This chapter is about 10 pages long, I knew it took some time to write it, but I decided to get this out of the way for all of the fans. The rest of the chapters will follow later on as I continue work on my other stories.
Hope that you enjoy,
Ginn's Awakening.
As Ginn walked through the halls of Destiny to find Eli and tell him that contact had been made with Earth.
Though not from there, the woman that was now in Chloe's body didn't feel that she wished harm to come to Ginn.
Maybe blathering her mouth off about Eli and her love for him is what may be swayed her. It had been three years; maybe something could have happened to the Lucian Alliance. She had heard tales how the Tau'ri had slowly started taking down the System Lords.
Maybe the same thing could have taken place with the Lucian Alliance.
Hopefully in the next few hours the crew would know what was happening back home in the Milky Way Galaxy. It was the woman's words that stuck with her.
"Now go to that boy you care so much about and give him a kiss of passion so great that he will wish to marry you. If half of what you have been through didn't make your relationship stronger, I don't know what would."
Ginn felt warm inside her heart. She felt strong... Connected... Even her fellow Lucians started to even respect her. She wasn't so much as seen as a Tech, but... Maybe a second... Though the idea of having that type of power wasn't something she wanted. She wanted to be a simple farm girl who loved math.
She remembered waking up on the floor of the observation deck hurting, cold and covered in dirt and very naked nearly two months back.
At first Ginn thought that the computer system was doing a simulation to keep her sane that was when she felt someone put a hand, a real life, true to existence hand on her shoulder, she nearly jumped out of her skin. It was Tessa... One of the few remaining Lucian's who had been spared being put off of Destiny by the Tau'ri after the attack on the ship and the front of her uniform looked to have been torn and patched.
"Ginn... What just happened to me?" Tessa was scared as the sounds of moans could be heard as several other individuals started to move around. Ginn had recognized several as either being Lucian or Tau'ri. Some were in various states of undress as they started to feel around for folded piles of clothing around them. Ginn looked over to see her own clothes folded in a pile by her.
"I don't know..." Ginn got up to cover herself with her jacket as she felt around for her undergarments and leggings. "The last thing I remember was telling Eli to put my uploaded mind into Quarantine after..." Ginn turned to see a chilled to the bone Dr. Perry sliding on a simple white dress and doing her best to try to make her fingers work.
"After you died..." Tessa said exhaling hard into her hand to warm them up.
"You?" Ginn said seeing there being at least several more Lucians than she remembered as being left on Destiny.
"Me... I remember being ripped apart by some monstrousness beast with some serious teeth." Tessa said as she felt her chest.
"Same here." One of the Lucians called out rolling a creak out of his neck.
"Seconded."
"Thirded…" Said one in the back corner who was female that was when a Tau'ri soldier who looked to have a bullet hole in his desert jacket looked at everyone. He looked to be on guard. It took Ginn a moment to remember that he was one of the soldiers killed during the Lucian incursion onto Destiny. It was when a fellow soldier moved over and put him at ease. It took a while for everyone to realize that they were alive and with a touch Ginn studied her own neck. It felt sore from Simeon had choked her to death with all of the pain and suffering of the underworld connected to it. That was when everyone noticed a figure wearing a dark cloak with form fitting sleeves watching them.
"Who are you?" Ginn called out the figure for a moment got scared as the young woman started to glow then suddenly turned into floating waves of connected golden smoke.
"You are an Ancient!" An individual Ginn remembered from Eli's Chronicle as being Hunter Riley stated to speak as the Ancient calmed down some and took on a physical form before nodding nervously as the hood fell back. The Ancient looked to be no older than Ginn with short cut hair and the bluest eyes that she had ever seen.
"Did you bring us back?" Ginn spoke as she pulled her jacket closer around her to stay warm. The nervousness stated that this Ancient showed stated that she was in trouble before nodding in confirmation. "Thank you." Ginn reached out and her hand went through the Ascended being. That was when a scream could be heard in the distance within the ship.
It took only moment for everyone to find where the screaming was coming from to find a very naked and scared Kiva rocking back and forth in a fetal position. From the look in her eyes she looked like she had reached some sort of mental agony limit. Tessa was the only member of the group to have seen something like that in her life and that was when a member of her village had been tortured to death repeatedly by a Goa'uld System Lord with a Sarcophagus.
As much as Ginn hated Kiva, seeing this warrior put through such suffering that they had regressed to a childlike state to stay sane.
"Did you do this to her?" Ginn asked the Ancient. The Ancient just shook her head giving the answer 'No' "Is it Destiny?" with that Ginn go the answer she needed.
There was an old Tau'ri adage Ginn had heard of. "Be careful for what you wish for, you just may get it." And Kiva wished for the knowledge of the Ancients. Given from the look on the former commander's face, she just received what she had desired the most with all of the suffering that went with it.
Several of the Lucians wanted to execute Kiva seeing that she was no use to them, but Ginn stated that Destiny had the ability to reach into the minds of the crew. Like the Ancient Technology that most of the crew knew of from back home, that if you had the Ancient Gene then you communicate with Ancient technology.
With Destiny it was different... It interfaced with you!
Destiny had a mission and to fulfill it and it would use you to help finish it.
If you were broken, then it tried to fix you, if it couldn't then it would destroy you.
Kiva was on the trials phase of the ship's leadership protocols.
If she survived it, she would be different.
Same memories, but wiser because of what she had to learn from Destiny's lessons about people and the universe.
Maybe gifted or cursed with the knowledge of the Ancients she so sought after.
With that information many of the Lucians fell in line knowing that the Tau'ri weren't the ones they were supposed to be fighting. They as the Tau'ri saying went: "were in the same boat together". Destiny had laid down the laws for which it functioned and would allow the crew to live under.
The Tau'ri had learned this the hard way and now it was the Lucian Alliance's time now.
It had taken some effort on Ginn's part to convince the Tau'ri to trust her, but once she had been able to she had moved over to the computer terminal system on Destiny the Tau'ri had called the Apple Core and started to work on the system.
After a few brief moments the resurrected members of the crew realized why the Ancient had done what she did in bringing them back from the underworld.
Destiny was in bad shape from a massive decompression on several decks and awakening the crew would have meant death for all on board because of the power needed to wake them up would have collapsed the shields. Between the next few hours Ginn had been able to get enough heat turned up enough where they were not seeing their breath as much. It had come down to the key facts that they had to start patching the ship and finding food.
Destiny in the meantime was studying Kiva's mind to learn about the Lucian Alliance, and they had learned that whenever Kiva was able to come back to reality and talk. After the mess that had happened to Colonel Young with him nearly curling up into a bottle and being drunk. It had taken Lieutenant Scott some effort to get the Tau'ri leader sober and back into command shape. Ginn had to slap Kiva a few times to force the Lucian leader to understand that Destiny had a mind of its own. That you didn't take command of it! You had to earn your place to command it. Kiva learned the truth about this the hard way after Ginn said: "So how many times have you killed the Tau'ri and something bad has happened to you as a result?" After that Kiva seemed more in control when she wasn't being slain ever five minutes by the simulation.
That was when Riley found the Kino remote with Eli's message to the crew. One of the Stasis pods had been damaged and between talking with the people on Earth, they had been able to find a way to put him into form of hibernation. Eli had nicknamed it Operation Buck Rodgers, but it consisted of him swapping out with a generics expert who would create the proteins he needed to survive the Journey in the Control Chair room given that it had it's own independent life support system. The temperature drop and the gene therapy would allow Eli hibernate for years to centuries if need be. Eli said if he ever survived the experience and ever had any children and one of them was a girl... her name would be Ayiana after the Ancient who had discovered the process as a means of survival.
Ginn had been mortified at the thought of her love being entombed in Ice forever, but knew that the resurrected had to do their best to save the ship so that they could save the crew.
It had taken hours to route the Stargate controls to run off some backup power so that they could dial out to a planet to gather food after searching and finding that the ship was bare except for some dried teas leaves and flavored water formulas.
It took hours with basic gathering for the foodstuffs from a nearby Gate-able planet and just starting to patch up parts of the ship to keep from losing power to life support.
Was this what it had been like for Eli during those early days on Destiny? Ginn thought as she did her best to keep the two crews from killing each other.
The pattern went on like this for several days. Cutting, patching, welding, fixing systems, Kiva screaming, and sleep.
Kiva, with some coaching from Ginn had started to see the simulations as possible options of what would play out. Even working at repairing the program damage Dr. Perry had done during her infatuation with Dr. Rush to feel her love again. Kiva had started to become religious just to cope with the images that had bombarded her mind going as far to start quoting sections of the teaching from Kep, the Book of Origin, some third faith that the Tau'ri knew about.
Whatever worked for her to stay sane?
Many of the Lucians and the Tau'ri knew that that Kiva would never be a leader again and that was what Destiny was telling her. Destiny had a mind of its own... and a mission. Kiva was slowly accepting this, though Destiny had shown her another path... Something having to do with the Fifth Race and what was unfolding she needed to understand it. This about the same time Ginn had found Eli's Eye-Fone and started to chronicle what had happened so far.
Most of the messages Ginn had made at first were to Eli. As the days passed, it was one of the few things that kept her sane after Finding Kiva kneeling naked before Colonel Young's stasis chamber after a bad simulation experience.
Seeing her former Commander taken down to this level scared her on levels she didn't want to think about.
It was a look that Kiva possessed that felt like something had been ripped out from the inside. But it was when Kiva decided to speak to Ginn and state that Destiny wanted her to feel the suffering that she and the other militant Lucians had done to innocents. Kiva had even felt Ginn's death at the hands of Simeon. That was when Kiva stated that she saw something too… Hope… Now power… was the future. It would be Lucians like Ginn and Varro who would be the leaders to come for the alliance. With that, Kiva grew distant again as another simulation tore into her mind. Ginn watched as Kiva rode out the storm of images in her own meditative way.
Down by Kiva's knees there was a sheet of paper with writing on it in broken Tau'ri, Ginn read it.
On it were several words:
I will give you all that I have and more. I have accepted my fate.
With that Ginn reached over and covered Kiva with a blanket and walked out of the stasis camber room. Taking out Eli's Eye-Fone out of her pocket she activated the video recorder and started an entry. Only to catch an image of the Ancient standing in the hallway looking a little lost.
"Sorry... You scared me." Ginn said looking at the Ancient. The Ancient embarrassed turned away. "Don't... Listen if you want to talk... I mean, I used to be non-corporal, I might understand." The Ancient turned back and started to speak... But nothing came out of her mouth.
The Ancient seemed a little lost in her attempt to communicate but Ginn decided that having someone to listen to her might be good.
For the next hour Ginn talked with the Ancient and for some strange reason the Ascended being seemed to cheer up some. Maybe understanding what it was like to be in her position. Having power yet being powerless to use it to make a difference to the universe around you. Making a judgment call on something, knowing full well that you would lose the connection with those you loved and cared about.
After several days, Destiny started to inform them that it was nearing a point where it would refuel. That was when several other Ancient scout ships started to drop out of FTL around Destiny. When the first ship docked with Destiny, the amount of data flowing in showed what was going on. The Drones had been causing trouble again, but the scout ships had found something that would give the crew an advantage in running the last blockade.
This was when the stasis chambers started to unlock. The look on Colonel Young's face was priceless at seeing a very naked Kiva kneeling before him. Seeing Kiva present herself as an offering to the Tau'ri crew was disconcerting for everyone as Ginn rushed in a wrapped the former Lucian leader in a blanket. In addition to seeing several members of the crew that had been killed during Destiny's journey creped people out at first as they started to wonder what was up. But it was Rush who was the most affected by seeing Dr. Perry among the living again. Well... Shock at seeing her in the flesh, second by her slapping him across the face for not accepting she wanted true love from him. This was followed by her hugging him knowing that just being there gave her the strength to keep going one more day.
Riley had to fill in some of the revived seeing that several of the crew was still in stasis as he give them all an update on the events of what was going on. For the most part Ginn just stood in the corner as Varro dealt with the impact of seeing several of his late crew mates returned to the living. For the most part it was TJ who explained the events to the Lucians about why Varro was so protective of her.
How do you come to terms with seeing the face of your late wife on another person?
Several Lucians had heard of seeing your double... But seeing a person that you love's face again. Well, for Ginn, it was just plain creepy thinking there was a boy out there with Eli's face. This meant that somewhere out there on some other planet was some girl that bore the same face as her.
Ginn offered up the Kino pad with what Eli had done to survive. There was a long hushed silence that came over the crew as they heard about the events Eli went through to live.
Afterwards Ginn did her best to hold it together as Colonel Young and the crew worked on a plan to take out a Drone Node.
Somehow it came down to raiding the scout ships gate production systems of liquefied Naquadah and gating to a planet with significant amounts of potassium they had been able to convert about twenty Stargates into fairly large bombs. For the most part, this was going to be a bombing run against this site.
Between the calculations that needed to be done, Ginn just did her best to hold it together as several of the awakened crew paired off into the ships to do the attack run.
As the Scout Ships did their attack Destiny was far enough away with the data updates to activate the Gate Bombs.
Most of the drones hadn't been able to understand that doping Stargates like there were land-minds or bombs near the site then activating them would lead to the amount of force to destroy the command center.
There were cheers as Destiny for the first time in a long time had been able to refuel in peace. That was nearly a week until they were able to get Eli out.
Ginn nearly was frost bitten as she rushed in to see an ice covered Eli. Between having to warm Eli up slowly as before they were able to chip him free from the chair then having to fight the hypothermia he was in. Ginn wanted to feel Eli again, but being stuck in a Tau'ri sleeping bag with a third person wasn't the image she wanted. But smelling Eli's fleshy body against her nose, it was the first time she had talked about the day she had been taken from her family. Reia... a fellow soldier who got her through her Lucian Alliance training. Reading Eli's research for the first time. Losing her virginity.
Most of the days after that were a blur even after the dream she thought the Simeon spirit was going to take her life again and having a Tau'ri gun in his hand. Vanessa had let her sleep with her after the first Simeon nightmare and calmed her down each night as Eli lay recovering in the infirmary.
When Eli had awakened, she had been there.
They talked about the events that had reunited them even as the crew started working their way into the section of the ship that had been damaged during the long journey here. Then hearing word that the long-range communications terminal had been damaged from the decompression had caused some great worry among the crew. The damage was slight to the unit, but it was doing the repairs that would take the most time to get it up and running again.
During this time, Ginn and Eli had caught up much on their lives and where they wanted to go with their relationship. That and having an Ancient around who seemed to want to be part of the journey said much about whatever was going on was important in the scheme of things to come.
They saw much during that time that brought hope to the crew.
Seeing TJ reunited with the daughter she thought she had lost during the Lucian Incursion.
Learning that Destiny had reached out to help save the lives of the two by using Varro to perform a small miracle
Even Eli, after he had wanted to see what work that had been done on the Chronicle since he was asleep. During a chat with Ginn about his mother they had stumbled upon a lead to a long term treatment for TJ disease. Who knew talking about his mother's disease that mirrored the Jaffa need for Tretonin would lead them in looking at long term treatment options?
Seeing research on TJ's Disease that the Blighted Kassa that one of the Lucian members had brought along had been used by their counterparts on Novus to treat the illness for several centuries.
Well, if they could figure out what was in the blight, then... Well the Lucian Alliance would have a crop that they could trade with the Tau'ri and the destruction of the shipments could stop and maybe worlds like her's would gain some freedom and maybe some prominence. With Prominence meant leeway...
Leeway meant freedom.
Freedom meant that her people could start growing their own crops again without them being burned out of spite.
Having that though on her mind she continued her look for her love.
Ginn walked past Lisa who was trying out a pair of snow goggles that had been carved from space deer rib was making her way around the ship slowly. Ginn stopped and asked if she needed any help. Then she heard Greer come their way. Turning around, Greer looked nervous as Lisa reached out and took Ginn's arm to help her back. Ginn knew that Greer and Lisa had become a couple and happy for them. But sad that Lisa had lost her vision while trying to protect the seedlings of the food crops they would need when they reawakened. Something in Ginn's mind that she would aid with during this journey as a way to atone for one of her clan harming this woman.
"It's alright... I stopped when I saw the stop sign." Greer chucked a little at some joke Ginn didn't fully get and the three of them walked back to one of the intersecting hallways of the ship.
"So, how is your eyesight today?" Ginn said seeing the smile on Lisa's face.
"Well I was able to make out the shape of a flower... Really close. Ah a Kino, a cup... A... Shoe. Eli's shirt..." Ginn chuckled at this. "And Carmen's sweet pie lunch."
"I am glad that you can see better." With this Ginn added the news she was part of. "I have some more good news... Chloe made contact with Earth. I think they were concerned about what happened to us, and I think that the woman Chloe swapped with thinks that she may have gotten more than an ear full of me and Eli's sex life." Greer just looked at her strange. "Yeah... I also was returning Chloe's blouse at the time... but the thing was, she didn't see me as an enimy... that was when she told me to go to my boyfriend, and asked to speak with Colonel Young and Ms. Wray." With that Lisa turned to Ginn.
"Do you know what they wanted to talk about?" The question was in the air.
"I do not know..." Ginn gave her answer. "Mostly they just want to know what we have been up to for the last two months."
"Well, you better go to Eli... He might want to chronicle this down." Greer said leaving Ginn to continue her journey.
As Ginn made her way to Eli's quarter's she saw him slowly working his way through the footage that he had recently put together of Destiny's space battle and interviewing the Ancient that had come on board.
"Eli..." Ginn came into the quarters and gave him a kiss of passion that got his attention off of the footage and on her. After a long time of feeling time stop between them, Ginn pulled back to see the look on Eli's face.
"If this is about you wanting me to move into your place... The answer is 'YES...'" Eli squeaked the last bit out. This was when Ginn kissed Eli again.
"Thank you my love..." Ginn hugged Eli's slightly overweight body lavishing every soft layer of his flesh under her arms. For the first time in a long time she knew that no matter what would happen next, they would get through it. Even with Earth..
Earth...
Ginn broke her moment of joy to inform Eli of the connection.
"You mean... We have contact with Earth..." Eli knew that this was an important moment for the crew as he reached and picked up a Kino remote.
"Yes..." Eli reached over and handed Ginn another Kino remote.
"Here, I want to make sure that the event is covered." With that the two lovers left the Kino room to learn of the events that had taken place over the past three years. Behind them two Kinos chased after them like pixies trying to keep up.
Notes:
Yes, I spelled iPhone as Eye-Fone in this chapter. Knowing that Ginn is unfamiliar with several Earth tech terms, she would state it in terms she would understand. That and it was a piece of unique tech that Eli would have had near him that most identifies him from most of the crew given that everyone else used iPod Classics, Nanos, and first and second generation Touch models. Also Eli's iPhone is a 3G model.
I wrote Ginn as Ginn, using what background I have been able to dig up from the various wikis.
The Bomb used is Classic SG-1 from season 1.
The bombing run will be mentioned in a later chapter in greater detail with a different character.
Let me know what you think so far.
For the next chapter, who do you want the story to be seen through next?
I am taking recommendations.
Do you want it to be someone from Earth or on Destiny?
Let me know... Outline in progress.