"Lady Givpizra. You honour us all with your presence."
Sylvie tried not to smile too much as she gazed in amusement at Sheko. As soon as the visitor from Sagussa was checked out in Stargate Command's main medical station, she was ushered into the main briefing room to meet the crown prince of Kyotos and the Imperial Chancellor of the Outmarches. "Your Highness, while I do realise that you are being quite respectful to me for what I did in my first life, that name really doesn't apply to me anymore."
Sheko flustered, though he gladly took her hand and gave it a courtly kiss. "Please forgive the Prince, Lady Sylvie," Ilyirko then said. "Studying the ways of the Most Dangerous Ones such as yourself has always been a hobby of his."
The Pathfinder chief petty officer nodded. "Understandable. In the meantime, I'm sure General Hammond and his subordinates have much in the way of questions about my presence here, so let's turn the table to them, shall we?"
Everyone laughed as they took their seats. "I thank you very much for that, Chief Sylvie," George stated as he took his place at the head of the table. "So what were you doing on that planet anyway? Miss Carter here told us of a team of androids from your current homeworld that she and her team encountered some time ago…"
"We've been slowly exploring the potential of the Stargate system the Ancients constructed ever since an incident ten years ago, shortly after Ataru Moroboshi visited our world at the invitation of Elder Mother Noa," Sylvie provided. "It was when we were on Olimbos — that's the name of the planet I was just on — that we met Samantha and her friends; I was with the android replicas of the founding members of Pathfinder Troop Six at the time, as were the other organic members of my team."
"What happened to the Lady Sylia and her friends?" Sheko asked.
A sigh. "When they met the Daimon'cha — that is one of the titles we give to Ataru — all those on Sagussa at the time he was there formed subtle empathic bonds with him. I wasn't there at the time. About a month after Ataru was returned to Earth — just as myself and whole group of others like me were coming back to Sagussa — all the Daishi'cha who had met Ataru when he visited us all fell victim to a psionically-induced stroke that rendered them near-comatose." She closed her eyes. "The only time that could happen to one of us is when a mental bond is shattered, normally by the death of one of those who were bonded."
"Hence, the reason you believed Ataru was dead," Tom Kazanski noted.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you come back to Earth to see what happened to Ataru?" Sam then asked.
A sigh. "Major, what would you do if those you looked on as sisters-in-all-but-name were all struck down with a disease like Ebola or SARS?" Sylvie asked.
"Your first priority would be to seek to heal them," Kaep' stated.
"Exactly. Of my group of Daishi'cha, there are 4915 of us. The main group of Daishi'cha affected by this number a hundred thousand exactly, with one of them missing from the planet at this time." Sylvie then smirked. "Other than keeping them alive and trying to find some way to heal them, we've been too busy with other things to send someone to Earth to see what happened to Ataru." She then closed her eyes. "And we were afraid to do that as well. If one of us came here and found him to be dead…"
"The news, once it got back to Sagussa, would have probably killed all your friends," Samantha finished as her face turned slightly pale.
"Yes."
"Would getting Ataru back to Sagussa help?" Daniel asked.
Sylvie perked, and then she nodded. "I hope it will. Even if I personally don't have that close empathic attachment my friends had with him, I certainly don't hold anything against him about what happened ten years ago." A smirk. "He was six at the time, about to turn seven in fact. Who could blame someone so young for nearly killing off the majority of a struggling colony of settlers due to something he probably never realised had happened to him?" She then crossed her arms. "So who are these two people you say whose souls were in his mind? This Negako and Hiromi you mentioned?"
"Negako Moroboshi is (most likely) Earth's first true artificial intelligence," Daniel explained. "She was simply a mental repository of martial arts knowledge centred on the Moroboshi family's in-house school of stealth combat, known in Japanese as Saikō Jinseijutsu Ninjutsu-ryū, until 1808, when she, in effect, 'woke up' and began to desire to live her own life free of someone else's mind. Ataru was her last host." A pause. "As for Hiromi Moroboshi, she is the reincarnated soul of the Xiàolíng Emperor of Hàn, who ruled China from 168 to 189 AD. How she was able to be reborn, we really can't say, but she's not alone. There's close to ten thousand people like her living in Japan now. They're known as 'tōshi.' All reborn from the later Eastern Hàn period of Chinese history right into the early years of the Three Kingdoms period."
Sylvie gazed at him, and then she nodded. "He willingly allowed himself to be the host for the living mei'na of the Thoughtmistress-prime and the Xiàolíng Emperor, correct?" she asked. As Daniel nodded — the archaeologist was quick to sense what the Sagussan word mei'na might mean — the chief petty officer nodded. "I guess that can be understood by all. Preserving life is always a paramount thing to do. I assume that both the Thoughtmistress-prime and Hiromi are Avalonians like Samantha here?" She nodded to the former Altairian android in the room.
"They are."
A deep sigh. "Well, that's actually a relief," Sylvie then admitted, a grin crossing her face. "Much that I have grown close to all the companion androids, especially those of my teammates, one can't become marei'cha with any of them."
Everyone perked. "Do you mean becoming heart-mates, Most Venerable?" Kuohu asked.
A nod. "Yes. And please, I don't need to hear that title used for any of us," Sylvie then pleaded as she gazed on the Noukiite free warrior. "I'm a Pathfinder chief petty officer in the Navy. I happen to WORK for a living and I am certainly no priest!"
The Terrans military personnel all roared with laughter on hearing that famous lament all non-commissioned officers often made at being called with silly titles like "sir" and the like. "She is humble, my Prince," Droko noted as he gazed knowingly at Sheko.
"She is that, young Droko. Oh, would you do me a favour?"
A deep bow. "Whatever is your command, my Prince?"
"Return at once to the Eternal Oath, then pass a message on to the Lady Hiromi," Sheko instructed. "Inform her that someone has come to Earth that will be of ENORMOUS interest to her noble brother and that if he desires to come here to meet her now, we will gladly do anything we can to help facilitate it."
Another deep bow. "As you command, my Prince."
"Actually, Lord Droko, we can pass on that message to Ataru personally," Kuohu then said as she indicated herself, and then Kyekkyek. "The Lady K'ekhech is…"
"I'm right here, Kuohu."
Cries of shock and surprise escaped many in the room as people spun around to see a red-haired Noukiite warrior in a white-and-slate grey uniform walk out of the shadows. "Good God!" Catharine Langford breathed out. "She nearly gave me a heart attack! How did she DO that?!"
"She is the Dragonspeaker, Lady Great Teacher," Ilyirko said with a smile, which instantly made the elder professor's cheeks start to redden as he gave her a look that made her feel like a schoolgirl again. "There is next to nothing at all that she is NOT capable of doing."
Kyech had a secret smile on her face as she walked over to gaze intently into Sylvie's eyes. The Yehisrite-turned-Sagussan warrior then rose, her hand reaching up to touch the side of the Noukiite free warrior's face. Kyech closed her eyes for a moment as she allowed Sylvie to probe her mind, and then she smiled as the latter pulled her hand away. "Even if his memories of you are all but lost, he does worry about you," the Dragonspeaker then said before she gazed on the commander of Stargate Command. "I will take Sylvie to see Ataru, George." She then gazed on Kuohu. "Kuohu, you and Kyekkyek go with Ilyirko, Droko, Jack, Sam, Samantha, Daniel and Teal'c to Olimbos to tell Sylvie's friends what happened; they'll be worried about her."
Kuohu nodded. "Right away, Kyech."
"Are we go-mission, General?" Jack asked as people stood up.
"You are go-mission, Colonel," George said with a nod. "Now, Lady K'ekhech…!"
Eyes turned to see where Kyech and Sylvie were. Both had vanished. "Where the devil did they go?!" George then demanded as he stood up.
Kuohu, Kyekkyek and Kaep' all smiled. "Kyech is a windrider, Lord General," Kuohu said. "She answers only to one drummer: her own."
A sigh. "So I saw! Or rather, DIDN'T see!" To Jack. "Get going, Colonel!"
"Yes, sir!" Jack called out…
Fifteen minutes — and 15000 light-years — later…
"It's nice and cool here," Jack mused.
"Like the mountains in spring," Daniel noted as everyone took a look around.
The Noukiites and Yehisrites had already stepped away from the stargate to scout around the reception area. Large trees lined all sides of them, with a reddish-orange sun peeking out from behind high clouds in the azure sky above. "I wager it'll storm later today," Droko said after taking a sniff of the air. "Too much moisture in the wind."
"Yes," Kuohu stated as she watched Seuchsa sniff around the tall grass, staying close to Kyekkyek. "Do you have portable shelters with you?"
"Never travel through the stargate without one," Droko said before he tensed, his eyes focusing towards a nearby thick grove of trees. "We're being watched," he hissed.
"And scanned, I'll wager," Ilyirko added as he flipped open the breechblock of his preferred distance weapon, a breech-loading musket-like firearm that — when Jack asked — was known on his world as a qu'f-piaqu'r.
Samantha blinked, and then she peered intently into the woods before she called out, "Sylia?! Priss?! Are any of you there?!" she then challenged.
Silence.
"They may have noticed what has happened to you," Teal'c warned.
The former android blinked, and then she sighed. "Right."
"Is that you, Samantha?" a voice then called back from somewhere behind a tree.
Samantha nodded. "It's me, Sylia! I became an Avalonian!"
"Where's Sylvie?!" another voice challenged.
"She's still on Earth, Priss," the bioroid answered back. "Listen! Sylvie told us what happened to your ashoi'cha ten years ago! You don't need to panic anymore! Ataru Moroboshi is ALIVE! She's gone to meet him right now!"
More silence.
"How can we believe you?!" a new voice then challenged.
"Who's that?" Jack asked.
A shake of the head. "Don't recognise her, sir," Samantha admitted, and then she took a deep breath before calling back out into the forest. "If there are organic Sagussans with you now, everyone, you can ask them to scan our minds! I know what your powers are like! Please! You must believe us! We want to help you!"
"Yeah! Kuohu and I know Ataru personally!" Kyekkyek then yelled. "We're Avalonians, too! Ataru's got three Avalonian sisters now! He's back together with Lum, Benten, Oyuki and Ran! Just like Noa helped happen back when they were kids!"
"Kyekkyek!" Kuohu hissed.
The others gazed on the red-haired Noukiite. "Lady Kingch'eng, what does THAT mean?!" Droko demanded, and then he spun around on hearing a fallen twig snap.
"That's one way of proving that they've touched minds with the Daimon'cha."
Everyone turned to see someone standing by the DHD close to the stargate. Quickly recognising her as Yehisrite, everyone was quick to see the tattoo under her right eye which also marked her as one of the Pirpirsiw'r, one of the legendary Sisterhood of Steel whose members had been the finest warriors ever to rise in the long history of the Royal Kingdoms. A redhead with green eyes, she had crossed gardening sickles as her personal mark. She was also dressed in the field uniform Sylvie had worn on her trip to Earth, though the gold-trimmed red rank tabs on her shoulders only had two silver square pips on it in lieu of the three Sylvie wore. Once he was able to get close to her, he deeply bowed. "Do I have the honour of addressing she who was the Lady Piznizra of Kyotos?" the baron then asked as he gazed respectfully at her.
The woman blinked, and then she laughed. "Lynamei'na! I haven't been called 'Piznizra' since…!" She then shook her head as she waved her hands. "Way too long!" She relaxed herself. "I'm Megan, now. Friends call me 'Meg.' Who are you?"
"Ilyirko of Kyotos," he said with a graceful bow as the others came up to join them. "My half-brother Droko. Our honoured sword-friends from Noukiios, the Sacred True Bone Ladies Kachnuk and Kingch'eng, along with the Lady Kingch'eng's trusted war mount, the Lord Seuchsa. And our new friends from Earth: the Lord Colonel Jonathan O'Neill, the Lady Major Samantha Carter, the Lord Sage Daniel Jackson and the Free Warrior Teal'c of Chulak. And I do believe you have already made the acquaintance of the Lady Major's sister."
Megan gazed at them all. Sensing the intensity of that stare, Jack was reminded of the brief time he had met Moroboshi Negako. How the grandmaster of Saikô Jinseijutsu-ryū had seemed to visually take him apart with but a glance, and then turned away without any further acknowledgement. Megan's stare had that same deadly intensity. If what he had been briefly told about these Pirpirsiw'r by Sheko, Ilyirko and Droko when Sylvie had first come to Stargate Command was even HALF true…!
She then gazed on Samantha. "What happened to your friends?"
"They're all dead. Cronus got to them," the android-turned-bioroid explained.
Megan blinked, and then she closed her eyes. "I grieve with you, Samantha," she said as she reached up to gently cradle Samantha's cheeks, and then she leaned up to tenderly kiss her forehead. "Did they die well?"
"We saved our siblings," Samantha said as she tried desperately NOT to blush at the close contact that she was now enjoying with Megan.
"And my brother slew Cronus in vengeance over our father's death," Teal'c added.
Gazing on the Jaffa, Megan nodded in approval. "That's as good of a reason to die as I've ever heard. You once served Apophis, didn't you?"
"Once. No more," the native of Chulak then said with pride.
Megan then smirked. "Well, if we ever cross His Majesty's path anytime in the future, we'll nail his
prim'ta to a roasting spit and have it for a cookout one night!"
The Noukiites and Yehisrites all laughed on hearing that while the Terrans all blinked in shock; while they knew Teal'c had long welcomed the need to not bear a prim'ta within his body once scientists of the Canadian Specialised Warfare Regiment had developed tretonin, they also knew how deeply Teal'c had once looked upon bearing a Goa'uld symbiont within his body. "I pray that if such a fortuitous time comes, Lady Megan, you will not suffer any ill effects when you feast on his carcass," Teal'c said.
Megan stared at him, and then she laughed. By then, other women were walking out from the trees to join them. Taking note of them, Jack was quick to see they were all dressed pretty much the same as Megan, though two of them had different-coloured pants than the dark green Megan wore. Their faces displayed a wide variety of races, many quite different than the Terran-human norm — the "Tau'ri" norm as the Goa'uld would see it — the members of SG-1 were used to encountering. They were all quite young, ranging physically from late teens to mid-twenties.
And they were all very beautiful women.
What the hell is this all about? Jack wondered to himself.
Samantha immediately moved to introduce everyone to those members of Pathfinder Troop Six she had met on this planet when she came here months before. Megan then introduced the remainder of them. Once that was done, Sylia — a regal-looking black-haired, brown-eyed Seishin-Urusian in her mid-twenties — gazed intently at the Noukiites. "Is this true? What you said earlier? That you know Ataru Moroboshi?" she asked.
Kuohu and Kyekkyek nodded. "Six months ago, the Sky Lord Nengmek'i rescued Ataru from being forced to marry Hensō Redet, an Avalonian replica of Lum that, thanks to a magical curse put on Lum years ago, had switched bodies with her when they first came into contact five years ago on Uru," the former explained. "Lord Nengmek'i brought Ataru to Oku-ch'ehek, where the Lady K'ekhech found him. A month later, he was brought to the Okusei Academy, where the real Lum had been residing in exile. Along the way, we discovered that the souls of two ancient beings had been infused into Ataru's brain, which ended up shattering his own soul into two parts and no doubt severed the links with your templates and your friends' sister Maidens."
All the Sagussans gaped on hearing that. "Were these entities FORCED into Ataru's mind?!" Priss — a crimson-eyed Yehisrite in her early twenties with the same muscial note-and-dagger tattoo Sylvie possessed, her hair long and dark brown — then snarled as she glared intently at the Noukiite free warrior.
A shake of the head. "No. Ever since she gained full sentience over two Terran centuries ago, the Most Venerable Grandmaster Negako has been kept alive by a series of hosts — all of the blood of Ataru's family — as ways were researched to find some means by which she could gain her own life as a free person. Fortunately, when he was on Oku-ch'ehek, we were able to obtain an un-templated Avalonian body, which was then cloned with Ataru's DNA (with modifications) so she could finally be her own person." Kuohu smiled. "The 'Promise of Bunka Go-nen' was fulfilled at last."
"And this other entity within Ataru?" Linna — a blue-eyed Fukunokami with wavy black hair held away from her forehead with a hair band — then asked.
"That entity was the soul of the Xiàolíng Emperor of the Hàn Dynasty of China, who ruled that land eighteen centuries ago," Daniel then spoke up. "She — like many of her peers, unfortunately — was reborn in this life as a group that call themselves 'tōshi' as a whole. Warriors of considerable power and skill, though I don't believe any of them would come close to people such as Sylvie, Megan or Priscilla's own template, of course." He nodded to Priss, who gave him a friendly smile in return. "The magatama jewel that contained her soul was found by Ataru shortly after Grandmaster Negako was placed into his mind, thus allowing the Emperor's soul to be touched by Ataru's soul despite what damage was ultimately done to his own soul."
"And when we found her in his mind, we moved to seek to create a new body for herself, though we couldn't do that until very recently," Kuohu added. "She is now Hiromi Moroboshi, the Matriarch of the Clan Moroboshi of the Imperial Province of Mutsu, avowed servant of His Imperial Majesty, the Heavenly Sovereign of Nihon."
The Sagussans took that in, and then many breathed out. "Oh, thank Lyna!" Naomi, a Vosian girl with long black hair and blue eyes who wore light green pants with gold trim — she carried what the Terrans were quick to recognise as a first aid kit — then breathed out, her eyes tearing. "That will make everyone finally come back from the Dreamscape! We can finally get on with it!"
The others nodded. "Actually, as we speak now, one of Ataru's other friends from Noukiios is currently taking Sylvie to see him back on Earth," Daniel added.
Grins crossed the faces of the members of Pathfinder Troop Six. "Thank Lyna for that!" Megan said, and then she turned to gaze off to the west. "Damn! That storm's coming in pretty soon! Let's get everyone under shelter!"
"Come with us, please," Sylia said as she beckoned everyone with her.
As the members of SG-1 and their companions fell in behind the Sagussans, we…
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