Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 27

Chapter 27 - Many Many Mistakes

Having left Sheppard to deal with the fallout of their impromptu election, Eventus had been on track to fulfill his fervent desire of passing out for at least eight hours of uninterrupted rest. However fate once more seemed to other plans, as less than a dozen steps out of the transport booth near this apartment he'd run into the one of the few people he had a reason to not just brush off out right. 

“Evan!” Beckett exclaimed in relief as he walked over. “I was hoping to run into you.”

“You were waiting next to the door to my living quarters.” Eventus deadpanned as he pointed to the door less than a dozen feet away.

Beckett winced slightly at that. “Aye, I suppose I was. But finding out you were back in the city, I was really hoping you could help me with a wee bit of a problem?”

“And that would be?” Eventus asked tiredly, fully aware the Doctor wasn't the type to ask for a favor if it wasn't something he truely considered important.

“Well, you remember Grodin?” Beckett inquired, continuing when Eventus gave a nod. “We're having a wee bit of trouble turning her back into a him.”

Cocking his head, Eventus considered that for a moment. “Did you give it a few days and then try the device again?”

“Aye.” Beckett confirmed, frowning in clear annoyance at the situation. “We even tested it out on a couple mice to make sure it wasn't broken or something. Worked perfectly fine on em.”

Massaging the back of his neck as he mentally went through the options, Eventus was left with the unfortunate possibility that maybe this had just been one of Thalia's incomplete or failed devices with no working way to reverse the transformation.

“Is Grodin doing okay?”

“Yes an no.” Beckett confessed with a grimace. “Psychological stability was a large part of the selection criteria for the expedition to Atlantis. And we were all prepared for the risks of going out an explorin the unknown. But this is a wee bit more explorin of a rather specific and personal unknown than Grodin is comfortable with.”

“In my peoples defense.” Eventus offered apologetically. “Spending a month in the other sexes shoes was a standard opt out part of our curriculum.”

“I suspect that's something Doctor Heightmeyer would be very interested in readin about.” Beckett put forward with an acknowledging nod. “But I take that to mean your people had reliable methods to alter a person's biological sex?”

“Sure.” Eventus confirmed as he thought over the likely still available options on that front. “Not exactly easy to do now though unless you have a guy who wants to swap bodies with Grodin.”

Beckett opened his mouth to ask something and then closed it as he seemed to decide otherwise.

“Of course.” Eventus continued as he gave the man a considering look. “If you know a doctor trained in human biology, with the interface gene, who wants to help Grodin out, and is okay with a minor amount of risk, there is one option.”

Beckett grimaced again. “I feel like I may regret asking, but what's that option?”

Eventus grinned. “I take the volunteer to one of our learning centers and upload our equivalent of a medical doctorate directly into their brain.”

Something he couldn't really do himself due to already being near the safe upload limit from his wide breadth of up to date generalist information and lacking the prerequisite knowledge of current human biology to make the necessary adaptations to their normal medical techniques that would be required if he didn’t want to risk minor genetic errors that could have some extremely nasty long term side effects.

“When you say upload, might you be talking about a bluish device that shoots out of a wall and grabs your head?” Beckett asked as he gave him an odd look.

“Actually yes.” Eventus confirmed with a nod. “The design's moderately rare in that it's one of the few things that have persisted mostly unchanged since the original exodus that brought my people to the Avalon galaxy “

“Ah.” Beckett put forward with just the slightest hint of relief in his voice. “I'm sorry to say we aren't exactly compatible with those devices, the level of information slowly overloads our brains.”

“With or without the governor being active?” Eventus inquired, already well aware of the answer but wanting to make the point once again that they were functionally stumbling around in the dark with a lot of his people's technology. “Because without the governor being active the same thing happens to us if we go above a certain level of information over too short a period of time.”

Which tended to be blocks of time measured in years since the mind had to naturally assimilate the uploaded information into a more compatible form. Though of course, that also meant such information would then be vulnerable to the normal limits of human memory. Hence why he at the very least refreshed his information set on an average of once every twenty or so years.

“If it helps find a volunteer.” He continued, baiting the hook in a way he suspected the doctor would find hard to resist. “They'd also be learning things like how to use the city's medical systems to bring the recently deceased back to life, reverse the effects of aging, heal most physical wounds in a matter of minutes, cure most diseases, and of course repair the damage done by Wraith feedings.”

It was clear from the absolutely lost look on Beckett's face that he had no idea what to say to that. A feeling Eventus could at least somewhat relate to given the number of times over the centuries he'd encountered some utterly fantastic thing used in some utterly mundane manner.

“Well, think it over.” He said when it became clear Beckett wasn't going to be deciding anything soon. “Because I'm going to spend the next eight to ten hours passed out on my mattress.”

With that he walked past the still stunned doctor and slipped into his quarters, letting out a sigh of relief when the door closed behind him without any further interruption.

Walking to his bedroom, he began pulling off his close, already imaging the sweet embrace of the mattress. “If I didnt still have a bunch of things to do I'd sleep for a fucking–

He stopped dead as he noticed the recognizable form of a dark haired woman he had seen less than thirty minutes ago as a holographic representation sitting primly on the edge of his bed.

Reaching down, he pulled off a boot, and then as she began opening her mouth to speak let it fly, taking some moderate satisfaction as it smacked into her face with little to no actual effect.

“Really?” Ganos Lal asked in a skeptical tone as she raised a single eyebrow at him. “A boot?”

Kicking off his other boot he set it next to the door before walking over to grab the other one from where it was laying. “If you want me to go down to the undercity and get the multi-waveform interference projector to give you the equivalent of a stubbed toe, then you just have to ask. But the boot is what I had on hand, so it’s the boot you got.”

Ganos Lal just watched him passively for a moment, and he was just about to try and prompt her to get on with it so he could get some sleep when she began speaking. “Events have begun which risk drawing the eye of the Ori to Avalon.”

Rolling his eyes at the theatrics, Eventus gave an idle nod as he pulled out his desk chair and took a seat. “I know, and you know I know, which is probably why those who protect have no problem with you showing up to actually have this conversation in the first place.”

“There is much however you do not know.” Ganos Lal said, the obviousness of the statement suggesting she had probably spent a bit too long dealing with those who had a much more limited view of things then their own people had possessed.

“So there’s something you want me to know, involving the Ori situation, that you can’t tell me.” Eventus worked out before shooting the ascended woman a semi-suspicious stare. “Or you just want me to believe that and are here because some of our people saw me take control of the city and want to subtly push me towards Ascending out of worry that I will mess something up on a galactic scale like our people tended to do when left unsupervised for extended periods of time.”

“You are no Janus.” Ganos Lal pointed out simply before giving an acknowledging tilt of her head. “To the thankful relief of many.”

She seemed to consider something for a moment before the look in her eyes softened slightly. “If it helps, he was punished for the plot that resulted in you being left behind.”

“Little bit.” Eventus admitted truthfully, though he really hoped they had kept a strict eye on the man during his agricultural work to avoid yet another super-plant incident. 

“So, any chance you can tell me why you’re actually here?” He finally asked, moderately sure at this point that everything she’d said so far outside of the bit about Janus suffering consequences had been a smokescreen for something else. “And yes, I mean that in the personal sense alongside the more general sense.”

“I volunteered to handle certain matters involving our people’s past mistakes.” Ganos Lal confessed as a sad smile briefly graced her lips. “As to the rest, all I can say is that the idea you proposed many years ago of directing the Wraith against the Ori galaxy is more dangerous than you know.”

Well that was moderately ominous he thought to himself. Not the least because it was almost word for word the response he had gotten when he had jokingly proposed it as a theoretical the first time. Which suggested that…

“There’s something specific in the Council’s classified files that you want me to dig up.”

A task that was easier said than done given the data core containing them should have been transferred back to Earth as part of the evacuation. Meaning it could be absolutely anywhere on the planet by now, assuming of course his people had even kept it there in the first place.

“You have what you need, Eventus.” Ganos Lal said, leaving him to stare at Ascended being with a slightly disappointed look on his face for using such an obvious line with a person who knew from his visits to the archives that she had been a fan of dramatics.

She placidly stared back at him.

This continued for nearly a minute before Eventus spoke. “I know you want me to blink or look away so you can pull the mysterious disappearing act, but given the ten thousand years in stasis I’m going to make you work for it.”

Ganos Lal sighed.

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Author’s Notes: Yes, Eventus is still slightly salty about the whole leaving him behind thing. And yes, he once jokingly suggested they try pointing the Wraith at the Ori galaxy. Ascended have long memories sadly.