AN:

Rennsteig: Thank you for your review. I totally agree that they should have explored the Ancient Gene's abilities a lot more than they actually did in the show. It is something I'd be doing a lot in this series because I really do love a Sheppard with unrestricted access to a lot of cool gadgets.;)

Chapter 13 - A Glimpse of a Galaxy Far Far Away

Sheppard fell into a different world.

He was inside a house, one that definitely would have fitted nicely into 16th-century Earth. It was a rustic little residence that seemed to be constructed out of wood. The area he was in had a table with various bottles cluttering it and there were dried herbs hanging from the ceiling in strings.

"I don't understand. This is an odd communication device," Vala was saying to him… to Jackson.

He was tapped into their call, but from Jackson's end. Vala looked like she was geared up to go for a Renaissance fair, in a long-sleeved, floor-length dress that had entirely too much fabric. Looking down, he saw Jackson was dressed in the same style, in a long over shirt and leggings.

There was also something different. As he continued to stare at Vala, he noticed that he could see another face - a layer beneath Vala's own. It was another woman with blond hair.

"I mean, I can't talk to this poor woman," Vala continued, waving a hand to indicate herself. "I have no access to her mind, her thoughts, her memories. I'm just inside of her looking out through her eyes."

That explained how the device worked. The two of them had kind of body-snatched two people through the device and were now living their lives through them, for them. Now Sheppard was also a spectator, alongside Jackson, as his consciousness lived inside some poor guy's mind. Jackson had no idea Sheppard was also there, watching.

It was freaking weird.

"Yeah, Jack and Joe Spencer described the experience as having visions of what was happening to the other."

"Were they ever in total control of each other's bodies?" Vala asked.

"No, but they weren't using the stones in conjunction with the Ancient terminal either," Jackson explained. "It's possible it was meant to work this way so that we can communicate with others without intruding on the minds of those we're connected to. They're just…temporary transmitters."

Thank fuck for Jackson's ability to explain anything and everything in a way that made a whacky sort of sense. Sheppard was starting to get really creeped out.

Vala stood next to Jackson and studied her reflection in the mirror. Sheppard could only see the blond woman with a confused frown on the other side. When Jackson went to stand next to her, Sheppard got a look at the man on whom both he and Jackson had set up camp.

"Do you think we're actually in another galaxy?"

Jackson poked his own forehead. The thin, pale dark-haired man in the mirror did the same. He sighed. "I don't know."

"Why these people?"

Jackson started to read a plaque attached to the wall. Then he let out another sigh. "I don't know."

"Well, maybe it's just me, but this house…these…clothes. We don't look the way I'd expect the Ancients to look."

"No."

"What do you suppose their names are?"

"Harrid and Sallis," Jackson said.

"How do you know that?"

Jackson gestured at the plaque. "Well because it, um, says so right here. 'This is the… home of Harrid and Sallis Cicera.'"

Sheppard wondered why Jackson didn't translate the entire thing. He was sure there was something else.

"Wait, I missed that," Vala said. She missed nothing. "You-you mumbled it."

They argued a little over it before Jackson finally relented. It was weird to watch the way the two of them always bickered and argued over the smallest things. Sheppard idly wondered what kind of history they shared that was not currently on mission reports.

"Nuptial," Jackson said, very reluctantly. "It means nuptial."

Vala's grin was a bright lively thing upon hearing that. "As in we're…

"Married, yeah," Jackson admitted before heading towards the door. "Let's go look outside."

Sheppard hung around a little longer to see what the outside of the house looked like. It was a small village - a primitive one at that. Everyone in the streets was dressed similarly to Jackson and Vala, or Harrid and Sallis, he supposed.

Some villagers pointed and waved at them, greeting them and talking about seeing them later at something called a 'prostration.' Jackson figured out the people were talking in Ancient, and the device translated the language instantly for them to be able to understand.

Jackson and Vala went back inside. Sheppard wanted to see if he could get back to himself. He had learned what they needed. He could always return and find out what was going on through Jackson.

The device interpreted his desire as an order in the instant the thought crossed his mind. The interior of the primitive-era house dissolved into nothing and his mind was enveloped in pitch darkness. Then he heard a soft chime ringing inside his mind letting him know that the viewing had been suspended.

Isolation Area
Level 21
SGC

Sheppard opened his eyes after about an hour of fondling the Ancient device. The man blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the light in the infirmary and swayed alarmingly to the side. Lam, bless her quick reflexes, caught him by the elbow and steadied him before he could do a face plant. Mitchell quickly moved next to him, ready to assist Lam to keep Sheppard upright if needed.

"Whoa!" Sheppard said, leaning on the table the device rested, both hands flat on its surface. "Head rush."

Landry, who had been watching from the Observation Room for about fifteen minutes, came down to join them when he saw Sheppard was back in the land of SGC.

"What is going on, Colonel?" he asked, startling Sheppard who hadn't seen him coming in. "Did you manage to find anything?"

"Ah, yes, sir," Sheppard turned around, still keeping a hand clutching the counter to keep himself upright. "They, um, are in another galaxy, a primitive one," he said, nodding at Jackson and Vala. "Their minds have kind of taken over the bodies of two villagers–"

Mitchell exchanged a glance with Lam and Lee, both of whom looked just as confused as he was. Teal'c was just too composed to show any outward emotions.

"To what purpose?" he asked Sheppard with a frown.

"They are kind of learning about the village," Sheppard said. "Seeing, hearing and experiencing everything through the senses of the people whose bodies they are inhabiting for the moment."

"Are they in any danger?" Landry inquired.

"Not for the moment, no, sir."

"How's their condition, Carolyne?" the General turned to his daughter.

"They are stable. Colonel Sheppard's intervention had no negative effects, as far as we could see."

Lee nodded, confirming her answer from the scientific end.

"But disconnecting them could cause harm?"

"Wouldn't recommend that, sir," Lee jumped in, shaking his head. "According to the Colonel, the disconnection needs to come from that side–"

"But, you can find out what's happening and report to us any time?"

"Yes, sir," Sheppard nodded, looking a little better. Whatever exhaustion from being connected to the device seemed to be fading. Mitchell sighed a little in relief.

"Just not yet," Lam intervened, full-on doctor mode. "I need to check your vitals first, and see if this remote viewing has any negative effects on you," she said to Sheppard.

Satisfied that no one was in any danger for the moment, Landry left then, throwing the order over his shoulder to keep him posted.

Lam manoeuvred Sheppard to the third bed the infirmary staff set up next to the Ancient device. They set it in a way so he could access it comfortably while lying down on a bed where Lam could attach him to her monitors and keep an eye on him.

"Looks like you've won a stay at the sleeping beauty ward, Shep," Mitchell commented, amusedly watching the way a dejected Sheppard accepted his fate.

"If it's the beauty ward, Shaft," he sniped, wrinkling his nose at Mitchell as Lam's staff proceeded to stick monitoring leads to his temples. "What are you doing here? Get out."

Village Square of Ver Ager

The Next Day.

Dr Lam only allowed Sheppard to connect to the Alteran communication device after lunch and three hours of rest afterwards. His pulse had picked up during the time he had stayed connected and Lam had noticed a change in his brain wave patterns when she had him connected to her medical monitors. She wanted his readings to stabilise to their usual numbers before he could get back on his recon mission, which took the better part of three hours.

It was much easier to just sit back and rest his head on the pillow while his hand found its place on the interface slot. The moment his skin made contact with the Ancient metal, he was back in the village, facing a bright new dawn on an alien planet through Vala's eyes this time.

He had no clue why the device thought it better to show him around via her this time. Maybe it's another part of the entire educational and observational process, he supposed.

Jackson and Vala joined a large group of villagers as they gathered in the town square and along a large staircase. At the top of that flight of large stone stairs, a man in his middle years lit some torches.

"All hallow the Ori." the man intoned.

"All hallow the Ori." the villagers chanted back.

"On their great power, we shall meditate herein this day."

The villagers began kneeling on the staircase and throughout the square. Vala exchanged a glance with Jackson and followed suit by kneeling before a stone step, leaning their forearms against its surface, hands curled and palms facing them.

"Prostration it is," Jackson muttered under his breath. Vala agreed with a grimace.

Sheppard couldn't blame them. It was a highly uncomfortable position, especially because they had most of their sensitive joints against the rough stone floor. Another villager kneeling beside Jackson started to speak low after a moment, trying not to disturb the absolute silence that had descended over the village.

"We must meet," the guy said. "By the Portico of Light at the Hour of Bly."

Vala had no idea what that meant so she stayed silent. Jackson opened his mouth to say something, only to snap it shut when the guys hissed.

"Speak not!"

The preacher guy started to chant some more after that. "Oh Greatness that is the Ori, you guide us and give meaning to our daily lives. We beseech you, give us strength."

"All hallow the Ori," Vala muttered with the rest.

Sheppard withdrew when his mental clock said he had been there for an hour. There was nothing happening except for the occasional chants and silence. He didn't want to fall asleep in there, not knowing how the device might react to that.

His vitals stabilised much quicker than his first time. Lam was fascinated by the readings of his brain patterns. Apparently, they had changed in some weird ways during his connection to the device. There was no lingering headache either, like the one he had sported for about half an hour from his first session.

Sheppard thought that was because he was getting used to handling the device very quickly. Lee was of the opinion the machine was self-calibrating to accommodate Sheppard's intervention, according to the readings he was monitoring on his own equipment.

Sheppard didn't care either way. As long as the machine didn't outright kill him or turned him into a drooling vegetable, he was fine going in.

He checked in a few times, at hourly intervals, only to find the duo locked in prostration. He finally found them back home during the sixth time, indicating they had been forced to torture themselves in hard meditation for that long.

"Well, that was fun. Six hours of prostration. Why don't we just tell someone who we are and what's going on? I mean, isn't that the whole point of this, to communicate?" Vala griped, looking exhausted.

"I don't think these people are going to entirely understand," Jackson muttered distractedly, walking around the room. Sheppard was back with him, watching the way Vala followed him from spot to spot. "Hey, did you hear what that guy said when we first came to the service?"

"Something about meeting…

"Yeah, at the Portico of Light at the Hour of Bly."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I have no idea."

"What are you looking for? Vala finally stopped and demanded. Jackson ignored her and headed up the stairs. Sheppard had a feeling the man was working something through in his head. But, just like Vala, he had no idea what he was doing.

"I don't know," Jackson admitted after a while. "I was wondering why we're in these particular people, these specific bodies. I mean, it can't be totally random."

"Uh, I have a more pressing question," Vala said, looking around the bedroom they just entered. "Do you have any idea how we're supposed to detach from them?"

"No. And that's another thing that's got me worried. Have you tried?"

Vala hummed, pulling her shoes off. "Yup. Nothing. It doesn't seem to be something I can just make happen." She leapt on the bed and stretched, groaning in relief while Jackosn rummaged through the wardrobe.

"Maybe it's about removing the stones from the device on Earth," she said after a while, contemplatively.

No, guys, unfortunately, that's not how it works, Sheppard thought. You gotta find the connecting stones from your end and stick them in the machine on your side. He was frustrated that he couldn't make either of them hear him.

"Yeah, unfortunately, we can't tell the people on Earth that we need them to remove them. We'll just have to wait until they figure that out for themselves." Jackson grumbled.

We know what's going on. Just can't unplug you guys.

"Maybe they have already, and it had no effect."

Jackson was unnerved, Sheppard could tell. He tried to think positive thoughts at him. He just couldn't get through. That was not how the device worked. "I'm just going to rule out that possibility," Jackson mumbled.

"Do you think these people are in our bodies?"

Nope. That would have happened if they had slotted stones from their end. Sheppard answered Vala's question. If only they could hear him…

"I don't know. I mean, this can't be how technology is supposed to work.."

The next moment, Vala pulled out a small book from under the bed covers. It was the same book everyone else had during the prostration. She opened it and stared at something in the pages with a strange look on her face.

"Isn't that the book some of the villagers were walking around with? It says on the front, um: The Book of Origins. Blessed are the Ori." Jackson squinted at the script on its cover.

"I think you should take a look at it," Vala said.

"Oh, I think I've seen enough. I mean, prostration for six hours 'Gives us strength.' You know, it's all very clear." Jackson snapped, irritated.

"I think you'd find it really interesting." Vala insisted.

"Yeah? When did you start being able to read Ancient?" Jackson was not a nice guy when he was irritated. Or maybe it was a reaction only Vala could bring out of him, Sheppard wasn't sure.

"I can't," Vala said with a grin, unperturbed and shoved the book under his nose. "But this…looked familiar."

There, fitted neatly into the slots cut into the book's pages, two identical black stones sat innocently, silently explaining why Jackson and Vala ended up in that rural little village of Ver Ager, in the bodies of those two specific people, of all things.