Chapter 1 – The Beginning
Doctor Daniel Matthewson sighed as he walked into his classroom. It wasn't that he didn't like teaching Ancient Earth History and Languages at the most prestigious university of Neo-America—he thoroughly enjoyed it—but his high school students had been rowdy all week with the promise that spring break was right around the corner.
While walking to his desk, one of the many free-floating paper airplanes made from handed-back class work glided down and rested itself on his briefcase. Sighing again, Daniel took his glasses off and wearily rubbed his eyes. It was a very late Friday afternoon in May, after all—the Friday before the latest spring break on record—so he figured that the kids were entitled to some rowdiness and that he couldn't be too mad at them. After all, he wanted the break, as well.
The bell finally rang and the class officially started. The linguist-doctor, who had PhDs in the study of various Human Languages and Ancient World History, had been teaching his students about how this world was formed the few weeks before. Today, he figured, his class probably wouldn't remember anything he taught them because of the break, and so he thought he'd just talk about the subject the class had been dying to get to since school started: that of how people evolved on this planet and the Dark Ages.
"Since there's spring break coming up," Daniel said over the rumble of his students' quiet talking; "I thought that we would talk briefly about the origins of the people of this planet today, as I know you won't remember anything along the lines of the subjects we were actually studying."
The entire classroom laughed slightly and then fell silent. One young man raised his head from the desk he was trying to nap on.
"Do you mean the legend of how the Goa'uld caused the Dark Ages across the Earth and how the Androidians took over?"
"I mean exactly that." Daniel looked around and saw the look of anticipation and happiness on the faces of his students and continued.
"Even though it is a legend, I believe it actually did happen. As we all know, this is the year 2285 A.D., or After Darkness, which was our planet's time in utter chaos after the alien attacks. There were no schools, no churches, no books, no civilized people whatsoever. The people were living in constant fear…forgetting the works of people who were called Shakespeare, Tolkein, and Miguel de Cervantes…forgetting languages, music, art, math, and science… It was a very trying time that set the human race back a few thousand years, and for that, I believe the human culture has been around longer than we have ever thought possible."
A girl raised her hand and was called upon. "Isn't that the belief made you a laughingstock of the scientific world?"
Daniel looked at her and smiled a bit sheepishly. "Yes, it was. But that didn't hinder what I believe. I still believe those events did happen, though the others of the scientific world don't agree with me. Let that be a lesson to you all: never give up or stop believing in what you think is right, no matter what others say about it. Unless it is an answer to a test…"
There was a murmur of laughter.
"So how does the myth go exactly?" another student asked and Daniel began his tale.
"The legend goes like this: a few people of the Earth, more than 4000 years ago, found what became known as a Stargate—a portal to other planets around the galaxy. The Stargate was silver in color, a huge ring with star constellations on an inside ring that spun around the middle. Next to it, usually, was something the humans before us called a DHD—Dial Home Device—which had the exact constellations on it from the Stargate, but only in the form of buttons. Pushing on a sequence of seven of these buttons, the seventh being the planet's point of origin, would cause the Stargate to 'dial-up' another world, so to speak. This would cause a wormhole to be opened. When that occurred, a watery-blue substance, called the 'event horizon,' filled the hollow space inside the ring, forming the wormhole to the other side. Then, all one had to do was step through it."
The class was stunned into silence—a first, the teacher noted with a small smile.
"Well, go on!" one student prompted in awe, and Daniel obeyed him with a nod.
"In what was then called America—where we get the name for our country now—inside a sacred site called Cheyenne Mountain in a place called Colorado, they housed the Stargate. Teams of four people, christened with the letters SG- and then a number, fought the evil aliens, who you know as the Goa'uld, and formed treaties (or tried to at least) with the good aliens; it is written that some of these good alien races were called the Asgard, the Nox, and the Tok'ra. SG-1, the flagship team, was the best of all the teams, and had the brightest and most cunning people at the SGC—or Stargate Command, the base of the Stargate operations.
"While going to these other planets, however, as everyone knows, they encountered a race of evil, parasitical, power-hungry, scavenging aliens with numerous troops and a need for more hosts—the Goa'uld. The many SG-Teams fought these aliens as hard as they could, winning numerous battles and killing many commanders of the Goa'uld Empire—known as System Lords.
"After ten years of secretly fighting, the SG-Teams of Earth had killed every Goa'uld System Lord…or so they thought. While they were celebrating their victory, a dormant System Lord, called Nun, awoke from its undetected hibernation. Then, with its mighty empire—even grander than that of Baal or Apophis—took over the Earth. It released toxins into the air and it had Jaffa—the System Lord's expendable soldiers—patrolling the grounds, killing every human they saw…it was a total time of devastation, a time of human ignorance, and a time of fear.
"And then they came."
"Then what happened?" The students were sitting on the edges of their seats, hanging onto every word their teacher said.
"It is said that the Ancients, a most powerful race of aliens, the Stargate-builders, evolved once more into a race called the Guardia and went into hiding…and that another race of aliens, called the Androidians, came to Earth and finally eliminated the Goa'uld threat. These new aliens, however, weren't good. They were as evil as the Goa'uld were, and they just wanted to take over Earth's resources. But then that glorious day happened…the day we celebrate our independence. The Androidians just disappeared, and the human race was able to progress and evolve again, becoming what we are today. We are all descendants of those people who were oppressed by both alien races and lived to tell the tale. It is a wonderful myth, a new way to look at how our people came to live here, and for that, I believe that this myth is indeed true."
Daniel, his eyes closed while he remembered the tale, finally opened them and was taken aback by the looks on his students' faces. They were all mesmerized by his words; some even looked dreamy, as if they were imagining the legend they all knew too well. Daniel couldn't blame them—he had had his share of dreams, as well. All of a sudden, however, the bell that declared the day was over rang and class ended.
"Have a good spring break! I expect to see all of you here two weeks from Monday!"
"Goodbye Dr. Matthewson!" some of the students called out as they rushed from the classroom. Dr. Daniel was soon left with an empty room.
"Well, that went well," he remarked softly to himself as he tidied up his desk. "I should look into teaching that for a whole semester."
There was a sudden knock on the door that disturbed his thoughts.
"Dr. Daniel Matthewson, I presume?" a man dressed in a black suit asked from the door. Daniel looked up and was instantly wary of the man. He was wearing sunglasses even in the dim light of the classroom and the slight bulge at his side signified that he carried at least one firearm. He also had two other men behind him who also appeared to be bodyguards by the way they carried themselves and by their size.
"Yes, that's me," the linguist said hesitantly. "How can I help you?"
"We were sent here by the government. We hear that you're the man who is world-renown for his studies and knowledge of all the known languages of man. Our government has recently taken an interest in different languages. Would you come with us?"
The other two men suddenly appeared right next to Daniel on either side of him. "Do I have a choice?" the doctor asked and followed the men outside.