Chapter 25 – The Sage
"What is this place?" Daniel asked Dagón as they stepped away from the Spacegate shield. All around him was what seemed to be a temple. It was huge, made with gigantic slabs of grey and white rock. There were intricate patterns wound around each other in the white rock floor. There were also tapestries hanging on the walls, and the sun on the world glinted through the open windows, bathing the entire hallway in which they had landed in an orange-gold glow.
"It be a temple, Daniel," Dagón said. "The Sage, the last one of the race of the Guardia, lives here. She be the wisest of them all, an' one of the key people in our fight with the 'Ndroidians. She tells us what we need to know to git us to be the best we can in the upcoming year, and she sometimes gives us news on what we'll face or do in the future."
"What does she look like?" Daniel asked.
Dagón winked. "Ye'll see, matey," he said, and opened a door.
On the other side of the door was another one across a vestibule, and Dagón ushered everyone in before closing the first door.
"From this point on, Daniel," Alex said as she looked at him, then the door, "we cannot help you or guide you through anything. You must go in to meet her alone. You'll get some information that you may tell us, if that is your wish, and some of it that must remain private until the time is right. Do you understand?"
Daniel nodded, silent, his eyes locking with hers.
"All right, matey. Ye may open the door, and walk in. We'll be here until the Sage is ready for us," Dagón said, and clapped Daniel's shoulder companionably. "Don't worry. All'll be fine."
Nodding again, the linguist held his breath, said a silent prayer, and opened the door, stepping immediately through and closed the door behind him again.
The inside was not what he was expecting. He was suddenly in a garden, surrounded by tons of flowers in all the colors of the rainbow. The sky was the bluest sky he had ever seen, with fluffy white clouds floating by every once in a while. There were lots of beautiful and exotic trees around, too, giving the path the coolness of shade in the slightly warm temperature of the day. Before him was a walkway, paved with light brown tiles. Daniel began walking.
Being in the garden was very soothing for Daniel, who had missed the wildlife and plants of Old Earth. He loved walking through the flowered paths, just letting the sun shine on him, and feel like time was standing still. But, two things were nagging at the back of his mind. Walking down the path, he had the sudden urge to go back to the door and get Alex, wanting to just walk with her in the garden, talking of things he hadn't gotten to talk with her about. That one bothered him a bit, as he knew he had to do this on his own. The second one was meeting the Sage.
"Oh, don't be so worried! I'm not going to hurt you," a voice called from Daniel's right. He looked over and saw an elderly woman sitting on a wooden bench in front of a pond, feeding some ducks. "Come on over, Daniel. It's about time I got to meet you!"
Daniel walked over, wary towards this new person who seemed to know who he was.
"Oh, yes. I know a lot about you, Daniel," she said in response to his thoughts. "And yes, I can read your mind."
Daniel's jaw dropped, and he walked up to her, looking at her intently as she stood up to greet him.
She was short and dark skinned, with shining brown eyes and very greyish-white hair. She looked very old, yet her skin wasn't that wrinkled, and she had a youthful look in her eyes, though that youngness was coupled with the look of intense and deep wisdom.
The woman smiled, revealing perfectly formed, brilliantly white teeth. "My do you look handsome…and a bit different than I imagined you, but that's okay. As you may have guessed, I am the Sage. And no, I'm not always in this form. This is not my true form, Daniel Matthewson. I look much different in my normal state, but I've found that if I appear to be human when dealing with humans, they tend to be more easy about it."
"That's good," Daniel wheezed, feeling like he couldn't get any air into his lungs. "Why am I here?"
"You're here because it has been a tradition with GC-Teams for the crewmembers to come to me once a year and have some ancient knowledge, or future knowledge, bestowed upon them for the upcoming year. I know that you have brought Alex and Dagón with you, and that is good. Since the GC-Teams are the only ones who know of my existence and have kept it a secret, I've agreed to do this in return for their promise of secrecy, and also for their fighting against the Androidian race…the race that destroyed all but one member of my entire race. As you can guess, I am that one."
"But that would make you—!"
"I am well over seven million years old, Daniel. I have seen many ages of your world, especially the planet you refer to as Old Earth. Your theories were right…there was another race of humans before you, and the legends that survive on your planet did indeed actually happen. The reason for the Dark Ages was the Goa'uld because they thought that Earth was getting too powerful, but then the Androidians wiped out the Goa'uld later on and took over the enslavement idea. Now they want to conquer Old Earth because of the hosts it could yield, and because of the resources left in your planet."
"Whoa," Daniel muttered, and the Sage smiled at him.
"It is a lot to take in at once, but don't worry. You'll have time to think about it while you wait for Dagón and Alex to get done with me."
"But I don't—"
"It will be enough time, I assure you," the Sage replied, interrupting him while patting his arm. "Don't you worry."
"He's been gone a long time!" Alex said in frustration as she paced the length of the foyer. Dagón sat leisurely on one of the two spindly chairs pressed against the wall. "What could be taking him so long? I don't think we took that long while we were in there for the first time with her!"
Dagón smiled and shifted position so his right leg rested on the second chair. "Ye know, Daniel be that restless when ye be back on the last planet," the alien said. "He didn' like not being wit ye. It's a sign, says I, that ye're like thi' now."
"Dagón!" Alex said. "Are you saying that I like him, or something?"
"Aye that I am. Ye seem to have sum kind've bond between the two of ye. He knew sum'tin' be wrong with ye and wanted to go back fer ye. An' he be right. I think that ye're destined for the other."
"Well, I do like him…but only as a friend," she said defensively.
"Oh, methinks that the feelin's a wee bit more deeper 'n that," Dagón said, putting his laced fingers behind his head to support it as he stretched his legs.
"Dagón…I—well I…argh!" Alex shoved the pirate's foot off of the other chair and sat down, putting her head in her hands. A few minutes went by before she looked up again. "He really paced back and forth while I was on '080?"
"That he did, aye. He be restless, determined t'go back because of an instinct that ye be in trouble. He paced in the Dialing Room every day, staring at the 'Gate, as if ye were goin' to walk out o' it sometime soon."
"Oh," she said. "He was right…"
"Aye, that 'e was. That 'e was," Dagón said, and went into his own thoughts.
Daniel shifted uncomfortably. The Sage had been looking at him non-stop for the past two minutes, gently probing his mind enough so that she got used to him and so that she could give him advice about his future.
"I see," she said softly, then looked at him. "On your path there will be many hardships…but there will be also be times that are joyful, times that are peaceful, and times that are loving beyond imagination. I fear that you will have to make a choice. Daniel, you have the potential to be the Preserver, the prophesized one—you need to choose whether to embrace that part of you and become all you can, or run away from it and hide."
Daniel swallowed and looked at her with a pained face. "Me? The Preserver? What do I do? How can I do it? What does that mean?"
The Sage raised her hand up. "The answers will come clear to you, if you choose to follow that path. When you're back on your ship, however, and are alone, ask Alex later tonight. She'll explain the legend to you, and you'll eventually understand.
"Daniel, I also give you this piece of advice: things sometimes aren't what they appear to be, and things will happen in the places you least expect them to. Keep your eyes open, and your heart true, for some things will happen and you'll wonder why you didn't see them before."
Daniel nodded. "That I understand."
The Sage smiled, touching his arm with a hand. Her happy mood suddenly dropped as she did so, and her eyes became glazed. The linguist waited, sensing that she was having a vision. After a minute that seemed like eternity, the Sage stirred and looked hauntingly up at Daniel.
"You will be put through many terrible things, Daniel. Some of them are unspeakable, but you must know some of it. Before the Christmas Ball, you will be seduced and physically connected with an Androidian goddess, your mind will be erased, and you will come very close to death. At another point, after the ball, you must be 'The Friend who turns into the 'Enemy' to remain a Friend' and it will be an emotional burden for you, as well as others—the way you must be this will become clear to you later. A bit of warning for you, however: do not tell them that you are the friend in that saying. It will work to your advantage if you keep that a secret. Remember these words, Daniel, and please be careful. Caution is one of many good virtues."
"Thank you," he told her while bowing his head in a respectful fashion. "I'll try to be as careful as I can."
The Sage smiled, and Daniel turned to leave, knowing he had been subtly dismissed. But, as he began to walk, he turned around, and asked just for the heck of it, "Is there any possible chance that I'll fall in love?"
The wise woman's smile broadened. "Yes, Daniel. There's a very huge chance of it. Please send Alex in next."
"Yes, ma'am," he said with a salute, and walked back to the door.
"So there ye are!" Dagón said as the door opened to the vestibule and Daniel stepped in. "Ye took long enough! What kept ye?"
"We were talking…lost track of time. I'm sorry. Alex, she wants to see you next," Daniel said, wearily sitting down on the chair the Major had gotten up from.
"All right," she said while looking at him, and left the small room, walking down the path to the Sage.
"So what infermation did ye get from th' Sage?" Dagón asked, his pirate accent creeping back into his voice. "Ye know ye need to tell Hoffman once we get back…"
"I do? Great. Well," he said, then sighed. "I'm to, um…uh…mate with an Androidian goddess against my will and—"
"Yer gonna what?" the Machiá exploded. "Why!"
"The Sage said that my mind was going to be erased, so that's how she's going to do it…I think. I don't want that to happen…Hell, I don't know what I'm going to do if it does! But now I know what's going to happen, so maybe I can prevent it.
"The Sage also said that I'll come very close to death. Great, huh? She says that everything will fall into place eventually."
"Whoa. That there's some deep kluat."
Daniel perked up from where he had slouched over, his head in his hands. "Kluat. It means 'stuff' in Machiá, doesn't it?"
Dagón smiled. "Aye, that it does."
The two trailed into silence.
A while later, Alex exited the Sage's garden, pale and shaken.
"Dagón," she said weakly while pointing to the door. Nodding, he got up and left to go see the Sage, offering his chair to the pale woman before he left. She sat down gratefully.
"Something wrong?" Daniel asked, concerned for her weak look.
"The Sage's words of advice were a bit too much for me," she admitted. "I need a while to think about all she gave me."
The linguist nodded. "Tell me about it. Almost all of what she said was extremely bad."
"What was your good news?"
The man sighed, then looked at her sideways, his heart beating weirdly, his pulse racing. "Do you really want to know?" After seeing her nod faintly, he sighed again. "She said I had a huge chance of falling in love. I didn't want to doubt her, but I do. I mean, it could only be for a minute, or it could be with someone I'm not supposed to be in love with…I mean, all her warnings can go either way, and they're not particularly clear… What about you?"
Alex shook her head. "There's nothing good she told me," she lied as she looked at the floor. "She said that things will be good for me in some places, but that I'll have to go through a lot of difficult times in order to reach them." Alex glanced at him. "She also said that some things aren't what they seem to be…that a friend will turn into the enemy to remain a friend. I don't know what that means."
"She told me that, too, but I dunno its meaning," Daniel bluffed, remembering the Sage's words. He pretended to think, having a long moment pass in silence. "It probably will come clear later," he said to her, breaking the silence. "We'll know when the time comes."
"Yes," she said. "You're probably right. I hope Dagón finishes up fast. I'd like to get back to the ship to think."
"Yeah," Daniel said. "I think I need to do that, as well."