Ch. 37 — Changing Minds
A female voice came on over the aliens' speaker system. "Welcome aboard the Battlestar Requirement. It is mid-afternoon, according to Mountain Standard Time in the Americas, so if you desire to sleep, the line on the floor at the door leads to five ensuites — beds and full bathrooms," she said briskly. "Pyjamas and dressing gowns in your sizes are prepared. The doors lock from the inside. This room will be your common room. The current channel is CNN, I think they call it.
"If you are hungry," the female voice continued, "simply sit at one of the tables, tap it with a finger, and request what you would like to eat or drink. You may request a menu, but because of the large selection at hand, you will need to specify a region. Otherwise, you will receive an encyclopaedia-sized book.
"If you would like something else, or if you have any questions, just ask. Not all questions will be answered, nor requests granted, for obvious reasons. Please don't wander past the red lines drawn on the walls and floor in the corridor. There is nothing you can access, and each floor is roughly a square mile in size. You would find it quite annoying to discover that you only succeeded in getting lost. Thank you for your cooperation."
They looked around the room. Jack, at least, was hungry, and he headed for the nearest table and chair.
"Oh, before I forget," her voice came again, "we will be going to Camp David on Saturday at one P.M, local time. We will drop you off then. The current time is Thursday, five P.M. at Camp David."
Jack paused on hearing her, shrugged, sat at the table, and immediately ordered what he had the last time. That meal, he had decided, ranked as one of the best meals he had ever had. The others followed suit, but tried something new, each.
It was a late night for Jack and the others as they listened in to what the civilians heard. Hearing what Admiral Potter of the Defensive Space Force Ship Battlestar Requirement had said to General Hammond, and his responses, were intriguing.
The theories the pundits came up, afterwards, which ranged from hoaxes all the way up to a full-scale invasion in-progress. The "overheard" conversation and resultant visible fire-fight was just a feint to deceive the humans in that last case.
The next morning, moments after they had just finished a late breakfast, there came a knock on the open door to their "common room," as the aliens had christened it.
Looking up, Jack saw what he at first thought were manikins standing in the corridor outside the room, just like the one they had seen in August. The male manikin was wearing what looked like an open-front black robe, with black slacks and a white shirt, the other was clearly a female, based on her bust size, and also wore a black robe, but with a knee-length skirt and a white blouse. Both had a design over their left breast that reminded Jack of the Star Trek logo, only more angular.
Both of them also had metallic-looking cylinders in holsters on one thigh — the right-hand side for both, he noted.
The reason they looked like manikins was that they appeared to be completely red with gold embellishments low around their necks, and high around their wrists, ankles, and foreheads. They didn't appear to be wearing shoes and they didn't appear to have toes. It was their faces, however, that sealed the non-human appearance: They were completely featureless, not even showing the vague mouths, noses, ears, and eyes that one found in store manikin displays. Instead, they had featureless, curved expanses that reached from what appeared to be a moulded hairline to their necks, well below where one would expect their chins to be. Their ears were just vague outlines.
"Knock, Knock," said the male, tapping lightly on the edge of the door opening. "May we come in?" From the voice, it was apparently Admiral Potter.
After a surprised momentary pause, Jack said, "Certainly. By all means. It's your ship, after all."
"Ah, thank you," came the polite response as they walked in. "I am Admiral Potter," the male said, confirming Jack's suspicion. He motioned towards his companion. "And this is my First Officer, Number One." He "looked" at Jack. "Welcome to the Defensive Space Force Ship Battlestar Requirement." He paused a moment.
"Sorry about this," he waved his hand down his front. "But we want to keep our identities a secret. These are our spacesuits."
"Why the clothes then?" said Captain Samantha Carter.
He seemed to give off an impression of embarrassment.
"Ah," said Potter, "Well, you see, the suits are . . . skin tight . . . and as a result are rather revealing. My first thought on seeing one was that it was spray-painted on. So, for the sake of modesty, we wear clothes over them."
That had Jack raising his eyebrows. Skin-tight? They must be remarkably efficient. The spacesuits he had seen were all large, bulky, and heavy.
That the seam where helmets met the suits was impossible to detect was extraordinary, Jack realized as he studied them.
The gold embellishments on their necks, helmets, and wrists must actually be rank insignia, based on the fact that they were different between the two individuals.
"Are those weapons?" Jack asked, pointing at the cylinders at their hips.
There was a moment of silence, then the Admiral shrugged. "Yes," he said removing one. They could hear the humour in his voice as he said, "You're going to love these."
A second later, Dan was yelling, incredulous, "You have lightsabres?"
Teal'c looked puzzled, but Jack and Sam were unabashedly staring, slack-jawed.
The Admiral waved the light-blade around casually. It made all the right sounds. Jack was soo envious at that point. "You're drooling, Dan," he said dryly.
The blade disappeared with a whip! sound. "Yes, before you ask, it is based on that movie." He sighed happily and admired the cylinder. "After seeing the movie, our engineers took it as a challenge. I mean, who wouldn't want one of these, right?" He slotted it back in its holster. "They are surprisingly useful, actually. Which is why we carry them."
"Useful?" Sam mouthed with an incredulous expression.
After a moment's silence, Jack asked, "So, how can I get one?"
There was silence at the request, and the two aliens looked at each other. After a lengthy pause, the admiral turned back to Jack.
"Hold your hand out, palm up."
With a questioning glance at his team, Jack did as instructed.
No sooner did his hand become still then there was a flash of light. He reflexively closed his fingers and held a silver and black cylinder.
"Holy shite," exclaimed Dan.
"That one is a training version," Admiral Potter said. "It is not a weapon. It has two settings. The first makes all the right lights and sounds, but nothing else. The second setting is for serious training. It cuts through paper and thin cloth, leaves scorch marks on thicker, hardier materials, but doesn't harm skin or hair."
He looked over at the others. "Hold your hands out," he ordered, doing so himself.
Four more cylinders appeared, each slightly different from the others. "This is the 'ON' switch." He pointed. "The default is always 'light training'," he said. He almost immediately added, "No pun intended. It's sort of a safety, you might say." Then he grabbed the bottom and firmly twisted it. "That changes it to serious training mode."
He suddenly changed to a fencing stance. "En garde!" he said to Jack, and lunged forward.
Panicked, Jack swung his lit lightsabre while dodging sideways. They all stopped as the beams collided with a crash and crackle, just like the movies.
For the next minute, the two played at fencing.
Jack had never fenced, and only knew what he had seen in movies like "Zorro!" or "Robin Hood."
Number One was shaking her head, hands on hips. Jack half-expected her to say, "Boys," in a derogatory tone, just like his mother used to do.
He almost had a heart-attack when the Admiral suddenly spun, shifted to the right, feinted to the left, and brought his light-blade down across Jack's right forearm.
There was a brief moment of something warm on his arm, but nothing else happened. Except his shirt sleeve was dangling by the cloth where his skin had blocked the beam. The cut was as wide as the beam.
The admiral took several steps back. "See? No harm done."
Jack, and the others were staring at his shirt-sleeve.
Number One spoke for the first time. Jack recognized the voice as one of the females from August.
"Let me fix that," she said and gave a short jab with her right arm, with her hand and index-finger extended.
They watched amazed, as the shirt and sleeve mended themselves.
"Daniel," the Admiral said, "Catch." He made a slow, underhanded throw and tossed the lightsabre he had used to the scientist. The scientist almost dropped both, but then he stared back and forth between the two he now held. "Now, you can keep the one you have and still have one for the scientists to examine."
He snickered. "Not that they'll be able to figure anything out. The technology is about as far above integrated circuits as those are above parchment and quills." He shook his head.
"Just warn them to leave the battery alone, or they'll find themselves in a rather large crater," added Number One in a firm tone. "One about as big as Cheyenne Mountain."
"And very, very dead," finished the Admiral, dryly.
After a few moments contemplating that, the lightsabres were turned off and clipped to their belts.
Jack took a deep breath. "So," he said, "Why the spacesuits? Why the secrecy? Is there something we should know?"
"Ah, well," again embarrassment came through his voice. "If you were to meet me on the street, you would never suspect who I was. I would like to keep it that way. I'm tired of people fawning all over me just because I'm famous. Getting my picture in the news as the Admiral of the ships that saved Earth would certainly have them doing that, wouldn't it?"
The team was silent, mulling over what they had just learned.
"Teal'c," the First Officer said, "We have learned a bit about both the Jaffa and the Goa'uld parasites. If we could remove the prim'ta, and give you an immune system, would you be interested?" She paused as the humans stared at Teal'c, who had as stunned a look as they did. "From what our medical system tells me," she said slowly, "it would make you into a human, a Tau'ri, I guess you'd say." More briskly, she continued, "Everything we have says it would work." She paused, but then hurriedly added, "It's not risky at all, because we can put everything back the way it was if there are any problems. It's completely reversible," she finished earnestly.
Teal'c blinked, then said, "I volunteer. When can you do this?"
"Just a minute, now, Teal'c," Jack said, looking over at him, his alarm being shared by the rest of the team.
"I would be free," the former Prime said. "And she says there is no risk."
"But we don't know if they're telling the truth!"
Teal'c shrugged. "Then we should find out as quickly as possible."
"They did just save our lives, Jack," Daniel said. "If they wanted to hurt us, they could have just left us on the Goa'uld ship."
The others frowned and looked as if they wanted to protest, but they knew that their objections would be ignored. He had made up his mind.
"We could do it now, if you want," she said.
The team again exchanged astonished looks.
"Yes," came Teal'c's considered response.
"Okay," she said quietly, in the tone that usually indicated someone was busy doing something. "Be patient a moment."
A few moments later, without a sound but with a flash of light, a thigh-high platform appeared only a step away from the Jaffa.
"Please lie down on this, on your back."
Teal'c moved quickly and was soon prone.
"Please advise me if you feel any anything out of the ordinary at any time, especially if you feel any pain."
"Uh," O'Neil said, moving closer to the platform, "Doesn't he need to take anything off? You can just do this even though he is dressed?"
There was a moment's silence, then the Admiral said, "We are working only on his body, so no, he doesn't need to take anything off." Abruptly, another male voice came on over the intercom system . . . or whatever the aliens were using . . . and said, amusement in his voice, "Why? Are you a poofter? Want to check out his dangly-bits?" He sounded a bit like the voice Jack had heard in the Goa'uld ship and at their Stargate, but there was a definite note of humour in his question.
There was a stunned silence before both Dan and Sam burst out laughing. Teal'c turned his head and stared at Jack, one eyebrow raised.
"No! No!" protested Jack, waving his hands frantically in front of himself and taking a step back. "I was just concerned . . .," his voice trailed off. "Never mind," he said looking away from them.
"Beginning preliminary scan," she said. "Mapping differences between human and subject . . . completed. Noting genetic improvements to human norm . . . completed. Scanning Goa'uld parasite . . . completed."
She paused a moment. "Would you like us to remove the symbol on your forehead? We can do it now, or any time later, if you wish."
"It will be useful in the future. Leave it," Teal'c said.
"Removing prim'ta. Putting prim'ta in stasis for future examination. Storing prim'ta."
The big Jaffa frowned, then said, "My abdomen feels . . . empty."
"That is to be expected, and normal, because we removed something substantial from that area," she said. "Beginning immune system reconstruction. Lymph node reconstruction in progress." There was a long pause. "Completed. Adding immunities to known human diseases . . . completed. Repairing abdominal wall . . . completed. Erasing scar tissue in abdomen . . . completed. Scanning and comparing to human normal. Genetic improvements still in place. Completed."
She paused, rubbed her hands together, and took a breath. "Well, that's done, then. How do you feel?"
Teal'c ran a hand over his now-smooth stomach and slowly sat up. "Odd. I have carried a prim'ta for eighty-eight years. It feels . . . empty.
"There is a communications unit beside you. Place it on your skin in the slight hollow under your clavicle and between your shoulder and neck, either side will do. It is a medical recording unit that will monitor your physical health. If you notice any issues at all with your health, tap the unit with your fingers and say 'medical emergency.' One of us will respond immediately." She paused, then added. "Don't try to be tough and push through any symptoms you might notice. We need to know of any complications, no matter how minor."
They saw a small round object appear beside Teal'c in a flash of light. He picked it up and slipped his hand inside his shirt, placing the unit as instructed.
"Excellent! . . . Oh, by the way, the unit does not record video or audio, so you still have privacy," came the second voice. "I think that if there aren't any issues in the next week, we can declare this a viable option for Jaffa, but we'll wait a full month just to be sure." A journal and pencil, no eraser, appeared on the table. "Please keep a log of your activities and any changes in your reactions or moods for the next month. Don't erase anything, it might prove important in retrospect. We want to be able to deliver as complete an explanation as possible to any other Jaffa we encounter who might be interested in the procedure."
Three similar booklets and pencils appeared beside the first. "These are for the other members of your team. We would appreciate it if you record your impressions of Teal'c over the next month, with special attention to anything you think is out of the ordinary for his actions, reactions, and non-actions. Basically, anything that would make you say, 'That's odd.' "
A paper flashed into existence on the platform. "This is a list of the diseases we provided immunity to, please give it to your physicians. There may be diseases that we missed adding immunities for that they will want to vaccinate you against."
"None of this is secret, so you may make copies for your superiors, if they ask," the Admiral put in.
"As a matter of fact," she continued, "All of you could do with a brief session with our medical system. Jack, you have a bit of a plaque build-up in your arteries. Nothing serious right now, but in ten years? Daniel, we can fix your eyes, if you want."
They were all silent. Teal'c was still probing his abdomen.
"No," Jack said, slowly. Daniel looked like he was tempted. "I think we can wait a while on that, a couple of days, perhaps," he finished, nodding slowly while glancing at the other two.
The aliens nodded back.
"Okay, on to business, then. We're here to ask a favour," the Admiral said.
The small group exchanged puzzled looks.
"We have three thousand, one hundred and thirteen prisoners, all Jaffa. We've healed the wounded," he explained. "However, we don't know what to do with them, now. Normally, we would turn captured criminals over to the authorities for a trial. If they're guilty, they get punished. If not, they're set free. But the Jaffa aren't criminals, they're soldiers. They haven't committed any crimes, beyond entering Earth's orbital space, which isn't a crime, now, is it? But we can't just release them, where would they go?"
"Plus," Number One put in, "They're most likely convinced that the Goa'uld who was calling the shots was a god. He referred to himself as such, and had abilities they did not, so they won't listen to reason. They might even try to sabotage us."
"Indeed," interjected Teal'c, nodding slightly.
He shrugged. "We could just hold them as prisoners of war, I guess. We could place them in a self-sustaining, engine-less prison base, in orbit around some planet somewhere, and ignore them until the Goa'uld surrender or we wipe them out," the admiral said.
"But who knows how long that will take," said Number One.
"And it does seem rather cruel."
The Admiral turned his head to face the Jaffa. "You are a former 'Prime' to the Goa'uld, the highest rank available, yet you have abandoned following them. What convinced you to leave?"
"Some Jaffa know the Goa'uld are false gods, but we have nowhere to turn," Teal'c said. "When the prim'ta mature, after seven or eight years, we either give it up for a new prim'ta, or the mature prim'ta eventually takes us over, and we die. If we can't get a new prim'ta, we die. The only sources of immature prim'ta are the Goa'uld. In addition, there are none who can match the Goa'uld in power. What good would it do to rebel?
"Then I met the Tau'ri Jack O'Neil. He showed me there was a way. So, I joined Stargate and am spreading the truth about the Goa'uld, and that there is hope. Through the stargate we have access to worlds the Goa'uld don't occupy, that offer a refuge while we try to overcome the need for a prim'ta, and resist the Goa'uld." He paused.
"It is difficult convince others, but the more we convince, the easier it is to convince the others. For most of the Jaffa, they believe they serve a god and will hold fast to that belief. Unless you can show that the Goa'uld aren't gods, I doubt they will change."
The aliens "looked" at each other and stood silent for a moment.
"What if we could prove to them that the Goa'uld weren't gods? Would they cooperate with us? We'd rather not host a hostile force if we can help it."
Teal'c tilted his head questioningly. "How?"
The admiral shrugged. "Can a Goa'uld do this?" he asked. He twisted to his right. There was a pop and he disappeared, only to instantly reappear across the room with another pop.
Their jaws dropped. "You can teleport?" Sam said breathlessly.
"Something like that," Number One said, nodding.
"Is it something technical?" hopefully asked Daniel.
The two shook their heads. "We are born with this capability," the Admiral said.
"Although it does have its drawbacks. Doing it while drunk is quite dangerous," said Number One. "But any limbs, or parts of them, left behind can be easily reattached by any competent Healer with no real lasting harm, if corrected within a reasonable amount of time."
The admiral disappeared from where he was standing and reappeared in a new location, with attendant pops. The female joined him, with a pop.
Jack felt his eyebrows shoot up almost to his hairline. Reattach any limbs left behind? No lasting harm?
"Yes," the Admiral said, "A friend of ours accidentally let half his left ear behind at his licensing test and had to retake it after they reattached it. He said it felt really weird to feel the Healer pick up his ear from the floor while he was a hundred miles away."
Jack couldn't even begin to process that. How had he been able to feel his ear being picked up when it wasn't attached to him anymore?
There was a moment of silence.
"If you can do that," said Daniel, wide-eyed, "Why do you have spaceships and portkeys?"
"For those times when we're too young, too drunk, too old, . . . or where we want to go is too far for this to work."
They digested that. Teleportation, but with reasonable limitations.
"No," Teal'c said. "They have never shown that ability. If they could have, they would have," he said firmly.
"Can they do this?" The Admiral popped to a new location, and waved his right arm, hand and index-finger extended. A dozen birds flew from his hand, circling the room.
Teal'c watched them, and then raised his hand with a finger extended. One of the birds flew to him and landed, clutching his finger. He raised his eyebrows and stared at the admiral. "It is real," he said, and slowly raised his other hand to pet the parakeet as it looked around the room.
"Yes," the First Officer said. "For the moment, they are as real you are. Cut them, they bleed. If they peck you, you will bleed." She waved her right arm, and the birds vanished. "A simple parlour trick, my father would call that — conjuring a creature out of thin air. It has all the attributes of a live creature, yet it is not — it never lasts long. A few minutes is normal, hours are possible, but taxing. The most powerful among us can create a creature for a day, maybe two if it's small. However, during that time it is impossible to differentiate them from the real thing."
She pointed her index-finger to one side, wiggled her arm slightly, and a flame shot from her fingers. It wasn't an illusion as Jack could feel the heat from where he was standing. He started to take a step forward, but she immediately extinguished the flame. "I don't want to burn you. I could heal it, but it's a waste of time just for a demonstration."
She pointed her hand at Teal'c, made a motion, and he floated up into the air. He jerked his arms out a bit, startled, and his legs moved, as well.
"Very good," Potter said, admiration and approval in his voice. "Most people panic the first time they're levitated. It messes with their sense of being in control. An excellent disorientating tactic in a fight." He sighed. "Unless they're expecting something like that to happen and have trained to fight on despite it. It's rather useless against one of our Marines."
Staring in Teal'c direction, the female said, "Our Marines will be quite interested in challenging you to fight." She shook her head. "They were most put out that that they didn't have a chance to attempt to board one of your ships."
Teal'c was slowly lowered to the floor.
"We can also do destructive things, like this," the Admiral said. He pointed his index-finger at one of the chairs on the other side of the room. A red flash of light left his hand, and the chair fell apart into two pieces.
Jack felt his mouth go dry.
"Or this," said the First Officer. From her right hand another red light pulsed, this one more purple. One piece of the sliced-chair exploded as if a bomb had hit it, making everyone, except the two aliens, flinch.
For the briefest moment, Jack thought that the side of the room containing the chair had a slight blue-tint.
"Of course, destroying a chair is rather wasteful," the Admiral said. He pointed his finger at the pile of debris that was scattered away from the chairs position. There was a loud crack, and the armchair was back, looking as if nothing had happened to it. He sighed. "We can't use that . . . ability . . . all the time, it takes a great deal of concentration and power to restore something. Only inanimate objects, too. And it doesn't always work, usually when a piece is missing."
With a slight pop, the admiral returned to the open door. With a similar pop, his First Officer joined him. "Would showing the captured Jaffa that we, mere mortals, can do things that their gods, the Goa'uld, can only dream of doing, would that be convincing enough to get some of the Jaffa to change their allegiance? And will you help us convince them?"
Teal'c thought carefully for a minute. He glanced over at Jack, who had a contemplative expression.
After a moment, Jack gave a small nod. Helping the aliens convince the captured Jaffa to abandon their fealty to the Goa'uld was probably a good move. That they might shift that attitude to the aliens was a risk, but he thought the possible benefits would outweigh the risks.
Teal'c turned back to them and said, "Indeed."
"Good! Good!" Potter rubbed his hands together. "Please come with us." The two turned and headed out into the corridor. After a brief glance among themselves, the team followed the aliens.
After a bit of walking and taking a couple of turns, they stopped outside a door. "This barracks," Potter said, "has two hundred Jaffa in it. We'll try it with this group first."
The barracks they walked into was fully occupied, at first glance. The Jaffa were also dressed in what looked like white sheets with a hole in the middle for their heads and two cut-outs for their arms instead of their normal uniforms.
At Jack's curious expression, the admiral said, "We didn't know if they had weapons hidden in their clothes, nor what such weapons might look like, so we brought them over naked and gave them these simple robes to wear."
Jack couldn't help but smirk at that.
The demonstration went somewhat the same as the one SG1 had seen. The two aliens teleported around the room several times each, launched a dozen flocks of birds, each a different type, and sprayed water across most of the Jaffa. The water might have been explained as there being a hidden reservoir in the spacesuits, except the volume sprayed was far more than could be reasonably expected. They then dismissed their bird flocks, and dried the damp Jaffa with a hot wind. All of that with Teal'c explaining to the Jaffa what was going on, as most did not speak English.
There were a few Jaffa who believed it to be tricks, or a deception, but all agreed that their "gods" had never demonstrated anything similar at any time. Teal'c showed them that he was not only prim'ta-free, but also looked like a Tau'ri without the prim'ta criss-cross opening on his stomach. The golden tattoo on his forehead, a sign that he once served the Goa'uld Apophis as First Prime, was impossible to counterfeit, as far as the Jaffa knew, which meant he wasn't an imposter. Surprisingly, many of the Jaffa requested the same treatment after only a moment's reflection.
Jack was impressed that the two aliens refused their entreaties, stating they wanted to wait until Teal'c had survived a month without the prim'ta without any issues. That did more to convince the Jaffa of the aliens' peaceful intentions than anything else.
The aliens, and SG1, left that barracks with the promise that the Jaffa soon would be given access to a larger space with an exercise room and entertainment room in the next day or two.
By the third barracks, Jack was getting bored with the proceedings. Fortunately, after the fourth one, the aliens wanted to take a break to get something to eat. Apparently, their daytime schedule was different. He watched as they disappeared with a slight pop, promising to return in an hour.
"So," Jack said, "What do we know?" The aliens were probably listening, but trying to keep their discussions secret would be futile in this situation.
Sam immediately spoke. "They can pass for human at will, as evidenced by their hiding their identities. They clearly have abilities beyond normal: teleportation, telekinesis, psychokinesis, levitation, and a host of things I can't even put a name to."
"Creating fire and water apparently out of nothing," said Dan. "Creating life, or at least a simulacrum of a living creature, for a period of time. Repairing things that have clearly been destroyed."
"Telepathy, too, perhaps? We never heard them address each other, yet they were clearly communicating."
"It isn't out of the question," he said back to her, "although they could have been using suit-to-suit communications instead. Even if they are telepathic, they can't read minds or they wouldn't have bothered verbally asking us questions."
She nodded her understanding and agreement.
Jack sighed. "You know, with just the things they showed us, they could have claimed to be gods and we'd never have been able to prove differently."
Dan looked over at him. "In fact," he said musing, "What they've shown us sounds an awful lot like what the ancient Roman and Greek gods did, don't they?"
"The Goa'uld did claim to be gods when they were here, and ancient legends do mention fantastical things like these two did," said Sam.
"But the Goa'uld were here thousands of years before the Greeks or Romans," argued Jack. "And these aliens' current abilities are beyond what we've seen the Goa'uld capable of doing. Unless the Goa'uld have regressed, they aren't the same aliens."
"The Goa'uld have never shown the ability to do these things in Jaffa memory," Teal'c said quietly. "If they could teleport, they wouldn't stop using it to demonstrate their superiority. Not to mention the ability to apparently create life, and directly destroy things. They would not need Jaffa Guards."
"While legends do contain a grain of truth, they also exaggerate outrageously," replied Dan. "But the truly ancient legends don't mention these abilities."
"What those two just demonstrated are not mythological exaggerations," Sam cautioned. She paused. "Could different aliens have arrived after the Goa'uld, who did have those abilities?"
They looked at each other.
"Do you think that's really possible?" Jack said.
"It would explain why they interfered," Sam said, "if they've been here for thousands of years, in hiding."
"And he did say they like Earth," put in Dan.
"Plus, the last time we spoke with them they claimed they could easily hide in plain sight. Maybe that's based on them having done it on Earth for thousands of years," mused Jack out loud.
"But if they were here thousands of years ago, why stay hidden? Or did they leave? Why appear, or come back, now?"
"Plus, if they acted like gods back then, why did they stop?"
Jack stared at the floor a moment, and frowned. "Maybe they got tired of it?"
The others two stared at him.
Jack shrugged. "They didn't act like they expected us to be their servants, or that they were, somehow, going to lord it over all us," he finally said. "Completely unlike any of the Goa'uld we've met."
He shook his head. "In fact, the most obvious impression I got from them was as if they were somewhat embarrassed that they were talking with us." He frowned. "I get the feeling that they would have been just as happy if no one ever found out about them." He studied the open door for a few moments. "Neither do they appear worried or upset at being discovered, just . . . annoyed?" He shrugged. "All we can do is try to find as many clues as we can."
He looked over at the Jaffa as Teal'c said, "Indeed."
The two aliens returned in an hour, just as they promised. Then the group repeated their demonstration to six more barracks. They had it down to a routine, now, and it didn't take more than half-an-hour to show the captured Jaffa that their former god was a fake.
They had just finished a barracks when the two led them to an empty room. Admiral Potter turned to them and said, "The next barracks are on another ship, the Battlestar Galileo. We'll be using what you have termed . . . teleportation . . . to get there. Unfortunately, taking someone along with you, what we call side-alonging, is not very comfortable for the first few times you experience it. Quite frankly, most people end up sicking-up the first time or two.
"Overall, it isn't as upsetting as a portkey can be — yours was very short and mild, actually. Distances of several hundred or thousands of miles with a portkey can put you in bed for days if you are unused to it.
"With side-alonging, though, you can quickly get used to it, and it becomes merely a momentary unpleasantness," he added reassuringly, "but those first times are rough." He paused a second. "I can tell you, however, that after experiencing side-alonging, it's a bloody good incentive to learn how to do it yourself . . .,"
Number One immediately said, "Language!"
He continued without a stop, "as that is merely slightly disorienting the first few times."
Number One crossed her arms and huffed at him ignoring her. "Unfortunately," she said, "while we can do it, you cannot learn it. It's part of our nature,"
"Normally," the Admiral said, "we'd just go to a hangar and take a Runabout to the other ship, but it's getting rather late and that would take a large chunk of time. We still have many things to prepare for tomorrow."
Jack and the team exchanged looks.
She wagged her head from side to side. "While you were having breakfast, that was mid-afternoon for us — time differential between our starting locations, you know. The other ship is over the Rockies in the Americas, whereas the Requirement was over Europe."
The SG1 team nodded in understanding.
"Okay," Potter said. "It'll take two trips, so we'll take Colonel O'Neil and Teal'c first, then return for you two." He looked over to Sam and Dan, who both nodded.
Fifteen seconds later, all four members of the team were sitting on the floor or leaning against a wall, dazed, as the First Officer waved her arm and vanished their sick off the floor. Being squeezed through a straw was not a pleasant experience for the uninitiated, even at the best of times.
"Sorry," the admiral said apologetically, "but I did say the first few times are terrible."
"Drink these," Number One said, indicating the four glasses on the nearby table. "They are the same as the ones you had yesterday."
Jack thought the contents of the glasses smelled worse than a manure pile in a cow barn, and didn't taste much better, despite being the same . . . medicine? . . . as before. However, after drinking it, just as before, he felt as if he had never been sick. He held up the glass and stared at it. "That's incredible!" he declared, delighted. The other three were nodding their agreement.
"When is this going on the market?" he asked.
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