Chapter Text
Though it wasn't really that late in the day, Animal Kingdom was closing soon. Having seen all they wished to see, the group began to head towards the exit of the park, going at a slow, weary pace. As they went, Carolyn got out her cell and made a call. "Hey! We're on our way; are you there yet? ... Cool, see you in a few minutes, then."
Each member of SG-1 gave her a puzzled glance, but the good doctor pretended not to notice. Oddly, neither did Cassandra and her friends.
After the group stopped to pick up the packages they'd had delivered to the entrance, Carolyn and the four college girls, rather than heading for the exit turnstiles, suddenly went straight for the path to the Rainforest Café -- and for General Hank Landry, who stood off to one side of the path, in civilian casual dress. The man hugged his daughter, then smiled broadly as he gave a verbal greeting to Jack and SG-1.
"I wish I could have joined the fun," Hank added wistfully. "Still, I'm here now. Let's go have dinner, shall we? I made us reservations!" And he led the way into the restaurant, Carolyn and the college girls matching his stride, the members of SG-1 sharing perplexed expressions as they followed hesitantly.
"Is it just me, or do Cassandra's friends seem to know General Landry," Vala asked Daniel in hushed tones.
"It's definitely not just you," Daniel assured her, scowling as he watched those ahead of him.
"Are we sure that's really the General? What if this whole thing was orchestrated by the Trust?"
"You think they'd send us on vacation?" he asked, more than a little skeptical. Still, Mitchell's words about Peri being more than she seemed echoed in his mind.
"They'd certainly do that if they wanted to keep us distracted but didn’t want us -- or anyone at SGC, for that matter -- to suspect anything was actually wrong ...."
He couldn’t help but think she had a point there, however far-fetched the whole scenario seemed.
"Were you close enough that you could have sensed a Goa'uld in Landry?"
"Not yet. I'll try to sit next to him."
Daniel nodded, frowning. Even if they determine Landry had been compromised, what could they do about it, with no weapons?
Vala made the appropriate commentary about the restaurant's décor, the large, curving fish tanks, plants, and audio-animatronic animals, but he could tell she was really too worried to enjoy it. Both their worries faded a bit at least, as they sat and Vala gave him a slight, smiling headshake that said Landry was clean. Still, they couldn’t relax completely; something was up.
"Order whatever you want," Landry told them magnanimously. "It's on me!"
Vala, Cameron and Jack cheered, while Daniel and Sam exchanged wary glances. Teal'c was unreadable, but that wasn't exactly new; Daniel dearly wished there were some way of finding out what the Jaffa's assessment of the scenario was.
Once they'd ordered appetizers and their entrees, Landry asked them to tell him about their weekend, and Vala in particular happily obliged him. Daniel became so wrapped up in her happy reminiscences, by the time the food arrived, he'd practically forgotten his misgivings. After dessert, they left the restaurant with stomachs full to bursting and defenses down.
Landry directed them to the taxi stand, where a long limo awaited them. It was still a tight fit, though not so bad as it might have been with Vala sitting on Daniel's lap. Daniel got the impression Carolyn might have sat in Cam's if her father weren't looking on; the same might have gone for Sam and Jack.
Landry raised a questioning brow when they returned to the hotel and picked up their luggage. "Did you leave any souvenirs for the rest of the guests?"
"A few," Vala answered, winking.
It wasn't until twenty minutes after they drove out of the hotel parking lot that Daniel realised they weren't heading for the airport.
Apparently Jack realised the same thing. "Soooo, is this ... just an abduction, or is there going to be an execution?" he asked Landry.
Vala grabbed Daniel's arm, fear flooding her eyes, but also determination; whatever happened next, it wouldn’t happen without a fight from her! Daniel felt the same emotions racing through himself. It wasn't the first time they'd been in a dangerous situation, and hopefully wouldn’t be the last for any of them. He saw Teal'c's eyes narrow, the Jaffa's jaw tensing. Sam sat ready to move the moment she got an order from Jack, just like the old days. Mitchell moved so that his body blocked Carolyn's; the good doctor only looked annoyed.
Peri laughed, a bit shrilly. "Oh, you Tau'ri never cease to amuse me. So quick to jump to conclusions -- but for all the right reasons, I must admit." Her features altered right before their eyes. To each side of her, Cassandra's other college friends changed as well.
The end result was a Nox and two of the Asgard.
"Okay, I have to say, this was the last thing I was expecting," Mitchell confessed.
Landry came as close to a grin as Daniel had ever seen on him (and Carolyn looked surprised herself). "After meeting SG-1, the Nox sent some of their own to live among us, to learn about our culture. And of course the Asgard have visited Earth incognito many times before SGC was founded; considering our recent interactions with them, they sent a few of their people to live among us as well. Both races did so with General Hammond's full knowledge and approval -- and the President's as well, of course," he added.
"They've been here all this time, and nobody saw fit to tell me?" Jack asked, sounding stymied.
One of the Asgard cocked its head inquisitively. "Surely, when you took over Hammond's position, you would have read his report?"
"Iiiiii ... must have missed that one," Jack confessed.
"I'm a little baffled about something," Daniel jumped in. "Earth's faced a number of imminent threats over the years, so ... why are you just coming out of hiding now?"
"Communications between ourselves and our homeworlds, or even ourselves and SGC, have been few and far between, lest our missions be compromised," Peri the Nox replied. "You likely have been in contact with the rest of the Nox or the Asgard more than we have, in fact. Therefore, we have not really been any more aware of any threats to Earth than your own civilians."
"We were not even told of the Replicators until recently!" one of the Asgard added. "Besides which, we are not the rocket scientists or biologists or soldiers of our respective peoples; we would not have been any aid to you. But under the current circumstances, in talks with General Landry, Thor expressed the Council's wish for us to return home, believing it to be safer there now than here."
"Current circumstances? You mean the threat of the Ori ...." Daniel prompted.
The other Asgard nodded. "When Thor finally got in contact with us, we expressed our desire to stand beside the Tau'ri and protect Earth. Unfortunately, while he approves of our sentiment, the rest of the Council has been reluctant to permit us to remain."
Peri continued the explanation. "The Nox, too, have been divided about this whole situation. Don't be so surprised," she added. "There are a myriad of personalities and beliefs among the Tau'ri; why should the Nox be any different?" She waved a hand dismissively. "Anyway, a while back, Hammond had, with Thor and Lya's approval, arranged for the four of us--" she gestured to herself, the Asgard, and Cassandra "--to room together, and revealed to each of us the nature of the others, believing we might help each other. And since we are only college students to our friends and associates, and therefore it would be easy to explain away our sudden absence, it has been decided that we will be the ones to act as liaisons between our kin on Earth and the rest of our respective peoples, with Cassandra accompanying us to speak on behalf of humanity. Landry thought it would be useful for us to spend time with SG-1 before we left, since the Asgard and the Nox both already know of you and hold you all in high regard. Now we will make our case to the Nox and the Asgard to protect Earth against the Ori, as our folk are already doing with other worlds."
"... Come again?" Jack asked as the limo pulled into what was labeled a restricted road.
Before Peri or her companions could answer, the vehicle was surrounded with a bright light. The next anyone knew, the woods outside had been replaced with the interior of an Asgard ship.
=*=
The novelty of the Asgard's transporter had worn off for Jack a long time ago; it seemed the same was true for Daniel and Sam. While Vala, Lam, and Mitchell looked about in confusion, Jack continued to speak as if there had been no interruption. "Are you telling me that you guys have already been fighting the Ori?! Why didn’t you say so!?"
"I never said that our people were fighting them," Peri corrected as she exited the vehicle.
Lya the Nox and a pale, rather tall Asgard with slightly more human features -- and wearing a loincloth around its waist, no less! -- were waiting for them.
"Welcome, SG-1, General Hammond," the Asgard said, bowing slightly.
Jack's eyes flew wide as he recognised the voice. "... Thor?"
"It is indeed me, General O'Neil," Thor assured him.
Despite his recent irritation, Jack couldn't help but smile at the sight of the Asgard Supreme Commander. "Thooooor, old buddy!" he said with a grin, shaking the small alien's slender hand. "So old Hiemdall finally fixed the cloning problem! That's a good look for you!"
"Thank-you, O'Neil. Heimdall has indeed succeeded -- beyond our wildest dreams!" He turned to Sam and Daniel. "This was in fact the delicate matter that prevented me from coming to your aid myself when you were having problems with your gate. It is good to see you all again," he added with a heartfelt note.
"I, too, am very glad to see you," Lya told them sincerely.
* * *
The Nox woman stepped forward to hug Peri, and Daniel realised there seemed to be a familial resemblance. Vala saw him staring at the two women and bit her lip unhappily. She brightened, though, when he slipped his arm around her and said, "Lya, Thor, I'd like you to meet our newest team member, Vala Mal Doran."
Peri smiled at Vala with surprising affection and told Lya, "There is much potential in her -- the animals know."
Blinking, Vala smiled hesitantly and stood a little taller. Daniel beamed with pride -- and a little wonder. What did the animals know? And what could impress a Nox?
Cameron gave a cough. "Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell," he announced with a wave. "It's a pleasure to meet you both," he added, shaking Thor's hand and exchanging a nod with Lya.
"And this is my daughter, Doctor Carolyn Lam," Hank announced proudly, drawing Carolyn out to stand before him. She paused in taking in the sights of the ship to give a polite, bashful smile.
=*=
There was a motion behind them: another strange Asgard stepped into the room, this one with a slightly feminine look, wearing a covering over its chest as well as the loincloth. It was carrying a small bundle of cloth, and came to stand before Jack. "Hello, O'Neill! It's wonderful to see all of you again!" the alien intoned in its strange, hyper voice.
"Hiemdall! Good to see you too!"
"So long as we are making introductions," Thor said, reaching out and taking the bundle in his arms, "I would like you all to meet ... O'Neill." He pulled a corner of the cloth away, revealing a small, pale head with large, black, whiteless eyes. The face was somewhat more human than the typical "Roswell Grey", as Carter called them, but was still undeniably that of an Asgard.
"A baby!" Sam breathed, eyes shining as she looked at Heimdall. "That's wonderful!"
"He is our son, Thor's and mine," Heimdall replied. "There is a girl on the way, Hermiod and Kvasir's child, now that they too have these new bodies."
"I thought--" Jack began, before Sam elbowed him in the side.
Thor had guessed his question, though. "You realise, O'Neill, that for eons, my people have long been a genderless race. We used the pronoun 'he' for simplicity's sake when speaking English, but Hiemdall and Hermiod have chosen to be female, now that we have reproductive organs again." It was hard to tell for sure, but he seemed to be grinning.
"You could give a little thanks where it's due," grumbled someone from just outside the room. In walked another changed Asgard, this one apparently male.
"Loki?" Jack asked, distaste clear on his face. Loki had stolen his genetic makeup and made a clone of him once.
Thor sighed. "His help has been very beneficial to us."
"Well, I'm very happy for you," Jack said sincerely. "And honoured!" he added. This was even better than having a ship named for him!
Thor nodded, beaming as well as his new body allowed, which was a bit more than the old. "Let us find more comfortable surroundings. We can fill you in on our latest developments with the Ori, and you can hold my son. My son. I'm never going to get tired of saying that ...."
~ *@* ~
"We have been working to hide the villages of less-developed planets from the Ori," Lya began. "But we can only do so much. It takes a considerable amount of effort to hide an entire city."
"But haven't you done that for centuries on your world?" Vala asked, remembering the file on the Nox she'd read ages ago.
"Several Eons," Lya affirmed, "But there we have an entire city full of our people to do the work. The more planets we aid, the thinner our number on each world -- and the more populated the world, the more of us is needed to maintain the invisibility. Our people have also been strained resurrecting those who were killed by the Ori before we could stop them. The Asgard have been helping by emigrating people to worlds that the Ori have already visited and either found empty or killed the inhabitants of because they would not convert. Still, the Asgard's resources, too, are limited, thanks to the damage they suffered from the Replicators. So we've enlisted the aid of ... others ...."
As though having waited for a cue, an old man, handsome for his age, chose that moment to enter the room.
"Nick!" Daniel cried, getting to his feet. He practically ran around the table before throwing his arms joyously around the man.
"Daniel?" Vala asked as she stood.
Grinning widely, Daniel said, "Vala, meet Nicholas Ballard, my maternal Grandfather. Nick, meet Vala Mal Doran -- my girlfriend."
Nick raised his brows in happy surprise. "Well! My grandson has excellent taste, it seems!" He reached across the table, and hesitantly, she did the same. Rather than shaking her hand, he kissed the back of it. "It's a pleasure to meet you," he told her.
She smiled politely, despite feeling icy towards him; he seemed nice enough (she could see where Daniel got his gentlemanly behavior), but she couldn't forget that this man had abandoned his own grandson to a harsh, lonely existence ....
Daniel helped his grandfather into a chair, then hurried back around to take his own seat beside Vala. He took her hand in an almost painfully-tight grip, he was so excited.
"As you know," Nick began, "the Furlings have the ability to phase a person into another reality. They--"
"Wait, the Furlings?" Mitchell interrupted. "I read the report -- you were with the giant South American aliens -- Quetzalcoatl's people, right? You're telling me they are the Furlings? I thought they were little Ewok-like people!"
"Well, no, that was just Martin's conjecture; we've never met them -- at least not knowingly." Daniel explained. "I guess we really have met them after all! So, Nick, you're saying the Furlings are willing to help us ... what, shift the citizens of earth into their dimension?"
"More like the entire planet," Nick said. "And we'd only do it halfway, like what happened to you, Daniel. That way, when the people of earth look into the sky, they'll still see the sun and stars as they know them, and we'll avoid a planet-wide panic. But if the priors try to go to Earth, by gate or by ship --"
"--they won't find anything!" Sam finished, an excited gleam in her eye. "But what about the radiation the crystal skull emitted? Surely on that massive a scale, it would be nearly lethal?"
"The Earth's own ozone layer will protect it, as it protects you from most Solar radiation," Thor assured her. "The crystal transport devices will be placed out beyond your moon, not on the planet's surface. But we have devised a plan for a network of shield devices for extra protection, just in case."
"Even so," Lya continued, "this will be a monumental effort, which is why we have to convince our peoples to commit themselves to the cause. Thankfully, the Tok'ra have promised aid as well."
"Then let us come with you, then, to plea on Earth's behalf!" Daniel insisted.
"We have another purpose in mind for Sg-1 -- indeed, all of SGC," Thor told him. "For one, we can think of no group better suited to draw the attention of Adria and the Ori away from Earth until we can get the shield and transportation networks in place. Once they are, Landry says you'll work out of the Alpha-site, since you will be unable to reach Earth through the Stargate then."
"And we need to keep looking for Merlin's weapon, anyway," Vala pointed out.
"No, actually, you do not," Lya assured her.
Vala's brow furrowed. "Surly you don't expect the people of Earth to hide indefinitely? And what about the rest of the galaxy? You'd never be able to hide all the planets, or even just their inhabitants!"
"Even so," Lya said, "what you propose to find is a double-edged sword. It's as likely to maim those you call the Ascended Ancients -- including your friends from Abydos -- as it is to harm the Ori! Hold a weapon, and that weapon could be turned against you at any time. Hold a shield, and if your enemy wrestles it away from you, it still can only used defensively, not offensively."
Mitchell snorted. "Tell that to Captain America!"
Peri rolled her eyes. "Our hope is that, if we hide enough of the humans of this galaxy, particularly such a prize target as the people of Earth, the Ori will eventually consider the Milky Way to be a dry well and give up! If they can’t find people to convert and feed on, there's no reason for them to make the effort to come here!"
Vala bolted upright in her seat. "That's it!"
Everyone looked to her expectantly, though most had their brows raised in skepticism.
"The Ori can't just take energy from a follower -- it has to be given freely of the person's own free will, right? And their big thing is using fear to convert people, that if they don't bow down, they'll die. But what if even when a person agreed to become a follower, the Ori still couldn’t glean the energy from them?"
"You think that would stop them from the whole convert-or-die thing?" Mitchell asked skeptically. "You don’t think they'd just assume the people were lying about being willing to worship them?"
Vala shook her head. "Adria would be able to tell their sincerity! But I'm not talking about here anyway -- at least, not entirely. If we can find a scientific way to block however it is the Ori are getting energy from their followers, with something similar to the anti-prior devices, we can take the show on the road to their own galaxy and keep them from feeding off those who are already converted! We know it wouldn't be a lethal attack -- the Ascended Ancients don't need worshippers to continue their existence, so it's not like the Ori would starve to death or something, and so there's no fear of what it would do to the Ancients if it were used on them! And, eventually, the Ori will simply fade to the level of power of the Ascended Ancients. They won't be able to create more Priors, and the Priors they have already will likely go back to being ordinary humans."
Lya nodded thoughtfully. "I believe the Nox would approve of such a plan."
Jack blinked in surprise. "They would?"
"It does not deprive the Ori of their existence or violate their free will. The Ori's followers would still be free to worship them if those choose, but the Ori would no longer be able to coerce them. Yes, these conditions are satisfactory."
"But reaching all the converted in the Ori galaxy sounds just as impossible as the notion of being able to protect all the worlds in the Milky way!" Landry protested. "We don’t even know if we can do anything to prevent the Ori from leaching off of their worshippers, and we need to put a plan into effect as soon as possible!"
"You say that like we couldn’t do both plans!" Vala chastised him. "I'm not suggesting we don’t do the whole 'planetary invisibility' thingy. But it sounds like SGC won't be able to do much to help that plan anyway. How many people need to work on creating an anti-Ori device? And once one is created, if we're going to be going around being a thorn in the Ori's side to keep them occupied, why not start dropping these things off as we go?"
"I think she makes and excellent argument," Nick said. "Unlike what the Nox are doing for the other words, this task she proposes does not require anyone to stick around -- once the devices are hidden on an enemy world, those planting them can move on to another planet and do the same. It's much faster than evacuation, and easier than trying to talk people over to our side."
"And the Jaffa would likely be willing to help spread such devices throughout the Milky Way galaxy via the Stargate," Vala added, warming up to Nick.
Daniel raised his brows in a pleased gesture. "So SGC and the Jaffa outfit as many planets as we can with both the anti-Ori and anti-Prior devices, the Nox hide some people with their power of illusion, the Asgard shuffle smaller populations around to planets that the Ori have already visited and abandoned, everyone helps hide Earth, and possibly a few other worlds with large populations like Kelowna, in an alternate dimension, and SGC 'poisons the well' so to speak in the Ori galaxy."
Peri nodded. "And after we have convinced our respective councils to aid Earth, I shall accompany you to the Ori galaxy."
"Um, why?" Jack asked.
"Because I can hide you while you plant the devices. It's possible that the Nox might even do that job themselves, but I doubt it. Still, I can make my own choices, and I think this is the right thing to do."
Lya seemed a little hesitant, before finally nodding. "I, too, shall accompany you and hide you from sight, as I did the Tollan ion canons. But I do not think the rest of the Nox would be willing to go so far."
Jack nodded. "We understand -- and we appreciate what you're willing to do for us. Both of you," he added, nodding his head once to Peri.
"So it sounds like we have a plan -- or the beginnings of one," Landry said. "We'll get our top people working on the anti-Ori device at the SGC. What kind of time-frame are we looking at for the moving of Earth?"
"The Furlings have never transported anything even remotely so massive," Nick conceded. "They are certain this will work, but they will test it on a few empty planets, just to be sure. And it will take a while to build the crystal network. They estimate three months."
Landry nodded. "We've already started mass-producing the anti-Prior devices and started working out a method of quick and far-spread distribution with the Jaffa -- we can use that system to distribute the ant-Ori devices when it's time. Meanwhile, we'll stock up the Alpha site, since it sounds like we may be cut off from Earth for a goodly while."
The meeting over, goodbyes said, Thor beamed the limo and its occupants, sans Cassandra and her friends, directly to SGC.