Chapter 26

The Odyssey dropped out of hyperspace a day from Atlantis to conserve power on the ZPM. They would 'coast' as McKay called it until they were about an hour away from the city and then power-up for a jump to the planets orbit. The area of space in which they were moving thru was uninhabited, mostly planets inhospitable to human life. Dry deserts, murky rain-forests and vast ice worlds, places where not even the Wraith traveled. They felt that this was one of the best routes to take if they were going to 'coast' and reach the city on schedule.

For Dr. Daniel Jackson, it would provide the necessary time to once again consult the Book of Origin. He had tried several times to contact Vala but ever since his strange vision of the child, it was if her mind was cut off from his. He neglected to tell Mitchell or anyone else about his vision, waiting first to see if it happened again in the hopes he could somehow tie it to his connection with Vala. As he poured over the tome for the countless time, a knock on the door broke his concentration. He looked up to see Mitchell in the doorway.

"How's it going?"

"The same," Daniel said as he pushed the book away from his face.

"That bad?

"Yeah, you would think that I would have gotten something, anything by now, that would help lead us to Vala."

"You honestly think that that book is going to be of any help to us? You can't take most of what it says at face value."

"I know that its allegorical but from my understanding of Ascended Beings is allegory in which there is truth to their wisdom."

"That whole If immediately you know the candle-lite is fire kinda thing."

"Something like that."

"So what part are you working on now?"

"The Annals of the Emissaries"

"The what?"

"The Book of Origin is broke up into chapters, each imparting its own particular morality tale or word of wisdom. Except for this particular chapter, which is one of the reasons I skipped over it so much."

"Why did you skip over it?"

"I didn't see how it fit in with the others, I though it was something that was just thrown in for trivial reasons."

"Why?"

"Because it reads like Romeo and Juliet meets The Book of Revelations."

"Huh?"

"My first thoughts exactly," Daniel said as he tossed a copy of the tome over to Mitchell. "Its one of the longer chapters in the book, about two hundred or so pages, and for the first one hundred and sixty of those pages, reads like a love story between two celestial beings: Light, a wise sage and Shadow, a beautiful princess. They endure all of these trials and tribulations until finally they are free to be together. Only once together, and this is the strange part, their reunion paves the way for the coming of two other celestial beings: The Orici and The Prophet, who according to the remainder forty or so odd pages, bring about the Apocalypse."

"That is strange," Mitchell said as he sat down next to Daniel and began to flip thru the book.

"To make matters worse, the chapters regarding the Apocalypse are all written in Oma-like verses of wisdom."

"I know what you mean, listen to this," Mitchell said as he got up from his seat and began to read from the book. "The Mother cried out into the universe and The Prophet heard her lament. Her lamentations overwhelmed the Great Beings and the universe cracked open, bleeding fire. From within the heavenly fires The Orici came forth and every living thing trembled at the magnificence."

As if a light bulb had went off inside his head, Daniel stared knowingly at Mitchell, "Read that again."

"The Mother --"

"Not aloud, to yourself and tell me what you think it means."

After taking a moment to look over the verse, Mitchell replied.

"Its sounds like a creation story."

"It sounds like a birth."

"Birth?" Mitchell asked as the he realized where Daniel was heading. "You don't think?"

"Vala's pregnant."

"I mean, come on, this is Vala were talking about. Its not like she's the ideal choice to birth a messiah."

"Vala said herself that she was pregnant before she got married and she isn't sure how."

"Yeah, but this is Vala. Honesty, not a strong suit."

"She also said that The Prior told her the child was the will of the Ori."

"So your saying that The Book of Origin fortold that Vala will be the mother of The Orici."

"I think that the Ori are using Vala to make their scriptures true. I think whoever originally wrote the story created it for the same purpose as the remaining chapters, to teach morality lessons. However, I think that The Ori are using Vala to bring validity to their scriptures."

"So the big book says a messiah will come and so they create a messiah."

"Something like that," Daniel said as he began flipping thru his notes. "However I wouldn't think of The Orici as a messiah. More like a destroyer. Now according to The Annals, the messianic figure in the story is called The Prophet, said to be the second coming of Orion, the Great Being who first shared the wisdom of Origin with humanity. The Prophet is also the polar opposite of The Orici. The Book says, the waters of Celestis opened wide and out from within The Prophet stepped forth, they then dried up all of the water so that no other celestial being could spring forth from it."

"And the Orici is said to be born of fire."

"The Orici is female and The Prophet is male, its a classic good versus evil storyline. Its actually quite fascinating when you look past the fact that its true."

An unknown sense of dread filled every sense of Mitchell's body. He wasn't quite sure why, but all of a sudden, this mission to rescue Vala made him feel more apprehensive than ever.

"I should let you get back to your work," he sad as he got up to leave. "I want to go over some last minute details with McKay anyway."

"Allright," Daniel said as he turned back to his notes. "I'll let you know if I find out anything else."

"You will know the truth and the truth will set you free."

"Huh?"

"It was my grandma's favorite phrase, it seems kind of fitting right now."

"It does, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," Mitchell said as walked out the door.

So is be careful what you wish for, he thought as he walked down the hall to McKay's office.

oooooo

Tomin of Ver Isca found himself troubled.

Since The Orici had revealed that the Ori believed Daniel Jackson to be The Prophet, he felt lost. He had been looking forward to destroying The Agent of Evil and winning a place of honor amongst The Ori. Now, however, he would be nothing more than a mere soldier. Though he would greatly and willingly serve the gods in that regard, he could not help but feel disappointed at not being chosen for such a special mission.

Currently he stood in the doorway where Vala slept. He hoped, deep down, that when it was all over, that somehow she would come to learn the truth of Origin and would reclaim her position as his loving wife. Sure, he felt betrayed by her, but he also loved her. If he didn't, her traitorous deeds would not have hurt him so much.

"Tomin?"

Tomin practically raced to her side.

"Yes, Vala?"

"Tomin, something's wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"Its becoming hard to breathe," Vala said as she lay there gasping.

"I will get a Prior," he said jumping up to leave.

"No!" Vala cried as she grabbed his wrist. "They are all on the planet leading the men in prayer."

"What can I do?"

"I know they brought a Healer on board. I know where they are keeping him. You must take me to him."

Tomin looked down at Vala, his face etched his internal conflict.

"Only a Prior can release you from your binds."

"I know how, I can show you."

"I cannot. You are only trying to trick me."

"Tomin, I'm not -- "

Vala's words were cut off by a huge gasp. Tomin could see her faces writhing in pain and her chained hands clutching her chest.

"Tomin, please," she pleaded as her eyes welled up with tears. "Something is very wrong. I can't breathe and now my chest hurts. Please."

"The Orici will not allow any harm to come to you."

"The Orici is also a baby and my body is still human. If my body dies, so does the child."

Tomin looked into Vala's eyes. Her pain and her concern were genuine.

"What do I need to do?"

"You see the symbols on either side of the bind," Vala said doing her best to point out the symbols. "You need to touch them both at the same time and hold them until the binds release themselves."

Tomin did as Vala instructed. As he waited for the binds to unlocked he looked up at her agonizing face, and began regretting everything he had done to her.

"You will not die," he said as the binds unlocked.

"I know," Vala responded as she punched Tomin in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Throwing off the binds, she raised herself from the bed and kicked Tomin in the stomach.

"You should know that my mother was a midwife," she cried again kicking him in the stomach. "I watched her birth hundreds of babies, some were very difficult pregnancies."

Bending down she picked Tomin's head up by his hair and after every few words began repeatedly punching him in the face.

"So suffice -- to say -- that I know -- what a distressed -- mother -- looks -- like."

Vala stopped punching Tomin and held his head in her hands. For the first time, it was Tomin who saw venom in her eyes.

"This is what you get for trying to strangle me, you son of a bitch."

Vala head-butted Tomin, knocking him out cold. Pulling herself to her feet she made her way to the door. Turning back to look at his sleeping form she grinned widely.

"I am no one's damsel in distress. Least of all yours."

As she made her way to the opened door a familliar voice echoed in her head.

What are you doing Mother?

"We're leaving."

I cannot permit us to leave.

"You don't permit anything, I am your Mother and I make the rules. We're leaving. Now."

I'm afraid I'll have to stop you.

"I would like to see you try."

Vala could hear strangled sounds in her head, and finally an exasperated voice broke thru.

I cannot gain control? What have you done?

"Now, you listen here and you listen good missy," Vala said sternly as she stared down at her stomach. "I did not survive one alien being invading my mind just to have it take over again by a spoiled, immature little brat."

You cannot get away with this.

"I will."

You cannot escape.

"I don't plan to."

Then what is the point of all of this?

"We're going to save Daniel."