Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 31

Chapter 31 - Old Allies

Yawning as he exited his bedroom after a more than satisfying eight hour rest, he was left blinking in moderate surprise at the naked Asgard waiting on his lounge chair.

“Greetings.” He offered in slight awkwardness as the grey alien turned to him. “I hope you haven't been waiting long?”

“Several hours.” The Asgard admitted as Eventus moved over to the kitchenette and pulled out one of the muffins he'd stored in the stasis box. “However the matter is dire enough that the wait was of little concern.”

“I rather suspected.” Eventus confirmed as he grabbed a juice box from the chiller. “You'll have to forgive me for eating. The last few weeks have been busy enough I've been trying to maintain a schedule so I actually remember to do so.”

“Understandable.” The Asgard returned as he got to his feet only to give a cautious bow. “I am Hermiod of the Asgard, and my people are dying. Though it was made after your time, will you honor our people's alliance and help us?”

Moderately manipulative of Hermiod to phrase it like that, but Eventus couldn't exactly blame him given it was functionally the entire Asgard race at stake outside of the group that was hiding out somewhere in the Pegasus galaxy.

“Of course.” Eventus confirmed without hesitation. “Though I will need to hear the problem before I can know if there's anything I can actually do to help.”

“Then the humans have not informed you?” Hermiod questioned in slight surprise as he returned to the lounger.

Eventus shrugged as he finished a bite of muffin. “I've received a brief breakdown on the current status of Terra, and what they think happened to my people, but other than that I've been too busy to investigate matters deeper.”

“I see.” Hermiod said as he seemed to study Eventus for a moment before bowing his head in apology. “In our pride we failed to heed the warnings given to us by your leaders about the dangers in the method we choose for our longevity. And by the time we experienced those dangers first hand, of our allies only the Nox remained to provide assistance.”

“And I assume they were unable too?” Eventus inquired, having always wondered about that.

Hermiod shook his head, an oddly human movement that Eventus suspected the Asgard had picked up from the humans he spent time with. “The Nox's xeonological expertise is limited due to the unique nature of their existence.”

Fair enough, Eventus supposed, as from what he recalled they had seemed to rely on their powers pretty heavily. Which wouldn't exactly help with what little he knew about the Asgard's problem if said powers were anything like his own.

“Given differing physical appearance from the records I've seen and mention of the Nox's xenologology limits.” Eventus began as he made a production of studying Hermiod for a moment. “Would the problem happen to be either genetic engineering or cloning related?”

“Yes.” Hermiod answered simply. “Over the millennium the genetic improvements introduced into our genome compounded with the problems caused by using successive generations of improved clonestock as a gene-source.”

Which sounded like a complicated way of saying they had bypassed the pile of goo problem inherent in genetic modifications by creating clones of themselves and then using those clones as a base to test further genetic modifications.

“I would assume you can't just revert to a previous version for some reason?” Eventus inquired, having always wondered that since the idea that they had just lost every previous generation of DNA seemed insane.

Hermiod gave an acknowledging bob of his head. “The majority of our genebanks were destroyed early in our war against a type of adaptive self replicating machine life. Those we were able to salvage were from far enough back in our genetic history that our current selves cannot inhabit clones created using them for more than a few days before mental breakdown begins to occur.”

That made a moderate amount of sense, though it suggested the Asgard generecords Atlantis possessed would be unlikely to provide much help.

“What about restarting your race from one of those earlier points?” 

It would mean the current Asgard would cease to exist in anything except a digital form, but at least their species wouldn't die out.

“Unfortunately our own compassion has made that impossible.” Hermiod offered sadly. “The artificial growth process engineered into our genetic structure was designed to preclude the natural development of an advanced metaphysical superstructure.”

“And without a soul those clones can't naturally reproduce.” Eventus followed along, his own people’s metaphysical studies having reached a similar determination.

He considered his people's obsessive need to science everything for a moment. “I'm moderately sure Atlantis has first contact records of your peoples DNA on file somewhere, so the cloning lab should be able to grow a starting pool for you once I track those down.”

Though he could see at least one minor problem with going that route.

“Unfortunately I doubt our imprint technology is compatible with your peoples brain structure, so you'll probably have to raise and teach them the old fashion way unless you have a working alternative.”

“If you are able to do so I can have one of our few remaining O'Neill class vessels here to retrieve them within two days time.” Hermiod put forward, all but radiating gratefulness at the offer.

Savoring the last bite of his muffin, Eventus began to drum his fingers on the countertop as he considered possibilities for saving the currently living Asgard.

“What about completely artificial bodies?” He finally asked.

“Attempted.” Hermiod admitted, giving a facial movement as close to a frown as the Asgard's current form could likely manage. “Degradation begins to set in within a handful of solar cycles. The only longer term success was a personal project by Lord Odin, however there were alternate problems with his method and he ascended before he was able to solve them.”

“You guys can still do that?” Eventus inquired as he gave Hermiod an odd look. Having figured if that was actually an option someone like Oma would have at least made the offer before letting the Asgard blow themselves up.

“Biologically he should not have been able to.” Hermiod returned in a slightly bemused tone.

“I'm reminded of something I once heard Janus say.” Eventus offered with a grimace at actually repeating that disaster gremlin's words. “Ascension is a destination with many paths, only a few of which we actually know.”

“Janus was banned from our galaxy after he and Loki caused a temporal rift that swallowed several solar systems.” Hermiod drolly informed him.

Eventus let out a sigh as he shot Hermiod a look of understanding. “Having cleaned up several dozen Janus messes over my four hundred solar cycles of life, I can't really argue with that.”

“But while I can't really help with that, the pattern degradation issue at least is something my people solved long ago.”

He gave the Asgard a wry grin. “And twelve hours ago it would have been highly illegal for me to access any kind of information about it, let alone transfer that information to your people for use.”

A lot of technologies had been heavily restricted like that, most of which had come about because his people had used said technologies for mad science reasons instead of practical ones.

Hermiod studied him for a moment, the Asgard's large black eyes oddly intense despite their lack of pupils. “While this assistance is appreciated to a level I expect no others in this city would be capable of understanding, your helpfulness is greatly at odds with my people's prior experiences with your kind.”

A rather damning indictment of his people all things considered, but there was a reason Eventus had gravitated towards the one area of civil service where various proscriptions against certain types of actions had been the most lax.

“When my people returned to the Avalon galaxy did they ever once suggest spending a few hundred years rebuilding and then returning to Pegausus with an allied fleet to push back the Wraith?”

“As far as I am aware, no.” Hermiod admitted, though Eventus hadn’t really expected any other answer given everything he knew about his people. “And only the Nox are likely to have refused such a request if it was ever made.”

“My people were old.” Eventus continued as a melancholy look settled across his features. “And governed by people who, more often than not, had been alive since our original exodus from the Avalon galaxy. We were so stuck in our ways that the only reason we hadn’t collapsed as a civilization was because we were so stuck in our ways that doing so would actually mean change.”

He gave Hermiod a wry grin. “I however am not even five hundred solar cycles old yet. And of the potential other survivors it’s highly unlikely any are over a thousand.”

Grimacing, he gave a half nod of acknowledgement. “Except potentially Janus. But according to the Humans he succeeded in building yet another time machine, so who knows when or where he ended up.”

“So the answer to your question.” He continued with a shrug. “Is that I’m helping you because it’s the right thing to do, and all the members of my species who would normally stop such things have ascended to a higher plane of existence and no longer can.”

“I understand.” Hermiod said.

“Though that does remind me.” Eventus added in as he crossed his arms and frowned. “Before they ascended, did my people happen to leave a list of past mistakes that may return to someday cause trouble?”

“No.” Hermiod answered.

“Give you any warning about a group called the Ori?” Eventus tried instead.

“No.” Hermiod repeated, and Eventus got the distinct sense that the Asgard was mildly annoyed at the turn he could sense things taking.

Hanging his head, Eventus let out a sigh of exasperation at his people's sheer dedication to avoiding anything even remotely like taking responsibility for their mistakes before looking back up to stare Hermiod in the eyes.

“Okay, so roughly a hundred million solar cycles ago in our original home galaxy there was a species who called themselves the Alterans, and were in fact the distant ancestors of us Lanteans. Eventually these Alterans had a major philosophical schism, the majority wishing to use their technological prowess and psionic abilities to lead those without such things as gods, while a minority thought that was stupid and just wished to plumb the depths of the universe through scientific study.”

Eventus highly suspected the actual disagreement between the two groups had been a good deal more nuanced, but given how long ago it was even confirming that much about his people’s original origins had taken nearly a decade of searching through the deepest depths of the archives.

“Eventually things came to a point of no return between the two groups, and to avoid a war the minority gathered up in a secretly built city ship like vessel and took off for a galaxy far enough away that even at Atlantis’s top speed it would probably take us about seventy solar cycles to make the trip back.”

It had been a trip of several thousand years at the time of course, but their power generation and hyperspace drives had improved considerably since then.

“As you likely have guessed, the group that stayed behind was called the Ori. Now, everything was fine for a millions of solar cycles after that, with my people eventually settling on Terra and going on to do everything you likely have history records of. And then the Ori tried to kill us with a highly adaptive genetically engineered plague.”

Hermiod cocked his head slightly and blinked.

“Again.” Eventus continued as he uncrossed his arms and let out another sigh. “I expect your people likely have historical records about most of what was done during and after that, so I’ll save summarizing it and get right to the point.”

“Somehow in the past hundred million years the Ori ascended, figured out how to draw strength from the worship of humans, and basically turned our original home galaxy into a machine that generates that worship for them. That is bad of course, though less bad then it could be given how even with their artificially boosted power they are at least still somewhat bound by the rules of the ascended.”

Though given his lack of actual knowledge about what the rules were that ‘somewhat’ was vague enough that he didn’t really know how much it actually stopped them from doing.

“However I was recently visited by an old acquaintance who had ascended, and she warned me in the normal roundabout fashion of such things that events are in motion that are likely to draw the eye of the Ori to Avalon. At which point they will almost surely have the people that make up their worship mechanism try to take over every inhabited planet in the galaxy.”

“I see.” Hermiod said as he began fiddling with a control crystal he had pulled from somewhere. “You are hoping we will be able to assist in driving off these Ori if that comes to pass.”

“Yes.” Eventus admitted, because he absolutely was hoping they’d be able to send more than just the single O’Neill he remembered them originally providing to help fight off the first Ori incursion. “But I’m also warning you because there’s a very real possibility they’ll try and come after your people eventually, likely with promises of being able to solve whatever problems you might have in exchange for worshiping them.”

He had no idea if the Ori would actually try that or not, but he certainly wouldn't put it past them.

“A dangerous possibility that might indeed risk swaying some given our race’s currently dire circumstances.” Hermiod grudgingly agreed.

“I really do wonder at times what it says about my people that they spent a hundred million solar cycles running away from their various problems.” Eventus mused glumly, the sheer number of times that had been their go to response to a problem still astounding him to this day.

“It's why I'm coming to like the humans around here, they see a problem like the Wraith, they just try and figure out how to blow them up.”

Hermiod nodded. “Indeed.”

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Author's Notes: I didn't mean for the last two chapters to get so large, I just started writing and by the time I reached a natural endpoint here we are. 

Also, welcome to one of the few questions about life, the universe, and everything that he has an answer to, yes, something which could be considered a soul exists. Another being Forty Two.