Chapter 6
Earth Weekend Resumed
Stargate Command
Eight Hours After Earth-Furling First Contact
Jack, SG-1, SG-2, and FOLT-1 (Furling Offworld Liason Team 1) appeared, virtually instantaneously in a lightning-quick flash of bright golden-yellow light in the SGC gateroom. Although gateroom personnel didn't have as much fun as offworld personnel, they were able to experience cool sights like this. Walter Harriman noted to himself right away that these transport beams of their new friends and allies seemed to be materialize so quickly a person could easily miss noticing them. Obviously much quicker than even the Asgard and Ancient ones. Although remotely similar in color to the Ancient short-range and long-rage transport beams he knew about, the Furlings' glowed less orangish-it was colored more like a light-pure-gold color. Jack was glad he'd radioed gateroom personnel and told them it was just he, the two SG teams and their newly-made friends, before doing the old beaming-down routine. He didn't want to come even remotely close to abruptly ruining the Tauri-Furling relationship when it was turning out to be so wonderful Appearing in one of your new ally's operations base and seeing fierce, alert guards cautiously aiming their assault rifles at you would definitely do just that.
Half an hour later, another set of lights, a pale straight-formed violet-blue, zoomed down in the middle of the gate room. The lights vanished, leaving a group of aliens who looked rather like the Asgard, but...they were significantly taller and their external physiology looked noticeably different. They looked rather more... human, as the tallest of the group stood at about 6'0''. He stepped forward to try ease up the confused atmosphere. O'Neill was feeling so speechless at even considering the possibility that these tall aliens were the Asgard, that he stammered ridiculously when he tried to ask the tallest one if they were indeed Asgards, who'd just against great odds solved their genetic degradation problem nearly-completely.
"Y, Y, You a, um, are...uh, Asgards,r ..r.. ..r right?" Jack managed to stammer.
The Asgard-looking alien nodded his head and did his version of humans smiling. He seemd to be able to perform any physical actions so much more easily now with his new and improved clone body. "Yes, we most certainly are, O'Neill. I am none other than your 'buddy' Thor. Do you not recognize me after we have known each other for eons?"
O'Neill, still just a bit surprised, only replied with, "Well, yess...uh, uh, of c, c, c , course Thor. I just didn't expect you to be so tall! Grown quite a few inches, you and your people have. Please pardon the Master Yoda grammar from Star Wars by the way. You all have Although, somehow I don't recall knowing you for that many tens of centuries." After he looked a little more closely at the face, could tell that despite this significant change in physical stature, his close little grey friend, who was now not-so-little, still had the same friendly, kindly, optimistic face.
"I was only speaking in hyperbole." the now-a heck-of a-lot-taller Commander Thor responded, "It is an act which I learned to carry out from your species and find I can utilize to great effect. I am not certain who the aforementioned Master Yoda is and what this Star Wars Concept is, but I deduce it is from a movie or television show. Now that I have cleared away that hyperbolic confusion,I must say I'm very delighted to be on Earth for a partially leisure visit. Our mutual Furling friends having just given us a seemingly 'magical' solution to our long-term shrinking problem will now allow me participate in this 'fishing' activity you've wanted me to partake in for so long."
"Well, I'm absolutely, phenomenally enthused like I've rarely ever been in my life. Never thought we'd make it to this day when you guys would successfully solve your genetic degradtion problem and also not have to deal with the replicators anymore and we'd be able to spend time chilling together. Now, if any Ori or their troublemakers, decide they wanna try to interrupt our weekend, I'm gonna stick my foot….well, I mean to express that I'm extremely eager and will stand for no interruption." Jack exclaimed.
"All the more reason we living beings should attempt to be optimistic," Thor replied to the concept of expecting almost miraculously good luck. "After all, we didn't predict that our Furling friends would suddenly reemerge in our galaxy after almost three eons and present us with a solution which not only completely stopped our physiological degeneration. In fact, they were even able to mostly reverse it to effectively improve our bodily functioning to regain those lost meters in height we lost so long ago.
"Indeed it is luckily so." Heimdall,being one of the foremost Asgard biomedical scientists, commented.
"Three gigantic cheers for the Furling!" O'Neill and SG-1 and SG-2 chanted out enthusiastically at the same time.
"And the Asgard can easily recite an infinite number more of praises to them as well", the Asgard chorus sang out all at once.
The Furling party just looked extremely embarrassed to be receiving such lofty praise and smiled nervously. "It has always been our pleasure to aid our highly-valued and honorable allies the Asgard. The Asgard are an honorable and ethical race who have proven themselves time and timeagain to be wrothy of the Furlings' aid. " Narcill spoke for them.
"There are unfortunately numerous exceptions to this general trend you hold to be true. The
"Anybody who saves our lovable Asgard buddies is a friend of ours. Already considered you folks friends seeing as how you're helping to fight the Ori and we seem to get along so well." Mitchell shared his thoughts about the Furling with everyone.
"Then our peoples have a mutual friend,"an older-looking Asgard male interjected. "When the Furling offer their friendship and assistance to a race, that race can absolutely consider itself very lucky to recieve the offer. They are a very trustworthy race, who wish to do good for all their friends and allies. They've saved us too many times in the direst situations to repay. In fact when the Ancients refused to accept us into what was then the Alliance of Three Races the Nox stood neutrally on the matter, and only the Furling fervently insisted the alliance add our race to it. They believed in us so much that they threatened to leave that alliance and form a completely new one if the Ancients and Asgard didn't accept our application to join. "
"My apologies; this is my father, Odin." You all have never met him before, because we were not able to clone his body due to the fact his body was much more sophisticated than that of most Asgards." Thor introduced his father to the Earthans.
"Then it must be unimaginably complex, considering how complex the average Asgard's bodies are" Sam observed, always highly impressed with the natural sciences involving the Asgard.
"Apparently so," Teal'c added. "We know of everything involving the Asgard to be very advanced beyond that involving most other races in the known galaxies, perhaps even the universe."
"Uh, just wondering-does that mean, Odin, that just as in following the traditional Earth version of Asgard mythology, then Loki is also your son and Thor's brother?" Daniel Jackson worked his archaelogist's mind.
"Quite correct, young man" their new Asgard friend answered, his elderly Asgard bobbling his head gently, and in the manner of someone who felt impressed. "You must be the famous archaeologist/anthropologist Doctor Daniel Jackson."
The young man nodded. "Although, I wouldn't so I'm that famous. Least of all not on Earth."
"That is understandable" Freyr remarked, to Odin and Thor's tremendous disparagement. "For very long, you have focused on proving the existence of extraterrestrial beings, which you attempted to support with
"You and your colleagues are all quite familiar with my son Thor-that I know. And Freyr recalled meeting your team in person once back in the year when that old bore of a Goua'uld of with a ridiculously exaggerated sense grandeur named Anubis kidnapped my dear boy here" he remembered, patting Thor on the top of his head like a father would do to his young son. Thor seemed a bit embarassed. "And I see you have had the misfortune of meeting my other Son, Loki. The youngest and the most mischevious of them all. I've always had hope for the little rascal that he would one day stop trying to cut corners and act in such negatively eccentric ways. Alas. I'm sure someday he'll genuinely change his ideological ways to a much more ethical one. As soon as our mutual Furling friends were able to visit us and share their cloning technology, I dragged my sneaky miscreant of a son to a private room with no distractions and lectured him for eight of your hours about how disappointed I was with him."
"A whole third of one of our days. Speaking of my 'old friend' Loki, where exactly is he and what is he doing this moment, since he's not here with us?" Jack inquired with much curiosity.
"General O'Neill, I presume?" the old Asgard guessed, bowing his head to O'Neill.
O'Neill nodded slightly and bowed back to Odin. "It's been my pleasure and privilege to be acquainted and to interact with your son Thor over the past nine years, Thor's Dad. He's a fine Asgard who's reliable, self-sacrificing, and extremely competent militarily, scientifically, and also politically, in the positive sense of the word.
"Alas, Jack O'Neill" I cannot ever apologize enough for you having to suffer for Loki's imprudence and arrogance when he kidnapped you to attempt to solve a major problem which he lacked the insight to realize he could not solve so easily. He is now being punished for his improperly acting with a demotion to a mere technician position, something which only Asgard beginner students of the various scientific disciplines perform."
"I'll tell you what, Thor's Dad," O'Neill said. "The Asgard have saved me, my colleagues, and our whole planet many times and it's not the situation that you prompted him to do that vile act, so of course I have no ill will towards you or any other Asgard for that."
"Thank you, my esteemed General Jack O'Neill." The grandfatherly Asgard replied pleasantly. "But still consider us to be at your service to perform for any task if we if are able to do so."
"Ah, Odin, back to what you were saying earlier, I just wanna say I'm not really that famous, esteemed elder Odin.." Daniel answered trying as usual, to deflect someone's praise.
"Oh, but you are, my dear man" Odin protestingly contested. "Now, would the Asgard name a whole new class of scientific-exploration ships after an unknown Earth person? You are too modest, Daniel Jackson. You shouldn't be as arrogant as the Guaould or Ori, but it is perfectly acceptable to accept others praising you for accomplishing such great feats. "
Two hours later, the Asgards, Furlings, Jack, and SG-1 sat back on the plush back seats of the long limousine that President Hayes ordered sent to them for their usage.
"Your planet has very pleasant scenery O'Neill." Thor smiled in a very positive way as he gazed out the window. "I am very happy that I am much taller now so I may easily view the sights as we pass by them. I am assuming we are in the more rural, unindustrialized, uninhabited areas?"
"Yes, we're in the more empty, remote-from-the-cities part of the, er, eh, 'province' of Colorado. Very few signs of civilization, unless you count the SGC/ NORAD headquarters, or the United States Air Force Academy, which many officers working for the Air Force attended. This is a 'suburb', but a more remote one you're glancing out the window at right now."
"It is great to see such places, O'Neill. The Asgard have always lived close together for practical purposes, especially with us needing to work twenty-four-seven, as you Earthans would say, to find solutions to both the Replicator Threat and our previous Genetic Detoriation Illness."
Odin had listening on to their conversation with interest. "The Air Force. Yes, Jack. Your particular military service branch of the mighty united provinces of the country of America. I'm wondering, besides learning to fly small fightercraft, did you learn to fly slightly larger craft designed for dispensing with compressed explosive devices?"
"Father, it's important to keep in mind that when O'Neill attended this extremely selective insitution of higher military learning, bombers were " Thor had read up on the book concerning Earth military history which O'Neill had given him as a present.
"Thor's quite right, Odin. We're right now, I'm quite embarrassed to say, not advanced enough to have that capability independently. We've only advanced that far because we've scavenged and reverse-engineered technological components from advanced civilizations. Or, in the case of you good folks, recieved it a a goodwill donation. It'll probably be adecades before we can actually " O'Neill felt just a little bit embarassed admitting this to Odin.
"Your people will reach that capability level all in good time, young man. Do not feel as if you're less worthy as a civilization just because you haven't reached that point independently yet. You did after all have to experience stagnation because of the Goa'uld occupying various parts of your planet and forbidding the natives to further their scientific and technological knowledge. Now, we do have one protected- planet on which the native people have reached a level of technology which is….perhaps three hundred years ahead of yours-the Galarans, who will be helping in our war effort. But key to them being able to reach that level is the scenarion that no outside oppressor interfered with their civilzation's advancement. All in all, your ability to reverse-engineer spacefaring technology is rather impressive. I believe the Earthans possess a rather unique degree of ingenuity which would surprise their detractors greatly."
"Yup. Ended many a Goa'ulds career in that way" O'Neill mentioned, beaming with pride.
Odin smiled a full proud smile like he would when congratulating a colleague.
Sif looked like she'd wanted to interject for a while. "Interesting conversations we're having. But may I ask what program of actvities we'll be following tonight?" the only female Asgard in the limousine asked. "I would very much love to volunteer helping to set up these activites, uh, within my ability of course. And "
Jack waved his hand to indicate a no-no. " No, no, no way. The United States Air Force, Homeworld Defense Command, and Stargate Command will be footing the bill. Well, Sif. We thought we'd let our friends and guests here tonight choose a restaurant of their choice to order from and then we'd rent a movie recording-a movie is a filmed visual theatrical production, which allows it s creators to create it on a much larger scale in terms of scenery, actors, and special effects."
"Oh. That is rather interesting. The Asgard have experimented with such entertainment media before our millenia-long war with the Replicators started. We are thinking of continuing to recreate such media. Thor, we might be able to glean a few ideas from them for restarting our own theatrical recording entertainment by viewing the Tauris' entertainment if we could." Thor's wife was beginning to get engaged in the conversation quite comfortably.
"I have always enjoyed such entertainment mediums immensely" Heimdall remarked in his still somewhat squeaky-sounding voice. I look forward to sampling the myriads of "
O'Neill continued on this course of thought. "So what else did you folks do to entertain yourselves before you had to start working every hour of the day, every day of the week to fend off those ever-pestilent life-imitating heaps of scrap metal? Those later replicators who could think at a higher level-those were even worse headache-causers."
"Well, I'm so glad I wasn't here to experience those pests. I am aware though, speaking of the replicators, that the Alterrans inadverdently created them, by the way. If I ever manage to ascend one day, I will have an extremely straightforward conversation with Moros about cleaning away disastrous accidents when it is so easy for an ascended being to do so. To answer your earlier question, well, we played a computer-based game called Bouncing Metal Ball-Bearing." Sif went on to describe this game of theirs, which sounded like it was somewhat like the Earth game Pong, except its gameplay specifics regarding the simulated physics-related-motions were perhaps literally one hundred times more complex.
Thor, who'd been only listening to other peoples' conversations decided to take this opportunity he hadn't had for hundreds of years to check in with his Furling friends. "Now that I finally have the opportunity, may I take the time to inquire about some Furling friends, whom I have not seen in some while? Has your Dad made any progress towards clearing his honorable name which has so unfairly degraded for the past two hundred years?"
Lekilis shook his head with great dissapointment. "Sadly no, he has not, nor have any of his still-considerable number of supporters." Thor only shook his head and folded the skin where there would've been eyebrows had he been human, deeply pondering this long-lasting disaster for his longtime friend Trand'il Alerothi. Thor had known the Aelerothi family for a fews centuries. As Supreme Commander of the Asgard naval fleet and also the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Tri-Services at a time back when the Asgard were healthy enough to fight with their bodies on land and inside a fightercraft, he'd often collaborated with the High-Admiral and later Supreme Combined-Services-Officer on defensive goals for both races. They had become more than just colleagues, but also very close friends. Thor had been there to visit Tran'dil often for leisurely purposes when he felt too Thor sighed after futher thinking about the siutuation. He'd been horrendously shocked to find out that Admiral Aelerothi, a great hero of the Furling Republic, would be shamed into resigning for supposedly causing a fiasco when it most likely was not of his doing.
Thor faced Lekilis. "If I may frankly speak, I believe that some leading individuals within your republic have an insufficient in blaming yourself first instead of blaming others first as they did, when assigning blame for causing a disaster of that sort of magnitude."
Odin showed a hint of great awareness with his facial expression, hastening to add "Yes, I agree with Thor' assessment, young Lekilis. I learned of this story when I spoke with the current Furling High-Consul, who by the way seems a most honorable elf determined through fire and brimstone to do what he sincerly believes is the best for his people. The High-Consul himself lost his daughter in this goodwill mission. Yet he did not choose to blame the unfairly publicly condemned Trandil for the heart-rending effect of this incident. I believe personally that the Dokkalfar were responsible for this. I am not convinced that they would have the prudence to not enter with violent intent into the Neutral System where the goodwill mission was taking place. Rest assured, my friend, we will most certainly utilize all available Asgard resources to deterine what many Asgard believe was the true cause of this massive murder of fine innocent government delegationees on voyage to relieve the suffering of the humans living in the Neutral Zone."
"I think Trand'il and Lekilis both feel far worse about what happened to High-Daughter Elryn than what happened to Supreme Officer Aelerothi himself." Thor interjected emphatically.
As Tran'dil and his extended family had been longtime friends with the Asgard before they lost contact during each other's national state of emergency. The Asgard had one day encountered some most bizzare life-forms, if one could count self-replicating nanite blocks whose sole purpose it seemed was to absorb designated metals in in order to produce more 'copies' of itself.
"OK, we're here at the esteemed Marcello's Fine Italian Dining Restaurant." everyone." Captain Paul Davenport announced.
"So, who among you wants to come inside with me to pick up the dining materials for tonight?"
"I will volunteer, O'Neill. I have never interacted with a non-SGC Earthan personnel in the recent centuries, excluding perhaps your clone Jon O'Neill, who I'd classify somewhere in between the ambigious. Speaking of him, have you interacted with him recently? Do you
"I'll come too." Mitchell informed them. Cam had rarely been inside an Italian restaurant in his life and wanted to seize this rare opportunity the nature of his career allowed him
Thor activated his hand device, causing a very strong illusion of a young modern Norwegian male to appear. He'd even picked out some fashionable clothing.
Jack made to reach for the door handle, but Thor stopped him. "Please allow me, O'Neill" he requested with much enthusiasm in his voice. He grabbed the door handle and pulled it back. "After you, general and colonel." He invited.
"Why, thank you supreme commander" O'Neill replied cheekily. He'd spoken the term "Supreme Commander" quietly enough so that only Thor and Mitchell likely heard it. He absolutely didn't want to have to explain to a passer-by who heard the term that was not in use these days why he was using it.
'By the way, Thor, exactly how the heck did you know how to open this door? I mean you Asgard are, without dispute, one of the most intelligent races in several galaxies, even the universe. But sometimes going from an uber-high-tech
"For this instant, I used my all-analyzing hand-device to determine how to operate this opening-and-closing device. " Thor smiled a very amused smile. " I should tell you, O'Neill, that very, very early in Asgard history, we did employ lower-technology doors which opened like this; please do not feel I'm using the term 'less advanced' in a derogatory way."
"Nah. It doesn't neccesarily mean 'superior' in all senses."
"You could've fooled me." Mitchell asserted jokingly.
Thor raised the part of his physiology where hos eyebrow would've been and turned up a corner of his mouth , responding to Cam's rather sarcaistic wisecrack.
"General Jack O'Neill! Our favorite VIP customer, erh, patron I mean." A well-dressed restaurant employee standing behind the counter called out to Jack.
"Mait're De Peter Jackson! My favorite Head Waiter!"
"Sounds good, General Jack! That's basically what i am."
"Ehh, close enough I guess!" "
"To clarify, Not the Peter Jackson who directed the Lord of the Rings screen adaptations, mind you, but he's going to have an equally bright future. I can tell when he comes out with his own traveler's guides he's maybe even going to revolutionize the industry." Jack O'Neill continued on.
"Yeah, I figured. the guys has a beard and isn't in as good physical health as you're in Peter, and " Mitchell pointed out in resposne.
"This wise guys here is Colonel Cam Mitchell." O'Neill introduced the newcomer."
"Pleasure to meet a fellow wise-guy, Colonel" Peter extended his hand in greeting an d shook Cam's hand enthusiastically.
"Ah, thanks Jack. Will try my best, I promise you. I'll be giving you a free copy "
This is my friend Thor; he's well-immersed in the traditions of the Norwegians. " Jack introduced him so as not to be lying but not revealing too much.
"Oh, nice. So you're of the Norse culture, eh; with your first name ?"
"Yes, I am. Please pardon me for not utilizing contractions in my speech; I am not used to using those."
Daniel Jackson continued asking Odin about the basis for all the Asgard myths he could think up of off the top of his head.
"I quite enjoy playing this game. It prepares one's mind for actual combat, which I haven't engaged in for a few hundred years." Baldur commented when he'd finished a round of Halo 1 he'd played on Microsoft's free gaming site where players all over the world logged in and . "I wasn't aware that this Common Information Network you term the "Internet" had such media which would allow me to refresh my long-unused skills.
"That game may be quite addicitve. I have often found msyelf utiolizing mny spare time when stuck iont he base for long hours engaging in many a
"Were here, at last, my dear friends!" Teal'c exclaimed. He'd been the first and most frequent visitor to Jack's newly-purchased house. Therefore he recognized the block
Jack looked very wary at this form of address at the moment. "It's just Jack, when we're off-duty. " he insisted to Captain Michael 'Mike' Davenport.
"Are we off-duty completely, general?" Captain Davenport scrutinized.
"Oh, you technicalist, you!" Jack mocked. "OK, since we're partially off-duty, you should use Jack O'Neill, or no….'General Jack' technically."
"'What's that you say? Either General or Jack you insisted, was it?" Mike kidded around.
"Erh...right, Captain. We do benefit from your superb sense of humor by keeping you around. We could use your alertness and wit. Why don'tcha join us inside for some hearty food and cordial conversation? I can imagine you'd probably rather do that than sit in teh car all weekend. Even if you're an imaginative guy who "
"Say, I wonder if Heimdall is male or female? I see none of them wear pants at all." Cam pointed out to Sam.
Sam jammed her elbow into Cam's side gently enough so she wouldn't actually injure him. "Cam, please, don't embarrass us and/our honored guests. Not a good way to start the weekend." she hissed.
"Uh, hehehe, I'm sorry. Truly sorry." Colonel Mitchell apologized.
"Oooooh, this culinary item seems very interesting indeed." Hermiod anticipated with much enthusiasm. "Now, to analyze this and come to truth of its magnificent composition." Heimdall remarked loudly.
Instantanously, the quirky Asgard scientist found four pairs of eyes focused on him, seeming to be saying "
"Asgard ale is highly enjoyed and appreciated amongst the Asgard as well. The human alcoholic beverage known as a beer I have tasted are quite good too. I particularly liked the corporate beer brands known as Heineken and Amstel Light." Thor commented.
"It is fairlty all right, as you humans would say. Unfortunately nowehere near as good as I would frankly say."
"Yeah, thaty's alright. Not your cup of tea I know. All good. I don't take any offense. Hey, Thor, just some friendly concern. Don't you think you should stop downing those bottles of booze?"
Thor only smiled back at his longtime buddy O'Neill knowingly. "Your concern is quite sensible, O'Neill. One shoudl endeavor to consume alcoholic beverages gracefully. However, Asgard physiology, yet more so now that we have upgraded our bodies containing out consciousnesses, can tolerate very very high alcohol content."
"Ah, Thor. O'Neill
Daniel . "Yes, in traditional Asgard mythology, the Asgard were known for brewing and partaking heartily of the potent Asgard ale."
"You are indeed correct in your assumption that this Asgard myth translates meaning into the real-world, Daniel Jackson." Freyr confirmed. "Given our lofty goals and our strenous workweeks, as you humans from Earth refer to it, we find some relief of our stress by responsibly ingesting some of our famous ale from time to time."
"Would anyone care to try out hearty, strong Furling Liquor?" Narcill offered cordially. "I've heard it their argued that ever since unification, the quality of elven ale has increased ecxonentially. So we benefitted from unfication with better alcoholic beverages to consume and enjoy." Envoy Narcill informed and invited his friends in a quipping way.
"I certainly don't mind accepting your generous offer." Baldur decided to consume some. "The Asgard Nation had individuals who enjoyed Furling liquor and so certain congolomerates ventured forth to distill some, but they couldn't match the exquisite tase of Furling-made Furlring liquor. I could tell."
"He certainly could, being the foremost drinker" Sif commented.
"You do realize that you risk further developing your reputation as a hopelessly addicted alcoholic, Baldur, do you not?" Freyre half-chided.
The Star Trek Conceptual analysis DVD started running. They got to the Vulcan race.
"The vulcans remind us a bit of us." Thor pointed out. Except I daresay the Asgard as a race show a bit more emotion. I gatehr the Vulcans thought deep down are good people, perhaps a buit isolationist at times for the overall good of their galaxy."
"And I see there is a progenitor race who seeded much life including humans. They are an interesting imaginary prallel to the Alterrans."
'Yes and the Spirits who transplanted the [ ] Tribe to Planet [ ] are.
"I very much enjoy partaking in this activity of 'fishing' in your backyard pond without attempting to catch any actual fish." Thor commented to Jack, leaning back comfortably on one of Jack's lawn chairs."I am therefore having fun without harming any animals."
"Yeah, buddy. There haven't been any fish in this pond since I dug this little hole and then routed the water into it to fill it up. I'm just not a person who can try to catch and kill wild animals for pure amusement. Goes against my values system completely." O"Neill confirmed.
"Yes. I imagine. The Asgard Engaging at this activity does help one develop the virtue of patience."
Author's End-Note: Please leave a review. Even leaving a "Y" for "Yes I like this, please continue, or "N" for No will suffice and doing so is much better than leaving no comment at all. I've been considering to stop posting my stories altogether because I feel it's pointless that I post at all when so few people have even bothered to leave a review after so many readers and chapter clicks on just the first day I post a new chapter. Thank you in advance if you plan to do so.