decades?
It felt unnatural, dangerous, unsafe and dirty.
She shivered, and there was no guarantee it hadn't happened to her. She was after all, like Hel'tec created for experimentation into the transfer process, wasn't it possible she was a faulty transfer?
Was that why Hel'tec, a jaffa, existed?
An experiment into whether consciousness could be transferred from one mind to another despite genetic and physiological differences?
Was their two because they only had a fragment of the true Kara's consciousness, they felt and reacted so alike because they were one in reality?
"Deep thoughts" she muttered, in perfect time with Hel'tec as the Jaffa appeared behind her, her ever present guards carefully keeping their distance.
"And we can't know the answer" Hel'tec continued, alone.
"Not with Loki dead" Kara added.
They both grinned sardonically, but it was Kara who continued, "whats the betting his accident was the sort of accident you call… an accident "
"No bet" they continued, simultaneously.
"Frak, this is weird" Kara spat out, "I know what you say before you say, what you do before you do it…"
Hel'tec nodded, "it is weird, and we must make sure the false gods do not here of it"
"Yeah," Kara asked, "why do you serve those guys anyway?"
Hel'tec shrugged, and Kara received a blinding impression of not having anywhere else to go, no escape, the fate of those who tried to leave the 'Gods' employ and were caught, of not having a strong enough reason to risk all that, until now.
Kara nodded, understanding on several levels. So, they were different then. She would have fought for her freedom at every opportunity; Hel'tec was more inclined to apathy as compared to Kara's rather cocky and upfront nature.
She also understood why the Goa'uld should never find out, if they knew they had two potential hosts with such an efficient and quick method of communication, they and all those they called friends would never be safe.
Kara vowed she would die before that happened.
Hel'tec didn't, she had not friends to die for, she would die not to be a host, even though she was Jaffa, the Goa'uld would find some way to make a host of her with sufficient reason and Hel'tec was no-ones host.
Kara and Hel'tec gazed into the night sky as they contemplated the future, their thoughts dark and broody until the sun rose six hours later.