Epilogue Three

Posted on Fri Mar 29th, 2019 @ 3:11pm by Major Jacob Asher & Staff Sergeant Rhiannon O'Connor & Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus & Civillian Shae & Civillian Selyna Braeden

Mission: The Lost Boys and Girls
Location: P3X-842
Timeline: Current

Jake and Shae had spoken with Isbeil and her tribe about what would happen next for them. Isbeil said that returning to their people wasn't an option at this point. They were never told the gate address for their world and even if they had been, they would have forgotten it by now. Besides, they were happy here. She did accept Jake's offer to have advisors from Earth visit them and help them with things they might have to deal with now that they were fully functional adults, like pregnancy, neo-natal care, childbirth, general medical care, infrastructure improvements, etc. In their discussions, Jake and Shae learned that the Lost Children had never gotten sick and whenever they were injured, they healed very, very fast. Whether that would continue remained to be seen. In the mean time, Jake left anything he thought they could make use of behind, except for weapons and ammunition. Later, some the advisors sent along, which would probably include a US Army Special Forces ODA, would teach them how to use firearms in case of emergencies. Their tribe would take time to grow, and firearms in general, and automatic weapons specifically, were effective equalizers when it came to disparity in numbers. But tools, MREs, and certain medical supplies were left behind. Ree and Jeremy gave the Lost Children a crash course in germ theory, use of the bandages they provided, hypodermic needles and things like painkillers and antibiotics. The ODA would be along very shortly after SG-1 left and would provide better training. Working with indigenous populations was one of the things they were trained to do.

The Lost Children accompanied SG-1 to the gate, where they discovered a grisly, and by now smelly, sight. The bodies of all four bogus CDC personnel were sprawled in front of the Stargate.

Jake held up his hand and stopped the group before they got too close to the bodies. "Hawk, stay here with the group. Jess, you and Jeremy hang back, too. Ree, Shae, come with me. Be careful please, everyone. If those guys were Jaffa, there might be some larval Goa'uld slithering around here."

"Ugh, I think this is what I was smelling back at the camp," Shae said with a grimace as she covered her nose.

Selyna was a physicist, not a medical doctor; and the sight before her made her stomach do somersaults. She tried closing her eyes, but that didn't stop the smell from continuing the assault on her senses. She swallowed several times to keep from vomiting, but didn't say anything. She didn't trust herself to speak and not throw up.

Bringing up the rear, mostly because of his stupid pride and some even more stupid desire to prove to Major Asher that he wasn't a combat liability now, Jeremy was operating the rover while he regretted every step he took on his bad foot. When Asher called a stop, he actually let out a sigh of relief while he shifted his weight to his left foot, keeping his right completely stress free. The sight before them, of the four dead corpses didn't bother him a single bit. He'd had to clean up after battlefields or after suicide attacks with body parts - recognizable or not - everywhere. He'd learn to compartmentalize and, though he didn't like it about himself, he learned that those who were rightfully dead didn't bother him at all. So the sight of bodies foaming and bloated the point where the blackened skin was stretched almost to the point of bursting wasn't a bother in the least. But, just the same he reached into a small pouch on the belt strap of his pack and brought out a small, round blue tin.

He removed some of the salve and rubbed it under his nose before he stopped by Selyna. "Here ma'am, rub a little bit of this just inside your nostrils and it should help." Even the sight of deflated sacks that used to be Chow's eyes turned into a mass of wriggling, brownish segmented things didn't bother him.

The voice from beside her startled Selyna slightly, but onl;y because she had been so focused on not evacuating the contents of her stomach. She opened her eyes and looked at the owner of the voice, smiling at Jeremy. "Thanks." she said softly as she took some of the stuff he offered her and dids exactly as he had suggested. The effect was immediate, and she relaxed considerably. No, it didn't completely eliminate the smell, but it did seem to overwhelm it, which was just fine with her. Now she could focus on other things. Her smile became a full grin. "Thank you! That helps a lot!"

"Field medics learn some tricks. If that wasn't enough, I got some weeklong patrol socks zipped up in a plastic baggie." Jeremy looked over the scene one more time. "I also got something if you need to settle your stomach."

Selyna frowned at the sock thing, wondering if he was being serious or messing with her. Ultimately, she decided that she didn't want to know. She, thus, addressed only his final statement. "Nah, thanks though. I think I'm fine now that that smell isn't crawling up my nose and telling my brain that it needs to get rid of everything I ate. Thanks again." she said with a smile.

Tag reactions/responses Hawk, Ravi, Jeremy

Jake led Shae and Ree over to the group and examined the bodies. The only Primta he could see appeared to be dead, and the bogus CDC people were definitely dead.

"Well, they weren't killed by any of our ordinance," Jake said. "Or anything I've seen the kids use. Shae, you've had more experience with Goa'uld weapons than I have. Could these wounds have been inflicted by Goa'uld staff weapons?"

Shae crouched down to look closer as she held a cloth over her mouth and nose to try to protect herself from the smell assaulting her sensitive olfactory senses. "Yes, those are most definitely wounds from a staff weapon," came her slightly muffled reply. Without thinking about it, her free hand moved to her leg to rub the still healing burn she'd acquired on Hen Da Ye Huihe.

Jake looked over at Jeremy. "Crow, come on over here for a moment," Jake said. "I want you to see something. When you see it, you are permitted one, and only one 'I told you so'. Come on, kid. Come see for yourself that you weren't crazy. And bring something that can cut bone. I have a really, really gruesome job for you and Ree."

"You really wanna see this, Crow," she said, shouldering her carbine and digging out bone saw she was pretty sure would do what she was pretty sure the Major wanted them to do...and totally grossed out by.

Jeremy grabbed his pack off the rover and half shouldered it as he hobbled over to where Asher and O'Connor stood, staring down at the bodies. He held out the tin of Vick's in case either wanted to take a dose and cut out at least some of the smell. "Yes, Major?" he said, trying to keep the pain out of his voice. His boot was feeling tighter than before and that indicated to him his foot was still swelling. He looked at O'Connor and remembered what she said about him trying so hard to prove himself that he was actually doing the opposite. He'd had a lot of time to think on the hike back to the Gate and he was starting to think maybe O'Connor was right about what she said. More and more he felt as if he were suffering for his unnecessary stupidity. "What proves I'm not crazy?"

Shae pulled an arrow from her quiver and used the tip to lift a dead Prim'ta from one of the bodies that had tried to flee from the incubation pouch and crawl through the hole in the protective suit in order to find a host; it had obviously not gotten very far, and it was quite immature so it lacked some of the defined 'fins' of the mature Goa'ulds, but it was most certainly a Goa'uld larva. "Looks like they were Jaffa," Shae remarked through the cloth she was using to protect her nose.

Jeremy stumbled back, his pack hitting the ground. The shock of the ugly, and he hoped very, very dead thing caused him to step down hard on his right foot, which sent a shock of pain through his entire leg. He cried out as he fell to his rump, his left foot digging in and kicking to get him moved back a bit more. "What the blue furry blazes is that?" he asked, when he felt he was far enough away, his hand on the grip of his pistol and half drawn, eyes fixed and locked on the disgusting worm thing.

"It is a Prim'ta, a Gao'uld larva," Shae told him. For once, she didn't blame him for reaching for his weapon. "Do not worry, it is dead. In addition to being the soldiers of the Goa'uld, the Jaffa serve incubators for the Goa'uld's young, and these larva cannot survive outside the Jaffa's pouch for long. After so many hours of their Jaffa being dead, all the Prim'ta are most likely dead, but we should still proceed with caution and perform checks once we return through the Chappa'ai," she explained, still holding the Prim'ta with her arrow. Then she looked to Jake. "Your scientists may want to study this, yes? If we have something to put them in, then we should try to take them with us," Shae suggested.

"Ree," Jake said. "You got anything?"

"Yeah, Boss," Ree said. "They're dead, so we can put them in ziplock bags, right?"

"Works for me," Jake said.

"That's..." Jeremy said, still staring at the dead thing. "That's what Andrews has in her head?" he asked, feeling the idea of any lingering lust for her leaving him forever.

Shae looked at Jeremy, then down at the Prim'ta on her arrow, and nodded. "Essentially, yes," Shae replied begrudgingly. "But Salara is mature, I believe around one thousand years old, and this Prim'ta is quite immature and could have given strength to its Jaffa for... many years. It's hard to say how long exactly, I do not know the maturation cycle of the Prim'ta."

"Okay, so," Jake said. "I need the IDs of all the CDC guys put in bags--with their hands, which you'll need to cut off. Sorry, Ree, Crow, but we need the evidence. Search their bodies while you're doing it."

Ree grimaced. "Yeah, I figured that's what you were going to say."

Jeremy worked to get back to his feet, again balancing on the left foot as much as he could. "O'Connor," he said, still staring horrified at the bloated, dead worm thing. He looked from Asher to Shae, "You promise me those things are dead. I don't want something like that rolling around inside my head." Taking another sigh, "If they're dead, O'Connor, I got this," he limped over to her, running through the contents of his pack. He could come up with enough bags for four hands and the primi'tas...or whatever they're called. "Stay with the group. Maybe I'm being stupid again, but," he shook his head, "I'm a combat liability and I want to make sure everyone else remains protected. I got this, you take care of that. No arguments, or I'll pull the seniority card on this."

Jake motioned the rest of the team over. "Before we go, everyone take a look around the gate. Ravi, collect their sidearms for me. You and Selyna can play with them when we get back. I'll have the General give you access to the notes on the ones brought back in 1998. Okay, let's get all of this taken care of and get out of here. Shae, if you want to ask the Lost Adults if they could help us look around the gate, I'd appreciate it."

"Yes, I'm sure that won't be a problem," Shae replied, and while Ree cut open the CDC protective gear to reclaim all the Goa'uld larva, Shae took a brief moment to let the others see what they were fighting against, holding up the Prim'ta for them to see. She was fairly certain that Selyna and Ravi had been through a meeting to learn about the Goa'uld, but she knew it help to see for themselves the Prim'ta and the pouch, and she explained to the Lost Children in very simplified and brief terms what these things were and how dangerous they were, all while scooping up each Prim'ta with her arrow and depositing them into the bags Ree held up. With that task done, she wiped off her arrow in the grass and returned it to her quiver, then led the Lost Children away to begin a search of the area.

With the worms collected and placed, what he hoped, was a safe distance away, Jeremy set about methodically searching the bodies, pulling what he could from each, making a notation of each item and to whom it belonged before using a set of scalpels to surgically remove the right hand of each body. It took awhile, and he used up most of his small tin of Vicks along with two filtration masks to do it - keeping his mind away from the thick runnels of pus, clotted blood and decaying body fluids. The stench as he 'operated' was terrible, but Asher was right, they needed to know who these people were and from where they came.

He used the gore and macabre aspect of the job to keep his mind off his own medical problems.

Asher walked around the Stargate and looked around. He didn't find much but then he saw it. A sphere about the size of a candlepin bowling ball, atop a small tripod, nestled into a corner of the backside of the Stargate platform. Jake picked it up and looked at it. When he picked it up he accidentally touched a button and the parts of it that were lit up, turned off and the hologram suddenly appeared.

"Thank you!" the hologram said. "Those Jaffa set that up to block my attempts to contact you. Scanning. You appear to have been cured, as have the children--who are apparently not children. I appear to have missed quite a bit."

"You could say that," Jake said. "Let's go talk with the others."

Jake gathered the others over to where the hologram was. "If you guys have questions, ask them."

Selyna moved to where Jake had summoned them, eyes immediately caught by the hologram, though her first question was for those gathered. "How did you get her back online?" Oh, she was happy about it even though they were obviously no longer in need of her help to solve the crisis. She was still a wellspring of information about a species they'd never met.

"I found this and I think I shut it off," Jake said. He tossed the spherical device to Selyna. "There you go. More tech for you and Ravi to drool over." Jake turned to the hologram. "Can you tell us what happened? How did we manage to cure ourselves and the kids?"

"I am uncertain," the hologram said. "When those Jaffa came through, they set up some kind of device that jammed systems. I knew you and the others were likely at the Altar, so I attempted to appear there to warn you about the Jaffa, but I couldn't. What happened while I was offline, I know nothing about."

"Can you tell where the Jaffa came from?" Jake asked, afraid of the answer.

"I'm sorry," the hologram said. "I can't. But thank you all. Whether you did so intentionally or not, you did cure the eternal children. I will notify my people, but even if they do not choose to return, I will remain as a resource to the children. I have... grown attached to them."

Jake nodded. "We'll also be sending people through to help them. Would you be willing to talk with those people as well?"

The hologram looked thoughtful. "I will consider your request, Jake Asher, and I thank you for helping to look after the Children." Then the hologram vanished.

Jake shrugged. "Okay." he said. "Shae, make our final goodbyes so we can get out of here."

"NO!" Jeremy said, suddenly animated again. He started hobbling toward the rover, dropping his pack along the way so that he could move faster, now that it was laden down again with personal property and four right hands. "No, wait!" He stopped at the rover and began searching it. "It's gotta be here, I know I left them...YES!" he pulled out two gallon sized plastic bags filled with round, golden brown chocolate chip cookies. "Mama made these right before we were heading out and, well, she told me I could take a bunch. I thought maybe the kids might like some cookies." He looked to where the 'kids' were now grown up. "I thought it might help them to like us. They're Mama's cookies. Man, yesterday, when I was eating everything I could get my hands on it took a lot of willpower to just take the one bag."

He took the bags to Shae and shrugged. "Probably a stupid idea, I know but, I got them for them so they might as well still get them, right?"

Shae looked at the bags wistfully; those cookies looked so yummy, but those little brown chunks looked like chocolate and it seemed like such a cruel twist of fate that he was handing them to her. "Yes, I will give them to the 'Children'," Shae said with a sigh. Taking the bag, she took it over to the Lost Children, now neither lost nor children, and offered the cookies to Isbeil. After explaining what what in the bag, she said it was time for her and her team to go, but that she would come back to visit them and others would come through to help them figure out what to do with the future they now had available to them.

Isbeil thanked Shae who passed the thanks to Jake and the rest of the team. Jake suggested they burn the bodies of the CDC agents right where they were and then remove what was left, and Isbeil agreed. Estin and the others set off to gather the necessary wood to build a fire. It would be gruesome work, but better than carrying the decomposing bodies to be burned somewhere else. The smell would dissipate by the the time the ODA and other personnel came through. Before she left, Morgaine gave Shae a fierce hug and kissed her on both cheeks, winked, and ran off with her loyal Sanicios to fetch wood as Isbeil had commanded.

Jake dialed home and sent the signal. After a brief conversation, the counter signal was sent, and SG-1 went home.