The debriefing went on for hours. This was understandable as, even by SGC standards, it had been a very unusual day. Anise and Selmak had asked dozens of questions which Halleigh could not answer, leaving all parties frustrated. Warner, who had commandeered all of the travelers immediately upon their return, delaying the meeting for almost two hours, finally pulled rank when Daniel poured himself his seventh cup of coffee, and Hammond dismissed them to get some sleep. Anise protested, but Freya had stepped in, literally silencing her.
It had been more than 24 hours since Halleigh had slept, and she was completely exhausted. As she followed Major Carter to the VIP room she would be crashing in, she tried to come to grips with what she'd seen, done and said the past day. During the debriefing she had spoken only when no one else could tell the story, not just because she was tired, but because the was mentally overwhelmed. She had so many thoughts in her head now, and most of them weren't even her own. She hoped it would all sort itself out by morning, but she really doubted it. And for all she knew, it was morning.
She was vaguely aware that Sam was wishing her good night, and telling her to sleep herself out. She replied appropriately, but was so deep in her haze that she could not remember what she had said. The door closed behind her and she collapsed on the bed, letting the darkness take her.
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Daniel looked up when he heard a knock at his door. He'd been halfheartedly rearranging the mess in his lab, but since he hadn't yet decided how he was going to file this, he wasn't making headway. Essentially, he was cleaning up so he wouldn't have to write his official report, a report he was reasonably certain was better suited to a child at bedtime than to a ranking officer at the Pentagon. Still, protocol was protocol, and currently, protocol was indicating that he should admit whoever it was that was knocking.
Halleigh came in and took a seat in the empty chair. She looked around the Goa'uld symbols that were still cluttered everywhere. She was wringing her hands in her lap, obviously at a loss as to where to start.
"How's your head? Daniel asked after a few minutes silence.
"Noisy," she replied. "But I'm starting to sort it out. I think."
"Are the memories still surfacing?"
"Oh yes," Halleigh snorted. "I can't build Goa'uld ships or give coordinates to planets, hell, there are moments when I don't even know who I am, but I have so many people's lives in my head!"
"Maybe the Goa'uld in you only surfaced because you needed it." Daniel said. "Maybe it's the human in you that are the memories you need."
"You know, you might be right," Halleigh said after a few minutes. "I hated Nephthys the moment that I yelled at her, and the hate was what made the word so powerful. But there was another power, one that wasn't quite as scary, and it made me human again as soon as I'd spoken. When you get right down to it, it was the human, not the Tok'ra who prevailed on those steps."
"Yes," Daniel said quietly, looking off into the distance. "She was happy when I told her what her name meant. She said then that it must have been Fate that sent me to her after all."
There were a few more minutes of silence.
"You know, technically I am still on the list of advisors a graduate student at the University of Chicago can request as a supervisor." The message had been waiting on his machine when he got home. It was Sarah's trump card. "There haven't been many takers lately, but if a student didn't mind studying off campus and giving up chance of fame in scholarly circles..."
"And staying in the proximity of the USAF in case she remembers anything of relevance?"
"Well yes, there is that. But really, how many other people are going to have their PhD in Genetic History? I mean, you've got people in your head who actually lived through the rise and fall of Empires. It's an archaeologist's dream come true."
Halleigh smiled. "Yes, I suppose it is."
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finis
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Author's Notes
OK, the story is over, you don't actually have to read this. But before you click away, I would like you to know that I did not write this story lightly. I put literally hours of research into it, often changing plot points to fit the actual history (or, alternatively, crowing when they fit perfectly together). I consulted more sources for this story than I did for the papers I wrote for my second year of university (please never tell my mother that). I also took pleasure in recreating what I hope is a classical myth in fanfiction form. Most of these notes made it into the story in conversation, but some of it only provided the background. That being said, here comes the lecture.
One day in April, while I was working in a chronically empty bookstore, I thought to myself, "If the Goa'uld are inherently evil because of their genetic code, and they reproduce asexually (ie no recombination of genes), how do we get Tok'ra?" This story is the direct result of that question.
Background Information
The Goa'uld are inherently evil because of their genetic code (which never changes due to their asexual reproduction), so what if the Tok'ra came to be because the queen (Egeria) who literally spawned the movement had a genetic mutation that undermined her inherent evilness? Then the Tok'ra would genetically different from the rest of the Goa'uld.
Furthermore, the Harceisis Shifu could not be used because he was inherently evil. Halleigh, however, not only has human heritage, but is the descendant of the Isis, who I took the liberty of making a Tok'ra. When Fraiser conducted her autopsy of the Osiris symbiote and compared them to the Isis one, she noted some discrepancies, but died before she could figure out what the difference meant. Dr. Jackson used her notes when putting the pieces together before the briefing (Chapter 4).
Halleigh, therefore, is not dangerous (to humans) because she carried the Tok'ra mutations. We know this, because the Tok'ra mutation must breed true, or not all of Egeria's offspring would have been good.
The sarcophagus must enhance the non-mutated gene in the Goa'uld and even bring it out in non-Goa'uld genomes (presumably, if they can live in a human being, there must be some genetic commonality between Goa'uld and human), making them more Goa'uld-like.
"Halla" in Egyptian means unexpected gift. In Norse it's half-protected and in Arabic it is glory. "Halleigh" means hero in Scandinavian, but hay field in English (like Wesley meaning west field). I guess we can't have everything.
I began with Anukis, the Egyptian goddess of the lower Nile, Protector of women in childbirth, and giver of life to the King (in particular, the infant Horus while Isis was away looking for Osiris). Egeria was the Roman goddess of women in childbirth who loved a mortal man. When he died, she went mad with grief and cried in the woods for months. Eventually, Diana got so annoyed with her, that she turned Egeria into a fountain to shut her up. So there's your connection, Jack! Euagora served the plot by being a Nereid, which kept the water theme on track, by having a similar name to Egeria, and by being fairly non-descript, which was exactly what I needed. Aegir caused me quite the headache, not because he is male, but because as I was cruising through the transcript of "New Order" (we are just starting to get season seven in Canada), I discovered that Aegir is one of Thor's flunkies, and by then it was too late to change the story. It is, I think, my biggest break with canon.
Both Seth and Typhon are taken directly from Stargate ("Seth"). I added Romulus (who is actually a hero in the myth) and Grendel, because I needed to have him in Rome and with the Asgard. Romulus killed Remus over a flock of vultures and Grendel is the monster from Beowulf, who was a monstrously shaped man that I have always pictured as something like a Balrog.
Conveniently, pre-dynastic Egyptian King Lists have gods down as rulers, and had them reign for very, very long times. Eventually, the "Followers of the Falcon God" (ie humans who worshipped Horus) took over.
The Osiris myth is one of the classics, and can be found just about anywhere. In my version, Ra was annoyed with Osiris, but had a rebelling planet to deal with, so he asked Seth to take care of it. Seth tricked Osiris, and put him in a sarcophagus, the one thing he was not supposed to do, as a sarcophagus ensures life. Isis, seeing her chance, tracked down the sarcophagus, opened it a bit too early, and conceived Horus while Osiris could not prevent her (use your imagination). Nephthys, who had seduced Osiris herself and who had originally helped Isis, found out what had happened and betrayed Isis to Ra, thus earning his favour. Ra ordered Osiris and Isis entombed in the jars and then allowed Nephthys to leave through the 'Gate, but condemned Seth to stay behind and not leave until the boy was dead.
And the people of Earth rebelled and buried the 'Gate. And Horus established a line of kings...
"Ma'at" is a concept, not a god. She appeared in the Egyptian pantheon, but had no anthropomorphic form, instead always appearing as a feather. My Ma'at was an Ancient. She prevented her death by ascending. When she saw what the Goa'uld were doing, she felt that the Ascended should step in, but was overruled. So she took a single symbiote and placed it in a sarcophagus, which she programmed to make one genetic alteration: the Tok'ra mutation. She returned the symbiote, was caught by The Others and descended. Still, since she was dumb, she kept a few cards up her sleeves. She is still immortal, and now, all she has to do is wait....
Isis' deal, as Daniel pointed out, is that she spoke the Word of Power that brought Osiris back to life. Since most things in mythology have opposites, I figured that if she has one word that can bring life, she must have one that can bring death, so I gave her one.
Sha'tok'ra means "Rise Against Ra". One day over at Kree! (all of whom were amazingly supportive during this), SG was asking about name meanings and interpretations and ironies thereof. I rattled on for way longer than was necessary about SG-1, and eventually translated Sha're literally as "rise Ra". Theoretically (and linguistically; the verb "to be" is implied in most early Middle Eastern languages), if one is being pious, the correct translation is "Ra is arisen". Since the Tok'ra (or mine, anyway) like to hide things in obvious places, however, I had Sha're translate as "Rise up" or "Arise", both of which imply rebellion against Ra.
And since I am a huge Daniel/Sha're fan, I like the karma involved in Sha're being the Word.
The Style of Writing
Eventually, I realized that the myths essentially tell the same story over and over again, and putting them into the story through Daniel or Halleigh would make a lot of pointless dialogue. Since I already had a lot of pointless dialogue, I was desperate for a solution. I hit on the idea of telling Egeria's story from Egeria's point of view (kind of like the "Morgaine Speaks" parts of MZB's "The Mists of Avalon"), and suddenly everything made much more sense. Additionally, it let me make Halleigh's story more fantastic and less scientific. And I got to play around with high style, which is always fun. On that note, the more astute of you will notice that I shamelessly rip off a bunch of people in this. From JRR Tolkien to Douglas Adams, and from David Eddings to the Bible, even the layout of the Temple at Luxor. These are my inspiration, and my imitation is meant as flattery.
I realize I have some serious Time problems here. Egeria has to be on Earth and creating mythologies in enough time that Isis can be killed in 8,000BCE (10,000 YBP). Then Egeria has to be in Greece by about 3000BCE so she can set up the Greek myths. 1000BCE requires her presence in Rome, which borrowed most of its myths from the Greeks, but causes me the first real problem. If the Trojan war was fought under Agamemnon, it likely happened around 2500BCE. Homer, however, lived in 700BCE. Since I was unwilling to give up that section of the story, I effectively broke my own canon (Homer never left Greece, and thus could not have traveled to a Roman temple, where Egeria would have been at the time). I figured it was worth it. Anyway, after Rome, Egeria flees to the Norse, who were just beginning to come into their own. She takes a male host, claims sanctuary with the Asgard, and then leaves the planet, spawns a rebellion and gets herself captured by Ra on Pangara around just after the year 0. It's tight, but I think it's workable.
We are AU for one reason, and one reason only: I needed Jack O'Neill in the field. This was a necessity, because I needed someone to ask questions, and listen to Daniel. The decision to step AU unleashed the flood, and I found myself dealing with an intact Tok'ra alliance, Hammond, no promotions, and a fantastic situation on Abydos.
Oh, and The Horse's Mouth thing was supposed to be a throw-away joke. Once. And it ended up defining the whole story. It's weird how those things turn out.
Random Archaeological Information
Obsidian is a volcanic rock that begins to react with water and oxygen as soon as it crystallizes, forming a thin film on its surface. This is measurable, and called Obsidian Hydration. When the stone is worked, the film is chipped off and a new one begins to form, making it datable to the last time it was retouched. The technique can be used for both absolute and relative dating. The best date range is 10,000 years.
Pottery is incredibly important for archaeologists. The changes in technology and manufacture provide a relative chronology that most other artefacts can be placed in. Pots were the ancient equivalent of toothbrushes in that everyone used them, they had a finite period of use, and people kept coming up with a better way to make them. Also like toothbrushes, pottery is dead boring.
Abydos, or the one on Earth anyway, is still the site of an active Osiris cult. Epilogue
Isis worship was universal. If you look at some Pompeian frescoes, you can see the shaven heads of her priests.
I used an atlas, a protractor and a calculator to figure out the distance between Chicago and Colorado, but I don't remember which part of Colorado I used. It was probably Colorado Springs.