When Doctor Moreau had created his bishie-virus incorporating magical programming, he had crafted more than he had known. More than he could have known.
Three Stargate teams had gone through after being exposed but before the quarantine measures had gone into effect. Two of those worlds had no human habitations and after some difficulties with female personnel succumbing to the virus, those two teams were perfectly fine.
It was the third team that would have concerned General Hammond the most. One world did have human habitation, and that habitation quickly proved that nonterrestrial humans were as vulnerable as the terrestrial variety.
The virus spread through the pre-industrial society of Urpolis quickly, the womenfolk taking ill and collapsing within hours. The Stargate team assigned to that world quickly ended up dispersed and trying to run damage control, introducing basic medical concepts and building upon them. Herbcraft was the favored medical response to all ills, so that was what was applied to those who fell ill.
When the transformation occurred, it was seen as a transfiguration - the gods had responded to their pleas for the dying to be returned but they had been marked by the gods during that return.
There were exceptions though.
"Aw hell," said Lieutenant Adams as a teltac ship erupted from the woods near one of the communities.
Marine Sergeant Pratchett shook his head.
"There goes my leave next month," said Adams, who'd been hanging onto the vision of a fishing trip in tropical waters for months now. He'd even waxed poetic a few times.
"Sir?" said Sergeant Pratchett, wondering if the old fellow was going to cry. He understood something of cherished dreams that life came along and stomped flat.
"Keep working with that Council Of Elders," ordered Adams, getting a fierce look instead. "I'm going after him."
"Uh huh," commented Pratchett. "The runner just took off in a spaceship. The only problem with your plan is it requires a spaceship and as far as I've heard - we ain't got one of those."
Lieutenant Adams was already charging off down the street by the time Pratchett finished. Pratchett shrugged and returned to the vaguely Babylonian cityplex. "Probably just didn't want to deal with this mumbo jumbo again. Damn officers. Always leave the cleanup to the grunts."
In Japan things were beginning to settle down, even as the "flu" continued to sweep across other parts of the globe.
"A virus by itself couldn't possibly do this," said Doctor Frazier. "How about this scenario? A new flu strain develops, but it interacts with certain junk gene combinations and serves as a trigger for a buried transformation."
"So the Goa'uld genetic engineers might have left some genetic experiment in progress," mused Samantha Carter. "Part of their desire to find a, what was the phrase again, Teal'c?"
"That is 'hok'taur'," answered Teal'c.
"Right," said Carter, her ears erect and tail curled up behind her. "So they left these experiments behind, either as failures or to continue to simmer and spread. After they've spread, we're just minding our own business when some mutated flu bug re-activates the experiment?"
"That works," said Daniel Jackson. "Still that means that it's only because this flu hits women that we don't have male elves and angels and so on. It doesn't explain this idea of the virus 'linking up' that Doctor McKenzie was speaking of, but it would explain a few other things like the variety of changes. Elves, catgirls, angels, and so on."
"Lions and tigers and bears, oh my," softly said Jack, opening one eye to begin eyeing Sam as if he expected her to suddenly pounce on him.
"I thought you were asleep, sir," said Carter, suppressing the sudden urge to pounce.
"Off and on," admitted Jack. "Good theory, doctor. Clearly your own changes haven't affected your mind."
"Actually," said Doctor Frazier, included on this trip because she was a medical doctor, "my mind seems to run clearer most of the time since I woke up as -"
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sat, 23 Apr 2005 09:45)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.