Chapter 7 - Moya
After briefly introducing him to the crew they showed Jack quarters and left him with some old clothing. They figured that he needed time to adjust like Crichton did. But the rest of the crew of the Moya gathered in the dining hall and immediately began pestering Crichton about Jack.
"What's he like?" Chiana asked coyly as she stalked around the kitchen area.
"Who cares," Rygel answered. "The last thing we need is another stupid human on board. The last one has been nothing but trouble." Rygel's hover chair moved to take a prominent position in the room.
Aeryn smiled, "Oh, I don't know, Dominar. John has come in pretty handy carrying boxes and such."
"Hum, he is respectful, at least," Rygel huffed.
"He is not like Crichton," D'Argo contributed, before taking a bite of his meal.
"How do you mean?" Zhann asked almost shyly.
"He seems to know more about the galaxy than Crichton ever did," D'Argo said after he cleared his mouth of food. "He wasn't surprised by other races and language barriers. Got a bit weird with some ring thing though."
"Yeah," Aeryn continued. "He called it a Stargate. Kept asking us where it was."
"Well, if Crichton is any indication, than all humans are insane," Rygel concluded.
Jack picked that moment to speak up, having been watching the whole conversation from the doorway, "I couldn't agree more, flying toad. So, the grub is somewhere around here?" Most of the crew startled and scattered. Jack casually walked over to the kitchen area and started to poke at the foods. "I hope it tastes like chicken," he said a loud.
"I'll have you know I am Dominar Rygel XVI, Emperor," Rygel proudly proclaimed. "I won't accept anything but your apology for your crass statement."
"Well, too bad, I've mouthed off to false gods, Presidents, all-powerful Ascended Ancients, Daniel, and Carter, who blew up a sun. You don't even rate a mention," Jack stated without taking his eyes off of his plate as he still poked at the meat-looking thing. "Besides, you are on a prison ship. Not exactly the royal palace."
Crichton piped up, "You really mouthed off to the President?"
Jack turned and looked at him, eyebrow raised, "Yeah, I was peeved he chose Kinsey as a running mate. He fixed that though." He took his plate to a table and started to eat. "So, how exactly did you get all the way out here without a Stargate?" he asked Crichton.
Crichton sighed, "It started out as a test flight. I was orbiting around the Earth then hurled into a wormhole across the galaxy into the middle of a prison escape. I accidently helped the prison escape work and now the Peacekeepers want me for helping the escape. These guys were wrongly imprisoned, so they stuck around."
"A wormhole, huh," Jack said dryly.
"Yeah, I know that astrophysics has not proven that wormholes exist, but one really did take me from Earth to the middle of the galaxy. See a wormhole is just a term that explains…" Crichton began to explain.
Jack stopped him, "Whoa, I get it. Apple, worm, hole through the middle. Really smart people have tried to explain wormhole physics to me. People a lot smarter than you. I get it. Let it go. Besides, I've stepped through more than my fair share of wormholes in my day. In fact, I hope to step through one more to get home. Besides, I always figured it had more to do with magnets than holes."
"They have nothing to do with magnets," Crichton stated angrily.
"Any who, I brought some stuff back with me from that site the Andari were so worked up about. Take a look," Jack said as he brought out an Ancient tablet. It was active and he set it down on the table and scrolled through several of the screens while the others on the crew looked on. All the text was in Ancient, but the Moya crew was curious.
Aeryn was fascinated. She reached out to pick the table up and it shut down. "It died," she said.
"Yeah, that is why they wanted me. I can activate the tech," Jack said.
Crichton nodded and took the tablet from Aeryn to put it back on the table only to have it switch back on again, "Whoa."
"And apparently you can too," Jack said with a grin.
With Crichton activating the tablet, the rest of the crew wanted to try it out. But only Crichton could activate it. "Looks like it is just us Tau'ri humans," Jack said. He leaned back at a table. Crichton and Aeryn joined him.
"Don't you mean Earth humans?" Crichton asked. Tau'ri was the same term that the Andari and the Bounty Hunter had used.
Jack gave him a considering look, "It means the same thing. Earth is the 'First World' or Tau'ri in goa'uld. Remember that I said, humans are a dime a dozen. Well, a race called the goa'uld would take humans from Earth and transplant them to other worlds. They used them as slaves and had them worship them as gods. Earth rebelled against these false gods and buried the Stargate. They would still raid Earth, but by ship. On these other worlds, they had a legend about the First World, the Tau'ri. That is how we were known."
"These other humans know about Earth?" Aeryn asked.
"They do now. Especially after Ra bit the big one. Us little óle humans killed the head false god. Hell, there were only like eight of us then, including Daniel. Led their slaves to revolt after just one contact," Jack said proudly.
"Us?" Aeryn asked pointedly.
"Yeah, I led that mission. Daniel and I killed Ra. Didn't know that the Stargate led anywhere else at the time. Now we know that it goes to other galaxies. Met a lot of mighty fine people along the way," Jack said as he reminisced. "But I never the Sebacians, well except Aris Boch. But he apparently doesn't claim to belong to the race any longer."
"Was he the Bounty Hunter we saw at the Port?" Crichton asked.
"Yeah, real pain in the Mitka," Jack replied. "Apparently, he usually avoids Sebacian territories. They don't really like him for some reason."
"Contamination," Aeryn stated quietly.
"What?" Jack asked
"Contamination. The Sebacians despise all those Sebacians they deem to be contaminated by other races. I am considered contaminated. I assume that your Bounty Hunter is as well," Aeryn stated with little feeling showing.
"Wow, what pricks," Jack stated with feeling. Finally, he shook his head. "Well, if you folks will just swing by Earth on your way to 'where ever', I'll get out of your hair as quick as you please. We were about two weeks by hyperspace from Andari."
"Um, what?" Crichton said.
"Two weeks out of your way to take me home. Then you can get back to what you were doing," Jack continued.
"What is hyperspace?" Aeryn asked.
"Oh fer cryin' out loud," Jack stated. "Hyperspace is how you travel faster than light. I don't know the science. Ask Thor. When you travel from star system to star system how do you travel?"
Aeryn took a calculated look and then began, "We usually travel at near the speed of light. It takes time. That is why we need supplies. Moya has a dedicated Pilot that has good navigational control, but once we go into the Forbidden Zone there are dangers. We are safer from the Peacekeepers, but at risk of others, raiders mostly. When we are desperate, we can use the Starburst. It is not controlled, but it sounds like it goes faster than light for a period of time."
Jack took on a calculating look. "Alright, so we are on a ship with some FTL abilities but no FTL navigation and excellent Sub Light abilities and navigation." He considered his options in-depth. "Tell me more about the Forbidden Zone, Known Space, and Uncharted Territories is it?"
Aeryn responded to the command presence Jack conveyed, unconsciously, "Known Space is all the charted and patrolled space within the existing Empires. The Forbidden Zone is the buffer zone around Known Space to keep the evil out of Known Space. The Uncharted Territories are the areas no yet charted or known. Usually around the Forbidden Zone."
"Evil?" Jack asked.
Aeryn winced, "An old Sebacian Legend that describes an ancient evil that tried to control the Sebacian people. The Sebacians revolted and drove the evil to the edge of the galaxy."
"Alright, then it is a given that Known Space is NOT where we want to be. Especially since neither of you has seen a Stargate or knows what one looks like," Jack stated.
"Hey," Crichton started, "Maybe that's where we need to start. You have given us names, but can you draw one? Describe it in detail?"
"Good point. Got some paper?" Jack asked.
Crichton corralled some paper and a pencil for Jack. Jack started to sketch out the Stargate complete with chevrons.
"Okay, we called it a Stargate. It is also called a Chappa'ai, a Heaven's Gate, a Portal, a Doorway to Heaven, the Pathway of the Gods, and on one memorable planet the Doorway to Hell," Jack finished his drawing and handed it to Crichton and Aeryn.
"Well, it still doesn't look familiar to me," Crichton said sadly.
Aeryn was silent. She just stared at the picture. The words 'Doorway to Hell' rang in her head. "I know why there are none in Known Space."
Crichton turned to look at her in shock, "Really? You've seen them?"
"Me personally, no. But I have been taught to look for them." She sighed, "The Sebacians call them the Hellmouth. The Sebacian people have systematically destroyed every Stargate in Known Space and every one they encounter in the Forbidden Zone or the Uncharted Territories."
"Why would they do that?" Jack asked.
Aeryn grimaced, "Because we are taught that the Hellmouths allow an ancient evil to pour its army of demons onto a planet's surface. The Peacekeepers were originally founded to combat this ancient evil. That is why the Forbidden Zone was created. Young Peacekeepers are taught to avoid contamination by the ancient evil and that once contaminated, death is a blessing."
"Well, I think I know exactly what your 'ancient evil' is and you can rest easy. They are basically extinct, or nearly. The 'contamination' is in-fact a parasitic organism known as a goa'uld. I call them snakes. The Tok'ra have perfected a way to extract them from the 'host' so the host remains alive and well. I myself have been a host twice. Not that I would recommend it."
"Besides, your ancient evil is really just over dress arrogance with high tech toys. Regardless, that puts Earth in the Forbidden Zone. If Moya can head that way, we will either find Earth or a Stargate," Jack reasoned.
"Host?" Aeryn asked.
"Like a sock puppet, with you as the sock. Not fun. Besides, according to Aris Boch, Sebacians can't be taken as hosts. Pissed the goa'uld off. Killed a lot of people on his planet. That was how I met him the first time. Introduced him to the Tok'ra," Jack replied off-hand.
"The Uncharted Territories sounds like our best bet for finding Earth then. Based on what you have said, the ancient evil raided Earth until recently," Aeryn stated, regaining her composure.
"Yup, until we killed them all off," Jack replied. "Your people have got to stop with the serious isolationist propaganda stick. There are bigger enemies to deal with. The Ori for one."
"Who are they?" Aeryn asked.
"Oh, they take the whole false god thing to a whole new level. And they are invading from another galaxy to settle a score with the Alterans who died out or ascended over 10,000 years ago. Talk about holding a grudge," Jack shook his head.
Crichton looked out of his depth, "I'll just let Pilot know that we are going through the Forbidden Zone to the Uncharted Territories. And to look for this," he held up the sketch of the Stargate.
Jack waved him off and went back to chat with Aeryn.
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