Unascended

Chapter Nineteen

“I have to say that this is frustrating,” Elizabeth said as they waited. “I remember bits and pieces, but not enough to be sure about what happened to me.”

“It’ll come back,” Daniel said. “Most of it.” He tried to think back to the first time he had returned from being Ascended, after SG-1 had found him. “Some things I didn’t remember until something reminded me. Or until I dreamed about them.”

“Dreams,” Elizabeth said, and frowned. “I dreamed about a woman… no, that’s not right. Not a human woman. She said she had helped me Ascend.”

“It’s good that you’re starting to remember,” Daniel said. “Was she one of the Ancients?”

“You would think she would be. But I don’t think so. She didn’t look human at all. In my dream, she was warning me about… someone who was threatening her. Someone who was looking for a way to… force Ascended beings to unascend?”

She didn’t sound sure of that last, but Daniel felt his heart sink. “That’s what the Asgard just found,” he said. “A device that might be able to force Ascended beings back into physical form.”

“The Asgard,” Elizabeth said, frowning intently. “Someone show me a picture of one of the Asgard.”

Rodney brought out his tablet obligingly and pulled up a picture of one of the Asgard; Daniel thought it was Hermiod, although he had to admit that even he had trouble telling the Asgard apart until they spoke.

“I think the person I dreamed about may have been an Asgard,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head slowly. “She had hair, and… ” She opened and closed one hand, as if trying to grasp scraps of memory. “More distinct facial features. But the eyes, and the bone structure, and the height, that’s all right.”

“You think she was one of the Asgard? And that she was Ascended?”

“I think she must have been if she helped me Ascend. And if she was worried about someone having the ability to force her to unascend. She said her name was Ran.”

“That’s a Norse sea goddess,” Daniel said immediately. “Completely unsurprising as an Asgard name, because a lot of the Asgard spent some time on Earth, helping us develop as a species. They were perceived as gods by the local inhabitants, like the Goa’uld, but more benevolently. At least usually.”

“Except they weren’t Ascended,” Rodney pointed out

Daniel nodded, acknowledging that. “We’ve never heard of any of the Asgard Ascending. As far as we know, they decided that living without physical bodies wasn’t an acceptable solution to their problems.”

“They decided,” Elizabeth said. “But if one person had made another choice, they couldn’t actually have stopped her, could they? After all, it’s not like humans have gotten together and decided that it’s a good idea for all humans to Ascend.”

“No, you’re right,” Daniel said. “But that hasn’t stopped a few humans from doing it.”

“As far as we know, you’re the only one,” John said.

“I’m not the only one. There have always been stories of mystics and saints, people who wandered into another world, or were taken bodily into heaven, or whatever your cultural frame of reference might be. The capacity to Ascend is written into our genes. It’s just that it’s incredibly rare for someone to stumble onto the way to do it.”

“It was not even possible for all of the Ancestors to Ascend,” Teyla said.

“No. No, that’s true. But they were trying, as a people. Most of the Asgard weren’t interested. So if one particular Asgard had found a way to Ascend, the same way that a handful of humans have over the centuries, Thor might not have thought it was important enough to even mention to us. If he even knew about it. Maybe from the Asgard point of view, she just disappeared.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “If they didn’t know that she ascended, they wouldn’t be trying to force her to unascend now.”

Daniel turned up his hands. “I’m not sure why they would try to force her to unascend. All right, it wasn’t something they approved of, but would they really care that much about one person making an unusual choice?”

Ronon shrugged. “Maybe she’s causing them problems.”

“She can’t have been interfering in any meaningful way in their activities, or she would have gotten kicked out by the other Ascended beings.” He turned to Elizabeth. “Helping you is right on the line of what an Ascended being can get away with. Trying to push the other Asgard around from the great beyond is definitely over the line.”

Elizabeth’s eyebrows went up. “The great beyond?”

“Or whatever you want to call it.”

“Maybe there’s some reason that they want her back,” Elizabeth said.

“It can’t be sentimental attachment,” Rodney said. “All the Asgard who actually knew her are probably long dead by now.”

“Or at least recently dead,” Daniel said. “No, I feel like there’s something we’re missing.”

Teyla frowned, considering the question. “What have the Asgard in this galaxy wanted in the past?”

“To fix their planet’s ecology. To fix their own genetic damage that they caused by cloning themselves over and over again.”

Elizabeth put her head to one side. “And to fix their genetic damage, they would need?”

“An undamaged sample of Asgard DNA,” Rodney said. From his expression, Daniel thought he followed Elizabeth’s line of thought. “One that doesn’t come from a clone, or from a computer model that was made after they started frying their own genes.”

Daniel nodded. “But all the Asgard who were alive before they started cloning themselves are dead, or—”

“Or Ascended,” Elizabeth finished.

“That’s what they want,” Daniel said at once. “To force an Ascended Asgard back into physical form so that they can use her to restore their species.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “She doesn’t want to go.”

“Then she may be in trouble. We know the Asgard just got their hands on a device that may let them do just that.”

“I don’t think they know how to use it,” Elizabeth said. “Ran said they were still trying to understand how unascension works. And that they… ” She looked up, startled, as if at sudden memory. “That they’re looking for people who’ve done it.”

There was a momentary pause. “We may be in trouble,” Daniel said.

John gritted his teeth. “We need to get both of you to a more secure location.”

“The delay isn’t on my end,” Elizabeth pointed out.

John thumbed his radio on. “Major Lorne, I need the alpha site set up ten minutes ago.”

“Copy that, Colonel, but apparently our equipment damage really is being caused by a microorganism that eats anything based on petroleum. We’re trying to get it contained.”

“I thought it was contained at the alpha site.”

“So did we. But we’ve got some equipment damage in the supply warehouse that seems to have spread from the damaged supplies from the alpha site. We’re hoping we can get a lid on the whole thing, but I’ve got the city locked down right now as a precaution.”

“Not fixing this would be very, very bad,” Zelenka said urgently over the radio.

“I get it,” John said. He looked around. “What are the chances that I brought this thing here?”

“Hopefully not very much. I’m more worried about the trade goods we just handed over. You should tell the Satedans to keep the supplies we brought in today isolated.”

“Until we fix this, right?”

“We’re working on it,” Lorne said.

“We are, we are. We will contain this,” Zelenka said.

“Containing it in the city still lets it destroy the city,” Rodney snapped.

“Most of the Ancient equipment does not rely heavily on petroleum-based plastics,” Zelenka said. “What is most vulnerable is our equipment that we brought from Earth.”

“That’s just great,” John said. “Do we have a plan for getting rid of this thing?”

“Isolate the microorganism or substance that is causing this and find a way to decontaminate the affected sections,” Zelenka said. Daniel had heard Sam put on the spot enough times to understand that what he’d just heard wasn’t a solution, but a restatement of the problem in slightly more technical terms. Even so, it seemed to mollify John.

“All right, keep me posted,” he said. “And get me the gate address for somewhere we can go that isn’t inhabited, isn’t uninhabitable, and isn’t contaminated by this thing. We may need to proceed there without waiting for the medical team and the security team.”

“Working on it,” Lorne said.

Ronon turned his head abruptly. “What’s that noise?”

“It sounds like an airplane,” Elizabeth said.

“We don’t have airplanes,” Ronon said. “And that doesn’t sound like a Dart.”

There was the sound of voices raised in consternation from the square outside. “We’ll go check it out,” John said. He nodded to Teyla and Rodney to follow him. “Ronon, stay with Elizabeth.”

Daniel wasn’t sure if Ronon was supposed to be guarding Elizabeth from whatever was outside or guarding the rest of them from Elizabeth, but Ronon nodded and moved to stand behind her.

“I’ll be fine,” Elizabeth said. “Go.”

John headed out the door at a run, with Teyla and Rodney close behind him. Daniel went over to the window. The square was emptying fast, people getting under cover as the shadow of a ship passed over the pavement. He craned his neck to look up. It was a small ship, three or four times the size of a puddle-jumper, now hovering over the center of the gate square.

“We’ve got company,” he said as he turned back to Elizabeth and Ronon.

He was in time to see the shimmer of Asgard transport beams as both Elizabeth and Ronon disappeared from sight.

John came running out into the square, Teyla and Rodney at his heels, to see a number of heavily armed Satedans forming up in front of one of the buildings across the square. Apparently Cai had persuaded a few of Sateda’s scattered soldiers to return. Not that there was much they could do with rifles and pistols against a spaceship.

The captain in charge didn’t seem to agree, shouting an order to fire. Bullets thundered upwards toward the hovering spaceship, but the few that actually reached it spat off its shields to ricochet along with the complete misses in a lethal hail back toward the square.

“Hey!” John shouted, dodging for the cover of the nearest set of brick steps.

The Satedan captain waved him back furiously. “Get under cover! What are you, stupid?”

“We’re not the ones shooting at something we can’t hit!” Rodney yelled. “They have shields, you—”

“Sheppard!” Daniel yelled abruptly over the radio. “Ronon and Dr. Weir were just grabbed by an Asgard transport beam! They’re both gone.”

“Damn it!” John dived out from behind the steps, hoping the Satedans would hold their fire for the next few seconds, and started sprinting for the jumper. Teyla and Rodney were right behind him.

He ducked into the lee of the jumper as the Satedan riflemen opened fire again. It would have been good tactics if they’d been shooting at an unshielded Dart, but all they were achieving was spraying stray bullets across the square. The ship was rising, hovering over the building where he hoped Daniel was at that moment taking evasive action.

“You two go cover Jackson,” he said. “I’ll take the jumper up and see if I can bring this son of a bitch down before it leaves atmosphere.”

“I’m taking the other jumper,” Rodney said.

“Damn it, McKay—”

Rodney’s jaw was set. “They have Elizabeth.”

“All right, go,” John said after a moment. “Go!”

He scrambled into the jumper and threw himself into the pilot’s seat. The Asgard ship was rising faster, skimming over the city. He brought the jumper’s systems online with a silent, furious demand, and brought it arrowing up after the Asgard ship.

“You have to adjust the jumper’s shield configuration,” Rodney said rapidly. “Otherwise they can mimic our shield frequency and transport us aboard. I’m sending instructions now.”

“I’m on it,” John said, ordering the ship to make the changes as they were transmitted. Below him the other jumper was lifting, and he could see Teyla running across the square for the doorway of the building where they’d been meeting.

“Jackson, you still there?”

“I’m here,” Daniel said. He sounded out of breath. “If you keep moving, it’s harder for the Asgard transport beams to get a lock on you. Not impossible, though, so anything you can do—”

“They’re trying to pull back,” John said. “I’m going after them.”

He brought the jumper up and over the Asgard ship, forcing them to bank and roll to avoid him, their collision alarms probably screaming. The jumper’s computer pointed out helpfully that there were drones available to fire.

“Unidentified ship, respond!” he yelled over the jumper’s comm system, hoping that they were listening for transmissions. “You have two of my people! I want them back right now, or I’m opening fire on your vessel!”

He didn’t really expect a response, and didn’t get one, but he figured it fulfilled any obligation to try to be diplomatic. The computer was still busily suggesting drones.

“I think you’re right,” he told it. “Preparing to fire. Jumper two, stand clear.”

“Copy that,” Rodney said. He wouldn’t have been John’s choice as a jumper pilot in combat, he’d logged plenty hours in the jumpers under normal conditions, but precious few of them under fire, but he had to admit they were better off with two jumpers in the air rather than one.

He readied a single drone, put some vertical distance between himself and the Asgard ship, and fired. He didn’t want to tear up the ship with Elizabeth and Ronon aboard, but their shields ought to be able to take a single drone strike. The drone spun toward the Asgard ship and spattered itself against their shields in a blaze of light.

“Teyla! Report!”

“I have found Dr. Jackson, and we are fine,” Teyla said over the radio. “He suggests we dial the gate and call for reinforcements from Atlantis.”

“Negative,” John said immediately. “Whatever that contamination is, we can’t risk bringing it here. These people have enough problems.”

“Understood.”

“Unidentified ship, respond! Come on, talk to me, answer the damn phone.”

John kept his own jumper above the Asgard ship as they climbed, hoping that its field of fire didn’t extend to directly above its hull. An alarm sounded, and the jumper’s sensors registered that the Asgard ship was trying to use its transport beams.

“That’s not going to work,” John said. “We’re way ahead of you. Give me my people back, and I won’t have to blow you out of the sky.”

The pilot of the Asgard ship seemed to also come to the conclusion that trying to transport John and Rodney aboard wasn’t going to work. It banked hard to port, bringing its beam weapons to bear on Rodney’s jumper below it.

“McKay—”

“I see it!”

“Evasive maneuvers!”

“I’m taking them!”

The Asgard beam still clipped the jumper’s stern, although it didn’t look like it had done more than minor damage, the shields absorbing most of its punishment.

“Zelenka’s going to make you pay for that jumper if you wreck it,” John said.

“He’s not the one out here getting shot at! I’d like to see him do better.”

The Asgard ship pulled up sharply, its shields bumping the jumper’s own ventral shields, making the jumper rattle and kick. He held it on course grimly.

“No, you don’t,” he said. “You’re not going anywhere with our people.” He edged the jumper down, their shields shuddering and protesting as they met, and the Asgard ship veered slightly downwards. It was like a game of bumper cars, with the added entertainment of knowing that if he pushed too far and either shield failed, he’d smash the jumper against the Asgard ship’s hull.

The Asgard ship rolled to port, and he started to follow its turn, and then had to veer away to avoid colliding with Rodney’s jumper.

“Jumper two, adjust your course!”

“I copy, but where do you expect me to go?”

“Follow its turn!”

“Excuse me for not wanting to fly upside down!”

The Asgard pilot had no such reservations, and had rolled his ship entirely over. It edged under John’s jumper, which blared a warning that he was fixed in the Asgard ship’s ventral sights.

“Crap,” John said, and rolled the jumper hard to starboard, but not in time. The Asgard ship’s ion cannons battered against his shields, and the jumper’s alarms began shrieking. Shields at 25 %. Shields at 10 %. Shields at 5 %. “McKay! Get them off me!”

The other jumper veered sharply into the path of the Asgard ship, which pulled up close enough to a collision that Rodney’s jumper must have been shrieking its own protest. John had problems of his own.

“I’ve got damage to main propulsion,” he said. The jumper was handling less like a sleek bird of prey and more like the non-aerodynamic brick that it actually was. With an effort he could keep it flying in a straight line, but he was losing altitude. “Jumper two, you’re on your own.”

“You’re kidding me,” Rodney said.

“Don’t let them get away with Elizabeth.”

Rodney’s voice over the radio was grim. “Damn right I won’t.”

Rodney pushed the jumper for more speed. “So now I’m a fighter pilot,” he muttered. “That’s just great. This is what we have the Air Force for—”

He broke off as the Asgard ship began climbing steeply again. He maneuvered trying to get above it, but couldn’t do better than staying on its tail.

“You’re letting them gain too much altitude,” John warned over the comm system.

“Yes, because what I really need is back-seat driving,” he snapped.

“If you let them clear the atmosphere—”

“Then they’ll jump to hyperspace and we’ll be screwed. I know.”

The Asgard ship was still climbing, the overarching sky turning from bright blue to an ominously darker indigo.

“Unknown vessel, respond,” John said. “Damn it, respond!”

“I’m firing drones,” Rodney said.

“Blowing up their ship would be bad.”

“So would letting it get away.” Rodney concentrated, and two drones spun away from the jumper, diving toward the Asgard ship. They smashed against its stern shields, and the ship rocked visibly. Something within it began pouring out smoke.

“Good,” John said. “Now get your jumper above it and ride it down.”

“I’m working on it,” Rodney said tightly. The Asgard ship was losing altitude again, although it was still moving fast. The gate was a long way behind them. But that didn’t actually matter, because they couldn’t get reinforcements from Atlantis because some incompetent idiot had introduced horrible plastic-eating microorganisms, which he couldn’t actually do anything about because he was stuck playing Top Gun.

“Jumper two, what’s your status?”

“The Asgard ship is losing altitude,” Rodney said. “At least, it was.”

“What do you mean, was?”

The ship’s course was leveling out, and there was no more smoke streaming from its stern. “I think they’re making repairs.”

“Stay on them! Don’t give them time to make repairs!”

“Again with the backseat driving!” Rodney dived on the Asgard ship in what he hoped was an appropriately menacing fashion. The jumper’s proximity alarms screamed warnings, but he ignored them, bringing the jumper low enough that its shields were skipping off the surface of the Asgard ship’s shields like a stone off water.

The Asgard ship kicked upward, and he had to veer upward himself to avoid a collision. It began climbing again away from the patchwork of woods and farmland below them, nose up. Whatever damage he’d done wasn’t enough to force it down.

“Come on, damn it!” He was falling behind, and the ship’s sensors blared an alarm; he was fixed in the Asgard ship’s rear sights. “No, no, no… ” He forced the jumper into an improbable series of rolling turns, weaving to avoid letting them lock their weapons onto the jumper as a target. “This is not good!”

“Jumper two, report!”

“I can either fly or talk!” Rodney snapped.

“Damn it, McKay!”

The Asgard ship was ascending more sharply, making no more effort to fire on him, but leaving him behind as it climbed high above the rolling hills beneath them. Any minute now it would be out of range of even drones.

He knew now how the rest of his team must have felt as the Dart had swept him up. He’d been taken by the Wraith, and his friends had moved heaven and Earth to get him back, and he wasn’t about to let Ronon and Elizabeth slip through his fingers now.

The computer reminded him that drones were ready to fire.

“Yes, yes, fire drones,” he said, sending the drones diving toward the Asgard craft. Two of them smashed into the rear shields, and he had the satisfaction of seeing it waver, some of their energy penetrating. The ship was trailing smoke again, whatever repairs its crew had made no longer holding together.

The next two drones struck home at the rear engines, and the starboard engine sputtered and died. The ship’s climb halted, and it began to lose altitude again. “See how you like that,” he said triumphantly. “Yes!”

In retrospect, he thought the next second, firing a third pair of drones might have been a mistake. They sought out the Asgard ship’s engines unerringly, and smashed into the port engine like a pair of bullets crashing into a plate glass window.

“No, no, no,” he moaned. The ship’s descent went from an easy glide to a precipitous dive. Ahead, rolling hills were turning into the rockier foothills of a looming mountain range. “No!”

“What?” John demanded over the radio. “Jumper two, what’s your status!”

“They’re going to crash,” Rodney said. There was nothing he could do but watch as the Asgard ship plummeted toward an unforgiving mountainside.