Stargate SG-1 & Atlantis - Far Horizons (29 page)

Realization dawned. “It’s not. It’s not like last time, because last time… there was a little girl. She helped me.” Sam had a vague recollection of the girl’s name, but it slipped away from her when she tried to grasp it. “She’s the one who gave me the idea for the bubble that got us out of the cloud.”

Sheppard looked around the bridge as if he expected a child to appear. “Doesn’t look like she’s going to be offering you help this time around.”

“No,” Sam said. “I’m in a different place now. They wouldn’t send a child.”

“And you know this because…?”

She thought for a moment. “The alien ship never intended to destroy us. If they had, they would have just blown the
Hammond
out of the sky once our shields were down.”

“Maybe they wanted the crew,” Sheppard suggested.

“They have the crew. They don’t need to keep the ship intact for parts. What possible reason could they have for sitting there staring at us?”

McKay spoke up again. “Testing us. Seeing how you react, what you try to use to escape. Figuring out our technology.”

“Oh, please. They knocked us down without breaking a sweat. We don’t have anything they could want. So it’s not about technology.” She realized what he had just said. “You’re right. They’re seeing how I react.”

“You just said —”

She shushed him and he fell silent, proving to her that he was indeed a hallucination. She felt like she was onto something but she needed a few seconds to think it through. Normally she did it silently but talking out loud had helped last time. She looked at McKay and used him as a proxy for the aliens.

“You don’t care about our technology. You care about
us
. You took away our ability to run, to defend ourselves, and to fight back. You stripped us of everything that got us here, and then you stepped back to see what we would do. This is a test, isn’t it?”

“You would be surprised how many people just sit down and give up.”

Sam turned to see Colonel Sheppard standing in front of the viewscreen. His posture was more solid this time, his cadence business-like and soothing. Though he still looked like the man she knew, he was just a mask somebody else was wearing. McKay had disappeared and she had a feeling the ruse had run its course.

“So you are the same race from the encounter five years ago.”

“We are. It’s peculiar for us to encounter the same person twice in rapid succession like this, particularly at such an extreme range. You’re very far from home, Samantha Carter.”

Sam nodded. “So are you really here? What is this? A hallucination? A projection?”

“It really doesn’t matter one way or another, does it?”

“I suppose not. It would put my mind at ease, though.”

He smiled. “I’m not really here.
We’re communicating through your mind. My behaviors, my conversational tics, are based on your perceptions and memories of people. Your mental construction of John Sheppard is very clear. He seems to be the closest you know to an equal
.”

Sam chuckled. “Oh, if only Rodney could have heard you say that.”

“He is your intellectual equal, but John Sheppard has intelligence and a military background.”

“I suppose you’re right.” She’d never thought about it that way because he didn’t flaunt his intelligence like McKay did, but maybe that was why she liked him so much. She’d had other soldiers under her command but she’d never worked with anyone as long or as closely as she had with Sheppard. Maybe their relationship had been so easy because they were kindred spirits. She wished she’d spent more time with him when she was assigned to Atlantis. “Okay. At least that answers one of my questions. Who are you?”

“That’s definitely not important.”

“You’re not even going to tell me your name?” He only smiled. Sam considered having a silent standoff with him to see which of them broke first, but she had a feeling he had infinite patience. “Okay, then. Can you at least tell me why? You must have recognized the technology when you scanned us. Whatever test you’re running, you must have known we already passed it.”

The thing that wasn’t Sheppard nodded. “You did pass. But this ship is far more advanced than the one we found you aboard last time. You’ve been outfitted with technology acquired from the Asgard, a once-great race now extinct. Many of us were curious about beings who had come so far, so fast.”

“And leaving me behind again was just luck of the draw?”

“Yes and no. We did not single you out because of who you are. But you were left behind because in both instances you were the most experienced and most intelligent member of the crew. You were the most likely candidate to pass our test.”

Sam tried not to scoff. “I’m flattered. I guess.”

“The Tau’ri have been attracting our interest a great deal over the past few years. After centuries of quiet, suddenly everything is thrown into turmoil. The Goa’uld are remnants of the past, the Ori have come and gone, and even the Wraith are in upheaval. When you first appeared in our awareness we believed you were children playing with forces far beyond your ken. We anticipated horrific ramifications spreading out like ripples on a pond. But you surprised us. That is what prompted our first interaction. We wanted a closer look at you.”

“I’m glad we passed muster.”

He inclined his head slightly. “Some of us were still skeptical, so we decided we would check up on you again. The pessimistic among us were worried when we saw how reliant you were upon Alteran and Asgard technology. In the past, we would have labeled the Tau’ri scavengers, like the Goa’uld, and restricted your access to such wonders.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Restricted us? What, you’re the parents of the galaxy?”

“We ensure those who steal power can’t use it against those who are less advanced.”

“Excellent job stopping the Goa’uld; almost everything they used was taken from the Ancients. Where were you guys then?”

A shadow passed over Sheppard’s face. “We were unable to stop the Goa’uld’s initial rise to power; problems in our own galaxy preoccupied us. But we saw what devastation they caused and vowed to do everything we could to ensure that it never happened again. Now we pay close attention when small civilizations begin reaching out into the galaxy.”

“Races like humans.”

He nodded. “You were, and are, a very young race. You tear your planet apart with wars and send your soldiers out into the galaxy with guns and explosives and weapons of mass destruction.”

Sam said, “We don’t go looking for fights, but we want to be prepared for the ones we find. You didn’t put those weapons on your ship for the aesthetics.”

“True. Possession of weapons doesn’t inherently make one evil. That’s why we strip them away, disable your ships, and watch to see how you react.”

“Last time you got yourselves stuck in a cloud. Was that part of the test?”

Not-Sheppard laughed. “Actually not. Your ship fled and we were simply trying to close the distance so we could beam away your people. We weren’t expecting them to launch escape pods, and we very nearly didn’t take the risk to enter the cloud after you. For all the time we’ve been doing this, your race was the first to even come close to escaping.”

“I suppose that’s a point of pride.”

“It was definitely meant as a compliment. We liked you on our first encounter, Samantha. You were interesting to us. Soldiers blending with scientists, brains and brawn protecting one another — there was a balance to the extremes that we found fascinating. And you in particular, being a scholar and a soldier at the same time, were an unusual combination. Many of us were interested to see which would take precedence, your scientific mind or your urge to fight. You chose brains over brawn.”

Sam shrugged. “I try to make that my default. It’s not always possible.”

“Unfortunate, but you are correct. The true measure of a species is how they use the weapons they do possess. The Tau’ri have had a peculiar history with their large-scale weapons.”

“Even on our own planet,” Sam said. “What would have happened if we failed?”

“You saw what our ships are capable of.”

“And you’re the one calling other races brutal.”

Not-Sheppard gave a non-committal shrug. “We consider ourselves the protectors of those who can’t stand up for themselves. There are powerful races in the galaxy who could abuse that power to obliterate smaller worlds and take them over, just like the Goa’uld did.”

“And who makes sure you’re not abusing the power?”

He acknowledged her point with a nod. “We have authorities we answer to, just like everyone else. If we overstep our bounds I’m sure we’d hear about it from our allies among the great races.”

“From the Nox?”

He smiled. “There have always been powerful, advanced races in the galaxy. Some of them are very old, like the Alterans, the Nox, the Asgard, or the Furlings. When they formed their alliance, they had just scratched the surface of what’s out here. After everything you’ve encountered, both here and in Pegasus, do you really believe there have only been four great races?”

“I suppose you have a point.”

“We keep our own counsel, but the races I mentioned are aware of us. They’d let us know if we overstepped.”

Sam looked out at the stars. “So what happens to those you deem unworthy?”

“We make sure they’re not in a position to hurt anybody else. Usually that requires restricting them to their own planets or their own systems. We cripple their interstellar capabilities to ensure they don’t bother the other kids in the neighborhood.”

Sam smiled at the comparison. “You really are channeling Sheppard, aren’t you?”

He smiled enigmatically, and Sam thought back over everything he’d said.

“It’s more than testing our worthiness, isn’t it? You’re looking for something else.”

He nodded. “We look at the people with their fingers on the trigger. Hope, compassion, trust, love: it’s critical that all of these things exist in someone who is entrusted with enough power to act like a god.”

Sam looked toward the back of the Hammond’s bridge and saw it suddenly crowded with people: her father, General O’Neill, Daniel, Teal’c, Janet, Cassandra, McKay, Teyla, Ronon, Keller. They were all people to whom she had entrusted her life and whose lives had been saved by her in return. She loved them all in varying degrees and seeing them all together, even as a hallucination, was almost overwhelming.

“You’ve lived quite a life, Samantha Carter.”

His voice had changed and, when she looked, she saw that he had become George Hammond again. The change surprised her. “You should warn someone before you do that.”

He chuckled and looked down. It would be so easy to forget everything that had just happened and pretend he was really there. She again remembered hearing the news from Jack, the punch-in-the-gut feeling that everything had suddenly changed. Losing Hammond had been like losing a parent; he’d guided them through the rough waters of the first years at the SGC, and she had no doubt history would have been much different without his steady hand at the tiller.

He stepped closer to the command chair. “Do you doubt you belong here, Sam? That you’ve earned the right to sit in this chair and make the hard decisions?”

“No, sir. I’m just not sure I always know the right thing to do. Or say.”

“I’ll tell you a secret, Sam. Me, General O’Neill, even your father — on a good day, we gave our orders with both fingers crossed and saying a prayer under our breath. I seem to remember you saving the world a few times in the same position. Wild-eyed, crazy ideas with only a small chance of working.”

Sam nodded. “I know, sir. But you have no idea how comforting it was to know that you were there as a safety net if things went wrong. And now you’re gone, I’m not sure I can do this without you. Who am I supposed to turn to when I need help? When I’m feeling unsure of myself? We have the Icarus Base now, and I got to deliver some of the personnel once it was operational. But they’re babies. Children.”

Hammond smiled. “How do you think I felt the first time I sent you through the Stargate? You were still the little girl playing with plastic rockets as far as I was concerned. If you think I had it all together back then, when we first started, you’re sorely mistaken. It was meant to be a cushy assignment to ride to my retirement and it turned into one of the most important posts in the galaxy. There were days I didn’t want to get out of bed.”

“Right,” Sam said. “But that’s not true. You’re just saying what I hope is true.”

“You knew George Hammond. I’m drawing from your memories of the man. Do you doubt he was conflicted?”

“No. He was. Any good man in his position would be.”

“And any good person in your position would be wondering the same thing you are.”

“Is that the point of this whole exercise? Looking for hubris and knocking people down a few pegs if they aren’t humble enough?”

Hammond shrugged and held his hands out. “The Goa’uld acquired power wherever they found it. They used that power to position themselves as gods. We couldn’t stop them from doing that, and billions of people paid the price. The universe was forever changed in the wake of their rise to power. So, when we find races like yours, who are on the threshold of becoming great, we step in and test them.”

“What is the test? Shut everything down and watch me run around like a chicken with my head cut off for a few hours?”

“You sought answers. You looked for ways to not only save yourself, but to save those who had been taken. And, through it all, you sought a peaceful resolution. You’ve passed the test.”

“And if I hadn’t? You would be judge, jury, and —”

He stopped her. “We don’t execute anyone. If you hadn’t discovered a way out of the cloud we would have beamed you from the ship and taken you to a safe planet nearby.”

“And then quarantined us on Earth. For our own good.”

“For your own good, and for the good of the universe at large. We took away your technology to see if you had earned the right to use it. Strip the Goa’uld of their technology and they become harmless worms with teeth. They’re nothing more than bullies who happened to find a bigger stick than the rest of the galaxy. We wanted to make sure the Tau’ri weren’t setting themselves up to be equally harmful to their neighbors.”

“We’re using what we find to help people.”

“But in time, even the best of intentions can lead to unforeseen consequences. The most stalwart hero is at risk of corruption.”

“Right.” Sam sighed. “I think Daniel got this lesson once from a little boy.”

“Our methods might not make us popular, but we seek peace for everyone.”

“Best intentions?”

He chuckled and nodded. “Point taken. But there are others who would step in if we abused our power. Trust me; there is more to this universe than you’ve ever dreamed, Samantha Carter. Your race has only just begun to scratch the surface.”

Sam nodded slowly. “I think I understand. I’m not sure I like it, but I understand.”