CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Abakka glanced nervously at the palace. Their god, absent for many generations, had returned. With his return came fear and enslavement. Several people had already lost their lives because they spoke out against being forced to serve a god they did not want.
The young man looked about at the people he'd known all his life. No longer was their laughter and smiles. The children no longer played in the streets. Instead, everyone stayed in their homes as much as possible, fearful every time they ventured out. It could not stay like this. They could not let it. Something needed to be done. But how could they hope to fight against a god?
A light in the sky caught Abakka's attention. Open-mouthed, he watched as the light descended to the earth and took on the form of a man clothed in a flowing white robe. The man glowed like the stars, his eyes as blue as the summer sky.
"Don't be afraid," he said gently to everyone. "I mean you no harm." He then turned his attention to the palace, his expression hardening. Purposefully, he strode toward it, ignoring the warnings from the men guarding it. The guards fired upon him, but the energy passed right through him. He lifted his hand, and the guards dropped as if dead to the ground. With another gesture, the doors of the palace crumbled to dust, and the man of light strode inside.
Awed and curious, Abakka ventured within, following in the footsteps of the man of light. Every person who challenged the man fell limply to the floor, every barrier that stood in his way ceased to exist.
At last, he came to the throne room. The evil god looked upon him, demanding to know who the man of light was.
"Who I am doesn't matter," the man replied. "All you need to know is that, from this day on, you will never harm another person."
"Insolence. I am a god, and you are powerless to stop me."
"Oh, really. Well, then what's about to happen is going to come as quite a shock to you."
Unafraid, the man of light walked toward the evil god. The god struck at him with the weapon that had killed Abakka's friend, Kana, just yesterday. It did no harm to the man of light, who continued forward. The god attempted to strike again, but the golden glove was ripped from his hand by an unseen force and went flying away across the room.
The evil god was suddenly pulled from his throne and forced to his knees. Abakka saw fear on his face. Then the fear changed to anger.
"How dare you attack me! I am your god!"
The man of light laughed. "You're no god, especially no god of mine. It really amazes me how egotistical the Goa'uld can be. At least Amaterasu wasn't as bad as you when I dealt with her. Actually, she tried to seduce me. And don't think that you can do any better. I'm not interested in anything you have to offer."
"What do you want?" the god asked angrily.
The man of light leaned forward and said something that Abakka could not hear. Fear returned to the evil god's face.
"No!" he cried as the man of light reached out a hand and touched him. "Noooo!"
When the man of light left minutes later, the evil god was no more.
It was done. All the things that Daniel had been determined to do were now accomplished. On a planet that had never felt the footsteps of man he settled upon a boulder and gazed up at the nebula that painted the sky with spectacular colors. He could feel the nebula, sense the energy that resided within the death shroud of a star that died millions of years ago. He could sense everything around him, the earth, the rocks, the trees, the animal life that watched from the forest. The first time he was ascended, he was filled with wonder over how much he could feel and see, but it had been nothing compared to what he could feel now. If he closed his eyes, he could sense what lay on the other side of the world, on the other side of the solar system. He could feel even the stars that glowed in the distance. It was almost overwhelming.
And the power was there, too. It burned deep within him, waiting for the command to bring it forth. With that power, he could build civilizations and destroy them. He could cure disease, end famine, bring the dead back to life. He could transform the lives of trillions, not only in this galaxy but others as well.
And then there was the knowledge. All that had lain hidden within his subconscious mind was now open to him. It was so vast. Even in this ascended state it would take him centuries to find and uncover it all. He knew that he could add still more to that knowledge, for there were things he could learn that the other Ascended on that plane below him could not.
He could have eternity to learn, to use his power, to travel the universe and see all there was to see. But is that what he wanted? Is it what he was meant to do, what should do?
Daniel closed his eyes. Images came into his mind from a world far away. He saw Jack sitting at his desk, going through a pile of paperwork. The man paused, his gaze lifting from the files, a thoughtful, somewhat sad look on his face, and Daniel knew that Jack was thinking about him.
Daniel's vision went to another individual. Teal'c was in the gym, his body moving through an exercise that reminded Daniel of tai chi the first time he saw it. He watched for several seconds, admiring the graceful flow of the Jaffa's movements, then he went on to a third and final person. Sam was in Daniel's office, one of his journals in her hands. There was sorrow on her face. He watched her for a long moment, tempted to reach his mind out to hers and speak with her. Instead, he opened his eyes and returned his gaze to the nebula.
Several more minutes passed with Daniel deep in thought. At last, his gaze left the nebula, and he got to his feet. He knew what it was that he had to do.
It had been eight days since the battle at Dakara, and the Jaffa race was now truly free. Though there were still some Goa'uld scattered about, their power had been crushed for the most part, decimated by Anubis, the Replicators, and by the massive uprising of Jaffa that occurred when news of the final battle on Dakara and the ascension of "Dan'yar" spread across the galaxy. It was known for certain that Lord Yu was dead, his home planet having been attacked by one of Anubis' fleets. This news had come from his First Prime, Oshu, who had barely managed to survive the attack.
The Jaffa had already begun the process of trying to figure out what they were going to do with their freedom. Leaders needed to be appointed, but nobody could make up their minds who those leaders should be. Some believed that Teal'c should be among the ones to lead them, which made Jack wonder if they'd soon be losing the big guy. Freeing his people was the goal Teal'c had strived for all these years, the main reason why he fought with the Tau'ri. Now that it was a reality, would he leave to join his people in their new government? He had taken two trips back to Dakara so far.
None of these thoughts were on the mind of the person who sat in Daniel's office. Sam had spent a lot of time here throughout these eight days. She felt closer to Daniel in this room, as if a part of his spirit clung to it and all that was in it. Jack had been coming there often, too, sometimes wandering around the room, other times sitting in Daniel's chair and staring at one of the artifacts. He was still holding onto the hope that, one way or another, they'd see Daniel again. Sometimes, he wondered if his best friend was already there, watching them. But he soon rejected that thought. This wasn't like last time. If Daniel was here, he'd have revealed himself to them.
All at once, Sam felt a change in the air. She spun around, rising to her feet. There was a strange light filling the far corner of the room. Soon, it took on substance and form, a form that had tears of happiness filling Sam's eyes.
"Daniel," she whispered.
Daniel gave her a gentle smile. "Hey, Sam."
"I was so afraid that we'd never see you again, that the other Ascended punished you for what you did."
"They probably would have if they could."
"I don't understand." Sam didn't really care about the explanations right now. All she really wanted to do was pull Daniel into a big hug and squeeze him till his eyes almost popped out. But he was one of the Ascended now. He was beautiful, otherworldly, a soft glow about him that came from within. And there was a feeling of power around him, so palpable that it was like a physical entity in itself. She had not sensed anything like that on Abydos when the ascended Daniel helped them find the Eye of Ra. What had happened to him?
Sam was afraid that Daniel had come only to say goodbye to them. How could they ask him to stay and give up ascension again, the power and immortality that went with it? If the other Ascended really couldn't stop him, he would have the ability to do so much good in the universe.
"Daniel, I know that we have no right to ask you to descend. If you have the ability to use your ascended powers, you could accomplish so much, learn so much. And you'd have forever to do it. Nothing on Earth could equal that."
"Sam, I need you to do me a favor."
"What's that?"
"Turn around."
Sam's brow knit in puzzlement. "What?"
"Turn your back to me, and don't look until I tell you."
"Um . . . okay." Totally, baffled, Sam did as her friend asked.
Several seconds passed as Sam wondered what Daniel was doing. She was startled by a hand being laid gently on her shoulder. She spun around and gaped at the man before her.
"You're right, Sam," he said. "Ascended, I could do a lot of good out there. I would have the power to destroy any foe, any enemy of the human race. I could learn every secret of the universe and give it to humankind. I thought about all that I could do, all that I'd want to do with that power. But I also thought about other things, and, in the end, I knew that I had to come home. I'm not yet ready for ascension, Sam. This is where I belong."
With a smile of joy, Sam threw her arms around Daniel and pulled him into a tight hug. He hugged her right back, smiling just as brightly.
"So, I suppose we'd better let a few people know that I'm back," he said after they'd separated.
"Well, if you were seen by the person monitoring the camera feeds, the word that you're back is probably already on the way to the general."
"Nope, I took care of the camera before I appeared."
"Why?"
"For the same reason I had you turn your back to me and why I chose to come here instead of Jack's office. I wasn't a hundred percent sure that my clothes would stay put when I descended. I ended up a bit . . . underdressed last time."
Sam laughed. "Well, speaking as a woman, Daniel, I can't say that I'd have minded all that much."
That made the archeologist blush, which made Sam smile. He was just so cute when he was embarrassed.
"You've got spare BDU's here," she said, trying to squash her smile.
"Yeah."
The astrophysicist put in a call to Jack's office. "Sir? Could you and Teal'c come down to Daniel's office?"
"What's up, Carter?"
"I need you to see something. It's important, sir."
"Okay, we'll be there in a sec."
Jack joined up with Teal'c on the eighteenth floor. They were not surprised to find the door to Daniel's office closed. During these days that the archeologist had been missing, both Sam and Jack had gotten into the habit of shutting the doors when one of them was in the office and wanted to be alone. Everyone knew that, when both doors were closed, they were not to bother the occupant.
Unsure if they should just barge in, Jack knocked.
"Come in, sir," said Sam's voice. Jack ran his card key through the lock, and the door slid open. He and Teal'c stepped into the room . . . and froze in shock.
"Hey, Jack," said a smiling Daniel.
Jack gaped at him. "Daniel?"
"The one and only."
Jack's eyes ran over his body. "Are you . . . you know?"
"Solid?"
"Yeah."
"As solid as you are."
That's all Jack needed to know. He was immediately across the room and pulling Daniel into a bear hug, laughter bubbling out of him. He drew back and cupped his best friend's cheek and neck.
"God, it's good to see you. Dammit, Daniel. You've got to stop doing things like this to us. I don't know how much more my aging heart can take."
Jack moved aside for Teal'c, who came forward and also embraced the archeologist.
"I am overjoyed that you have returned and are unharmed," the Jaffa said, his voice deep with emotion.
"So, what happened, and where have you been all this time?" Jack asked.
"It's kind of a long story. Since I'd rather not tell it twice, maybe we'd better make it an official debriefing. But I supposed that, first, I need to go to the infirmary so that Janet can make sure I am me and that everything's in good working order."
The four of them headed to the infirmary. They were all amused by the various stunned expressions on the faces of the people they passed. A few of the personnel came up and gave Daniel a warm greeting, telling him how happy they were that he was back with them.
Janet's eyes widened at the sight of Daniel when they entered the main ward. And then she was smiling happily, coming forward to give him a hug.
"Daniel. I'm so glad you're back. We've all been really worried about you."
"I know, and I'm sorry about that. But I am back, and I hope it's to stay."
After the exam, Janet gave Daniel some BDUs to wear so he wouldn't have to go to the locker room to change. He then joined the three people waiting outside.
"So, got a clean bill of health from the doc?" Jack asked.
"Uh huh. We're all set."
"Okay, then let's get that debriefing taken care of."
As they stepped into the control room a while later, loud applause erupted from the occupants. Surprised and embarrassed, Daniel smiled and thanked them. He and his teammates went up the stairs with Jack to the briefing room.
"Okay, Daniel, the floor's all yours," the general said.
"Oma told me more than once that she could not teach me what I already knew," Daniel began. "In the beginning, I thought she was only talking about my paranormal abilities, but it was much more than that. On Dakara, I finally figured it all out, what it was that I've known all along but couldn't see."
"Which is?"
"First of all, that I had the power to ascend again completely on my own, without any help at all from the Others."
"Orlin said that wasn't possible," Sam told him.
"I know, and that is true for the other Ascended, but not for me. I don't know why. Maybe it's because of how I was changed by my previous ascension. Maybe it's something else. I guess it doesn't really matter."
"Okay, so you figured out that you could ascend again and decided to go for it," Jack said. "But how did you know that you could get away with stopping Anubis this time? Oma put a stop to it before."
"There are many planes of existence between this one and ascension, each one higher than the next. When they tried to descend Anubis, he ended up on a plane halfway between ours and the one that the Ascended are on."
Sam nodded. "You talked about that before, when we were on Atlantis."
"Yes. You likened it to rungs on a ladder. You know that incident in the forest fire, when Janet thought I tapped into something in my brain that I'd never used before?"
"Yeah."
"What I really did was ascend a rung or two up that ladder. I was no longer on the same plane of existence, but it was one close enough to ours that I remained corporeal. The problem was that, because I wasn't even aware of what I'd done, I didn't stay there. I slipped back down the ladder. But when my body descended back to this plane, my consciousness didn't. It got sort of stuck until I took steps to get it back where it was supposed to be."
"Wow," Sam said. "That's amazing."
"There's more. The plane the Ascended exist upon is not the highest one."
Surprised, Jack said, "It isn't?"
"No. I don't know how many more there are, how high they go. I just know one thing. When I ascended this time, it was to a plane above the Others."
"Holy Hannah," Sam murmured.
"Whoa," said Jack. "And you knew that was going to happen?"
"I knew that I could make it happen. If I hadn't known that, I'd have believed that there would be no point in ascending again since, the moment I acted against Anubis, I'd be stopped."
"So, what happened next?"
"After I ascended and began attacking Anubis' army, I felt the Others trying to stop me, to pull me away as Oma did that first time."
Jack grinned. "But they couldn't, could they. They couldn't touch you."
"If they had all worked together as a single entity, they probably could have, but many of the Ascended realized that they had no right to even try to stop me."
"Because you weren't exactly one of them," Sam guessed.
Daniel nodded. "Not only was I not on the same plane of existence as them, I had managed to reach it all on my own. I was ascended, but not like they are, so their laws did not apply to me. Now, if I'd had a little help getting there, like from Oma, then it might have been different. All of the Ascended might then have been of the opinion that, because I didn't ascend 'honestly', they'd have the right to stop me. That's why Oma couldn't tell me about this."
"Oma knew you could do this?"
"Apparently so. It may be that all of the Ascended did."
"So, even though you weren't really one of them, some of them tried to stop you anyway," Jack remarked.
"Yes. But they didn't have the power."
"Sweet. I bet they were pretty pissed about that. Okay, so what happened after you finished obliterating Anubis' forces?"
"I went after Anubis, who had jumped into hyperspace. Once I stopped his ship, I confronted him."
"And destroyed him," Teal'c said.
"No."
"No?" Jack, Sam and Teal'c all said at the same time, surprised.
"Daniel, please don't tell us that guy is still alive," Jack pleaded.
"No, he's dead, Jack."
"If you did not destroy him, how did he die?" Teal'c asked.
"Well, first of all, I did what the other Ascended were unable to."
"What's that?" Jack queried.
"I descended him, all the way."
"You made him a snake again?"
"Yes, within the original host's body. I could sense that the host's mind was gone, though. The only consciousness that had survived was Anubis."
"He would have been mortal again, easily killed," Teal'c remarked with satisfaction, wishing that he had been there to witness this.
"Okay, so that's when you killed him," Jack assumed.
"No."
"Why the hell not?"
"Because there was someone else whose right to kill him superceded mine."
"Who?" Sam asked.
"Oma. You see, Anubis didn't ascend on his own."
"Oh, don't tell me," Jack groaned. "Oma did it?"
"She helped him, just as she'd helped many others. He deceived her, made her believe that he'd found enlightenment."
"She sure isn't very smart for a so-called enlightened being."
"She knows that she was a fool for believing him, Jack, and she's paid bitterly for her mistake. When the attempt to descend Anubis failed, the other Ascended could have chosen to destroy him with their combined powers, but, instead, they decided to allow him to live and remain free as a . . . lesson to Oma."
"A lesson?!" Jack exclaimed in disbelief.
Sam was outraged. "You mean that all the horrible things Anubis did after his ascension, all the people he killed, the suffering he cause, was allowed to go on because the Ascended were using him as a way of punishing her?"
"Pretty much," Daniel replied. "The only thing they did was forbid Anubis to do anything that he couldn't have done as an ordinary Goa'uld, but I think even that rule got bent. Anubis used knowledge he gained while ascended. There are things he did that he wouldn't have been able to if he hadn't gained the knowledge of the Ancients."
"And what about when Anubis decided to destroy all life in the galaxy?" Jack asked. "Would they have let that happen as a lesson to her, too, their way of saying, 'We told you so'?"
"I don't know. I can't be sure of this, but I think they wanted Oma to be the one to fix things," Daniel responded.
"You mean destroy him herself?"
"No. She wouldn't have had the power to kill him, not alone."
"Then how was she supposed to deal with him?"
"By fighting him. Though two Ascended Beings can't kill each other, they can fight each other, focus their entire power upon one another. In a battle like that, neither Ascended Being can do anything else except fight the other. It takes all their energy and concentration."
"For how long?" Sam asked.
"Forever, Sam. If Oma had chosen to fight Anubis, they would have been locked in battle forever, or at least until one of them surrendered."
"And that's what the Others wanted Oma to do?"
"I think so."
"Do you think she'd have done it if you hadn't stepped in?" Jack questioned.
"I'd like to believe that she would."
"So, it was Oma Desala who killed Anubis," Teal'c determined.
Daniel nodded. "After all these years, she was at last able to pay him back for the way he deceived her."
"It seems to me that she should have had the guts to do something about him a long time ago," Jack stated.
Daniel knew that Jack was right. As much as he respected Oma, she failed in her responsibility to rid the galaxy of the evil that she had unleashed upon it. Perhaps she had believed that, as long as Anubis didn't go too far, it was more important for her to continue her work in helping people toward ascension. Until the last few years, Anubis hadn't posed a major threat.
"Okay, so what about the others?" Jack asked. "If you hadn't been around and Oma didn't get off her butt and stop Anubis, would the other Ascended have let him wipe out everyone and start from scratch?"
"I wish I could say no for sure, but I honestly don't know. I'm afraid that most of them are pretty arrogant when it comes to us 'lowers', which is how they refer to us."
Sam shook her head. "Even though they used to be like us."
"Well, it's over now," Jack said. "Anubis really is dead this time. Wait a minute. That pile of ash we found on Anubis' ship. That was him?"
"Yeah, that was him. I think Oma was pretty pissed off."
"Ya think?"
"Not only is Anubis dead, the few Goa'uld who still survive have been stripped of most of their power," Teal'c said in satisfaction. "Their reign has been brought to an end, and the Jaffa are free."
Jack patted Teal'c's back. "Which is the best news ever."
The other three noticed the look on Daniel's face.
"Daniel? Is there something else you wish to share with the class?" Jack inquired.
The archeologist looked into Teal'c's eyes. "The Goa'uld are gone, Teal'c."
"What do you mean gone?" Jack asked.
"You killed them all?!" Sam exclaimed.
"No, I had no right to do that, Sam."
"Then what did you do?"
"I freed their hosts."
"You removed the symbiotes from their hosts?" Teal'c questioned in amazement.
"Yes. Like Baal's host, many of them would have died within minutes, if I hadn't been able to prevent it. A lot of them had been under the power of their symbiotes for so long that their minds were . . . lost. I brought them back and took away all the memories of their times as hosts. They'll be able to live the rest of their lives in relative peace. Only the most recent hosts decided to keep all their memories."
Sam smiled and gave Daniel's hand a little squeeze, knowing how much joy it must have brought him to give all those people their freedom.
"What did you do with the symbiotes?" Jack asked.
"I took them home."
A very surprised Sam stared at him. "To P3X-888?"
Jack knew which planet that was. "The planet Chaka came from?"
"And the Goa'uld," Daniel added. "It's where they originated. What better place for them to go back to?"
"So, what's going to happen if one of them manages to get into an Unas? They'll go though the gate, and it'll start all over."
Daniel shook his head. "That's not going to happen. I put them in a lake that's on an island. There are no Unas there. In fact, there aren't even any animals bigger than a fox. I warned the Unas about it, told them to make that island taboo. They'll do what I said."
"Daniel, the Goa'uld can't survive for long in ordinary water," Sam told him. "We learned that years ago. Certain conditions have to exist. I don't know if it's that way with the native Goa'uld who are on 888, but it is for those who have been in a host for any length of time."
"I know, Sam. I took care of that. I also put a few safeguards in place that will guarantee that no unwitting pilot is going to land his ship there and get taken by one of the Goa'uld."
Teal'c's lips curved with satisfaction. "So, the Goa'uld will live out the remainder of their lives trapped upon that world, knowing that they will never again taste freedom or power. It is a fitting end for them."
"I wonder how long the older Goa'uld will live without a sarcophagus," Sam mused. "They're already long past their natural life span."
"Hopefully, they'll all die of old age very, very soon," Jack said. He turned to Daniel. "So, that's what you've been doing all this time, huh, hunting down Goa'uld all over the galaxy. Too bad you couldn't get frequent flyer miles. I bet you'd have really racked up the points."
Daniel smiled slightly. "Well, I did do a few other things as well, one of which is that I destroyed the weapon on Dakara. It's too much power to be in anyone's hands."
"Yet the temple and the mountain still stand," Teal'c said.
"Yes, well, there are advantages to being ascended. The control console still exists, but the rest of the device is gone."
"I wish you'd let us know where you were, Daniel," Sam said. "We were all really worried about you."
"I'm sorry, Sam. Time flows differently for the Ascended. I didn't realize that I'd been gone that long. Also, I needed to do everything as quickly as possible. I didn't want to take the chance that the other Ascended would suddenly decide to get together and stop me. After all, I was doing a whole lot of meddling in the affairs of 'lowers'. It's done now, and there's no reason for them to undo it."
Jack turned to Teal'c. "So, do you want to ask if it was him?"
Daniel looked at Jack, then at the Jaffa. "Ask if what was me?"
It was Teal'c who replied. "Some time after the battle, the bodies of all the Jaffa who died in battle on Dakara vanished from the structure they had been temporarily placed within. We had believed that perhaps Oma Desala ascended them as she did the people of Abydos. We hoped that it had been you who did so."
"Um, actually, they weren't ascended at all."
"They weren't?" Sam responded.
"No. I wanted to heal them all, but I was a little pressed for time, so I took them to an empty planet and put them in a form of stasis. Oma helped. Before coming here, I went back and healed them. By now, they've probably all gone home."
"Then the Jaffa owe you another great debt," Teal'c said with deep gratitude and respect.
"I just wish I could have saved them all. There was nothing I could do about the Jaffa who were in ships that were destroyed."
"They fought and died bravely to save the galaxy. No more honorable death could any Jaffa have." Teal'c studied the archeologist closely. "Daniel Jackson, there is something I wish to know."
"What's that?"
"Yet again you had the power of the Ascended, only, this time, your hands were not tied. You could have done great things with that power, destroyed any enemy that threatened humanity. Yet, instead, you chose to return to human form, a mortal whose power is limited."
"And you want to know why. There's more than one reason, Teal'c. One of the biggest is that I am not a god, and I don't have the right to act like one. How much could I have used my power before it was too much? That kind of power is a dangerous thing. I think that one of the reasons why the Ascended made their laws is that they felt that, if they were forbidden to use their power except under extraordinary circumstances, the lure of that power would never take hold. I can definitely understand that concern, although, by making their rules, they went too far."
"You chose to descend so that you could not be corrupted by the power," Teal'c said.
"Well, no, not exactly. I'd like to believe that wouldn't happen. What I feared was that my desire to help people, to protect those who are in danger, would have caused me to step over the line, go too far. What happened with Orlin and the people of Velona was an important lesson on what can happen when one of the Ascended meddles in the fate of a civilization. Helping the Velonans was done with the best of intentions, but it backfired catastrophically. I still believe that it's wrong for the Ascended not to lend a helping hand, not to give aid when it's really needed, but a line would have to be drawn somewhere." Daniel paused, staring at the table. "I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to draw that line."
Sam understood what Daniel was saying. His desire to help, to do all he could to make a difference, had always been so strong, just as she'd told him that day in his tent on Vis Uban. For Daniel, not helping when he had the power to do so would have been agony. His need to help would have driven him to do things he probably shouldn't have, interfered in issues that he should have stayed out of. In the years that she'd known Daniel, there had been more than one occasion when he'd stepped forward and interfered when he probably shouldn't have because the goodness in his heart and his natural instinct to give aid drove him to do so. She could only imagine, though, how hard it must have been for him to give up the power to help so many.
"I understand what you're saying, Daniel," she told him, "and I do agree with your reasoning, although I know it must have been hard for you to make that decision."
"No, it wasn't easy, but, in the end, I knew it was the right decision to make. Maybe someday I'll be wise enough and . . . and strong enough to draw the line, to know when it's all right for me to help and when I need to accept that I have to leave things as they are, but I'm not there yet." Daniel looked at the three people he cared most about. "Even if it that hadn't been an issue, I couldn't have remained ascended, not for very long. To do so would have meant that I'd have to sacrifice something that means more to me than anything else: I would have had to give up everything that I have here. Yes, I could have dropped in for visits on occasion, but that's all they could ever have been, and every time I had to say goodbye, it would have hurt. There was a time when I could have said goodbye and begun a new life elsewhere, but it's not like that anymore. What I have here is too important to me now. If there was some reason that made leaving necessary, then I would go, but it's not something that I would ever want to do."
"We wouldn't want it, either, Daniel," Jack told him.
"We are greatly pleased that you chose to return to us," Teal'c said.
Sam gave her best friend a hug. "Yes, we are. You belong here with us."
Daniel's gaze went to the tabletop. "I, um . . . did do a few other things besides take care of the Goa'uld, though."
Jack's mouth quirked upward. "Now, why does that not surprise me? Actually, I'd have been surprised if you didn't do anything else."
"What other things did you accomplish, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked.
"Well, first, I went to BP6-3Q1."
Sam and Teal'c exchanged a knowing glance.
"That address sounds familiar," Jack said.
"It should, Jack. It wasn't all that long ago that you heard it again. It's the planet that those big bugs were on, the homeworld of the people who built the cities our off-world colony will be inhabiting. Ever since I learned about the Kenterans, I've been thinking a lot about them, wondering if any of them survived those insects."
"And?"
Daniel smiled. "They did. The insects couldn't fly across the ocean, so the population on some of the other continents and islands wasn't infected. The insects did make it to some of the other landmasses by way of infected people, but not all of them."
Sam smiled. "That's great."
"The surviving population was living in constant fear that, somehow, the bugs would get to them. They'd been trying to come up with ways to kill the bugs, but they hadn't had any success in finding an insecticide that would be certain to kill every one, including the ones growing inside an infected body."
"So, what did you do?" Jack asked. "If I'd been you, I'd have made the Orkin Man proud and performed the galaxy's biggest bug extermination job."
"Well, if the insects had been an intelligent species, I wouldn't have," Daniel replied, "but since they really were just insects. . . ."
Jack grinned. "You did."
Daniel nodded. "I doubt the insects were an indigenous species, which means that either they came through the gate or were the product of a science experiment gone wrong. If they were from another planet, the species probably still exists on the homeworld, which means I didn't make it extinct. If they were an artificially mutated species, they should never have existed in the first place."
"Daniel, forgive me for saying so, but I have zero problem with you making that particular species extinct."
Daniel shrugged. "Anyway, I let the Kenterans know that the bugs were gone, so I should imagine that they'll be sending people to check things out and make sure everything's okay. We'll have to pay them a visit in a few months and introduce ourselves."
Jack smiled. "Sweet. Who knows what cool toys they'll give us as a thank you. So, what did you do next?"
"I went to the Aschen homeworld."
The announcement resulted in silence from the others.
"I . . . didn't have to do anything there."
That piqued Jack's curiosity. "Oh?"
Daniel stared at him. "You didn't tell me that one of the addresses you gave them was that planet with the Reetou."
"I knew what you'd say if you found out. Hey, it could have been worse. I could have given them the gate address for bug world, but I figured that would be stepping over the line."
"Yes, well, the Reetou were bad enough. A bunch of them came through the gate and killed a lot of people before the Aschen came up with a way to see and kill them. Lots of questions were asked afterwards about how it happened. Apparently, the general public didn't have any idea what their government had been doing all these years. After the incident with the Reetou, it all came out into the open, and a lot of people were pretty horrified. The populace started taking sides. On one side were those who demanded that it be halted and that the government be held accountable for the crimes against humanity that it had committed. On the other side were the people who were more interested in preserving the stability and economy of the Aschen civilization, regardless of what that meant for the people of other worlds. The division led to riots and rebellions, which escalated into an all-out civil war. There's not much left. The old government is history. It'll probably take generations for the civilization to fully recover."
"Can't say that I'm broken up about that," Jack remarked, feeling more than a little satisfaction that the Aschen had paid for their crimes.
"After seeing that, I decided to pay a visit to the Reetou and let them know that the Goa'uld were gone, so they didn't have to worry anymore. They were . . . a bit surprised by my visit."
"I bet."
"Daniel, how did you manage to do all that and take care of the Goa'uld in so short a time?" Sam asked.
"Well, the fact that I could instantaneously travel to any spot in the galaxy helped a lot. There really weren't all that many Goa'uld left, and I was able to see where they all were, so dealing with them didn't take all that long."
"So, any other exciting adventures?" Jack asked.
"Just one more. I . . . took a little trip to the Pegasus galaxy."
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