"Things going that badly?" asked Samantha Carter, a little alarmed.
"It depends on your point of view," said Janet just as Sam was about to ask again.
"So, uhm, how's Jack?" asked Sam.
"Working very quickly with the others. I finally decided I had to get out of everyone's way." Janet's voice carried more than a hint of frustration.
"What do you mean?" asked Sam.
"Have you been following events outside after the Plague?" asked Janet.
"Vaguely," said Sam. "There's been some cures working out and the disease has been contained, basically in the eleventh hour."
"It's the intellectual enhancement of those who have recovered," said Janet. "The lowest are the partial animorphs like Harriman and Daniel. Their IQ tests reveal a bump of maybe ten to thirty points."
"Jack?" asked Samantha.
"Elves typically see a jump in their IQ scores of fifty to eighty points. Artistic expression is also enhanced," said Janet. "Whereas Cyborgs like Teal'c have maybe thirty point increases and primarily right-brain stimulation. Medical tests are revealing that the brain structure grew more complex as a result of those changes."
"So they're smarter," said Samantha, having figured that out already from observation but acknowledging the corroboration of that.
"The ones they call Nerds or Braniacs are the most advanced, next are the Espers, followed by Elves and Angels and the rest," said Janet. "Millions were affected before means of innoculation were developed."
"Great," said Sam, not sounding at all thrilled.
"I just had a conversation with a Corpsman I knew before he contracted the disease," said Janet. "Ketchum?"
"I've met him, nice guy but a little thick?" asked Sam.
"Yeah, that's him. I'd heard once someone else say 'brain the size of a walnut, heart as big as the Stargate' - he's an Elf like Jack. He was working out a paper on the existence of Dark Matter and the effect of its gravitational disturbance on the Stargate wormhole. I gave up after the first page." Janet shook her head. "Jack is trying to put to paper as many details of DHD and Stargate operation as he can before his language skills degrade entirely."
"So it looks bad as far as whatever that device did?"
Janet sipped at her coffee before answering. "Being an Elf apparently helps. Who knows what would have happened if he'd been human still when this occurred? But yeah. The device apparently downloaded knowledge of a group known as the Ancients who were an advanced race of humans or 'very near' humans. Jack's given details to Gunderson, who is building a device that should allow the Stargate to contact the Asgard. They may be able to damp down the effects."
"Great," said Sam, feeling useless again.
"They're worried," said Janet after two minutes of tense silence.
"Excuse me?" asked Sam. "About the 'download'?"
"No," said Janet. "They're trying to spare me, so they won't discuss it openly in front of me, but I saw one of them reading 'Flowers For Algernon'."
"I'm not familiar with that," said Sam.
"Capsule version. Retarded guy gets operation to make him smarter. It works but turns out temporary. When his intelligence fades it's worse than ever, especially to those who got to know him when he was more intelligent. He himself isn't capable of understanding what's happened to him by that point." Janet stared off in the distance, imagining that kind of hell. "I tried to imagine myself in their place and I understood why everyone's hurrying."
"Ouch," said Sam, her own eyes wide. "Is this actually happening?"
"Not yet, but apparently the mechanism behind the changes is something nobody quite understands." Janet shook her head. "Oh, here."
Samantha accepted the cigarette-pack shaped device. "What's this?"
"Something one of the techs worked out," said Janet. "It's a 'med-slapper' emergency device. Press the red end against skin after you've set the dial to the kind of injury. Uses a needle-less injection system to deliver the medication directly to the bloodstream."
Samantha stared at it briefly. Simple but effective and something nobody had thought of. More evidence that the world was changing around her.
Jack said something unintelligible in the Ancient language.
"Okay, if you're ready go ahead," said General Hammond, third eye open.
"Activating extra power, dialing out," said Harriman, his tail nervously twitching behind him.
The eight sigils connected. The wormhole was established. Jack vanished through the event horizon.
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(Posted Thu, 18 Aug 2005 03:57)
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