Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 82

Chapter 82 - An Hour In The Life Part 2

The Brother

Checking the bouquet of flowers in his hands to make sure they hadn't wilted in the thirty seconds he'd been standing there staring at the door, Rodney McKay steeled himself before putting on what he hoped was an apologetic smile and ringing the doorbell.

The sound of footsteps quickly approached, and the front door opened to reveal the slightly bedraggled form of his sister Jeannie.

“Hi.” He waved, mentally groaning at not being able to think of anything better to say then that.

“Meredith!?” She exclaimed in surprise, staring at him like she'd just seen some sort of non corporeal being.

“Long time no see.” He offered, letting out a mental groan at how bad that sounded.

“To say the least!” She returned.

A moment of silence passed between them.

“So.” Rodney continued, pushing forward the bouquet. “I brought flowers.”

Jeannie narrowed her eyes at him. “You want something!?”

Rodney winced, knowing he at least deserved that a little bit given everything that had gone on between them in the past. “What, I can't just decide to reconnect with my little sister?”

“Well, it’s been three years.” Jeannie criticized, staring at the flowers in suspicion for a moment before grudgingly accepting them. “And this is the first time you’ve done anything like this, so no, you can’t.”

“Yes, well, I’ve been kind of busy.” And Rodney really wanted to say more about just what he was busy doing but that would have to wait till she signed an NDA. 

“With work.” He clarified so she wouldn’t think he had been purposefully ignoring her. “A lot of traveling in places without phone reception, near death experiences, conversations with ancient island men about the importance of appreciating family. And I’m finally back in town for a bit, so figured hey, why not see how my little sis is doing.”

Because what Evan had said had been eating at him the past few days, and skewed priorities aside, his sister was a genius nearly on par with him.

“Wait a second.” Jeannie began, giving him an odd look. “What was that middle one?”

“Near death experiences?” Rodney returned, doing his best to minimize how serious they had been. “My job took me to what some might consider generally unsafe locations.” He straightened up and gave a happy smile. “But hey, good news, the ancient island man had some weird holistic treatment and I’m longer allergic to citrus.”

And Oranges were his new favorite fruit, though he expected that to change when he eventually got around to having his first real key lime pie.

“Really?” Jeannie put forward, skepticism all but dripping off her voice. “That’s the best you can come up with?”

“It’s true!” Rodney insisted, well aware of just how much he was stretching generalities to make it that way. 

Jeannie rolled her eyes. “Sure Mer.”

Another moment of silence settled over them, and Rodney began to fidget slightly before offering his sister a somewhat awkward smile. “So, aren't you gonna invite me in?”

“I’m thinking about it.” Jeannie admitted slowly.

Years of experience had taught Rodney that that particular tone meant it really could go either way with her, so it was probably better for him to sweeten the pot a little. “If you do, I can tell you about our famous ancestor.”

Not everything of course, at least not unless she was willing to sign the NDA, but even the abbreviated story of them being descended from the person a roman goddess was based on was a story he knew his sister would appreciate.

“This isn’t like the time you thought Mom might have been Albert Einstein’s secret lovechild is it?” She asked in sudden suspicion.

Cringing, Rodney took a moment to glance and make sure nobody was around who might have accidentally overheard that. “No, this is real.”

He wasn’t sure Jeannie believed him given the somewhat exasperated look, but she finally shook her head and stepped back out of the doorway. “Come on, I suppose at the very least we can talk about all the birthday presents you owe Maddie.”

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The God

As a planet Earth was an amusing contradiction, its people would fight to the bitter end to avoid worshiping one as a god, and yet so long as Ba’al was willing to provide them with trinkets and baubles many of its people would act little different than the throngs of servants who had for centuries catered to his various whims.

He did miss the sheer opulence of his old life of course, but one of his holding companies was in the process of acquiring the Luxor, so it was only a matter of time till even that was returned to him. And till then, Halcyon Tower was an adequate placeholder, even if the city's weather was less than pleasing.

Taking a drink from his glass of Cognac, he savored the alchole's taste for a moment before leaning back in his leather chair and offering a permissive wave to the waiting Athena. “Now tell me, what have our agents discovered about this new threat that has the Tau'ri so agitated?”

It never paid to ignore your enemy's enemies after all, because they often had an annoying habit of becoming your own.

“They call themselves the Ori.” Athena said. “And if the Tau'ri source is to be believed, they possess some relation to the Ancients.”

“Nearly every sentient species in the galaxy possess some relation to the Ancients.” Ba'al scoffed, purposefully downplaying the issue so Athena wouldn't catch on to his sudden worry. “More important is the question of just who was the Tau'ri's source for this? The Tok'ra? The Asgard?”

The only other possibility he could think of was the Nox, and they had been functionally removed from play since Anubis had destroyed the Tollan.

“A surviving Ancient.” Athena answered grimly. “It seems their expedition to find the Ancient’s lost city was even more successful then we had feared.”

Maybe more than she had feared, but Ba'al had always considered it a distant but not entirely unlikely possibility.

“An Ancient you say?” He mused, idly rubbing his beard as he considered the various implications.

“That is what our people within the Trust are claiming.” Athena confirmed, the sudden gleam of thinly veiled ambition in her eyes an amusing indicator of just why she had never amounted to more than a moderately competent underling.

“The last time an ancient appeared, Ares lost several planets to their meddling.” Ba'al warned her. “They are not to be underestimated.”

Even Anubis with all his power had been unable to stand up to the weapons platform the Ancients had hidden on this world's southernmost continent.

“Then you think the Ancient is a bigger threat than these Ori?” Athena cautiously probed.

“Potentially.” He confirmed, tilting his head a bit and grinning to better emphasize just how magnanimous he was about to be with her. “But they also respect life to a truly foolish degree. Which is something we can take advantage of.”

Or at least something he could have someone else try to take advantage of, because he wasn't going to risk his own life on the unsubstantiated accounts his spies had brought back about the species brief reappearance during Ra's grueling fight to retake Earth from Sokar's forces.

“How many of Seshat’s line remain on Earth?” He inquired idly.

“Just Kheshet.” Athena returned, sneering disdainfully at the name of the Underlord he had in charge of overseeing his cloning program.

“How unfortunate.” He muttered, since Kheshet would have been perfect for testing the waters if she wasn’t one of the few currently irreplaceable underlords still in his service.

He briefly toyed with the thought of throwing Athena herself at the opportunity, but it was unlikely her pride would allow her to pull off such a delicate infiltration with any degree of success. And even if she did, her loyalties were fickle enough he wouldn’t be able to trust that she would continue acting with his best interests for the length of time necessary to bring his current plan to fruition.

“What about Yami, my lord?” Athena floated cautiously. “She is of Tvashtr’s line, and has already failed in her bid to gain control of Kadari Technologies.”

Ba’al considered the suggestion, he was well aware of the rivalry Athena had formed with Yami of course, after all, he had purposefully put the two in comparable positions to foster it in the first place since Athena had a tendency to do her best work when trying to outdo another. But while Yami absolutely possessed both the intelligence and loyalty he wanted for this, her ability to put on any sort of persona outside of her own was almost non-existent.

Though utilized correctly, he supposed that had the potential to actually be a boon. And if not, well, she had failed what was supposed to be a relatively easy company acquisition.

“Order her to return here.” He ordered Athena with a grin. “We do not expect success of course, but even in failure there is potential opportunity to turn the Ancient away from the Tau’ri.”

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Author’s Notes: Rodney listens to the little Ancient voice in his head about reconnecting with his sister, and Ba’al plots. Next chapter, back to Eventus.