Chapter 17 – Time Goes On

Once outside the medical bay, Dude began to walk fast towards his room after saying goodnight, as he was almost asleep on his feet. Alex hung back with Daniel as they walked.

"Good job," she said as they rounded a corner. "Not many have had the courage on their second mission off world and in a crisis to do the things you did. They usually either don't want to go, for fear of messing up, or are so confident they can do anything right that they do mess up. You're one of the brave few who actually didn't think too much and just went with your gut instinct, doing it exactly right."

"Thanks," he replied. "It's strange…the more time I spend on this ship—it's almost been three weeks now—I feel more at home; especially with the people. I mean, I can tell you where the engine room is, and I've never been there. It's like it was uploaded into my brain or something. I feel like I've been a part of this team all my life. But this entire ordeal, without you, the General, Dude, and Dagón, I'd have been totally lost. Give yourself some credit!"

Nodding, Alex relented. "All right, but you did do a really great job…"

"Thanks. I know our efforts were good because we got our man back and still have the ship safe and sound. There's really not much more I can ask for." He stopped by his room's door and opened it with the palm-scanner attached to the doorframe. Looking over at Alex—who was doing the exact same thing to her room right next to his—he nodded deeply and said, "Goodnight."

"You, too," she replied with a half-smile, and they both went into their rooms, falling immediately into a deep sleep with the satisfying feelings of a huge accomplishment and a job very well done.

Three weeks went by without incident. Colonel O'Brien was still in the hospital wing, but he was doing much better. His burns had been so severe that Kate couldn't heal him that quickly with her abilities. John didn't mind, however. He had been moved to the corner hospital bed and had all the privacy he wanted. He could be alone with Kate, as well…and neither of them was complaining.

Dagón had spent much needed time in Monileek during the period of inactivity, refreshing and repairing his body with the aide of his symbiote. Dude had used the time to crack a few more codes and hack into a database he hadn't had the time to get into before. The General had gotten some much needed sleep. Finally getting the time to recalibrate the ship's oxygen scrubbers and engines, Alex had used her time wisely. And Daniel had caught up on reading the journals had had gotten.

The journals were fascinating, detailing every single mission Daniel Jackson and his team had gone on…and there were hundreds—enough to fill 45 huge, thick notebooks. He took his glasses off after finishing a particularly gross mission where the team's alien, Teal'c, had been stung by a huge bug and began to rewrite his DNA; it had been messy, and quite gross, but they managed to avert disaster and somehow return everything to normal. Sighing with a sort of relief, Daniel put his glasses on, checked his watch, bookmarked his place, and left for the infirmary.

As was their custom for the week, Alex, Dagón, Daniel and Dude all congregated around the Colonel at 13:00 hours to talk the rest of the day with him and to keep him company. Walking into the infirmary, Daniel found that he was the last one there.

After apologizing for being late, he sat down and they began talking. After an hour or so, they began to tell Daniel about the Androidian race.

"While they were in command of Old Earth, they wreaked havoc, enslaving the strongest on the planet and killing the weakest," Alex explained. "They were banished through the Spacegate we have on Earth by the most powerful race of aliens called the Guardia. They then buried both 'Gates so that the Androidians never could come back…for at least as long as the Spacegate and Stargate were buried. We've heard that the aliens have been trying as hard as they could to get back to Earth in order to take over once again. And we have been preventing them from doing that so far." She fell silent, smiling slightly at the bewildered-looking Daniel.

John looked at the linguist with sympathy, but continued telling anyway. "There are two forms of Androidian, Daniel," the Colonel said. "One is the larva stage, which Dagón has in his chest, wound lazily around his heart. It keeps his blood flowing better than all of us, and can heal any injury or sickness. It allows him to have very long life."

"Is that so, Dagón?"

"Aye, it is, matey," said Dagón. "An' I've the cuts t' prove it." The Machiá lifted his shirt and the crew looked at the diagonal lines in the shape on an 'X' right in the middle of his chest. After a minute of coaxing from Dagón, the Androidian larva poked its head out, screeching for all to hear.

It was a deep blue with red eyes and tongue. It was long, like a snake, but the head somewhat resembled that of a seahorse. Its mouth was huge, with no teeth and shaped like a tube. It didn't look right coming out of Dagón's chest like that.

"Whoa!" Daniel exclaimed as the Androidian larva retracted back into its owner's chest.

"Aye," Dagón said again. "Me life depends on him residin' in me. If he was to leave, me heart'd stop beating, for the Androidian gods wanted us to need the larva." He paused. "Methinks it's time to tell him of the Androidian gods, me buckos."

"All right, Dagón," Alex said. "I'll tell this one.

"The other form of the Androidians is almost humanoid, though they have characteristics of different things and are not living, but are, in fact, androids—hence their name. Most of the 'gods,' as they call themselves—there are ten total most-powerful gods—took the ideas of Greek gods and transformed themselves so that they resembled them. Case in point: the Androidian goddess Aphrodite actually can seduce men by the touch of a hand, and is told to be the most beautiful goddess of all. And the Androidian god Hades actually does rule a world that has the river Styx on it as well as dead people living there. His hair is even supposed to be on fire!

"This race of aliens makes their people fear them, and they're always power-hungry. Those impersonating male Greek deities have a loose bond with the females and vice-versa. Every single one of them, however have a very fragile relationship with the others so they're usually always fighting amongst themselves, which is most times a good thing. You'll become more accustomed to the names of the deities and how their powers work in time. You've probably studied most of them and know what they did…now you have to learn them all over again, but this time, they're real…and can harm you if you aren't aware."

"Yeah, no pressure," John interjected.

Daniel smiled. "Could I see the files on them sometime? I'd like to start seeing what I can remember from ancient Greece. I majored in World History, after all."

"I'll totally bring them up for you, man," Dude offered. "It's the least I can do for someone as radical as you."

Daniel smiled. "Thanks, Dude. I'd really appreciate it."

Right then, Kate walked in with her medical clipboard. There was something different in the way she looked at Colonel O'Brien, but neither Alex nor Daniel could place exactly what it was.

"All right, everyone, I'm releasing the Colonel from the medical bay. I just told Hoffman and he said to tell everyone that you will be going off world tomorrow, so get rested! I hear that you're going to P97-080, as there is definitely some Androidian activity there. He'll debrief you on this subject at 15:00 hours. Until then, you're all free."

"Sweet!" Dude exclaimed. "Let's go to the mess hall!"