Are You Ready? Part XXII
Previous parts can be found at
<http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/Fics/AreYouReady/index.html>
Dawn pulled herself away from the spectacular view out the windows, and
turned toward Jack. He hadn't sounded frightened, or surprised to have
been suddenly trans****ted into orbit over the Earth. He sounded annoyed.
"Oh my god!" cried Andrew. "We're in space! We're in a space****p! In
space! We've been kidnapped by aliens!"
"Well, that's new," said Dawn, still looking at the surprisingly calm
Jack. "I've been kidnapped by vampires, demons, and a hellgod. This is
the first time aliens have done it."
"Jack?" said Cassie. "What's going on?"
Dawn didn't miss that Cassie was looking to Jack for an explanation too:
like she expected him to know what had happened to them. "Jack?" she
asked, herself.
Jack sighed. "We're on an Asgard ****p." Dawn couldn't help but notice
that Cassie relaxed a bit on hearing that.
"Asgard?" asked Andrew. "Home of the Norse gods? Across the Rainbow
Bridge?"
Jack looked around. "No rainbow bridge, but yeah, those Asgard." He
moved away from the observation platform that they had arrived upon, and
into the darker interior of the ****p. "And whichever one of them is
responsible for this--" Jack's voice rose in volume. "*--better get his
little grey butt in here with an explanation!*" His voice reverberated,
like he had yelled into a large, empty chamber.
The others followed him. "It would be neat to meet Thor," said Andrew.
"He's so big, and strong, and has that nice, long, blond, hair."
"Red," said Dawn. "Stan Lee messed up on that one. Thor was known as
'Red Beard' in all the myths."
"He's actually bald," said Jack, "and about four feet tall. *And if he's
behind this, he can show up any time now to tell us why!*" They had
arrived in a large room that was decorated--if you could apply the word
'decorated' to something so drab--in shades of grey.
Jack went over to a sloping panel that had what looked like glowing oval
stones stuck to it. "Carter told me how to work one of these things,
once," he muttered. He took one of the stones, and moved it. The lights
went out. "Oops." He quickly moved the stone back where it had been, and
the lights came back on.
"Jack, what's going on?" asked Dawn. She watched the expressions play
across his face, as he considered his options. She knew that lying was
one of the things that crossed his mind, but he had quickly rejected the
idea. His poker face hadn't taken over his face, either. He was showing
her what he was really feeling ... at least she thought he was.
"Earth has been in communication with aliens for a few years now," said
Jack. "One of the friendly races we've contacted is the Asgard."
"So, we've been kidnapped by some friendly aliens?" asked Dawn.
"Probably," said Jack. "Most of the Asgard are."
"Most?" asked Andrew.
"Well, there was one who was a bit of a 'mad scientist' type, but I
doubt if it's him. *And if it is you, Loki, I'm going to toss you out an
airlock!*" He got no reply, except for the echo of his voice.
Dawn looked around the chamber they were in. It was very large, and very
empty. It made her feel very small. "Where are they?" she asked. "If
this is an alien ****p, where are the aliens?"
"Asgard ****ps are highly automated," said Jack. "They don't really need
any crew at all, and often only have a few onboard." He looked around
too. "But someone usually shows up by now."
"My apologies, O'Neill ..." Dawn spun toward the new voice, and was
astonished to see that it came from a creature that seemed to have
stepped off the cover of /The Weekly World News/. "... but I wished to
give you a chance to explain what was happening to your companions, to
prevent them from panicking."
"It's a Roswell Grey!" cried Andrew. "Oh god! I don't want to be anal
probed!"
The short grey creature blinked its large eyes, and looked at Andrew. "I
have no interest in probing any of your orifices."
"Thor!" said Jack.
"Thor?" asked Dawn.
"Perhaps you should make introductions, O'Neill," said the little grey
alien.
"Uh, I guess." Jack looked a little nonplussed for a moment. "Ah, Dawn
Summers, Andrew Wells, Cassie Fraiser, I'd like you to meet Thor,
Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet."
Thor nodded his head to both her and Andrew in turn. "Dawn Summers,
Andrew Wells." He turned towards Cassie, and gave her a deeper bow.
"Cassie Fraiser. My condolences for the death of your mother. Your
species was diminished by her loss."
Cassie didn't seem to know what to make of that statement. "Ah ... thank
you."
"I would like to welcome you all aboard the /Samantha Carter/," said
Thor.
"/Samantha Carter/?" asked Dawn. "Why would an alien name its space****p
after Cassie's guardian?"
Jack snorted. "Because she blew up the /O'Neill/!"
"*What?*" cried Dawn.
"In our war with the Replicators, Samantha Carter recognized that it was
necessary to sacrifice our new flag****p, the /O'Neill/, to gain a
tactical advantage," said Thor. "The next /O'Neill/ class ****p was named
in her honour."
"But why was your flag****p named 'O'Neill?'" asked Andrew.
"Ancient history!" said Jack. "More to the point: what are we doing here
now?"
"I noticed that you were in the company of a person steeped in mystical
energy, a Chosen One, and the Key," said Thor. "I felt that the time was
ripe to make myself known to them."
It seemed like Dawn's heart had skipped a beat. "The Key?" she asked.
"Yes." Thor blinked at her. "We have been keeping watch over the Key for
many millennia. It is said that it has the power to unite all paths."
"Said by whom?" asked Jack.
"What paths?" asked Andrew.
"Many races have chosen to take different paths, in their quest for
advancement," said Thor. "The Ancients chose the path of Ascension; the
Asgard have chosen the path of technology; the Nox, and the Furlings
have taken different paths."
"Paths to where?" asked Andrew.
"Enlightenment, peace, understanding of the universe," said Thor.
"In other words, forty-two," said Dawn.
"What do you get if you multiply six by nine?" asked Andrew.
"I do not understand," said Thor.
"It's the ultimate answer," said Cassie. "To Life, the Universe, and
Everything. It's forty-two."
"And the question is: 'What do you get if you multiply six by nine?'"
said Andrew. "It works in base thirteen."
Thor blinked a few more times. "I still do not understand. How can that
be the ultimate question, or answer? O'Neill?"
"Sorry pal, I'm as confused as you are," said Jack.
"Doesn't matter," said Dawn. "The answer doesn't matter. The question
doesn't really matter either. The only thing that matters is that there
*is* a question. If you think that you've found an answer to
everything, then either your answer is wrong, or you've been asking the
wrong questions. The im****tant questions are all open ended. Their
answers lead to more questions. If you think that you're on the path to
the One True Answer, you're probably in a dead end, or that light at the
end of the tunnel is an oncoming train. So why did you name a whole
class of space****ps after Jack, here?" Dawn hoped that her question
would divert them away from the subject of the Key.
"The Asgard have been observing Humanity for thousands of years," said
Thor. "In O'Neill we see the great potential of your species. We believe
that you have the promise to become the Fifth Race."
"Huh?"
"There were once four great races in this galaxy," said Thor. "The
Ancients, the Furlings, the Nox, and the Asgard. The Ancients chose the
path of Ascension, and left this plane of existence behind. The Furlings
and the Nox turned inward. The Furlings are gone, and the Nox rarely
take an interest in anything outside of their own world any longer. The
Asgard are a dying race. We hope that Humanity may become our heirs."
"You're dying?" asked Dawn.
Thor twitched in something that might have been his attempt at a shrug.
He didn't really have the shoulders to pull it off properly. "We thought
that we had found the One True Answer. It led us into a dead end from
which I fear there is no escape."
"And you think that the Key may give you a way out?" asked Cassie.
'Damn!' thought Dawn.
Thor shook his head. "We have been studying the Key for millennia.
Nothing that we have learned of it has given us any clue before now,
though I must admit that she has provided me with some insights, in this
conversation."
"Um...you're saying that Dawn here, is this Key that you've been
studying for thousands of years?" asked Jack. "She doesn't look that
old."
"Gee, thanks Jack!"
"That the Key could be moulded into human form is something that we had
not ever considered possible," said Thor. "It presented us with an
op****tunity."
"An op****tunity?" asked Dawn, wondering just what this creature had in
mind.
"Yes," said Thor. "This is the first time that we have ever been able to
communicate directly with the Key. You have already given me something
to think about, and I thank you for that."
"You're welcome, I guess," said Dawn. "So, you just wanted to talk to
me?"
"Yes," said Thor.
"You couldn't just phone?"
"If I had telephoned, would you have believed me?"
"I guess not. Maybe next time."
"What was that about the Key being moulded into human form?" asked Jack.
"The Key has existed for untold millennia," said Thor. "Four years ago,
it was given human form, as Dawn Summers."
"You're only four years old?" asked Jack.
"In the same sense that you are only one year old," said Thor.
"What?" asked Dawn.
"This instantiation of Jack O'Neill is only one year old," said Thor.
"Huh?"
"A renegade Asgard scientist wi****ng to study Jack O'Neill attempted to
create a copy of him. He was not completely successful."
"Someone tried to copy you?" asked Dawn.
"No, I'm the less than successful copy," said Jack. "The original is now
General Jack O'Neill."
"So you..."
"I remember all of his life," said Jack. "I have all the memories of a
fifty year old Air Force colonel. I have all of his training, but I'm
stuck in this kid's body."
"Huh," said Dawn. "That's different." She looked at Cassie. "Since we
seem to be in revelations mode, what's your story? I know that your
official history has been faked too. You weren't another alien science
experiment, were you?"
Cassie glanced toward Jack, and he gave her a nod. "Not exactly. I'm not
really a Canadian. I wasn't born on Earth. My home world was called
Hanka, but there was a plague there. It killed everyone, my family, our
village. I was the only survivor. SG-1--Sam, Jack, Teal'c and
Daniel--found me, and brought me back to Earth. Mom adopted me."
"Wow!" said Dawn. "We had a lot of theories, but that's... Wow!"
"It's also classified," said Jack.
"What?"
"Cassie, me, Thor. It's all classified information. You can't tell
anyone about it."
"Don't the people have the right to know?" asked Andrew.
"Just like they have the right to know about the vampires and demons and
Slayers and stuff?" asked Jack. "We've been keeping quiet about aliens
for the same reason you've been keeping quiet about the demons. Most
people aren't ready to know."
"Who does know?" asked Dawn. "Is the US government keeping this all to
themselves?"
"No," said Jack. "All the permanent members of the UN Security Council
know about it, as well as the G8 countries, and some of our other
allies. We were the ones who first made contact, but we're sharing a lot
of what we're learning."
"If Cassie was born on another world...could there be other Slayers out
there, on other planets?" asked Andrew.
"How many planets have people on them?" asked Dawn. "How did they get
there?"
"There are thousands of worlds that have human populations," said Jack.
"Mostly they were transplanted from Earth by aliens, thousands of years
ago."
"So, you just kidnap people and dump them on some other world?" Dawn
asked Thor.
"No," said Thor. "The Asgard do not kidnap. We would approach a village
that was in distress from famine, disease, marauders or other threats,
and offer to relocate them to a new, safer, land. We only moved those
who accepted our offer: took them to a new world, and gave them aid
until they were self sufficient there. We see such promise in Humanity
that we wanted to ensure its survival, should any cataclysm befall this
world."
"So, there could be thousands of worlds that have had Slayers called on
them," said Andrew. "There could be millions of Slayers!"
"That is very unlikely," said Thor. "In all the time that we have been
observing Humans, there has never been a Chosen One called on another
world. The energy that infuses the Chosen is limited to the speed of
light. The force that empowered them all has yet to reach even the
nearest stars, and it will be many decades before it can reach the
closest of inhabited worlds."
"What happens then?" asked Dawn.
"I do not believe that anything will happen," said Thor. "By the time
the energy reaches any other planet, it will be so attenuated that it
will be lost in the noise. This sort of energy is very rare in the
universe. Earth is the only currently inhabited world that we know of
with an appreciable amount of it. Even if the pulse is still strong
enough to trigger the activation of a Chosen One when it reaches a new
world, there will be no mystical energy there for the Chosen One to draw
upon to give her strength."
"You know about this magic stuff, then?" asked Jack. "You never
mentioned anything about it before."
"The mystical and the technological do not mix well," said Thor. "In
many ways they are antithetical to one another. We have been able to
observe the effects of 'magic' as you call it, but we have been unable
to understand them. The Furlings were a species that worked with the
mystical, and they were never able to explain to our scientists how it
worked, in terms that we could understand. They had similar problems
trying to understand our science. Humanity is the only species that we
have ever encountered that is able to use both, but it seems that the
divide still exists: your scientists reject any mystical explanation for
any phenomena, and your mystics reject the scientific. The people that
we have met at the SGC have almost all been scientists, and would not
have responded well to talk of 'magic,' especially since the Asgard
would have been unable to provide them with a demonstration.
"However, since you have been associating with the Key, a Chosen One,
and a Mystic, I thought that this would be a good op****tunity."
"You might try talking to Carter about this," said Jack. "She knows
about Cassie, and has been talking with one of Dawn's friends about how
magic works. She still doesn't understand it, but she's seen some of the
things it can do."
"I will do that, O'Neill."
"So, you grabbed us all, just because you wanted to say 'Hi?'" asked
Dawn.
"I made myself known to you, because I desired to speak with the Key,
and to make myself known to the Chosen," said Thor. "Something is
coming, a new threat to your galaxy. The Key and the Chosen will have a
role to play in defeating it."
"What sort of threat?" asked Jack, and Dawn together.
"I do not know," said Thor. "We received a message through a ... device
.... that was given to us by the Furlings for us to communicate with
them. It had been quiescent for millennia. It warned of an impending
danger, and said that the Key and the Chosen would be needed to defeat
it."
"Great!" said Dawn. "Now we're getting the cryptic warnings from little
grey aliens. Did this message have anything useful to say, such as how
the Key would be needed?"
"It did not, but it did contain a warning to beware of false prophets,"
said Thor.
"A warning from a prophet to beware false prophets ... there's an
irony," said Jack. "Who was the warning from? The Furlings?"
Thor shrugged again. "They were the only beings that had sent us
messages through this channel in the past, but there was nothing in the
message itself that said who it was from. We requested more information,
but received no response."
"Typical," said Dawn. "Just once I'd like to receive an unambiguous
warning, that contained some useful advice for what to do about one of
these things."
"I understand your frustration," said Thor.
"So that's it?" asked Jack. "Beamed us up, said 'hi,' gave us our
warning. Anything else?"
"There is not," said Thor. "It has been a pleasure to speak with you
all. I will now return you to your point of origin."
"Just a sec--" Jack was cut off by the flash of the Asgard trans****ter,
and Dawn found herself back in her seat at their poker table.
"I hate when he does that," said Jack
"That was sooo cool!" said Andrew. "I can't believe I met a Roswell
Grey!"
"You can't tell anyone about it!" said Jack.
"It's not like anyone would believe him," said Dawn. "But we are going
to have to tell the Council about this."
"I'd really rather that you didn't," said Jack.
"The whole Council doesn't need to hear all of it," said Dawn. "There
are only a few people who know about the Key. They need to hear about
this, too."
"How many people know about that?" asked Cassie.
"Outside of this room, four," said Dawn. "Buffy, Willow, Xander and
Giles. I think maybe it's time to add a few more to the list: Faith, and
Principal Wood for two."
"Maybe some people at the SGC as well," said Jack. "I mean, if we're
getting warnings naming you from our alien allies, I think we should
involve them. I'm going to have to re****t that I've spoken to Thor, and
that he revealed himself to you."
"How many people are you planning to tell?" asked Dawn.
"Half a dozen, tops. The other me, Daniel and Carter for starters. It
might be time to bring Teal'c in on the secret too. Probably General
Hammond as well."
"Who's he?" asked Dawn.
"He was the head of the SGC, up until about six months ago. Now he's in
command of Homeworld Security."
"Homeworld Security?"
"That's the blanket organization that's responsible for coordinating the
international defence of the Earth. Sort of like what NATO was during
the Cold War."
"Can we trust him?" asked Dawn.
"I trust him," said Cassie.
"I'm still not sure I want to tell anyone else about the Key," said
Dawn.
"I think we should sleep on it," said Jack. "Not make any hasty
decisions. We've had a eventful night, I think it's time to turn in." He
started to get up from the table.
"There is one more thing to take care of," said Dawn.
"What's that?" asked Jack.
"My full house beat your flush." Dawn reached out and started to rake in
the poker pot with her hands.
---
Dawn couldn't sleep. She tried, but after laying in bed for an hour with
thoughts of what she had learned rattling around in her head she gave
up, and got out of bed. She decided to go for a walk. Maybe the fresh
air would clear her head a bit.
The late autumn night air was cold, barely above freezing, so Dawn had
bundled herself up in a sweater and jacket before she went out. As she
approached the Mathematical Bridge over the river Cam, she wasn't
entirely surprised to see Jack was standing on it, wearing a battered
old leather jacket, leaning against the wooden rail, looking out over
the water. She walked out onto the bridge, and leaned against the rail
beside him.
He seemed to know who she was, without even looking. "So, mystical key,
huh?" he asked.
"Yep, and you're a clone," said Dawn. "Is that why you've been acting so
weird? Because you figure that you're twice my age?"
"At least!" said Jack.
"You're looking at this all wrong," said Dawn. "Even if you are twice my
age, that's still half the average age of Buffy's boyfriends."
"From what I've heard about her love life, I think it should be
considered an object lesson in why *not* to have a relation****p with
someone that much older."
"Oh, I see," said Dawn. "You don't think we should be together because
I'm so much older than you."
"*What?*" asked Jack.
"You were made a year ago," said Dawn. "I was made four years ago. That
means I'm four times your age. You're right. It could never work."
"That's not what I meant!"
"Or looking at it another way, you're fifty, and I'm who knows how many
thousand years old. This age thing is looking worse and worse for you.
I'd be practically robbing the cradle."
"No you wouldn't!"
Dawn decided that it was time to stop talking about it. "Jack, shut up."
She grabbed his jacket, pulled him close, and kissed him.
--
Quando omni flunkus moritati
Visit the Buffy Body Count at <http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/>
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