A/N: Sorry if it's a bit weird-sounding.
Reviews are welcome!
Chapter 17 – The Aftermath
"Wow. That was surprising." Said O'Neill.
"We actually did it, sir. We did it." Said Carter. "We shut down the replicators."
"That is indeed true." Said Thor. "We owe you all our lives as a race."
"The Asgard indeed owe their lives collectively, as a race, to your courage." Chimed Freyr over the transmission.
"It was certainly the most fun I've had in centuries." Said Minos.
"You'd call that fun?" asked Daniel.
"Yep. I would call that fun." Said Minos.
"You'd call destroying an entire race, even though they were robots, fun?" Daniel asked.
"And saving another race and two whole galaxies in the process? I certainly do." Minos said.
"Two galaxies?" Thor asked. "The Asgard only have colonies in one."
"You're forgetting the Milky Way. That's where the Replicators would have gone if they had absorbed all the mass of the Ida galaxy. Plus we need all the allies we can get for the foreseeable future."
"What's coming at us then? I don't think it could be more threatening than the Replicators." Said O'Neill.
"You're quite wrong. There are things in the universe that are infinitely more threatening that the Replicators. I, for one, are one of them."
"You don't strike me as dangerous as a whole planet of replicators." Said Carter.
"Well we just did destroy a whole planet, and several thousands of replicator ships didn't we? I think that makes us all more dangerous than the Replicators." Said Minos.
"Several thousands?" asked Carter incredulously.
"Indeed." Said Thor. "We detected several thousands of ships in the systems around this one. They had almost reached us. You stopped them precisely on time. A few moments more and they would have reached us. We could not have withstood their attacks for long."
"Yeah, about that. Did my tactic work against the replicator ships?" asked Minos.
"It worked very well. We have not lost a ship, but the replicator attacks were not as numerous or powerful as the fleet we had destroyed."
"What are the Asgard going to do now?" asked Minos.
"I am unsure. Most likely we are going to continue our efforts to find a more permanent solution to the cloning problem that will eradicate us over time. Now we can finally focus most of our power on finding that solution, instead of fighting the replicators." Answered Thor.
"Well, you should have no problems finding raw materials like neutronium and trinium anytime soon. You can just come to this system and beam it aboard."
"That is indeed true. The replicators have conquered countless worlds. Those worlds previously existed for large parts of replicators. With the replicators shut down, it should be no problem to use their materials for other purposes. That would disable them for good." Said Thor.
"By the way, thanks for saving me. If the fleet hadn't shot down the gargantuan replicator bug, I would probably have died in there."
"It was the least we could do to help." Said Thor. "And we were glad to finally be able to do something about the replicators."
Freyr opened a connection.
"Thor, I believe it would be an honour to hold a celebration on Othala for the final defeat of the replicators. And we would be honoured if our guests would join us."
"A celebration would certainly be in place." Said Thor.
"And we'd love to join you." Said O'Neill.
"Then it is settled. We will bring you to Othala while the preparations are being made." Said Freyr.
"Wait, Freyr, would you mind if I livened up the party a bit?" said Minos.
"Liven it up? What do you mean by that?" asked Freyr.
"Well, I've been to Asgard celebrations a few times, and I believe that fireworks would be a nice addition. Do you happen to have a place where I can light them on Othala? Preferably something high, and far away from any floating structures?"asked Minos.
"I can arrange that. I will send the message now." Said Freyr as he closed the connection.
"When did you go to an Asgard party?" asked O'Neill to Minos.
"A long time ago. And I mean really long." Answered Minos. "I'm unsure about when exactly it was. Somewhere around the date where Goa'uld started being annoying."
"They were not-annoying once?" asked O'Neill incredulously.
"Yeah, I know it's hard to believe, but it's true." Said Minos. "It was about twenty-five thousand years ago or something."
"Twenty-five thousand?" asked Daniel.
"Ancient." Said Minos when he pointed at himself.
"I know, but you still look like a kid, not older than fifteen or so." Said Daniel. "So it's hard to believe you're millennia old."
"That's because you're used to guessing the ages of humans. Look at Thor, for example. You wouldn't say he's over a millennium old, would you?" said Minos.
"Yeah, and the Nox. They were like five-hundred years old." O'Neill said.
"Ah. You've met them too. Did you like them?" said Minos.
"Daniel did, but I thought they were a bit vague and they kept treating us like little kids." Said O'Neill.
"Because in their eyes you are. Most of their kids are your age, if not older." Said Minos.
"But you don't treat us like little kids, while we are still extremely young considering your age." Said Daniel.
"That's because I've been treated as a kid before by most of the other Ancients. Oh and by lots of humans, of course. So I know how it feels." Said Minos.
"But then you still don't talk really vague, like lots of other races do..." said O'Neill.
"Yeah, well, after a few millennia of being treated as a young child, you start behaving like one." Minos said. "And besides, I don't like vagueness too."
"You don't?" asked O'Neill. "Pretty much every race we've met that was more advanced than we have either tried to destroy us or they talked really vague and in riddles."
"There's a way around the talking in riddles part. You just need to now a right response." Said Minos.
"Like?" O'Neill said.
"Well, for example the usual saying of the Nox, which they probably used when you met them. 'The very young do not always do as they are told' can pretty effectively be countered with 'And the very old do not always listen to those who should be listened to'. Essentially they say that the young ones listen, but don't do it and you counter with that the old ones don't listen in the first place."
"I'll use it the next time we meet the Nox." Said O'Neill.
"But you should be careful with using that. If you use it too many times, they'll know I talked to you." Said Minos.
"Minos, we were wondering how it was possible that you could fire the beams of the Mjollnir for such a prolonged period of time." Asked Thor, changing the subject after a few moments of silence.
"I may have kinda overloaded the naquadria-generators a bit." Said Minos.
"But an overloaded naquadria-generator would have destroyed the Mjollnir almost immediately." Said Thor.
"Not if you successfully increase the buffer capacity enough to drain all the energy of the explosion."
"But that would require immense energy buffers. The Mjollnir could not have possibly housed that much energy at once."
"You're forgetting something. Energy can be stored very densely. Like in a little ball, not larger than a few centimetres in diameter."
"The Asgard do not posses such a technology. Not even close. And even the Ancients did not have such a technology, for as far as we know."
"Who said it was technology? It just requires a bit of a hard hand in controlling it. And two hands would be even better." Said Minos.
"You stored all the energy from the overloading naquadria generators in your hands?" asked O'Neill.
"Not in, but between my hands. It's pretty easy if you know what to do. You could provide unlimited storage for energy, though only for a very limited time."
"We have not ever heard from such a power." Said Thor.
"Because there were very little Ancients that could do it for longer than a minute. But the ones that could, could store very large quantities of energy in a small ball between their hands."
"Did many of those ancients stay on Earth?" asked Daniel.
"Not many, but a few of the Ancients that chose to stay on Earth did indeed have that talent. Myrrdin was one of them." Answered Minos.
"So that would explain why several cultures on Earth tell stories about wizards and witches that could shoot bolts of energy with their hands."
"Storing energy could indeed be observed as 'shooting' bolts of energy from ones hands. But they power in those bolts must have been minimal. The more power is stored, the harder it is to control."
"Are there any Ancients left on Earth?" asked Carter.
"I honestly don't know. If they wanted to be found, I would have found them a long time ago. But if they wanted to 'lay low', as you say it, then they could have avoided detection for extremely long periods of time. Even I would have to specifically search for them, and that could take a while."
"But what happened to the ancients that did stay on Earth."
"Many were lost to accidents, mostly in final efforts to save large groups of humans, others ascended and the very few that remained in this level of existence are spread out extremely far throughout the Milky Way, or they went into hiding."
"How many Ancients remained on Earth?" asked Daniel.
"I'm not sure of the exact number, because when Atlantis left I was only a very young child, but I would guess about a hundred, most of which have ascended by now."
"Ascended like Oma Desala?" asked Daniel.
"Yep. In fact, Oma was one of the Ancients that remained on Earth. She helps humans ascend if they show promise, but not many do. And she lobbies for the cause of humans before the Others."
"Yeah, she helped me ascend too. But I couldn't resist helping." Said Daniel.
"I know. That is why I chose not to ascend. And possibly because I liked it way better here." Said Minos.
"But who are the Others, exactly?" asked O'Neill.
"The Ancients that fled with Atlantis, and later ascended. They are very by-the-book, and they don't know the meaning of the word 'fun'."
"So they're boring?" said O'Neill.
"Yep. They are the definition of boring, almost. And they don't like it when someone helps humans."
"Why not?"
"Because being ruled by a higher power never works well. Take a look at what civilizations that are ruled by gods achieve. How many civilizations under the power of the Goa'uld are more advanced than you?"
"Well, none that I can think of." Answered O'Neill.
"Exactly. The Ancients chose not to interfere, to give the civilizations in the Milky Way an honest chance to develop themselves."
"Even if that means being slaughtered by the Goa'uld?" said Daniel.
"In their book? Yes. But not in my book. I prefer 'nudging' civilizations along the way. Eliminating threats that would destroy them completely. Even eliminating individuals that pose a threat too great for them to handle themselves."
"I am sorry to interrupt your discussion, but we have arrived in the Othala system." Said Thor.