Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 66

Chapter 66 - In The Beginning - Part 2

“For centuries scientists loyal to the ruling class studied these powers, creating a number of technological advances based around copying these abilities. Eventually this led to both the discovery of a series of genetic changes that could astronomically increase the chances that people would naturally be born with those abilities, and a way to artificially instill those abilities in others.”

That his people had utilized the first and completely erased everything to do with the second suggested the technique had likely been several levels of horrifyingly immoral.

“The Alterans were the scientists, weren't they.” Daniel suddenly put forward.

“And the Ori were the ruling class.” Eventus confirmed with a nod, glad he hadn't needed to spell it out directly since that would have detracted from the mystique of the story.

“Things in general went from bad to worse once the Ori got their powers, and the oligarchy ended up being transformed into a theocracy built around worshiping the new immortal godkings.”

“Part of that transformation involved the Ori hunting down both non-believers and those who naturally had the powers the Ori were now claiming could only be held by then. Which was enough for the Alterans to realize that the only reason the Ori hadn't come for them alongside the rest, was that their hold on the galaxy wasn't solid enough to do so without it coming down to a fight that they might lose.”

“The Alterans knew however that win or lose it would be the general populace that would suffer the most. However sensibly they also didn't want to die, so while the Ori were solidifying their hold and marginalizing the Alterans, the Alterans themselves were constructing a generation ship that utilized a newly discovered method of faster than light travel that they had not shared with the Ori.”

“In the end the Alterans won their gamble, finishing their escape vessel before the Ori were ready to move against them and launching it into intergalactic space. From there they traveled from galaxy to galaxy till they eventually came upon Avalon, and due to the odd prevalence of naturally habitable worlds, decided it was a good place to settle down and build a place to live.”

“What followed was tens of millions of years of colonizing the galaxy, unrestricted scientific experimentation, and a minor religious conflict caused by the discovery that someone had left a message in the background radiation of the universe.”

Daniel held up a finger. “Ah, could you maybe–”

“Daniel.” O'Neill interrupted, shooting a reproachful stare at the archaeologist. “Let's let the guy finish before starting on the questions.”

“It shouldn't be much longer.” Eventus said, offering an appreciative nod to the General. “Because we've reached the unfortunate part, you see, the downside of all that time passing was that we more or less forgot about the Ori, unfortunately however they had not forgotten about us.”

“Don't ask me how they found us or how they got here, as I honestly don't know. But they did, and they were a lot more careful in how they did things then they're being here. Because the first we knew of it was when small Origin cults started to show up on some of our newer colony worlds.“

Given the Ori hadn't gone for the direct approach, Eventus had the distinct suspicion that had been before the Ori actually figured out how to ascend.

“These cults found functionally no traction outside of newer colony worlds however, and even on them quickly began fading once those in charge started pushing for more extreme action. And then the Plague hit, first on Vis Urban, then on Elysium Pedion.”

“You have to understand, the healing technology developed by studying those with my particular set of abilities had all but eliminated disease. So when the Ori plague showed up we did the two worst things possible. We didn't quarantine the affected worlds, and began treating those infected with our healing technology.”

“The Ori however had predicted that, and designed their plague to undergo rapid mutation when exposed to artificially generated healing fields. By the time we figured that out however the plague was nearly uncontainable. The one bright spot in all this was the discovery that those with natural healing powers were functionally immune to the plague, and could even completely cure those who had been infected by it.”

“But they weren't really immune, were they?” Daniel put forward with a frown.

Eventus gave a melancholy shake of his head. “No, they weren't. As your people unfortunately discovered when they unearthed Cyla Urbanus in Antarctica, the plague persisted in those with healing powers turning them into carriers. And that was how things fell apart, because in our hubris we didn't think to check till after the plague had mysteriously broken through the tenuous quarantine.”

Which was why he had made sure to take a panacea booster himself before coming to Earth, after all, it was better to be safe than sorry.

“A number of extreme solutions were attempted at that point, culminating in a truly impressive machine that looped time across a several hundred light years radius.”

“I really hated that thing.” O'Neill muttered.

“Indeed.” Teal'c agreed.

“In the end we gave up.” Eventus went on, letting the byplay go without comment. ”And the High Council of the time sent out an order for the twelve city ships to gather up those who had been cured or avoided infection and depart for the Pegausus galaxy.”

It had been particularly annoying to find references to a twelfth city ship in the sealed files remaining on Atlantis. And Eventus really hoped there was a good reason for functionally erasing the missing cityship from the records. Because otherwise he was going to have to kick Moros in the shin when they someday discovered where Ganos Lal had hidden the former high councilor.

“Unfortunately we were forced to leave behind those with healing powers who were carriers of the plague.”

Which had utterly gutted their surviving leadership, though that had probably saved them in the long run since it had performed a similar function as the Wraith war and removed nearly all the entrenchment from their political structure.

“There was a bright side to that however, as those left behind took the opportunity to assemble several superweapons that could be used against the Ori if the chance ever presented itself.”

“I don't suppose you can just direct us to those?” O'Neill asked in a hopeful tone that nonetheless carried the feeling that he had no real belief that Eventus would actually be doing so.

“I'd love to.” Eventus confessed truthfully, as he very much wasn't one to shy away from raining destruction down on the Ori after everything they had done. “But according to McKay, you already blew up the only one whose location was recorded in Atlantis's database. I believe you called it the Stargate destroyer?”

“It had been taken by Anubis.” Teal'c offered simply.

Eventus nodded in approval. “I heard, and given Oma Desala’s involvement in the whole matter, that was at least somewhat on us.”

He still didn’t know how Anubis had been able to trick her, or why she had waited so long to engage him in eternal battle, but it was on his list of things to find out if he ever ascended.

“Once those were complete, Cyla Urbanus activated the device you discovered on Dakara, scouring the entire clean of the disease and anything which could host it. After which she returned to the Antarctic outpost, transmitted the logs of everything they had done to the traveling city ships, and then somehow got dug up by you millions of years later.”

Clapping his hands together he tossed the trio a grin. “You can ask those questions now.”

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Author’s Notes: And thus we end the big loredump and move onto the questionair portion of the interview.