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CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Beer in hand, Jack watched Daniel from his spot on his living room recliner.  Looking at the archeologist now as he chatted with Sam and Teal'c you'd never guess that, just a few hours ago, he was an ascended being of such tremendous power that the term 'mind-boggling' wouldn't even come close.  How many people in that situation would have been willing to give it all up?  Not many.  But then, Daniel wasn't like most people.

Tomorrow, they'd be contacting Atlantis and giving them the news about what Daniel had done over there while ascended.  It was Jack's opinion that it was only right for Daniel to be the one to give them the good news, and that it really needed to be done in person.  The problem was that he knew Daniel would object to going because of the expressions of gratitude he'd no doubt get.  Considering what happened at the debriefing when Teal'c mentioned that the Jaffa needed to be told about the fate of the Goa'uld, Jack figured he had good reason for his suspicions.

"You're welcome to tell them, Teal'c," Daniel had told the Jaffa in reply to the remark.

"It will be my honor," Teal'c had responded, "though I know that many will wish to see you and thank you in person."

"Um, if it's all the same to you, Teal'c, I'd really rather avoid that.  I have a good idea what would happen if I went to Dakara."

"Ah, like embarrassing displays of reverence, awe and gratitude?" Jack had said.

Daniel's response had been to drop his head and gaze fixedly at the top of the briefing table.

Thinking about it again, Jack shook his head and smiled slightly.  After everything Daniel had accomplished, he was still modest enough to be embarrassed about being praised.

There was one thing that Daniel didn't know yet, and Jack was waiting for just the right moment to tell him.

"You know, I'm thinking that all this deserves a party," the general said.

The others turned to him.

"A party, sir?" Sam responded.

"Sure, why not?  We had one after Anubis got his ass kicked last year, and that was nothing compared to what we have to celebrate now.  I'm thinking something really big this time.  We can even invite some of the folks in DC.  We can get a great big cake and have lots of snacks and finger foods.  This weekend should work."

"That's not much time, sir."

"Ah, we can do it.  I'll put Walter in charge of getting together the right people to take care of everything.  He's good at that sort of thing."  Jack's gaze went to Daniel.  "Maybe we can even invite some of the Jaffa."

The archeologist frowned.  "Unless you limit it to the ones who know the truth about me, I don't think that would be a good idea."

The corners of Jack's lips quirked upward.  Ah, and here was the right moment.  "As it so happens, Daniel, that would be all of them."

Daniel stared at him, his eyes narrowing slightly.  "What do you mean all of them?"

"Um, all the Jaffa know that you're Dan'yar, Daniel," Sam explained.

His head turned to her.  "How did they find out?"

Jack grinned.  "We told them."

"What?!"  Daniel let out a groan.  "Why did you tell them?"

"We wanted credit to be given to the person it belongs to.  So, since we figured that it wasn't going to matter anymore if the Goa'uld found out, we decided to blab the secret."

Daniel sighed very loudly.  "Thanks, Jack.  Thank you so much."  His tone made it clear that he was anything but grateful.

"Don't mention it," Jack responded with a cheeky grin.  He received a glare that probably would have lit his hair on fire if Daniel had been less of a nice guy.

The archeologist's head dropped back against the sofa's backrest.  He closed his eyes and gave another sigh of exasperation.

"Look at it this way, Daniel," Jack said.  "Now, whenever you see the Jaffa, you can be yourself.  You don't have to go as Dan'yar anymore."

"I suppose that is an advantage," Daniel admitted reluctantly.

"Sure it is.  Oh, and if you decide that you still want to kill someone, you can kill Bra'tac.  He's the one who first told Tolok."

"Only after you referred to Daniel by name, sir," Sam reminded her C.O.

Jack glared at her.  "Was it really necessary for you to say that, Carter?"

Sam's face twisted into an expression of apology.  "Sorry, sir."

Daniel lifted his head.  "I suppose it was too much to hope that the truth wouldn't get out eventually.  At least we don't have to worry about the Goa'uld coming after me.  And the truth is that I'll be perfectly happy not being Dan'yar anymore.  I'd much rather just be Daniel Jackson."

"Daniel, there is no such thing as just Daniel Jackson, not anymore," Jack responded.

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.

There was a long moment of silence.

Jack gazed at his best friend thoughtfully.  "Daniel, I need to ask you something.  You were able to ascend a second time all by yourself even though you'd already ascended once.  Could you do it again?"

Daniel paused before replying.  "I'm almost certain that I could return to the plane I ascended to in the forest fire.  As for that higher plane, I'm not sure, but, yes, I think it's possible.  I'd prefer not to do it again, though, unless I had no other choice.  I'm not sure how the other Ascended would react if I kept ascending then descending."  He smiled slightly.  "They might be just a little put out.  Us 'lowers' aren't supposed to be able to do that, you know.  It kind of puts a dent in their whole attitude about being superior forms of life."

"What if something ever happened to you?" Sam asked.

"You mean if I was killed?  Would my body ascend automatically?  That's something I really can't say.  It took a conscious effort on my part to bring about the ascension, so I really don't know what would happen if I was to suddenly die before I had time to make myself ascend."

"Well, I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that I hope we never have to find out," Jack stated.  "You've died too many time already.  We'd all prefer that you wait at least another fifty years before doing it again."

Daniel smiled slightly.  "I'll do my best, Jack."  The smile faded.  "Um . . . there's something I haven't told you guys yet."  He pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to Jack.

The general stared at the paper, which had some numbers written on it.  "What's this?"

"When I was ascended, all the knowledge from the Ancient repository was freely available to me.  There was so much knowledge.  Even ascended, it would have taken me centuries to unearth it all.  There were a lot of things that I knew would be of tremendous help to Earth, to all humanity, actually.  Technology, cures for diseases, answers to some of the greatest riddles and mysteries in the universe.  I knew that, once I descended, I'd have to put most of it back into my subconscious, so I put some of it in the computers at the SGC.  That code will give you access to it.  It's only a tiny fraction of the knowledge, but I hope that what's in there will do some good."

Jack and Sam stared at the piece of paper like it was the greatest treasure known to man.

"Daniel," Sam murmured.  "This is wonderful."  Her eyes were shining with eagerness to delve into what he had given them.

"You need to understand that there are things I could have put in there that I chose not to.  With the exception of the rogue NID and The Trust, we've done a good job of not misusing the advanced technology we've gotten, but the human race on Earth is still not . . . mature enough to have some of the technology contained within that knowledge.  It could so easily be misused."

"So, I'm guessing that there's no plans for a big space gun in there," Jack said.

"No, but there are for some littler space guns, ones that the Prometheus and other ships could be armed with.  Instructions on how to build a Stargate with technology we have available to us now are in there, too."

Sam smiled brightly.  "Really?  I know that Orlin was able to make that gate from stuff he bought and got out of my kitchen, but it would only work once."

"Well, it wouldn't be cheap or easy to make one, but this gate would work a lot more than just once.  Also in there is the location of all the Ancient outposts that still exist in the galaxy.  We can harvest the drones and restock the weapons at the Antarctic outpost and on Atlantis.  As long as there is always someone stationed at the outpost who can operate the chair, we'll have a weapon we can use against any force that attacks Earth."

Jack smiled.  "Okay.  A big space gun would have been nice, but that's almost as good."

Sam frowned.  "But the Antarctic outpost no longer has a ZPM, so. . . ."  Her eyes widened.  "Oh my."

Daniel smiled at the look on her face, knowing what she'd just figured out.

"'Oh my' what?" Jack asked, looking back and forth between Sam and Daniel.

The astrophysicist turned to him.  "Sir, every Ancient outpost would have a ZPM.  If we now have the locations of all those outposts, we'll be able to get the ZPM's from them."

"Sweet."

"Of course, some of the ZPM's could be depleted, but we still might manage to get a few, perhaps even one or two that are almost fully charged."  Sam looked at her best friend.  "Daniel, this is fantastic.  Just those ZPM's alone will be an incredible asset."

The archeologist smiled.  "I figured they would be, which is why I also included a few other places where we might find one.  I can't say how many we'll end up with, but, hopefully, it will be enough that Atlantis will be able to fully power their systems, and we'll have two or three for our own use."

Sam studied him.  "I really didn't think of this before.  By descending you had to sacrifice all that knowledge.  I know how important knowledge is to you, Daniel.  I can't even imagine how hard it was to give it all up."

Daniel stared at floor.  "You're right.  It wasn't easy.  It was a whole lot easier giving up the power than it was to give up that knowledge.  It's not the knowledge of technology that hurt to lose.  To me, that's not so important.  It was the other stuff."

"The meaning of life stuff," Jack said quietly, understanding how big that sacrifice was to a man like him.  Eight years ago, Daniel had been willing to remain trapped forever on Heliopolis to learn the secrets contained within that universal language.  Now, he'd willingly given up far greater knowledge.

"Yeah," Daniel replied.  "There was so much knowledge of cultures and civilizations, languages that have been lost in time, secrets of how the universe works."  Daniel looked at the woman sitting beside him.  "There were things, Sam, that would have filled you with wonder.  A lot of it was beyond what any human could comprehend."

"And you gave it all up," she said softly, amazed at how much strength that act had taken.

"Not all of it.  I kept some things, as much as I could."  Daniel smiled slightly.  "I'm going to be pretty busy writing it all down.  It'll take years, maybe my entire life."

"Well, if I'm still around when you finish, I just might read it," Jack remarked with a little smile.


Sam stepped out on the back porch.  Silently, she watched Daniel as he stood unmoving, gazing up at the stars.  There was an expression of peace on his face that was almost tranquility, a feeling of stillness about him, as if only his body was there, his mind far away.

Sam was startled a bit when he began to speak.

"When I was ascended, I could feel . . . everything.  I could have stood here and felt Earth's magnetic field, sensed the winds that create the great eye on Jupiter, seen the tiniest particles of Saturn's rings.  There really aren't any words to describe what it was like."

"It must have been amazing," Sam remarked.

Daniel nodded.  "If I close my eyes, I can still feel what it was like.  I don't think I'll ever forget it.  I'll always have the memories of being on that plane of existence that not even the other Ascended know what it's like to be on."

Sam smiled.  "I have to admit that I envy you."

Daniel turned and looked at her.  "I can show you."

"What?"

"I can share my memories of what it was like.  It won't be exactly like it was to actually experience it, but. . . ."

"Yes," Sam said eagerly.  The eagerness made Daniel smile.

He came forward and took her hand, leading her into the bedroom.  They sat on their haunches on the bed, facing each other.  Daniel took Sam's hands and closed his eyes.  Sam felt his mind reach out and connect to hers.

All of a sudden, the room faded away.  She was no longer on Earth, chained to a body of flesh and bone.  She was utterly free, and all the universe was open to her.  She could touch it, see it, feel it.  The life on a nearby world, the fusion reactions within the heart of the planet's sun, the track of the planet through space.  She could feel it all.  Even the distant stars touched her senses, beckoning to her to come explore their secrets.  It was beyond words, beyond anything any human could ever possibly imagine.

Slowly, Sam's consciousness returned to her body.  She blinked her eyes open and gazed, awestruck, at Daniel.

"My God," she whispered.  "My God."  She drew in a deep, shaky breath.  "How could you give that up?"

"Yes, it was incredible," he said, "far more so than when I ascended before.  But if I had to choose between that," he cupped her cheek, "and being with you, I would choose you every time."

Deeply humbled by the depth of love that Daniel's declaration revealed, Sam pulled him into her arms and pressed her lips to his.  The kiss deepened, growing more passionate.  Sam straddled his thighs, wrapping her legs around him.

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Daniel began removing Sam's clothing one piece at a time.  As he pulled off her bra, his hands and lips immediately went to her breasts.  Sam cried out softly at the sensation, bucking up against him.  She tugged at his shirt, almost popping off buttons in her haste to remove it.  At last it was gone and their upper bodies were skin on skin.  It was not enough, and, soon, the rest of their clothing was gone.  Sam lowered herself back onto Daniel's lap.

"God, I love you, Sam," he said as he took hold of her hips and thrust up into her, uniting their souls along with their bodies.  Only the return of his mouth to hers kept Sam from crying out loudly from the sheer ecstasy of their union.

To Daniel, the glorious power of being ascended could not compare to this, to the incomparable ecstasy of making love with Sam as their minds, hearts and bodies were joined in a bond of absolute totality.

They rocked together, Daniel's mouth returning to capture one of Sam's nipples as their speed increased.  Sam gasped and held his head to her breast as her hips moved still faster, a long moan rising out of her as the quickening of her climax filled her body with liquid fire.  Daniel felt the approach of her climax, and it sent his body on its own inexorable climb to culmination.

All at once, they were hurling over the edge, their combined climax overwhelming their senses and their awareness.

Gasping for breath in the aftermath, they sat unmoving for a long moment as their bodies recovered.  Daniel then began placing kisses all over Sam's face.  A smile came to his lips, a twinkle to his eyes.

"Now, tell me," he said.  "If you had to choose between that and being ascended, which one would you choose?"

Sam grinned, her eyes sparkling.  "You're right.  It's no contest."

Her lover laughed in utter delight.  They got under the covers and back into each other's arms.

Sam gazed at the man who meant more to her than anything else in the universe ever could.  "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come back, Daniel.  During the time that you were gone, I thought about what my life would be like without you, and it was more than I could bear."

Daniel pulled her a bit closer.  "No matter what happens, Sam, I will always try to come back to you."  He rose up on his elbow and looked down at the woman he would always choose over ascension.  "I've learned a lot of things since all this began, things about myself, who I am as a person.  I've learned other things as well.  One of the most important is that every moment of life is precious, and we should never wait to tell people how we feel, because things can change so quickly.  Life can be gone in an instant."  Daniel ran a finger over Sam's cheek.  "I may be psychic, Sam, but I can't predict everything that lies ahead of us.  I could die tomorrow and not be able to ascend again.  But I know that I love you, more than I have ever loved anyone in my life, and I want to spend however many years there is left of that life with you."  Daniel captured and held the eyes of the woman he loved.  "Sam, will you marry me?"

Sam gasped, her breath stolen by the question Daniel had just asked.  And then she was smiling, the only answer she could possibly give ringing in her mind.

"Yes," she whispered.

With a joyous laugh, Daniel pulled Sam into his arms, feeling deep in his heart that, whatever else the future might hold for him, it would be a future spent with Sam.


Though it wasn't easy, Daniel and Sam managed to keep the news of their engagement to themselves the next day, wanting to make the announcement at the celebration party that weekend.

Teal'c headed off to Dakara that morning to pass on the news about the Goa'uld.  That afternoon, Daniel and Sam went to lunch off-base, then went to a jewelry store for Sam's engagement ring, which she would hide in her purse until she could wear it publically.

After the couple returned, the SGC made the call to Atlantis.

"Doctor Weir, we've got some very good news for you," the general said.  "First of all, Anubis and the rest of the Goa'uld are gone for good.  They'll never bother us again."

"That is wonderful news, General.  There are a lot of people here who will be delighted to hear that."

"Yes, I figured you might want to celebrate, so I'm sending through a few cases of champagne, preceded by a lovely magnum of the bubbly."  Jack picked up the bottle that was sitting on the console and turned to Daniel.  "Come on down with me.  I think you should be the one to do the honors."

"No, that's okay, Jack.  You can do it."

"Oh, come on, Daniel.  After all, you're the one we have to thank for this."

Daniel paused, then nodded.  They went to the gate room and up the ramp.  Jack handed the bottle to Daniel, who stepped closer to the gate.  As he started to bend down to place the bottle on the ramp, Jack laid a hand on his back . . . and shoved him right through the event horizon.

A very startled Daniel stumbled out the other side.

Elizabeth blinked and stared at him.  "Um . . . Doctor Jackson?"

Daniel's eyes started glittering with anger.  "Elizabeth," he greeted tightly.  "Can Jack hear me?"

"Um, yes, he can."

Daniel gave her a fake, closed-mouth smile, then turned to face the gate.  "Jack, I would suggest that you find somewhere to hide, because, when I come back, what I did to Ferretti will be nothing compared to what I do to you."

"Aw, now, Daniel.  Is that any way to act?  I just figured that the rest of our news should come from you personally, face to face.  It'll take a bit of explaining, after all, and we can keep these wormholes open for just so long."

"Doesn't matter.  You're still a deadman."

"I'll make sure that my will is in order," Jack responded.  "Stargate Command out."  The wormhole shut down.

His mind full of all the ways he could get even with Jack, Daniel turned back to Doctor Weir.

"Hello," he said cordially.  "As you may have guessed, this trip was somewhat unscheduled . . . at least by me."

Elizabeth smiled.  "Yes, I did gather that.  Um . . . would you like someone to take that?"

Daniel looked down and realized that he was still holding the champagne.  He handed it to someone.

"So, what is this all about?" Atlantis' commander asked.

"Um, I've got a lot to explain, so we should probably have a meeting with some of the others."

The commander of Atlantis called for the meeting.  Among the ones present were John Sheppard, Teyla, Doctor Beckett, and McKay.

"Any time you're ready, Doctor Jackson," Elizabeth said.

"Okay, first of all, I should explain what happened with the Replicators and Anubis.  We've been pretty busy lately."

Daniel told them about the Ancient device on Dakara, the capturing of the planet, and his capture by RepliCarter.

McKay had a funny look on his face.  "There was a Replicator with Sam's body and memories?"

"Yes.  Fifth, the only surviving human-form Replicator, created her early this year."

"Why?"

"Um, I don't think I should tell you that.  Sam would kill me if I did.  Just suffice it to say that he had a reason.  Anyway, once RepliCarter had me, her intention was to get all the knowledge of the Ancients that I have stored in my subconscious.  I . . . objected."

John grinned.  "I can't wait to hear what you did to her."

Daniel told them the rest of the story, concluding with the destruction of all the Replicators in the galaxy.

"Then they're all gone?" Elizabeth asked.

"All the ones that were in our galaxy.  I don't know if there are any left in the Asgards' galaxy.  If so, now that they're leaderless, the Asgard can gradually take care of them, though they'll have to keep altering the frequency of their disruptor weapons to do it."

"This is very good news, Doctor Jackson."

"So, what about the Goa'uld?" Sheppard asked.

"Yeah, well, no sooner had we done all that when Anubis made his move to get Dakara back.  That's when I found out what his plan was.  He was going to use the Ancient device to completely obliterate all corporeal life in the galaxy."

The announcement was met with complete silence, the faces of the people around the table testifying to their horror.

"Damn," John murmured.  "Talk about overkill."

"His plan was to start over," Daniel told them, "reseed the galaxy to suit his tastes.  In other words, an entire galaxy worshiping him as God."

"But you stopped him," Teyla said.

Daniel nodded.  "The planet was under attack by supersoldiers and Anubis' ships, far too many for us to hold off.  We tried to detonate a nuclear bomb to blow up the temple, but it didn't work."  He paused for a few seconds.  "I was watching all this happening, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  My power wasn't enough.  Then I remembered what happened in that forest fire here, how I tapped into a greater power.  I thought that if I could do that again, it might be enough."

"And did you?" Elizabeth asked.

"I tried to make it happen again.  I was beginning to succeed when . . . when I suddenly realized what it was that I was really doing.  I wasn't just tapping into a greater power within my mind, I was actually making myself ascend to a slightly higher plane of existence."

"Incredible," Beckett murmured.

"When I realized that, everything just . . . fell into place.  I knew what I could do, what I've been capable of doing ever since I descended."

"Which is?" Sheppard asked.

"Ascend again . . . all the way, not just to the same plane as the Ancients, but to an even higher plane."

Again, the room was struck with utter silence, this time one of awe.

"You ascended?" Teyla asked in a hushed tone.  "You became even greater than the Ancients?"

Daniel nodded.  "I destroyed all the supersoldiers on Dakara and Anubis' entire fleet.  Then I went after Anubis himself.  I won't go into details on what happened after that, just that I descended him the rest of the way, made him mortal again.  He's dead now."

There was a very long silence after that as everyone absorbed the news.

"I-I thought the Ancients wouldn't let you do something like that," McKay stammered.  "Don't they have that whole noninterference rule?"

"Yes, and, if they could have stopped me, they would have.  Some of them even tried.  But, this time, they couldn't do a thing.  I was on an even higher plane than them.  It would have taken the power of all of them working together to stop me, and there were too many of them who knew that they had no right to interfere."

Teyla smiled.  "Because you were now a being greater than them, above their laws."

"Basically."

"But you are now human again."

"By my choice, Teyla.  After Anubis was taken care of, I went after the rest of the Goa'uld.  I removed every one of them from their hosts and returned them to the planet their species originally came from.  They'll spend the rest of their lives there, with no hope of freedom."

"Damn," John said again, more enthusiastically this time.  "You sure don't mess around, do you."

Daniel shook his head.  "Nope, not when it comes to the Goa'uld.  I swore a long time ago that if I was ever in the position to remove their threat from the galaxy, I'd do it.  I was finally able to make good on that oath."  He looked around at everyone.  "Which leads me to the main reason why Jack decided to send me here.  While I was ascended, I did more than deal with the Goa'uld.  Among other things, I came here."

"To this galaxy?" Weir said, surprised.

"Yes."  Daniel turned to Carson.  "Doctor Beckett, you're probably still unaware of it, but I implanted some information in your mind."

"What information?" the doctor asked, intrigued.

"Regarding that formula you've been working to remove the portions of a Wraith's DNA that makes them what they are, leaving them with only the human part.  As it was, you'd have had to give a Wraith regular injections to keep them human."

Carson nodded.  "Yes, but I'd hoped to eventually find a way around that."

"Well, you will, now.  I told you how.  And, unlike the one you would have had, this formula will work even on adult female Wraith."

A gigantic smile graced the face of the Scotsman.  "My boy, this is wonderful news!"

"It certainly is," Elizabeth said, also smiling.  "I can't tell you how much this means to us."

"There's more," Daniel stated.  "I also put in your computers information that will allow you to find all the Wraith hive ships in the galaxy and disable their shields.  You'll then be able to beam canisters of a gas version of the formula onto the ships and turn all the Wraith onboard into humans."

Teyla reached across the table and grasped Daniel's hands, intense gratitude in her eyes.

"How can my people begin to thank you?" she asked.  "You have saved us all.  Our children will at last be free of the threat of the Wraith."

"I'm just happy that it was in my power to do this, Teyla.  I could have destroyed them all.  That would have been in my power, too, but to eradicate an entire species is something that I could never have done.  In this way, though they'll no longer be Wraith, they will still be alive."  He looked at the others.  "But you guys are going to have a big responsibility ahead of you.  When they're made human, all their memories of their former life will be gone.  They're going to have to be helped, given the means to be self-sufficient.  You'll have to teach them how to hunt, grow crops and gather wild fruits and grains."

"My people can help with teaching them," Teyla said.

Elizabeth frowned.  "Supplies are going to be an issue until they can feed themselves."

"I'm sure we can help with that," Daniel told her.  "One of the most important things of all is that the Wraith must never know the truth of what they were.  If they find out, they will hate you for what you've done."

"We could say they're humans that were affected by some sort of plague that wiped out their memories," Beckett said.

Daniel shook his head.  "It would have to be more than that.  They're not going to look exactly like us, so tell them that they're a race of human-like aliens.  The thing about the plague would probably work then.  You could say that it was highly contagious and very quickly spread to their whole race all across the galaxy and that, not only did it wipe out their memories, it also killed almost all their females and most of the children.  That will explain why there are so few women and kids.  You could tell them that you're doing all you can to save as many of their kind as you can.  In that way, you can bring more human Wraith to each camp you set up.  But you need to be careful and not let them suspect that you're hiding something.  You mustn't treat them like you don't trust them."

"That isn't going to be easy," Sheppard remarked.

"No, but, if they suspect something's going on, they'll start asking questions you can't answer.  They have to be made to believe that you are their friends and saviors and that you have nothing but their best interests at heart.  There is one problem, though."

"What's that?" McKay asked.

"There is a psychic connection that exists between the Wraith, and that connection will still be there to some extent with the Wraith you change.  In order to prevent them from finding out what they are, you will need to transform all the Wraith that are awake as quickly as possible.  The more Wraith that are turned human, the weaker the psychic bond will be.  You'll have more time to take care of the ones that are in hibernation.  We're going to try to get you ships that you can use for this."

McKay stared at him.  "Okay, so you're saying that we're going to have to hurry up and change all the hundreds of thousands Wraith that are not in hibernation, put them all on planets and provide them with food and shelter?  How are we supposed to do that?"

"Why not stick the ones we change into their own stasis pods?" John asked.  Everyone looked at him.  "We're gonna have their ships.  That way, we don't have to rush to get them set up on planets.  We can hit a ship, board it, stick them in the pods, then land the ship somewhere until we have time to deal with the Wraith onboard."

Doctor Weir smiled.  "Good idea, John."

"Yes, well, I'm sure I would have thought of that myself," McKay said.  No one paid attention to him.

Daniel looked around at everyone.  "If you do this right, the Wraith will be able to begin a whole new life as our friends rather than our enemies.  The fact that there are so few females will mean that a big part of the population will die off from old age, but once new generations are born with plenty of both males and females, their numbers will eventually recover.  And those new generations will be completely human, children who were never Wraith."

Teyla smiled joyfully.  "It is a dream come true, a dream we could not even have imagined."

"Well, I have just one other thing to say," Sheppard declared.

"What's that?" McKay asked.

The man got a huge grin on his face.  "Let's par-tay!"

That got a chuckle from more than one throat.

Weir nodded.  "I agree.  I think this deserves a celebration."  She turned to Daniel.  "Doctor Jackson, you must stay as the guest of honor."

"Um . . . I'm flattered, but, no, I think I'll pass.  Jack's already got a huge party planned, and one party with dozens of people patting my back and hugging me is enough.  Actually, if I could get out of it, I wouldn't go to that one either.  You, uh, wouldn't happen to have a planet I could hide out on for a while, would you?"

Elizabeth smiled.  "I wouldn't dare interfere with General O'Neill's plans, Daniel.  Sorry.  I will let you bow out of our celebration, though."

"Thanks."

Doctor Beckett stood.  "I must go to my lab and begin work on the formula right away."  He looked at Daniel.  "Will the things you put in my mind simply come to me?"

Daniel nodded.  "If I hadn't told you about it, you'd have believed that you came up with it yourself."

McKay smiled.  "Too bad, Carson.  You could have been the big hero."

The doctor waved his hand dismissively.  "I don't care a wee bit about that, Rodney, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to take credit for the achievements of another."

"Unlike a certain other person in this room," John murmured, looking straight at McKay.

"Hey," the scientist objected.  "I've never taken credit for something someone else did.  I haven't had to.  I'm usually the one who did it."

Several people rolled their eyes.  Daniel just stared at the man, arms crossed.

"Aren't you forgetting about Sam?" he said, eyebrow cocked.

"Uh-uh-uh, of course not," the man stammered, his voice having gone up half an octave.  "I wasn't including her in that statement.  She's a brilliant scientist with many great achievements to her credit.  I couldn't have done some things without her."

Daniel gave him a little smile.  "Glad to hear you say that."

McKay popped to his feet.  "I-I think I'll go and . . . and work on the best way to get Carson's formula onto the Wraith ships."  He hurried out of the room.

"Daniel, you have no idea how much I wish you were staying on Atlantis permanently," Sheppard said.  "Nobody can scare the crap out of McKay like you can without even trying."

Weir smiled.  "Yes, about that.  Now that the Goa'uld have been dealt with, would you consider making Atlantis your new home?  Colonel Carter as well, of course.  Even after the Wraith are dealt with, you would be a tremendous asset to us, and there is still so much of the Ancient knowledge to uncover, huge sections of this city yet to explore."

"I have to admit that it is tempting," Daniel replied, "and I would definitely like to return here, perhaps for a few months, but permanently?  Earth is still my home, and, now that the Goa'uld are gone, we can really start using the Stargate for exploration and finding new friends and allies out there in the galaxy.  I want to be a part of that."

Elizabeth nodded.  "I understand."  She smiled again.  "Once the Wraith are no longer a problem, I'd say that we're going to be doing quite a bit of that as well.  There is a very big galaxy out there to explore."

"And when the Wraith are no more, we must spread the news to every world that has lived in fear of them," Teyla said.  "The people must know that no more of their numbers will be taken,"  she gazed at Daniel, "thanks to you."

Daniel gave her a nod, smiling.  "There is one piece of personal news that I have, but all of you need to keep it under your hats for now.  No one back home knows yet.  Sam and I are getting married."

Weir smiled brightly.  "What wonderful news.  Congratulations."

"Thanks.  You're all invited to the wedding, of course.  We haven't set a date yet."

"We'll look forward to it."

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