Other Than That, Mrs. Lincoln, How Did You Like The Play?

Posted on Sun Mar 17th, 2019 @ 9:04pm by Major Jacob Asher & Staff Sergeant Rhiannon O'Connor & Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus & Civillian Shae & Civillian Dr. Jessica Andrews & Civillian Selyna Braeden

Mission: The Lost Boys and Girls
Location: P3X842
Timeline: Current

Jake, Hawk, and the Doctors Three stood in a group and listened as Shae, a half hour's hike away back at the gate with Ree and Jeremy, explained what the children, who were apparently not really children, had told her.

Shae was near frantic by the time everyone had regrouped around the supplies. Why was this happening? She just wanted to be helpful, it seemed like anytime she tried to do something nice the universe had to punish her for it! But that wasn't fair, her new Tau'ri friends were sick too! At that though, she wondered if her bad luck had taken the team down with her... Once everyone was present and ready, Shae took a moment to work through introductions for both sides, then with a deep breath she walked through everything she had learned from the 'kids'.

"So, they say they are from different tribes on the same planet, and their people fought over the artifact not knowing what it was, but they believed it held great power for whoever could claim it. They don't know who did it or how, but the artifact was activated and spread a sickness that nearly wiped out their people. Adult minds were reduced to those of children until t1hey just laid down and died, and the younger they were the faster they died, with the babes dying almost instantly. They call this the Great Sickness, and they were visited by the Bird People who took the sickened away to this world to save what was left of their tribes. These Bird People documented these events and then did something to the Chappa'ai so that sick people could not go through to make other worlds sick," Shae said, her hands shaking with worry and panic as she paced in front of the supplies. She felt like a caged animal, and in a way she was. "And these children are not children at all anymore; they say that they carry the sickness, but their bodies remain the age they were when the sickness spread. They call themselves the Lost Children and they have been here for more than two thousand years watching travelers come through the Chappa'ai and fall to this sickness they carry. Isbeil says that many have tried to lift this curse but none have succeeded, and that should we fail as well then they will try to make our passing as they can."

When Shae closed her mike, Jake keyed his. "Thank you, Shae. We're going to get through this," somehow Jake thought to himself. "I need you to hold it together. Jeremy and Ree, you, too. You can do this."

"I have many more questions I want to ask them, I will see if I can learn anything that will help us," Shae stated into her mike. Already, she felt like running away; she had been running all her life, it was only natural that she wanted to try to run now.

"Okay," Jake said to Hawk and the Doctors Three. "That goes for you guys, too. If this Isbeil is telling the truth, we may not have a lot of time. We're all older than those three, so our clock is their clock. Doctor Andrews, I need to talk to Salara."

Salara spoke. "Yes Major, This is quite the unexpected situation we've found ourselves in. I do not know who these Bird people are however, but I can say this; Tok'ra, and our distant cousins the Goa'uld, have the ability to mesh our biology with our hosts. We must find a way to solve this catastrophe... Otherwise..." Salara bowed her head.

"I may be living here for a very long time, and watch all of you and Salara die before I finally pass away, Major..." Jessica mentioned.

"So as long as Salara is alive," Jake said. "She can protect you from the disease. But when Salara passes, then the disease will take you. Jessica, I have no intention of any of us being here long enough for the youngest among us to pass, let alone the oldest."

Jake keyed his mike. "Shae, I need to know exactly what happens when an infected person tries to go through the gate. How, exactly, are they stopped? Can you ask Isbeil for me?"

"I will ask," Shae replied, then lowered her mike. (Isbeil, The Gate, what did the Bird People do to prevent people from going through? What happens if someone tries? It doesn't hurt them, does it?) Shae asked the eldest of the Lost Children.

(They put up an invisible wall,) Isbeil said. (You can activate An Geata, but if you try to go through it, the invisible wall will not let you. It does not kill, but it sometimes...pushes very hard. Then the ghost the Bird People left behind to warn the sick that they are going to die appears. It talks to the sick people and then disappears.)

Well that was going to be awkward to translate! Shae thought about it for a moment thinking ghosts were nonsense, but that is what Isbeil said, so Shae lifted her mike to speak again.

"Okay, she said there is an invisible wall," Shae said. "The Chappa'ai still works, but if we try to go through, this invisible wall simply will not allow us to pass. It's not harmful but it can push back. She then said a ghost of the Bird people will inform the sick of their illness, and after talking to them it will disappear."

"Copy that," Jake said. "Standby." Jake turned to Hawk and the Doctor's Three. "Anyone else think we need to trip the message from that 'ghost', which I'm guessing not a ghost...we don't think it's really a ghost, do we?"

Jessica spoke. "The Obelisk and this Stonehenge replica is confusing even to me. The language is Celtiberian. It talks about a 'Gateway of plagues. The cup of eternity, and the spiral of healing.' Jessica noted. "I then tried to perform an analysis of the stones surrounding the central obelisk, and.. it doesn't make sense. It's Celtiberian, but the arrangement is wrong like its encoded... or purposefully misplaced." She closed her eyes for a moment.

"If I may say so Major. Yes, I do believe we should see what this ghost knows of this place. The most insignificant clue might be vital to understanding this plague we are all infected with. Either way, I have no intention of allowing anyone to die. I and Jessica will use all our knowledge and wisdom to find a cure for this affliction, but dare I say; we require more specialized personnel with knowledge in matters of medicine." Salara mentioned.

"That's something I'll have to discuss with General Wolf, if we can get the gate open and if we can get a transmission through," Jake said. "But before we go there, Shae said the Bird People, whoever the Hell they are, believed the device was the origin of the disease. For that, we need to trigger that ghost message." Jake sighed. "Which means I'm going to have to try to go through the gate and get bounced off--I really hope the kids aren't lying about that--so we can trigger the message. Can I assume you all want to be here for that? To hear the message I mean. I'm sure you all want to see me get knocked on my ass."

"I'm sure Jessica will find it most amusing, but I believe if this Ghost is listening, then we might be able to call it out just by telling it to get its digital ass out here. The time for subtlety is at its end, as lives are on the line." She noted. "Lead the way, Major."

Selyna had not moved since Shae's words had come over the radio. Her stomach had tied itself into a complex knot, and she felt caught in a storm of emotions. Scared as hell came straight to the foreground, and she felt herself start to shake. Tears burned behind her eyelids, eyes, but she forced them to stay there by sheer will. The problem with this whole thing was that her mind, her intellect, was who she was. If she lost that, who would she be? Certainly, she wouldn't be someone that belonged here anymore, but this was so much bigger and deeper than that. Her entire identity was what she had chosen to be, a scientist. The idea of regression shivered her to the core.

But that scientific mind of hers refused to go down without a fight. That fight began with the reminder that she was a prodigy, smarter younger. Regression just meant that she would lose the book learning she'd accumulated, but she would still be smart, damn it!

She forced herself, with the help of that internal reminder, to listen to what had followed the radio transmission. What did she think? She thought this was beyond FUBAR! She couldn't say that, though, so she took a moment to think of something more... scientific. "Maybe we could have one of those near the Gate trip it and keep the radio open so we can hear what it says?" she suggested. If they indeed had so little time, every minute was precious; and the half hour walk back to the Gate would burn thirty of them. No, it wasn't an optimal idea, nor her preferred method of interacting with this 'ghost', but this was not an optimal or preferred situation.

"Alright," Jake said. "I think I'm going to reluctantly agree with that idea. I'd rather get myself bounced off of the 'invisible wall' or whatever, but I guess they made Staff Sergeants for situations like these." Jake keyed his mike. "Sierra Golf Four, Sierra Golf One-Niner."

"Go ahead, One," Jeremy said, his jaw clenched. The younger they were... Him, Shae and O'Connor. That's who the youngest were. And their lives were in the hands of a mechanical engineer, an astrophysicist and Andrews? The most self-centered, stick up the ass, frozen ice queen around? They needed actual doctors, not egos the size of a planet.

Asher explained what he wanted Jeremy to do.

"Roger that, Major," Jeremy said as he shimmied out of his pack. He wouldn't need that for just a quick trip back to Command in order to get equipment and, if they were lucky, a virulogist that could help them find and determine how to best fight whatever this 'sickness' was. Dropping his pack he was about to lay down his rifle when he reconsidered. The 'kids' were still here and watching and he was distrustful of them around weapons. Some of them had a hungry look in their eyes when they looked over their gear. Keeping that, he dialed the gate and activated his transponder, giving the additional code for "cautions" and "quarantine".

He walked up to stairs to the Gate while he waited for the all clear, ensuring that he had his bodycam activated and then an additional camera aimed on the Gate. He also wanted to make sure both were broadcasting so Command and Asher's team would see what happened in real time. When the signal came back, he went straight for the Gate.

Only to find himself flung backward, knocked off his feet and tossed tumbling down the stairs to land sprawled on his back yards from the last riser.

"Corvus!" Shae, along with Ree, bolted to the gate to check on Jeremy, with Shae hovering over Jeremy while Ree checked him for any serious head or neck injury from the fall. "Are you okay? Do you hurt anywhere?" Shae asked the medic.

"Everywhere," Jeremy groaned, pushing Ree away from him and trying to sit up. "What is that?" he asked, pointing back to the Gate.

A translucent hologram appeared, both at the gate and at the altar. It was of an avian-like humanoid scarlet feathers covering it's body, and scarlet feathered wings on its back. Its eyes were the same color as it's feathers. It looked as though it might be female. It had a sad expression on its face.

"If you or any of your party have attempted to leave this world and were repelled from the Stargate, then you have become infected with what we have named the Regression Infection. Current scans show that you have had the disease for approximately one hour and that you have already mentally regressed approximately six months your time in age. Unfortunately, you will continue to regress at the rate of six months your time every hour until you eventually reach first and infant state, then a fetal state, and then your brains will shut down. Most changes caused by the Regression Infection will be mental in nature, some emotional, and others, related to hormone production, will be physical in nature. Our scans show that the youngest among you will succumb to the infection in less than forty-eight hours. We believe that the device that we know you have located is the original source of the infection, but as of yet, we have not been able to determine exactly how that came about or, more importantly, how to use the device to reverse the disease. The eternal children that reside here are carriers of the disease, but do not suffer from it. Rather, they are in perfect health and do not physically age, though they experience some increase in mental and emotional maturity as time continues to pass. In order to leave this world, you must solve the mystery of the device and its place in curing the infection. I can provide limited answers to questions, and stand ready to assist in anyway I can."

Both Jessica and Salara listened carefully as the machine explained their situation. "This virus is not a natural thing, It is almost certainly engineered, usually viruses work by releasing faulty genetic information thus creating mutations. But the problem is, who engineered this virus wanted it engineered down to the last detail. The Goa'uld might have experimented with something like this, they've often experimented with humans in the past, forcing human evolution to create a superior host. Whoever built a device like this must have studied humans and many other species very closely since the dawn of human intelligence. 'A Spiral of Healing....' If someone used this device, then they must have created these runes here as an instruction book, and hense our problem. I need to figure out in what order dose these runes were originally placed in. But if we could control this... Incredible. Is it possible...." She looked at it. "Is this the holy grail? I never thought I'd be on an actual grail quest."

Jeremy opened his mic as he made his way to his feet, groaning at the aches and pains from being thrown so forcefully. "Andrews! Just for once in your life shut up and do your darned job!" He made it to his pack and addressed the holographic alien - part of him rejoicing for seeing an actual alien being - "What is the virology of this disease? Do you have your research here so we're not duplicating efforts? Some of us have less than two days!" And, as he contemplated, even less than that. He wasn't going to let it get to him like that. No way. Fortunately the Major already gave him the solution to that problem.

"Sergeant, I did not ask you to run into a wall, nor did I require you to. I am aware of how much time you have. And unfortunately, a battlefield medic is not going to solve our problems. Stick to the bandages and splints and let the real doctors do their work. You are over your head." She flipped off her com. "Damned ape." She went back to studying the obelisk.

"I'm going to shoot her right in the rotten apple head of hers, I swear it. Right in the head," he said, shaking his head. His life was dependent on her? He might as well just take out his sidearm and shoot himself now, she'd only become concerned when it started to affect her. "Mrs Alien person?" he asked, not sure how one addressed something from a different planet - that little voice in his head reminding him of Shae was met in a dark corner and punched into silence for the moment. "Can you give us your research and are you controlling the force field? We need equipment and people who know what they're doing with viral infections. You gotta let us through, we have quarantine protocols." His voice was taking on a shaky timbre. "Some of us have families," he whispered, hoping the alien bird woman had a heart.

The hologram flickered a moment and then each group was joined by holoimages of the other group. "This will assist you all in communicating without using your primitive communication devices. Speak freely, and we will all hear and respond."

The hologram turned its attention first to Jessica. "Salara of the Tok'Ra. Your presence will protect Jessica Andrews, Doctor of Philosophy, until your passing. Doctors Azad, Braeden, and Andrews, I will answer any questions you may have in order to assist you in your attempts to cure the infection. But first..."

The hologram turned its attention to Corvus.

"I am sorry, Jeremiah Corvus, Staff Sergeant, United States Air Force," the Gate hologram replied. "I cannot lower the barrier. Query: You are all biological lifeforms. Do you not all have families? Or are some of you grown in laboratories, with no knowledge of the contributors to your DNA? Query: To return to your planet without having cured the Regression Infection would almost certainly condemn your people to death, including the families of those among you who were not grown in laboratories. The the genetic contributors of those of you who were grown in laboratories would also be condemned to death. Is selfish disregard for the welfare of others how your people show their families, friends, and colleagues love?"

"Well, Crow," Jake said. "Is selfish disregard for the safety of others how we roll? I know where I stand on that question. I'm interested to know where you stand."

"We have quarantine protocols in place for things like this, I've already informed Command we're in a quarantine situation," Jeremy said as he brought out his phone and dialed the Gate one more time. They may not be able to get through, but it didn't seem to stop signals from going through. "If we can get actual medical doctors on this we have a chance to discover what maybe they couldn't, especially if we get their research." Jeremy said, he was too oddly calm at the moment, in the face of this situation. He kept looking between the transponder on his wrist and his phone, looking for a signal from each one. "We need more equipment, laboratory equipment. Why aren't they opening the Iris, it's blocking our signals!" Yeah, he already knew the answer to that question but that didn't mean he wanted to like or accept it. He shoved the phone back into his pocket and grabbed his pack.

"Prepare to move out," he said, buckling the straps. "There's nothing here for us, we'll go join the others and make camp there." The last thing he wanted was to stare at the Gate, knowing it was a way home. A door closed to them. "When we get there, O'Connor, we'll give everyone a broad spectrum antiviral and monitor."

"Good call, Sergeant," Jake said. "But if Wolf is smart, and he is, he's going to trust us to solve this, because anyone he sends here will become infected as soon as they get here, just like we were. My group had no contact with the children, and yet we're infected. So, no, I wouldn't expect Wolf to ask, and definitely not order, people to come here just to die. Shae, ask Isbeil if she and the others will join us. Crow, we'll regroup when you're here."

Shae translated his request to Isbeil. The Chief of Na Cailltean said that she and her tribe would meet them at the altar after securing the supplies the team had brought them and packing several days provisions for themselves. If they for some reason needed to stay longer, they had a provisioned camp set up near the Altar.

"Great," Jake said. "We'll see you when you get here." He turned to the Doctors Three. "Well, don't just sit there, ask your questions--" Jake laughed morbidly. "I was going to say that none of us are getting any younger, but that's the problem, isn't it? We are."

Jeremy finished tapping at his tablet, doing a brief but hopefully complete report as he could make regarding the situation. It took a moment longer to attach copies of the videos showing the holographic bird woman explaining the problem. Once he was sure his tablet made the connection to the routers on their Gate, he sent the report and waited for it to send and the Gate to close once again before he turned to the two others. He had a return message on his tablet but he left it unopened and secured the device. He'd wait until he was back with the rest of the group to take a look at it. He was sure it was nothing more than Command confirming they were on their own here.

Jeremy's concern for the 'kids' had died a very quick and very definite death. "Move out," he told the other two and waited for each to pass before he took up the sweep position. All the while knowing that this was taking another half year off his life by the time they all regrouped.

Jessica spoke. "Crow, Tell me the history of this planet. We know there were remains near the gate, and that in and of itself answers a few questions; there were others before us that came here. Maybe we can build upon what they've accomplished, so there's no need to reinvent the wheel." Jessica mentioned.

The first question she had wanted to ask had already been asked -- could they have the research the Bird People had already done -- so Selyna thought on her next question carefully. Problem was, she was a quantum physicist, not a medical doctor. This shit was so not in her wheel house! But sometimes that was helpful, having a perspective that didn't "fit" the situation. She looked at the hologram. Andrews' assessment shifted through her mind too, not a natural virus. "Your people searched for a cure, you said. Then they treated it purely as a disease? What if it isn't?" Andrews said it was too perfect. Okay, she said 'engineered down to the last detail', but close enough. What if what they were dealing with was not so much a sickness as a... constructed alteration mechanism? Like nanites maybe?

"We connected the infection to the device," the hologram replied. "The Gaels fought over it, seeking the power they thought it contained. Somehow, they triggered it in a way that caused the infection. We had never seen technology create infection before in this way. One theory was that the condition was caused by a secondary infection due to radiation poisoning, but there were no other signs of any kind of radiation poisoning we were familiar with. Our scientists did note that Na Cailltean, the Lost Children, as they call themselves, have remained in peak health and physical condition for nearly two millennia, and have not aged a day in their bodies, while their intellect has matured somewhat over time. The only detrimental effects on them is that they are stuck in the bodies of children, preteens, and young teens, and, of course, they carry the infection and can spread it. Note: The disease appears to be spread by an energy given off by both the device and the children. We were unable to find any kind of off switch, or even really determine if it was 'on' in the first place. We considered destroying it, but declined to do so. The metallurgy of the device is unfamiliar to us, but it appears to be highly resistant to extremes of temperature and pressure and to physical trauma."

Selyna listened, processing what the hologram told them. So the 'infection' -- not disease; she noted that they had repeatedly called it an infection, both the children-that-weren't children and the hologram -- was caused and/or spread by the device, more specifically by an energy field it generated. And the children. That stuck in her mind, and she frowned. "Did your people determine what sort of energy is being generated by them?" she asked, eyes narrowing at the obelisk and the runes once more. What if they were reading these wrong, and it wasn't meant to be words or directions so much as... a sort of schematic diagram? No, Andrews had begun to translate it, and it definitely was something more akin to information of a worded type than schematics. She sighed, not sure what to do... aside from waiting for the response.

Jessica spoke as she worked. "That's not anything too unusual, Doctor Braeden. The human body itself is a potent energy source. Get enough human beings together and you can use the ATP cells generate as an renewable energy source. Standard Biology class, a cell takes in water, glucose and oxygen and produces energy." Jess noted. "If they have the biotechnology necessary to control biology this precisely at the genetic level, then we're all bio-reactors feeding energy to the obelisk. The question is, deciphering the runes so we know how we can disrupt the energy flow. I'm wondering, maybe this Celtiberian instruction manual will enlighten us at the ways this device transfers the energy and interfaces with its biological components. I could use Harvard's geneticists by now. This is way beyond anything both I and Salara have ever studied."

The hologram looked at the biologicals and wondered if they would were coordinated enough to solve this before they began to soil their pants. Nonetheless, her job was to assist where she could. She waved her hand and a large, flat, stone laid into the ground in the altar slide to the side and a kind of computer console of sorts rose from the opening.

"That console will configure itself to the most common language between you and arrange its interface to a method you can comprehend," the hologram said. "You now have direct access to anything and everything we know about the device and the infection."

The explanation made sense as to why the ghost spoke English. "I'm curious," Shae spoke up to the hologram that was with her half of the team, "how did you know Corvus and Andrews' names?"

"That is a very good question, Shae--" the hologram paused, then continued telepathically in Shae's head. --of the Kitsune. You do not like to share that information and it is not my secret to tell-- "I have telepathic and empathic functions built into me, both to allow me to communicate with visitors to this world in their own tongue, and to monitor mental and emotional changes. Those functions allow me to learn basic information about the infected so I can provide the best possible assistance."

Shae briefly stopped in her tracks in surprise at hearing the ghost's voice in her head, but after just a second she continued walking along with the others. "The Bird People could make something this complex but they cannot cure this illness?" she said, more musing aloud to remark on the strangeness of this situation than actually asking the ghostly messenger, but she would not turn down an answer if the ghost had one.

"We're almost there, Shae, so stow it until we're all together again," Jeremy said, pointedly ignoring the hologram. He pointed out what he believed were the Stonehenge like obelisks then continued the jog to get them there. Who knew, maybe their medicine would work. The kids didn't know about most of the medications they had two thousand years ago and Jeremy had the feeling this hologram was merely interactive and not a living person. "How old are you, Shae?" he asked, curious to know how much time she had.

"I do not know," Shae answered somberly. "All I know for certain was that I had seen four summers before my village was raided and I was separated from my family. My father helped me escape and ever since then I have been running, always to different worlds, each at different seasons in their yearly cycle, so it has been difficult to keep track of my age, especially in those early years when I had no need to keep track of such things."

Jeremy stopped them then, despite being so close to where the others were. He knew O'Connor and he were of the same age and figured Shae was close to that herself but to not know? "They'll find something," he said to her, shaking his head in disbelief as he spoke. He didn't believe it, not for a moment. Not with the resources they had. "The Major will kick heiny until they've found something. And, I'm sure they'll send back whatever we know to Command to keep the rest of the geeks there working on the problem as well. This...this...we'll all be okay." He glared at the hologram, daring it to contradict him on that.

"You have all of the resources you need, Jeremiah Corvus," the hologram said. "The device caused the infection. The device will cure the infection. Your scientists merely need to unlock its secrets."

Salara spoke up. "You are very helpful, hologram.... Too helpful..." The Tok'Ra noted. "What are you not telling us? If you helped the people, whose bones are at the gate this much, then why are they dead? Furthermore, how long have you been lingering here since your creators left?" Salara couldn't help to think that the machine wasn't telling them the whole story. It was also her suspicious Tok'Ra ways. "Any race that could create an Artificial Intelligence as advanced as you, could certainly be capable of technological feats rivaling that of even the Asguard, and you tell us not even they could cure this sickness? Forgive me for being skeptical, but the Tok'Ra have survived many centuries by being skeptics."

Jeremy turned to face the hologram but Salara beat him to what he had to say, which was along the same lines. More and more he wasn't getting that they didn't know what was going on, quite the opposite. He'd had TIs and instructors that did the same thing as this hologram. "Encouraging" while also keeping vital information to themselves. Cause we had to 'learn' ourselves. "Move out," he ordered, not realizing that he'd also brought his rifle up and his finger on the trigger. It was probably the knowledge that shooting it wouldn't do any good, it wasn't really here and most likely whoever this was died thousands of years ago anyway. "Ignore that thing, I've never cared that much for cheese."

"I believe Major Jacob Asher is in command of this group," the hologram said. "Major Jacob Asher of the United States Air Force, do you wish your team to ignore me?"

"No," Jake said. "I do not. Everyone listen and listen closely. Straighten up and fly right. That's an order! If you big brains don't solve this, we're all going to die here, but first we're going to be reduced to pissing and shitting our pants."

Jake let that settle in, then went on.

"Salara," he said. "Later I want to know who the Asgard are. For now, Hologram, please answer Salara's questions."

"Of course, Major Jacob Asher," the hologram said. "I never said that the Asgard could not solve the problem. I have in no way said that there are things I won't tell you. In fact, as you can see, Salara of the Tok'Ra, if you look in the direction that I pointed when I gave Doctor Selyna Braeden direct access, via a terminal that with an adaptive interface, to all of the information we possess on the subject of the device, the infection, and the eternal children, you will find a terminal with an adaptive interface that will give you direct access to all of the information we possess on the subject of the device, the infection, and the eternal children. You are free to use that terminal. If one will not suffice--" two more flat stones on the ground slid to the side and three more adaptive terminals rose out of the ground. "--there are three more. Now Salara of the Tok'Ra, Jessica Andrews of the Tau'ri, Selyna Braeden of the Tau'ri, Ravi Azad of the Tau'ri can all have a terminal. Your leader believes that you are highly intelligent and capable, including Jessica Andrews of the Tau'ri, when she's not suffering from...oh...Major Jacob Asher! Is cranial-rectal insertion disorder a real ailment?"

"Sort of," Jake said.

"Interesting," the hologram said. "Is this condition common on your world?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Jake said. "Will you remain to answer any questions we have?"

"I will go on standby the for the time being," the Hologram said. "If I detect a situation I can offer further assistance with, I will reappear. Goodbye."

The Hologram vanished.

Jake sighed. "Well, don't just stand there. Get to work!"