Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

“Walter!” General Hammond barked as they entered the control room.

“I don’t know, sir!” Walter immediately responded even as he closed the iris and hit the alarm. “There was no indication of an incoming wormhole. All of the chevrons activated at once..”

Almost as soon as the steel barrier closed, it opened right back up. Military guards armed with M16 rifles flooded the room. After a moment, the event horizon rippled as a group stepped through. There were three men and two women.

“Where are the Champions?” The woman in front demanded, paying little heed to the weapons aimed at them.

“What did they say, Daniel?” Jack recognized the language of the Ancients, having spoke when one of their databases had been downloaded into his mind, but he no longer understood it.

“I think they’re looking for Elizabeth and Jordan.” Daniel told him. To his better trained ear, it sounded like it was an earlier, more formal dialect of the Ancient language. It made him think that their language may have evolved from this one. "Remember that Whistler character said that they were Champions in their universe."

"Yeah, but Eli said that we were the Champions here." Jack shot right back.

“Jack, if we were the Champions that they were looking for, don’t you think they would have come before now?” Daniel said reasonably.

Jack scowled at him. He didn’t feel like being reasonable at the moment. Whatever was going on, was affecting his girls, and he didn’t know if it was for the good or the bad.

They quieted as the group looked up at them, almost as if they had heard them speaking, and Daniel audibly gasped at the pure whiteness of their eyes. They started to walk down the ramp, but halted and looked at the men and women that surrounded them at the sound of the multitude of weapons being readied to fire. The leader raised her hand and, with a flash of light, a half dozen or so men were thrown backwards.

"Ribbon device!" Someone yelled, and someone else panicked and opened fire. Then the room was filled with the sound of gunfire.

None of which, however, that was reaching their invaders, who merely watched impassively as hail of bullets stopped inches before them as if hitting an invisible steel wall.

"Uncle George!" Elizabeth ran into the room. "You have to make them stop. They're not Goa'uld. They're The Others that Orlin was talking about. Make them stop before they get pissed off."

"That sounds like more than enough reason to kill them." Jack said coldly.

She rounded on him. "Damn it, Jack, does it look like you're doing any damage? They're not here to hurt us. They're here to train us."

"What?" Sam and Daniel asked simultaneously.

"Make them stop and I'll explain."

Hammond clenched his jaw at her pleading look, but clicked on the mic. "Cease fire! Cease fire!" He turned to his godchild with a hard look. "This had better be good."

Elizabeth nodded. "Let me go and get them and we'll go back in the briefing room."

She ran back out before anyone could respond and, with a grunt of frustration, Jack motioned for the others and they followed her. They reached the lower corridor just in time to see two figures run into the embarkation room. "Damn, they're quick." Jack muttered.

They ran into the room in time to see Elizabeth push the through the last of the soldiers and stop in front of the group.

"I'm sorry for their reactions." Elizabeth said quickly, in nearly fluent Ancient. "The only beings to come through the gate unexpectedly have always been enemies."

"The Goa'uld." The woman nodded. "We are aware."

"Yes." Elizabeth nodded. "If you'll come with us, I can explain to them that you're not here to hurt anyone."

"Very well." The woman after a moment. "We will not, however, remain long." 

Elizabeth took Jordan's hand as they led the group through the still tense soldiers up to General Hammond and SG-1. "We're ready, General."

Hammond gave her a questioning look at her use of his title, but nodded. "This way."

As they walked through the corridors, Daniel fell into step with Elizabeth. "How do you know how to speak the Ancient language?"

"Orlin was an Ancient, Danny." Elizabeth gave him a 'duh' look. "He taught me. Also, I think I may have picked up a little more than he intended when he mind-melded me."

Daniel nearly slapped himself. Of course he did. Elizabeth would have tried to learn everything she could from the exiled Ascended. His next question had everyone stopping for her answer. "Why didn't he get punished for teaching you, when he got punished for teaching the Velonans?"

"Because he didn't have to 'enhance' me." Elizabeth shrugged. "That's what drew the attentions of the Protectorate. None of the Velonans had reached the mental capacity to understand what Orlin was trying to accomplish, so he 'touched' one of the Velonan scientists, intentionally evolving the man so that he could 'nudge' him in the right direction to build the weapon necessary to defeat the Goa'uld. He didn't have the right, and he didn't know how to do it correctly."

"I still don't understand." Daniel admitted. 

Janet, however, was beginning to. "He went mad, didn't he?" Elizabeth nodded. They resumed walking even as the doctor continued with her theory. "Evolution happens in stages for a reason. Even though spontaneous evolution does occur, it still occurs naturally. Forcing the evolution was too much for the man's mind. It's like what happened to Daniel during the dream Shifu gave him."

Then they understood, and Daniel blanched in horror. In that dream, Shifu had given him the genetic memory of the Goa'uld. It had been his intention to use the information to help protect Earth from the System Lords, and he had done just that, but then he had gone on to become just as bad, or worse, than the Goa'uld. He had killed his friends and used the knowledge to take over the world himself.

"The child did well in his teaching." One of the men unexpectedly said. "It was a most effective way to make you understand the threat of what you were asking."

Daniel looked at him, startled. "You know Shifu? How is he?"

"The boy prospers in his learning." The man answered. "Soon, he will grow beyond those that you call 'the Ancients', and then he will take his place among the Protectorate."

"The Protectorate?" Daniel had never heard the term. "What's that?"

"It's this dimension's version of the Powers." Elizabeth answered. "They mostly just correct what the others fuck up, and only get involved when the threat is universal. They are the ones that de-ascended Anubis. They are also the ones that destroyed the Velonans." She turned to look at the woman who was obviously in charge. "Which, by the way, was serious overkill. I know that those people were probably just a really small blip in your 'big picture', but the total eradication of an entire race was way over the top. Most of those people probably didn't even know that the weapon existed. I mean, 98% of the people on this entire planet don't even know that the Stargate exists or that there's life outside of this world. You can't condemn the whole for the actions of a few."

"That was not our doing." The woman denied.

"Maybe not, but they did it because they were terrified of what you would do." 

"Eli, how do you know all of this?" Sam asked incredulously.

"For once, the Powers made with the explanations. The Balance works differently here, and with the deal they had to make to put us in the past, the odds of them getting either of us back are slim to non-existent, so they felt they could give out the necessary info without the usual bullshit. Higher beings can't explain their rules to their own Champions, but apparently, they can explain someone else's rules. Loopholes, you gotta love 'em. Anyway, you guys are doing great with the snakes, but there's more out there, and that's what Jordan and I are going to be dealing with."

Suddenly, she realized what she had been explaining to them, and quickly turned to look at Jack. His expression had turned thunderous and he was grinding his teeth in rage.

"Jack, don't!" Elizabeth said, almost imploringly. "Nothing you say is going to change what's about to happen, and these aren't the pacifists that you've dealt with. Your opinion doesn't matter to them. They'll do what they feel they need to, regardless of how you feel about it, and their solutions to problems tend to be extreme and permanent. If you irritate them, you could be gone forever with barely a thought."

"What's about to happen?" Sam asked, more than a little worried.

But Janet already suspected. After all, they'd just been talking about it. Her eyes were wide as she looked from Elizabeth to Jordan and back again. "They're going to intentionally speed up your evolution."