Chapter 38

"Yes.

Daniel walked away from the aquarium, the emotional rollercoaster of the last few days finally breaking thru.

"You're telling me that The Ancients. The GateBuilders -- they made the Goa'uld."

"Yes."

"The Goa'uld that took my wife from me were a byproduct of The Ancients attempts to cheat death."

"Yes."

"Why are you showing this to me?"

"So you'll understand."

"Understand what?"

"That Gaia is the reason for everything!" Aja said pointed to the creature in the tank.

"Gaia?"

"It is what the Ancients named her."

"On Earth Gaia is considered the primordial mother goddess, a chthonic deity of creation. Its funny how on the money some things can be."

"I know this is alot to take in."

"You think?"

"But it will make what I say next make much more sense to you."

"And what would that be?"

"I told you to follow me and you did. You do not know who I am or where we were going. But you followed willingly."

"And?"

"I told you Vala carries your child and you did not even blink."

"Your point?"

"It doesn't even bother you, does it?"

"No."

"And you don't find that to be the slightest bit odd, do you?"

Aja watched as Daniel carefully thought over her words and almost as if a fog had been lifted, he backed away from her slowly.

"Whats happening to me?"

"Its nothing really. Just the nanites that Father implanted into your brain doing their job."

"Nanites?"

"They lay dormant in your cerebral cortex until your first conversation with Vala a few days ago."

A stabbing sensation began to twist in Daniel's gut, "The memory burst."

"More like a trigger. And the best part, Father buried it so deep in your brain that unless they know what they're looking for, they will never find them."

"Father?"

"You actually know him quite well, he was in possesion of your body for several hours before he started shooting people."

"Anubis."

"I mean, think about it for a second. He could have easily hitched a ride with anyone at the SGC, instead he chose you. And it was several hours before you were to leave the planet. What do you think he was doing all that time?"

"Well, according to you, he was injecting nanites in my brain. Do I even want to know how he managed to do that?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know. Its actually quite disgusting. Even for me, and I'm a Goa'uld."

"Aja, daughter of Anubis."

"Actually its Kebechet, Aja was the name of my host."

"Was your host?"

"Yes, sadly, she passed away a few hours ago, along with my symbiote."

"She died with the symbiote?"

"You know better than anyone else that the mind is a seperate entity from the body. When I say that she died with the symbiote, I mean when its heart gave its last grueling thump, it was Aja's mind that occupied its body."

"You switched your minds? I want to know how you did that one?"

"Its easy actually. She let me."

"She let you?"

"Aja suffered from severe and degenerative mental illness. If I had not taken control, we would have both been lost. Even in the body of the symbiote, it would not have kept either of us safe forever. She knew that. Towards the end she didn't even know who she really was half the time. She gave her last breath believing she really was a Goa'uld. Every moment she was alive was agony. I loved her like a sister, her loss is very painful to me. I take comfort in knowing that she must be in a better place."

"And I'm supposed to believe you?"

"No, I meant what I said when I told you that I wanted to show you rather than tell you."

"Isn't that what Gaia was for?"

"I showed you Gaia so that when you've seen what I have to show you, it will all make sense. You'll understand that part soon enough. And you know as well as I do you would have never come without asking questions and frankly, you weren't ready for them. We implanted the nanites to ensure that none of the normal barriers that would have kept you from being here at this very moment would have stood in your way."

"Well, I'm here, what do you want to show me?"

"Daniel, what's really going on, how all the pieces fit together, are beyond anything you could imagine. You will come to see how everything that has happened to you has led you to this moment and will lead you down the path you are about to undertake."

"So you're talking about what, my destiny?"

"No. What I am talking about is the fact that like Gaia, you are nothing more than a byproduct of an Ancient experiment gone awry. And how, like the mighty civilization that grew from that mistake, you too, can be so much more."