Chapter 27 – Changing Dagón
"I be bored," Dagón announced to the rest of GC-1 around the dinner table, eating supper sans the General and Doctor Fields.
"So are we, my friend. It's been two weeks since ya went to see the Sage and the General hasn't found any places where we can go and check something out yet." John leaned back in his chair as he sipped on some Whoosh. "It usually isn't this slow."
"Ah," Daniel said over his mashed potatoes.
"Not that I mind having some R and R," John added.
"Of course," Daniel said.
"Actually, dudes, there's been a new discovery and the big dude wants you to go as soon as we're done eating," Dude said, smiling a bit as he sipped his pineapple-orange juice.
"What! And when were you going to share this with us?" John obnoxiously stared at Dude with faked-anger.
"Chill out, dude! I was going to say it when you were done complaining about having nothing to do, and so I did. Was that enough for you?"
"Yes!" John was quite cheerful. "Everyone done? I say we go!"
"Yeah," everyone agreed and they got up from the table, leaving their dishes there for their automatic dishwashing droid to clean them.
"And what are we supposed to be looking for?" Daniel asked as he, John, Alex, and Dagón stepped out of the Spacegate's shield.
"A sort of device," John answered vaguely and they all looked around.
They were in some sort of chamber with no windows or doors. It seemed to them that the room had been unoccupied for a very long time, though there were torches burning in the corners, and the tan-stone walls were brightly lit.
"Everyone spread out," John said. "Dagón, could you look at that machine in the middle of the room? See if you know who made it…if it's Machiá or not…and also if it's what we're looking for."
"Aye, matey," Dagón said and went over to the device.
It looked almost like a DOC, though different. There was a black half-orb in the center of the blank, gunmetal-grey dais. Around the perimeter was a sort of indentation with a bluish glow emanating from it.
Leaning over the top of the dais to get a better look, Dagón looked deep into the half of orb, feeling transfixed. Suddenly, the blue glow intensified, becoming brighter and brighter, Dagón trapped in the orb's power. Not aware that he had yelled out, the glow became more intense and the black orb began to swirl around, turning different colors, faster and faster.
Around him, he vaguely heard John yell, "Get him out of there!" and he could hardly feel the hands that dragged him out of the orb's command. That was the last thing he remembered before the world went black.
"We need a medical team here, now!" John yelled as he and Daniel dragged Dagón into the SGB, Alex trailing behind them.
"What happened?" Hoffman yelled over the clatter of the med team getting Dagón onto a stretcher.
"He looked into the device you sent us to go look at—I confirmed that it was what we wanted. It wrapped him in an electromagnet field and he couldn't get away. He began to yell and we all got him away from it," Alex explained, as she was the only one left in the 'Gate Room with the General—Daniel and John had gone with Dagón.
The man nodded. "I understand. Let's go!" Hoffman said and both he and Alex left at a run to catch up with their injured comrade.
"I need some morphine, stat!" Alex heard Kate call to her assistants. "And get an IV started. He just needs some boost of help; his symbiote will take over from there."
"Yes, ma'am," one said and they did just as she had told them to. The rest of GC-1 waited in anticipation. After two hours, Dagón finally groaned and opened his eyes.
"Dagón! How's it feel?" John asked, walking up to his bed.
"Not so good, O'Brien," the alien said, slurring his words a bit. "My head is in discomfort and I feel like a wounded Fraturow; but other than that, my symbiote will sustain and repair my extensive injuries. Thank you all for rescuing me."
The entire GC-1 crew stared at him in shock. That was not the Dagón they had been used to!
"Are you sure you're okay?" John asked. "I mean, well, because I'm not matey or hearty anymore to you."
"It does appear that my language capacity has been altered," Dagón said in perfect diction with his low voice, "but this is what the Sage has prophesized for me, and now that I know what it is like, I think I prefer this manner of speaking over the one I had previously."
"Whoa," John said. "This is really freaky."
"Indeed," Dagón said with a slight nod. He then closed his eyes and waited for a few minutes. He then rose from his hospital bed. "My symbiote is done repairing the damage. Thank you, Dr. Fields, for your assistance."
"No problem, Dagón. I'd like to run some tests, however. I would like to see how the device has altered your brain."
"As you wish," Dagón said, and then saw a glimpse of himself in a mirror. Cringing slightly at his long hair and disheveled appearance, he shrugged it off and followed the doctor into another room.
"That is so totally radical, man!" Dude exclaimed. "He no longer talks the lingo of the pirate! Can't say I'm gonna miss that, though, mate. It was kinda hard to figure out, though he really is one totally radical dude. Think he's changed even more than just that?"
"Dunno," the Colonel said. "Let's go debrief the General."
Alex and Daniel both said, "Yes, sir," while "Yes, dude," was heard from Rick, and the four of them went to go talk with their CO about the astounding change that had occurred within Dagón.
The four of them walked down to the debriefing room and found the General already seated at the head of the table, waiting for them to come and tell him what had happened.
"Well, sir," John started while everyone sat around the glowing table, "we exited the Spacegate into a totally enclosed room with no windows or doors—just like the probe said." He then gestured to Alex.
"All right. Sir, the strange thing about the room was that the torches in the room were burning and that there was actually oxygen there to breathe. It was as if there was a vent somewhere, but I couldn't see one."
"And how did Dagón get the way he is now?" The General leaned forward in his chair, his elbows on the table and fingertips together, looking straight at Alex.
"Well, sir," she responded, "he was looking into the device that we knew was there. We didn't get a good look at what it actually did because Dagón yelled out in pain and then collapsed. I'd like to go back there and look at it again some other time, if that's all right, sir. It might not have the same affect on me, as I am not Machiá."
The General nodded. "Some other time, you may, but not now. That's all that happened?"
"Yes, sir," John said. "And when Daniel and I picked him up off of the floor, Alex dialed home, and you took over from there."
The General nodded, then changed gears. "While you were away, I received an invitation from Flahari. He's throwing a celebration commemorating a new ruler. He's invited us all there. I cannot go, as I need to stay here and keep an eye on things, but Dr. Fields will go in my stead. She deserves a break from all this."
Daniel saw the Colonel's eyes light up, though he actually downplayed his excitement and took the news casually. "Good choice, sir," John said while he visibly struggled to hold his excitement in. "When do we leave?"
"Tomorrow at 16:00 hours or so. The festivities, I hear, will last close to all night. You all will camp out there and come back sometime the next day, whenever you can. It's your vacation away from the SGB."
"Thank you, sir!" John was almost ecstatic.
"But," the General continued, "I'll have you all equipped with comms so that if something comes up, I'll be able to contact you and prematurely end that R and R."
"Understood." GC-1 looked at their General, knowing that the debriefing was over. Nodding slightly, the General got up, allowing everyone else to get up, too.
"You may all go back to talk with Dagón. I need to fill out paperwork for Old Earth," the older man said and walked out of the room, towards his office. GC-1 went back to the medical bay.
"I feel perfectly fine, DanielMatthewson," Dagón said to Daniel, saying his name in a new way—one that connected his first and last name into one fluid name. Daniel was getting used to it, though having his entire name said in one breath was very strange…especially when he was used to Dagón calling him matey or hearty.
"Did Kate find anything different about your brain?" Alex was leaning against the wall, weary from all of the day's excitement.
"No, Major Croft, she did not. She just told me that my verbal part of the cortex was probably wiped clean and replaced with a whole new dialogue."
"Ah."
"Indeed. I do much prefer this speech to that of what I previously had, as I have said."
"So, Dagón, my alien friend, do you feel up to going back to '080 for a party?" John jumped down from a hospital table he had been sitting on and fixed the Machiá with an inquisitive stare.
"Of course," the alien said while raising an eyebrow. "My symbiote has long healed me from what had been injured. I am…'up to it'."
"Great! We're ready to go tomorrow!" John went into Dr. Fields' office to tell her of the news.