Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 148

Chapter 148 - Results May Vary

Having returned Rayla to their shared room, Eventus had begged the use of a secure testing lab so he could go over the psionic amplifier. Thankfully the pair of General’s on the base hadn’t overly objected to the idea, though they did have a couple requirements of their that they wanted to throw in. 

Which in this case had been that the testing be overseen by a pair of the SGC’s most esteemed scientists.

“I’m kind of surprised you were still both up.” Eventus admitted, eyeing the almost overloaded table the unlikely pair were seated at with thinly disguised amusement.

McKay rolled his eyes. “Yes, well, it’s a bit of an all hands on deck situation for us scientists today since someone,” He shot Eventus a heavy lidded stare. “Decided to hand over a large number of technological blueprints that involve a combination of new, novel, and theoretical scientific principles that need going over.”

Carter chewed on the bottom of her lip for a moment before making an odd face. “Technically we should probably still be doing that since attempts to pick up anything from Rayla’s usage of the device came up blank.”

“Only because I wasn’t here last time.” McKay bragged, grabbing a piece of pizza from the open box on the table only to stare at it with an almost offended look. “Pineapple, Sam? Really?”

He began eating, and Carter let out a tired sigh before turning to Eventus. “If you don’t mind me asking, just how does that crystal give people psychokinetic powers?”

“No clue.” Eventus shrugged. “The technology was all but banned millions of years before I was born, and most surviving examples were disposed of.”

“Why?” Carter asked, cocking her head in clear confusion.

It was Eventus’s turn to sigh. “Officially? The enhanced powers granted by psionic amplifiers were deemed too dangerous for the general public.”

“And unofficially?” Carter prodded in clear interest when he didn’t continue.

“Unofficially.” Eventus repeated in a severe tone. “It was believed that the amplifiers had something to do with how the Ori were able to infect our galaxy with their plague.”

That warning had been the only thing that had come up in the general High Council files still on Atlantis when he’d done a search for anything on the devices. Which heavily suggested there was probably a lot more about the subject in the files the High Council had brought back to Earth with them.

“Huh.” Carter muttered.

“The Ancients did a lot of stuff like that.” McKay added in with derision. “It’s honestly a miracle they were able to advance scientifically at all.

Glancing over to Eventus, an odd look flashed across Carter’s face upon noticing the complete lack of reaction on the Lantean’s own.

“He’s not wrong.” Eventus said, feeling the need to clarify for someone who hadn’t heard a few of his rants on the subject. “By the time I was born my people’s advancement had slowed to a glacial crawl because of all the restrictions around what we could and couldn’t do. The Wraith war lifted a few of those proscriptions, but even that took so long that we were only just starting to update our ships from their million plus year old standards around the endpoint of the war.”

The corner of his lips quirked into a wry grin. “But we should probably start with this so I can actually get some sleep tonight, and you can get back to your scientific analysis."

Holding the pendant by its chain so he could quickly drop it if something went wrong, he began the attempt to mentally connect with the device.

“So when are you going to start?” McKay asked after a few seconds ticked by.

“I already did.” Eventus admitted, frowning at the pendant’s complete lack of response. “But my attempt to forge a mental connection doesn’t seem to be registering.”

“Have you tried just doing something?” Carter asked, furrowing her brow in seeming consideration. “It started working for Rayla almost immediately after she picked it up, and she never mentioned anything about having to connect with it.”

Eventus’s frown deepened as he considered her words. “I suppose I could try.” He took a moment to consider the pair in the room with him. “Do either of you have any pressing health issues you need cleaned up?”

“Nope.” Carter immediately refused.

“Don't look at me.” McKay shook his head. “I haven't had so much as a runny nose since you fixed my allergies."

Pursing his lips, Eventus looked around the mostly empty room before returning to the pair. “Do either of you have a pocket knife?”

“Sure.” “Of course.” Carter and McKay said together.

“It's kind of become standard kit for scientific leads on an SG team.” Carter explained upon seeing his look of surprise. “You never know when you'll need to do something like strip the wires on a crashed UAV.”

“Or splice a fiber optic cable.” McKay added in.

“Fair enough.” Eventus acknowledged with a nod. “We usually carried multi-tools when on the job for the same sorts of reasons.”

“What do you need it for?” Carter inquired as she dug into one of her pockets and pulled out a small multi-tool that she offered towards the Lantean.

“I'm just going to stab myself a little.” Eventus said, reaching for the tool only for Carter to pull it back and narrow her eyes in a glare.

“It will be fine.” He tried to reassure her. “Part of our physiological differences include a high resistance to pain and pain induced shock. You could stab me in the heart with that and I would probably be able to heal the damage before getting close to passing out.”

That exact scenario had never happened before thankfully, but the time he'd had a blown out structural support punch through his abdomen would probably have been comparable on the pain chart.

“Or instead of stabbing yourself,” McKay began. “Maybe Sam could grab you one of the testing mice from biological storage.”

Carter turned to the other scientist with an annoyed look in her eye. “Why me?”

“It’s your base.” McKay said simply, causing Carter to narrow her eyes in clear suspicion. 

“All right.” He muttered after a second passed. “All the little eyes staring at you down there creeps me out.”

Rolling her eyes, Carter tucked the multi-tools back in her pocket and then rose to her feet. “Fine, but no experimenting while I’m gone.”

With that she tapped a few keys on her keyboard, and the force shield around the room's inner walls shimmered into visibility for a moment before lowering.

“I promise not to stab myself.” Eventus said, letting a pause linger a few seconds after his words before continuing. “Or Doctor McKay.”

“Oh ha ha.” McKay rolled his eyes before grabbing another piece of the pizza.

Eyeing them carefully for a moment, Carter gave a shake of her head and then walked out of the lab.

McKay chewed on his pizza for several seconds, and then glanced over to the pendant Eventus was still holding with a contemplative look in his eye.

“What sort of powers can that thing give people anyways?”

“If historical records are accurate?” Eventus began, dredging up the extensive list of various gifts from the depths of his memory. “Any gift that it’s possible to have. So to put that in the terms of your popular fiction. Telepathy, telekinesis, astral projection, healing, and precognition.”

He tilted his head, considering their different definitions for a moment. “Technically there’s also biokinesis, technopathy, mind control, pyrokinesis, electrokinesis,and a handful of other even more specific things. But those are more like sub branches of the first five instead of their own separate categories."

“And you tried all of those?” McKay pressed.

“I’m not hearing your thoughts so telepathy is out.” Eventus said before motioning at the pizza box with his free hand and attempting to will it over to him.

An arc of electricity flashed out, striking the open box and causing the food inside to explode like a gooey bomb and cover McKay in crispy bits of food.

McKay blinked.

Eventus blinked.

At that moment Carter walked back into the room with a small plastic cage in hand, only to take one look at the mess of burnt pizza covering the room and let out a tired groan. “Really guys?”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s Notes: Yes, Eventus’s “expanded power” is electrokinesis. And yes, there will in fact several “unlimited power” jokes made about the whole thing.