Time Immemorial
Chapter 13: Esōterikós
July 16th
2229 Hours
"Who exactly are these guys?" John asked. He had found Dr. Perrot's historical accounts engrossing, but he was getting anxious. His team desperately needed clues about the Lacedami's motives – something, anything that could give them the upper hand. And right now we've got nothing, John thought to himself as he eyed his captors around him.
"Well," Nicolas said somewhat sheepishly, "I'm afraid this is where my tale turns almost entirely toward conjecture—"
"At this point, if that's all we've got, I'll take it," Sheppard urged.
"Very well. But please understand that my role in this expedition has been to piece together the histories of the peoples we encounter in the Pegasus Galaxy and resolve them with what we have gleaned from prior missions in the Stargate Program. I have been working on several of these theories for quite some time, but I'm afraid that they are just that: theories."
"We understand, Nicolas," Elizabeth encouraged. "Please continue."
"Well, as you all know, Atlantis had many protectorates in Pegasus, worlds the Ancients had seeded with life. The Ancient database makes mention of one such world – the name of which has been stricken from record – that had began as a cooperative colony of Atlantis. The Ancients nurtured and educated them. They looked over their shoulders for many generations to come. These people, once able to stand on their own feet as an independent civilization, evolved into a military society. All willing men and women served in their army – and most were willing. Only the too young, too old, too ill, or expectant mothers did not participate, but instead found other ways to contribute to their society. They were a hard-working, proud people. Even though they were entirely self-sufficient, they elected to remain working with the Ancients to defend the worlds from minor Wraith skirmishes well before the Great War with the Wraith erupted.
"The relationship was très bon, mutual. In some ways, the Ancients and these people complemented one another: one the brains, the other the brawn. One valued intellect, enlightenment, and innovation, the other physicality, obedience, and structure. But the very things that made the partnership harmonize later devolved into points of contention. The colony forgot the ideals the Ancients had instilled in them and radicalized their own. Acts of cruelty, torture for sport, were disguised under the label of 'military exercises'; death was the punishment for even the most minor of crimes; children were snatched from their mothers at a young age for consignment into their army; the old or sick were banished from the colony. After hundreds of years of autonomy, this race of people decided their affiliation with the Ancients was no longer of value to them and severed all ties of fellowship. The Ancients, seeing what had become of their progeny, didn't attempt to stop them.
"However, these warriors wanted more than to simply break away from the Ancients. They took it one step further. They saw the Ancients as the weaker race. They saw them as conceited scum, always looking down their noses at the soldiers as they risked life and limb against the Wraith while the Ancients commanded from the sidelines; accepting help but offering none in return; asserting their authority where they no longer had any. It was the Ancients who needed them, not the other way around. So terrible was their contempt for the Ancients, who had oppressed them, who had wronged them, that they did what we have seen so many other times in history: they waged war on their makers."
"Who won?" asked Teyla.
"Je ne sais pas," Dr. Perrot said simply with an apologetic shrug.
"Why don't you know?" Elizabeth wondered.
"Two reasons. Firstly, the entry in the Ancient database abruptly stops. Secondly, if I have pieced together my timeline correctly, the war with the Wraith began shortly after this all came to a head. I think both parties had bigger problems to solve at that point."
"Like how to survive," whispered John under his breath. He instinctively touched his chest, just above the wound where a Wraith had fed only months ago. It suddenly throbbed with the painful memory.
"This is the first account I've heard in which the Ancients haven't been painted with a rosy brush," Rodney remarked.
"Perhaps they share some of the blame for the conflict," Nicolas surmised. "It's difficult to say; the log adopts an objective tone. However, enlightened or not, the Ancients were not infallible. They were our forbearers, after all."
"Yeah, or maybe this colony was just a bunch of assholes, plain and simple," the major declared abruptly with a scoff, raising his voice in frustration. He nodded toward their guards and mumbled, "I guess the apple didn't fall far from the tree."
No one said anything for quite some time, surprised at the major's sudden outburst. They had all remained calm thus far under some extraordinary circumstances, but the last person anyone expected to lose their cool – even briefly – was Major Sheppard.
Elizabeth cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow expectantly. She waited, or rather hoped, for an indication of how he was doing, not an apology… but she got one anyway.
"Sorry," John muttered, casting his eyes down in aggravation and rubbing his injured bicep. "My arm's just bothering the hell out of me." It was true; his arm ached, his nose ached, his head ached. But he could feel Elizabeth's eyes on him, seeing right through his poor attempt at an excuse. Try as he might, he could never prevent her from seeing straight into his core. She knew the cause of his angst. She, too, was perturbed at their slow progress. Neither one of them liked sitting captive, paralyzed for hours on end, unable to do anything to remedy their situation. It ate at them both.
Elizabeth quietly put a hand on John's and gave it a small squeeze of support. John instantly squeezed back, gratefully, desperately. His face remained stoic. The action was the closest he would ever come to admitting to a chink in his armor, she suspected.
Nicolas continued as if there had been no interruption. "My point is that we weren't there. If there is anything I have learned as a student of history, it is that you can put together all the different accounts of an event from all angles imaginable and you will still never arrive at the truth. All we know are the facts: the Ancients and one of their former colonies battled one another here in Pegasus some time before the Siege of Atlantis."
"I now understand Lacedami's ties to Atlantis," Teyla voiced, "but I still do not understand their connection to Earth—"
"Okay, okay, hold on," McKay interjected. "You believe the evil people standing in our cafeteria now are the same evil people you just described from over 10,000 years ago?"
"You're two steps behind the rest of the class, Dr. McKay," the wily old professor responded. "Do try and keep up from now on. To answer your question: the same civilization, yes. Naturally, this group here is descended from the colony that lived in Pegasus in Ancient times."
McKay folded his arms, not at all enjoying the jabs at him as much as the others. "Naturally. The fact that they themselves are tied by blood to the Ancients would explain why they, like Major Sheppard and a select other few, have the Ancient gene."
"Which explains how they can operate our transporters," John added, "not to mention their ships and weapons, which are definitely of Ancient design."
McKay went on. "But what I don't understand is how you came to that conclusion because of a brief entry in the Ancient database."
"An entry that was without context until recent events. There's more. Tell me what you make of this passage:
There was also a warrior class. [They] had all things suitable for nurture and education. Neither had any of them anything of their own, but they regarded all that they had as common property. They were not to take up arms against one another, and they were all to come to the rescue if any one in any of the colonies came under attack. For many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well-affectioned towards the gods, whose seed they were. But soon they dwelt by themselves. They grew ignorant of the arts…. The virtues and the laws of their predecessors they knew only by obscure traditions; they neglected events that had happened in times long past."
Nicolas stopped and waited for a response from his audience.
Realizing no one was going to volunteer any conclusions, John shrugged and offered, "Sounds like our guys, right?"
"So what?" McKay put in. "More of the same from the Ancient database—"
"No," interrupted Dr. Weir. "Not from the database. From Plato's Criteaus." She looked to Dr. Perrot for confirmation.
Nicolas nodded. "Full marks, Elizabeth, well done."
"Wait, what are you saying?" the major asked. "That Plato, in addition to having detailed descriptions of this City, the Siege of Atlantis, and the Ancients, also wrote about them?" He pointed a finger in the direction of a Lacedami guard.
"I suppose that is what I am saying, ce n'est pas?" Nicolas answered with a grin.
"I don't understand," Elizabeth was forced to admit. "How did information about the Lacedami make it to 4th century BC Earth, when the Ancients – quite obviously and deliberately – tried so hard to suppress any specifics about them before leaving Pegasus?"
Rodney snapped his fingers together in rapid succession, signaling a trademark eureka moment. "What if information about the Lacedami wasn't the only thing to make it through to Earth?"
His teammates stared back at him blankly. Seconds passed but still the brilliant scientist expected them to join in conjecture.
John wouldn't have it. "What, you want us to play Twenty Questions?"
McKay scoffed. "Far be it from me to expect any intellectual calisthenics from this lot," he grumbled. "We know the Atlantis Gate is the only one capable of dialing Earth, right? So what if the Lacedami themselves – or at least some of them – made it through the Gate to Earth?"
John shook his head immediately. "I doubt the Ancients would've let them use the Stargate. Dr. Perrot just said the Lacedami were at war with the Ancients—"
"Yes, yes, but before that, before all the hatred and ill will. They were simpatico with the Ancients for a long, long time, remember?"
"So 10,000 plus years ago, you believe the Lacedami travelled to Earth via the Ancients' Stargate while they were still on good terms with them?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes!" Rodney answered excitedly.
"Then the conflict between the two cultures broke out, at which point the Ancients probably wiped all record of them from the database and most certainly cut them off from the Stargate..."
"Yes," Rodney agreed.
"... but not before who knows how many Lacedami settled on Earth and either assimilated into the developing cultures or formed their own."
A pause. "Yes…?" McKay was forced to admit to himself that he hadn't thought that far ahead.
Elizabeth continued to extrapolate. She was completely lost in McKay's theory. "Shortly after, the War with the Wraith overshadowed the Lacedami-Ancient conflict here in Pegasus. The Ancients were forced to sink Atlantis during the Siege, forever cutting off the Lacedami here from the Gate and their remaining foes on Earth."
"Until we showed up," Sheppard reminded her.
Elizabeth looked at him suddenly. He was right. "Until we showed up," she repeated thoughtfully to herself.
"Does the database make mention of anyone other than Ancients traveling between Pegasus and Earth after Atlantis left the Milky Way ten million years ago, but before the war with the Wraith?" Teyla posed.
"No," John replied immediately, thinking of the same possibility himself. "Elizabeth's right. If the Lacedami came across the pond to Earth, it would have had to have been with the Ancients just prior to the Siege. No one else had the technology."
"We can't say that for certain," McKay disagreed. "It's not like we can just wikipedia this. We've slowly been making our way through the database a little at a time, but it's, well, kind of big as you might imagine."
"My money is on the Lacedami isolating themselves from the other civilizations once they arrived on Earth via the Stargate," speculated Dr. Weir. "I think they tried their best not to integrate into other cultures."
Teyla eyed the cold, austere Lacedami soldiers around them and nodded in concurrence. "They do not seem like the type to socialize…."
"What brings you to this conclusion, my dear?" Dr. Perrot asked of Elizabeth.
"If your theory is right, Nicolas, the Lacedami culture would have had to survive relatively intact for several thousand years after Gating to Earth until the eventual dawn of the Spartan empire. We assume they arrived on Earth in approximately 8,000 BC. The Spartans were thought to have emerged in about 900 BC. The best way to preserve a culture for that long is isolationism."
"Very true," the old historian agreed. "It's been known to happen, but for 7,000 years? That is a long time to remain segregated."
"It is, unless your goal is to remain that way. Remember, Spartan citizenship was inherited only by blood. They prided themselves on their cultural homogeny, and with a strong military presence to defend that way of life it's easy to see how they could have survived intact for that long."
"Claw your way to the top, stay set in your ways, and conquer anyone who opposes you," John summarized. There were still peoples who practiced the very same way of life on Earth.
"Oh, and an interesting fact, if I may," Nicolas said, "Lacedaemon, the Spartan province, is said to have been founded by the son of Taygete, one of the seven Pleiades, and Sparta, descendant of a sea nymph." The French historian, for one, loved all the connections to water they were unearthing. As they developed their theory, they served as reassurances that they were indeed on the right track.
"You mentioned the symbol on their shields was what made you realize the Lacedami's true identity," Teyla reminded the old Frenchman.
"Ah, yes. The Greek capital letter lambda, equivalent to 'L' in our own alphabet. It was painted on the shields of Spartan soldiers and stood for Lacedaemon, their homeland. But you are wondering why it looks so familiar," Nicolas speculated.
Teyla nodded.
"The symbol for the Stargate Program and the SGC," Elizabeth mused.
"Put a circle over it and you have the symbol for Earth – or Earth's point of origin in a Gate address," added John.
"Indeed," nodded Nicolas sagely.
"What happened to the Spartans?" McKay asked.
"They had quite a history," Elizabeth answered. "Not surprisingly, given what we just learned, they became the predominant military land power in Greece. They conquered the Persians in the 5th century BC. Later in that same century, they fought the Athenian empire in the Peloponnesian War. Unlike Sparta, Athens valued discovery, the arts, and the sciences. It was home to Plato, Socrates, and countless other philosophers. In fact, despite also being of the same heritage, you could say they were polar opposites of the Spartans…." She found herself trailing off, realizing the implications of what she was saying. "Oh my God…."
Nicolas let out a mirthful laugh of excitement. "Je ne le crois pas – I do not believe it! Millions of light-years of distance and millennia apart in time, and still the bitter enemies of the Pegasus Galaxy found one another on a different battlefield. My, how exciting this game is of connect-the-dots, no?"
"So I'm gathering the descendants of the Ancients – the Athenians, I presume – and the descendants of the Lacedami – the Spartans – finally ran into each other again on Earth during the Peloponnesian War," John encapsulated. "Small world."
"How did the Peloponnesian War end?" McKay inquired. He was becoming more wrapped up in the story than he would ever admit.
Elizabeth was still reeling from the latest revelation, so Dr. Perrot took over the narrative. "Not surprisingly, the might of the Spartans overpowered the Athenians," he said simply. "Truth be told, Athens was always the underdog and never really had a prayer against the Spartan army. The Athenians won several battles early on, like the Battle of Olpae, but such battles were few and far between. Interestingly, though, the Athenian victories always came with the aid of a divine power – the work of the gods, as Greek history claims. The final nail in the coffin, however, came when Sparta developed their own navy. Athens had been struggling for years against the Spartan army alone; when they came under siege by Spartan naval forces, it was all over. Athens fell to Sparta in 404 BC."
"And after the war?"
"After that war erupted a new one, as was so common in the days of Ancient Greece. Sparta now faced a coalition of Greek city-states allied with Persian forces. Despite their military supremacy, the Spartans' numbers were no match for the Theban army in 371 BC. After the loss, their culture was in tatters. As Elizabeth recently reminded us, Spartan citizenship was only inherited by blood. Unwilling to absorb outsiders, their population dwindled. The Romans conquered what remained of them – along with the rest of the Greeks – two hundred years later."
"The Romans," John repeated thoughtfully. "Maybe that's why the Ancient language sounds so much like Latin."
Elizabeth cleared her throat, able to think clearly once again. "We've long since postulated that Ancient is a root of Latin, but we weren't ever sure of how the transference occurred. If the Lacedami and Ancients' progeny continued to speak and write Ancient – or some altered form of it, even as a second language – it's logical that the Roman Empire absorbed it. Latin is just Ancient several thousand years evolved."
"Back up a second," John said. "Let's go back to this 'divine power' that helped the Athenians win a few battles."
"I know what you are thinking," Dr. Perrot responded cautiously to the major.
"If this power helped the Athenians fight the Spartans on Earth, it is possible it is an Ancient weapon of some sort," jumped in Teyla. "Perhaps it can be of some assistance to us here in Atlantis."
"My thoughts exactly," replied John. He was starting to feel better. Now they were getting somewhere.
Rodney scoffed. "Don't tell me that you honestly hope to mumble some mystical voodoo words from 400 BC Greece and have Zeus throw a lightning bolt down on the Lacedami."
"No," John retorted defensively. "Although that would be really, really nice. All I'm saying is that we now know about the existence of a powerful Ancient tool… let's use that knowledge to our advantage. Whatever that thing was, maybe the notion of it will get us somewhere with these guys. It stands to reason that if it was important to the Athenians, the Ancients, and the Spartans, it'll probably be important to the Lacedami."
"Agreed," Elizabeth asserted. She appreciated his sound logic. Maybe this was where they could finally weave all these threads of information into a plan. "Nicolas, do any of the texts say anything about this 'power', anything at all concrete that we could use?"
His face turning contrite, Dr. Perrot apologized. "I am afraid not, my dear Elizabeth. The only remotely descriptive prose I have to offer is the repeated reference to the word lume, or 'light.'"
The group frowned collectively. It wasn't much help.
"And suppose this thing actually is a weapon," Elizabeth voiced, thinking aloud. "Is it so far fetched to assume that if the Ancients made one, they might have made more?"
"I don't know, Elizabeth," Major Sheppard cautioned. "As much as I would love to get my hands on another one of… whatever that thing was, I think that might just be some wishful thinking."
If one even existed in the first place, Elizabeth added silently to herself. She thought better of the notions that ran through her head. One what, exactly? Armament, a person, a strategy? Was it even physical? Is this where the trail runs cold? She was looking for something that could give the expedition an advantage, and all that she had found thus far was an obscure reference to a hypothetical thing that may or may not have ever existed. And how she was supposed to use that information to their benefit she had no clue. She was certain, however, that she was not about to stake the lives of everyone on Atlantis on myths alone.
Elizabeth rubbed her eyes. What really worried her is that the Athenian army would have been completely slaughtered by the Spartans had it not been for this fabled force. What hope did her people – mostly scientists – have against the brutal Lacedami without an edge, something to tip the scales? But what kind of leader would I be if I didn't follow the one lead I had, as weak as it may be?
Resolute, she suddenly stood, the only one of the dozens of expedition members in the entire room to do so. She stood out like a sore thumb.
"What are you doing?" John cried instantly, looking up at her.
By now, several of the Lacedami soldiers had spotted her and instantly brought their guns round. No less than three of the captors had their rifles trained straight at her forehead.
John jumped to his feet instinctively. "You want to fill me in on the plan here, boss?" he muttered tersely, eyes fixed on the alien rifles now pointed at them both. The guards erupted in a vigorous chatter, arguing amongst themselves about how to handle this transgression.
"I think we've theorized as much as we can about these people and their motives," Elizabeth answered evenly. She raised her hands into the air, the universal sign of submission. John followed suite. "We can't afford to guess any longer. It's time we found out the facts, straight from the source."
"Okay," responded John, still not following. "And how do you propose we do that?"
"Simple," she said, nodding at the Lacedami. "Walk over and ask them."
John's head snapped around. "We do what?"
"We're not getting anywhere by speculating," she argued, still eyeing the weapons nervously. "The only way to learn anything tangible is to have a civilized conversation with them."
"Civilized? Have you seen what these guys can do – what they have done – to our people?"
"And I think I can put a stop to that if I just sit down and talk—"
"Elizabeth, these people don't respond to words, they respond to violence; that's all they understand."
"Many a war was prevented through treaties and negotiations. I know that if I can just understand what they're after I can put a stop to this whole thing."
"Wait, wait, what do you mean 'I'?"
"I mean 'I'," Elizabeth repeated unwaveringly, locking eyes with him. "As in me, on my own. The best way to strike an accord with them might be through a one-on-one dialogue—"
"No, no way," John said instantly, shaking his head steadfastly. "I'm not letting you alone with these guys."
Elizabeth ignored him. "I'm going to request an audience with Antigonos. Hopefully he'll hear what I have to say—"
"Antigonos? No, no, absolutely not!" John exclaimed, infuriated she was actually thinking of going through with this. There was no use in being quiet now; the attention of the whole room was now focused upon them. "I won't let you do it—"
"Would you please stop interrupting me for one minute?" Dr. Weir hissed. "Need I remind you: this is not your call to make!"
The two stood there, gazes full of ire and locked with one another, neither willing to back down. After several breaths, Elizabeth began again, more calmly than before.
"Do you have a better plan?" she asked candidly. She prayed the answer was 'yes'.
John ran a hand through his hair, exasperated. He was forced to admit to himself that he didn't. He desperately tried to think of something, anything that would prevent her from carrying out her proposal, but his mind drew a blank. She was right – doing it her way was their best shot at salvation.
As he reluctantly met her gaze, she could read the fear and defeat in his eyes and knew the answer to her question was 'no'. She suddenly felt a twinge of remorse for having shouted at him. Though the brief squabble had been public, Dr. Weir was certain the expedition had long grown accustomed to their shouting matches. His stubbornness, as it often was, had only been out of concern for her.
"Some things are worth the risk," she reminded him.
"I just don't understand why it has to be you who does this," John admitted to her.
"Name me someone else in this City that's more qualified to handle this negotiation."
John cracked that patented crooked grin of his. "Kavanagh?"
Despite herself, she let out a small laugh. "Nice try. Remember, before Atlantis, treaty brokering was my job for the majority of my adult life. And I'll have you know that I was damn good at it, Major Sheppard."
"You are damn good at it, Dr. Weir," John answered. "Just… be careful around Antigonos. I don't trust him, especially not… especially not alone with you."
"I'll be careful."
"I mean it," he maintained. He tried to pour every ounce of caution he could into his words, but no amount seemed like enough to properly express the depth of his worry. "These guys are dangerous, Antigonos especially. He is cold, he is calculating, and worst of all he is smart. He'll stop at nothing to get what he wants." I just hope what he wants doesn't involve you, he added to himself. The thought made his stomach churn. "Just do me a favor and don't turn your back on him, okay?" he pleaded.
Elizabeth looked into his hazel eyes and got lost for the briefest moment. For whatever reason, his concern for her amazed her each and every single time. She drew strength from his stalwartness. You already risked yourself for this expedition. Now it's my turn.
"I promise," she said with a nod. She suppressed a smile at his concern. "Don't worry about me. That's an order."
"Yes, ma'am," he replied tenderly.
With that, she boldly walked into the center of the room, directly toward the armed guards.
TBC
Author's note: Congrats on making it through the exposition! I got a little carried away, but it's only because I find the commonalities between ancient cultures so fascinating. All the history presented in the past two chapters - the texts, the theories (other than the SGA-specific ones), the mythology - I did not make up. You can find much of it online. I also recommend the following books, the contents of which inspired these chapters: Survivors of Atlantis, by Frank Joseph, and The Atlantis Blueprint, by Colin Wilson and Rand Flem-ath.