Disclaimer: The characters used within this are mostly the property of others. I have a few originals, but the vast majority are not original. A few well known names may be used, but everything here is fiction. This is for entertainment only and not for profit.
-=oOo=-
Araiansu - Chapter 10
-=oOo=-
Ranma sat with Jacob in the quarters the General had provided. It was, in fact, Sam's on base room, which no one quite had the will to reuse. They could sense so much of Sam here, but it wasn't the Sam he knew. It was a strange feeling, but seemed immensely precious.
He suddenly felt something of great concern. "I need to go to the infirmary now. Someone is dying."
Jacob quickly got up and followed him to the door. Ranma was unsurprised at the MP standing outside. The general had told him that as he wasn't one of the base personal he had to be issued a guard, and Jacob didn't count.
He asked, "Will you take me to the infirmary?"
"Are you sick?" the graying guard asked.
Ranma smiled at that. The guard was no doubt competent but was also equally overdue for retirement. This was perhaps the General's or possibly one of his people's way to give the guard an important job but also to point out that he thought the rule of him being guarded was just not the highest priority in the world.
"No, I am fine. I know a bit about medicine. I was hoping to see if I could be of value."
The guards eyes widened. "But you are a VIP. There is no need."
"There is. Someone is dying that I might be able to help. Please take me there."
"I'll have to make a call."
Ranma nodded.
Jacob added, "Please Hurry."
The guard pulled a nearby phone and dialed several numbers while keeping Ranma in his view. He then repeated Ranma's words exactly and then listened to the response. After that he returned the phone to the hook and said, "You are approved. I'll bring you both there now."
"Thank you."
Ranma arrived to a scene of panic as the small redheaded woman that had saved so many lives was herself on a gurney surrounded by doctors.
He took a bottle of water that was laying on a counter and splashed it on his arm, instantly changing to a woman.
His guard and others widened their eyes in surprise, but only a little. They had, it seemed, been briefed.
Ranma said clearly, "I can help, but I will need to be able to touch her near the injury."
General Hammond came through the door and moved next to Jacob at almost the same time. "Let her try."
"Sir, she is in very serious condition."
"Can you save her?" he asked.
"No. Probably not."
"Let her try. That is an order."
The two that were inspecting the field bandage around her middle backed away quickly.
Another said, "She has lost too much blood. There is barely a pulse."
Ranma placed her hands on her abdomen. Her ki flared brilliantly white eclipsing all other light in the room as she sent a torrent of healing energy into the brave doctor. The light faded less than a minute later. "Do not move her. That was only superficial healing. She needs liquid, blood if possible desperately."
One of the doctors that pulled away said, "She needs blood period. Her blood type is very rare. We don't have any."
"Sam once said I was a universal donor. Check me."
One immediately pulled a clean blood draw kit out of the drawer and tried to penetrate Ranma's skin only for the needle to bend.
"Try again. I wasn't ready."
The needle penetrated and he quickly withdrew a small amount of blood, before another quickly replaced it with a blood bag.
"I'm testing this now."
Even while he was doing this, another person was handing Ranma a bottle of Gatorade. "Drink. We need more than you can give, but I'd like to get at least two from you if this works."
Ranma quickly drank the bottle down with her other hand.
Two minutes later the person who was testing her blood said, "Its an 7/10 match. Not great, but…"
"It is a hell of a lot better than nothing.. That bag is full. Give it to her and take another."
Ranma held out her hand for another drink and she was quickly given it. She said, "After the second bag I need to try to finish what healing I can. I don't think I'll be able to focus safely if you take a third."
"What can you tell me about what you did?"
"I just superficially sealed all her wounds including internally. It is not great, and I would ordinarily not have done that, but I had to stop further blood loss. She has a lot that needs cleaned up, but she was so low on blood that had to be the priority. Much of the strength to heal comes from the patient. She has little to give. She probably wouldn't survive an attempt by me to heal her without blood."
"We know. If she has bled extensively internally, then we may need to operate."
"She will never survive that," another said.
"I can help her. This is anything but great. I'm sorry I didn't sense her sooner. This room is so far away." Ranma swayed a little as the second bag finished filling. The first bag was almost all the way empty now.
"You already have. You shouldn't move for a few minutes."
"I know. Give me one minute then shake me awake if need be."
Ranma suddenly closed her eyes and went perfectly still as energy faintly outlined her body. Less than a minute later her blue eyes snapped open and she carefully got out of the bed. "Let me finish what I can," she insisted as she edged her way to Janet's head. She placed her hands around Janet's head and suddenly both glowed with white light even as the second blood bag finished draining into their patient.
As soon as the bag finished they replaced it with a bag of plasma. The light kept glowing. The light increased around her wound and her stomach in general and then evened out around her body.
She said softly, "This almost waited too long. The damage to her body from the blood loss was extensive. Her brain was affected though thankfully only a little. I have repaired what I felt comfortable doing. She lacks the developed ki system of a martial arts master that would make this a lot easier."
"How much longer will you be?"
"Ten minutes maybe. By then I'll either be too low on ki or not be able to safely focus it into healing which would be bad. She should be over the worst of it by then. As soon as my ship returns we will contact it and they can check her over. This would have been so much easier had I been with her when it happened."
"We always want to see our patients as soon as possible. We seldom get to."
"I know." She let out a yawn, even as the light show continued.
"Will you be okay when we you are done?"
"Might need help to the bathroom, then rest."
"You will get it," a older woman doctor insisted.
Finally nearly fifteen minutes later the glow faded. Ranma slumped, but the woman doctor who offered kept her from falling.
"Bathroom," Ranma mumbled.
"I'll take her. Someone give me a hand." A nurse helped the doctor take her to the bathroom.
The doctors rushed to check over Janet again. "She is stable. Blood pressure is still low, but manageable. Her oxygen is borderline okay. Her color is better."
"Will she have brain damage?" asked another doctor.
"Maybe. Let's do what we can. Maybe the crew of her ship can fix the rest when they get back."
"Is she stable enough for a full body MRI?"
"I think so. Let's do it. Help me move her."
Ten minutes later they received the first MRI images.
"This is amazing. This is not the body of someone who had her injuries. She is almost entirely healed."
"Keep studying it. She was two pints low when she did most of that. I don't know about you but I wouldn't trust my medical judgment in that condition."
"We are."
"What about the match? We normally don't go below 9 out of 10."
"All we can do is monitor her. I really don't want to give her any more blood. The briefing I read said he she, whatever, wasn't technically from this Earth. I don't want to add any more complication to this if we don't have to. At the very least we need to find a 9/10 match of her blood before we risk it. I know it is coming. Does anyone have a time?"
A nurse said, "I just checked. The pentagon is sending it in an F16. It is probably two hours out from here."
"About time someone got a move on."
General Hammond nodded, writing a note down on a paper.
The doctor said, "Let's check Janet's blood in an hour, then every two hours after that. Just a very small sample, but we have to monitor it. That test was hasty as heck too. Someone go recheck it. When we get blood we will need to make the go/no go decision then."
One of the doctors went back to the station and took a small amount of the leftover blood sample and placed placed almost all of it in a clean test sample container before feeding it into the machine.
He said, "I hit the full analysis. It is going to take twenty minutes."
The first doctor nodded while the woman who was helping Ranma returned. "She is asleep, though the fact that she forced herself to eat three sandwiches and drink two glasses of water before she slept is interesting. She is also faintly glowing."
"Another interesting thing," the first doctor noted, "Is where the hell did the mass go? I wasn't the only one that saw him before he became a she. Sure some of it went the obvious place, but that wasn't remotely enough to balance the scales."
The woman said, "She is heavy. Her muscles are like corded steel even if she looks soft on the outside. I've heard of similar with Olympic champions, but I too would say that she lost mass when he changed to a she."
"Are you doing anything special to treat her?"
"After she forced herself to eat and drink she said she just needed rest. I've got her on a pulse ox monitor. It will alarm if her pulse drops.."
An alarm sounded from the room she was just in. "Crap." She turned and ran. The others followed save for two. They saw her pulse was down to ten beets per minute." Her temporary doctor raced to the shelves and pulled out a syringe.
"Wait. Look at her O2 sat. She is at 100% oxygen and her pulse is dead steady. She is even still glowing."
"Your saying this is normal?" exclaimed the surprised Doctor who was even now preparing an injection that she hesitantly recapped and set down.
"No, a resting heart rate that low is abnormal even for the best Olympians. I think that is what this is though. Let's hook up a pressure cuff to make sure." General Hammond and Jacob were a little ways away from the room looking on.
She carefully attached the cuff to her right arm before saying absently, "She has a whole tracery of fine white scars. They make her skin look flawless at a distance." She finished hooking up the cuff and connecting it to the monitor. They all starred at the display for a time.
"It's low, but not so low that she is in any danger. Given all the unknowns I have to assume the patient knows her own body. Could you stay and monitor her though? This is still concerning."
"Of course."
They returned to Janet's side.
"She looks better," Jacob said absently.
General Hammond asked, "How is she?"
"Better than she has any right to be thanks to your friend."
"Will she recover?"
"We don't know. She was so low on blood for too long. Normally people would just die, no matter how much care they received. We were trying our best, but I'd have bet money on her dying before he came in. Now, I don't think she will die. The rest is uncertain. I think she may recover fully, especially if we can send her to their ship."
"Is there anything you need?" General Hammond asked.
"More of her blood type, but that has nothing to do with you. We placed the emergency request weeks ago. We only hit the panic button when Janet was brought in. They know and are processing it."
"Send me the information. There is going to be hell to pay for this if there was anything that could be done that wasn't done. Also make sure I get a copy of who approved the Jet. Perhaps I can put in a good word with their boss, unless they were the ones that stalled the other."
They nodded. "We will send it shortly."
"When you get time please double check all critical supplies and make sure I have a list of any that are not delivered promptly. I will get them even if I have to call in a few favors. A lot of people owe us. If need be, we will collect."
"We will."
"Good. Keep me posted."
"Is there any news of their ship?"
"There is not and SG-3 is overdue. The Stargate will not connect to Tollana."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
Hammond said, "We all are. The Tok'ra are sending a ship."
"Understood."
Hammond and Jacob left.
Ten minutes later Ranma's blood finished. The doctor sat down to read the results.
"None of the standard diseases were detected nor any of the standard viruses. The final matching information is actually a little better than the quick one. Blood cholesterol is basically perfect. Vitamin levels all seem good. Tox screen was negative for all the usual ones. The spot heavy metals test found absolutely nothing. The only real anomaly is that there were no anomalies. I'd have expected some errors with the way that blood sat out for that long."
"That is strange. If I could think of a medical reason I'd give her an MRI," one said.
"That won't happen. She is far too important."
He nodded.
"We just need to wait then."
-=oOo=-
Daniel was surprised when General Hammond called him.
"Is there a problem?"
George said, "I am told the Vatican have a secure area that we can connect to. I've already asked someone to setup a room on our end, but they need help at your end."
"Okay I'll get it done. I assume it is Sam's favorite engineer?"
"Yes."
"I'll give them his personal extension if that is okay."
"It is."
Daniel was surprised when the Reverend that helped him before personally established the secure connection to the mountain. He also stayed inside the room. General Hammond appeared on the screen.
"General Hammond, can you hear me?"
"I can. Who is your friend?"
"I am Reverend Carlos Alverez. I was the one that met with Daniel and Jin when they arrived and I have been impressed by your work in that mountain for some time."
"He knows sir. No, I didn't say."
"I see. Very well. First our favorite doctor was injured helping a team in the field. It was a battle with some Jaffa. By the time she got back to the base she had lost a lot of blood. Our best doctors were on it. A certain red head you should be familiar with lent a hand and she is healing, though it is unknown if she will make a full recovery."
The reverend said, "We will pray for Janet and am glad that Ranma was able to help her."
"You are very well informed," noted the General.
"We are."
George said, "I asked Sam to take a look at some other friends of yours."
"I saw the encrypted text message they sent. I know where they went."
"Good. We have not heard back. Their gate appears to not be responding. I asked her Father's friends to go investigate."
"Damn. Is there anything I can do?"
"No, I don't think so. I'll let you know when we know something."
"Thanks for keeping me posted."
"Always." George disconnected the link.
The reverend said, "This is worrying news. Come, perhaps we can be of some help."
"How?" asked Daniel surprised.
"Not all secrets are discovered by your group. It was debated if you would be told this one. In the end the decision was left with me. I had originally intended on not revealing it, but perhaps it is time for a fresh start."
"I take it we need to wait for the surprise."
The Reverend nodded.
Daniel followed him to his car. They were driven almost fifty miles to very near the sea. They got off on a road marked only with a postbox labeled A. Smith, appearing to indicate the whole road area perhaps a residence of some kind.
The road took many twists and turns and had no less than four locked gates with hidden cameras they had to go through. When they got to their destination it seemed nothing more than an old house by the sea. The reverend unlocked the door by sliding a card through a hidden badge reader. They walked into an open area. At the end was another door that he again unlocked with his card. Inside was a deep set of stairs stone stairs that looked like they had been hand carved.
He said, "I'm afraid it is a long way down. Hold onto the railing. We never could get the elevator approved. Too much risk of the secret of this place being exposed."
"What is the secret to this place?"
"Not quite yet Dr. Jackson. It may even be that you can find some answers that we have as yet have failed to."
They continued down into the deep until they came into a very large cavern system and at the end was. Sticking out of the rock was something he had really not expected to see. "You have a space ship?"
"It is not intact. It is heavily damaged about two thirds the way through the ship. We have excavated all around it except for this end, but left the remaining bit for a bit of security. We hoped to repair the ship one day, but despite our best efforts we lack the ability to do so. Come."
He was lead onto the bridge of the ship. All the systems were softly glowing. The displays displayed an alien text. Daniel tapped several keys on one. "She is in emergency mode. I think I have started the diagnostics."
"You can read it then?"
"Somewhat. You have not learned the language in all this time?"
"Pieces only," the Reverend said slightly bitterly.
Daniel kept looking at the display as the strange language changed. He pressed one button after another. "It is asking questions."
"What questions?"
"Color of sky. Formula for finding area in a triangle. Wait here it is. Emergency interface."
A gorgeous brunette appeared before them. She shimmered showing she was nothing more than a projection. "What is the emergency?"
The Reverend stepped back in clear gaping surprise.
"You know English?"
"Of course. A ship gets bored over the millennia particularly when there are only so many non obvious ways to keep people from doing what I don't want them doing."
"I see. Do you know the current state of the galaxy?"
"Of course. I hacked into all of your encrypted data streams. How else do you think they got your information?"
"Those are isolated networks."
"The Reverend runs a spy ring. He found a way to place one of my remote transmitters. It took them hundreds of years to figure out what one did and then make use of the information. I only had to nudge them like seven times. Now what is the emergency?"
"Can you contact the Tollan's or the Asgard."
"Not from my present coordinates."
"What about the Nox?"
"They will be reachable from this position for the next forty seven minutes, and then will be reachable again seventeen hours from now."
"A Stargate team was sent to Tollana to investigate their surprising offer of their technology. We have lost contact. The gate will not connect. Sam took the Liberator to the system. We have no more information."
A pulse of light shot up from the ship, passing through meters of Earth, then rapidly accelerated through the sky and into deep space.
"They will get your message and a request for information in two point four minutes."
Ten minutes later a splash of power much bigger than the one that left returned to the ship.
The avatar said, "I have a message. It is the first in such a long time. Playing."
Lya appeared before them. Her form seemingly solid, unlike the avatar's.
"Daniel, it is good to hear from you. The news we have heard is troubling. Anubis stirs. He is easily the most dangerous System Lord. His underling attacked and defeated the Tollans, forcing them to build deadly weapons. Your team from Earth did not make it, not did any of the Curia, except for Narim. Samantha was able to save him and her family destroyed the Goa'uld motherships near Tollana, though not without suffering significant damage from one of the weapons. Everyone onboard is alive and will be fine. They should return in a few days."
"That is good to hear Lya," Daniel said forgetting she was just a recording.
The Lya projection smiled, seemingly indicating that she has guessed Daniel's words. A moment later she said, "That Samantha married an aspiring life adept pleases us greatly. We had thought that we were the last true adepts. His arrival from the parallel universe has opened doors we did not expect to see opened again. That Samantha is on the path and is passing on the knowledge pleases us more. Please ask them to visit us someday. There are skills they must yet learn."
She paused again as if considering her words before continuing.
"The Asgard are repairing the ship and have issued a stern warning to the Tollan for their hubris. We too are guilty of this and are temporarily abandoning our world of neces. What can defeat the Tollan and seriously damage an Asgard warship can destroy us. Secrecy is the best we can do for now, but that will change. The being that is Anubis is no longer simply Goa'uld, but we sense he is caught between this realm and a mockery of an ascended state. This is incredibly worrying. It is so much so that the Nox have done what they have not done in the two thousand three hundred and four years I have lived. The Nox now prepare for war. Be well Daniel. Remember my lessons, but also all the ones you have learned. I fear dark times may come for us before the light once more can shine. May we walk together on that day."
"Goodbye Lya."
"Angels and ministers of grace defend us."
"Hamlet?" asked Daniel.
"It seemed appropriate. The Holy Father must be informed of this, but first, what did she mean about aspiring life adept and skills they must learn."
Daniel suddenly blinked. He shrugged. "I have no idea. Something to do with their ability to heal Janet maybe."
"I wish I knew more. The Holy Father will deeply wish to understand this. Perhaps your wedding invitation was well timed."
"I need to inform General Hammond. We also need to get Sam here when she gets back. If there is any chance this ship can fly then we need it and a crew on it and defending the planet."
The avatar appeared and spoke, "Unfortunately, I need quite a lot of repairs before I can fly again, but mostly I need a new energy source. I could repair a great deal if I had that. I draw power from an artificial region of subspace time contained within a crystalline energy storage module. That module is nearing maximum entropy. Even if I was repaired I could not even power my systems fully let alone fly. That communication burst was even ill advised."
"We have power ran to around here. We can bring it inside the broken regions."
"Good, I will direct your teams in how to do so. Unfortunately that will only power my standby systems."
She stopped to pace back and forth on the bridge before turning back to them. "I have fond memories of the Asgard. I would quite like to see them again."
"Did you know Thor?"
"Oh, Thor and I go back a long ways. I have wanted to talk to him for some time, but I chose to follow my last orders, to remain hidden and try to be ready should a threat befall the planet. Before you came, there was no possible path to a spare power module that wouldn't see that power likely abused."
"I understand. Should I tell Thor you asked after him?"
"Please, tell him Rommie hopes he and his people were well and I will join him among the stars once more when I am able. He will know who it is."
"Sure. We should be able to send a message once Sam get's back."
"I would hope so. It is possible they may be able to repair the damage, but without power I'm pretty much stuck. I can give you the location of several likely outposts which may have one."
"A naquadah generator won't work?" asked Daniel.
"To operate my communications array sure. I could possibly even move slowly. To do anything useful, no."
"Sam said something about the Liberator being powered by eight Asgard neutrino-ion generators."
"So they perfected the technology. That is good to know. We should have given them the secret to the power modules, but sadly we did not. I would take a considerable redesign and rebuild to use their power sources, and of course the Asgard would have to manufacture them. For our purposes getting a replacement Lantean power module is the simplest."
"So you are of Ancient origin?" asked Daniel.
"If you are asking if this ship was built by the first evolution of the human race then the answer is yes. It was us, the Nox, the Furling, and the Asgard. My crew died, so very long ago, struck down by a disease so virulent that not even Lantean science could stop it."
The Reverend said, "We should go."
"Before you go did you want to write down the list of locations of where you might find modules? None are reachable by Stargate I'm afraid."
Daniel said, "Sure."
On the way back the Reverend said, "We have people that regularly study the ship and its systems. If she flies again, they must be onboard. We thought about selecting a flight crew but never did, since we never knew enough to repair it."
"I'm not with the American government, not any more. I represent the EDF. I can't see them objecting to having some of your people on board."
The Reverend nodded his agreement.
Hammond heard the news with relief and sorrow. "Well done Daniel. I'll hold off on a report since it won't help and they would just pressure the Vatican to release the ship. If there is anything we can do..."
"I have possible coordinates for power modules. Rommie was sure that there would be no Stargate at any of them. Given just what we are going after I plan to ask Sam to go..."
"I'm fine with that. You should know that Janet is awake, and lucid. They think she may recover on her own, though her mind is not yet recovered fully. It may in time, but they are hoping that Sam can…"
"I'm sure she can help, though I don't know the exact details."
"I'm sorry Daniel. I know you wanted me to help plan a wedding."
"We can still do that General. Surely there is someone you can trust with the mountain for a week or two? We can take some with us, just in case we need help, find a power module and get those two married."
"You are serious?" asked the General.
"Sir, I'm not saying we stop preparing. I'm saying that we make a little time in a larger trip to get this done. We owe them that much."
"The Cargo ships have arrived not long ago. They are already working to land the submarine they left. I'm afraid I need Teal'c to fly one of those shuttles, though Cameron is doing fine on the other. I would like to send Ranma, Jacob, Anise, and Rodney to your location. They can do what they can to help the Vatican to repair the ship. As for the trip. I will get a list of people that can go. I'll probably have to flip a coin for some. I wish I could free up Teal'c, but I have to keep people where they are needed, particularly now."
"Are you really sure that Anise and Rodney together is a good idea?"
"That is what you are there for. Jacob should also help."
"You do realize that you no longer sign my checks. Come to think of it, I need to make sure I'm still getting paid."
"I know, but I figure between you, Ranma and the Vatican they can keep those two from getting in too much trouble."
The Reverend said, "We are familiar with the people you speak of, and agree to their technical ability. You may send them."
The General laughed. "I'll get right on it, though I confess to being a little surprised that you are reacting to this as well as you are."
The Reverend said, "The church has made many mistakes in its existence. We are struggling to correct them, and yes, not all parts of it are on the same page, but the threats you fight are threats that must be fought. We agree on that much, and there are those of us that try for more. As with any large organization, not all parts of it are the same."
George said, "That is good to know."
"Twelve of us, including the Holy Father will come with you, if you will permit it."
The General said, "That will be up to them, though I doubt they will object given that they asked you there. I suspect my final count will be similar or only slightly higher. With current threats. I just can't do more, not and have any reserve. I doubt I will be able to come myself."
"In truth, I probably will not be able to either, at least not with your people here."
Daniel said, "They will likely want to go."
"Well that would simplify things."
George said, "I need to get a private jet approved to take them to you. If you need anything just call."
"We will."
-=oOo=-
Author's Note: How about some feedback? What do you think of the overall story so far?
