DISCLAIMER: See Part 1
Champions Gate
By Elizabeth Carter
Chapter Nine
Visitations
Osiris was beginning to doubt the success of her plan.
It had seemed so easy, so foolproof. That was the beauty of it. Each step would lead naturally to the next, and the final step would get her what she wanted. Except it just wasn't working out that way. She never planned for both Colonel Samantha Carter and Dr. Janet Fraiser to be off-world with both their children.
The fourteen killed were supposed to number twenty. Janet Elizabeth Fraiser, Cassandra Carter Fraiser and Rebecca Margery Fraiser-Carter were supposed to be dead. How hard was it to end the life of a child or a simple physician? Nothing was working as well as she had so carefully orchestrated
It had taken Osiris months to find and then train her lone-warrior. Everything had gone wrong. She would lose her warrior and removing Colonel Samantha Carter from her life was providing to be more difficult then she had ever given credence to. That was why the System Lord was so exasperated. Now there were more complications.
The woman who came in was dressed all in white silk and silver. She shut the door behind her and leaned back against it to study the dark figure that had so suddenly appeared from the very shadows of the chamber. In a very surreal way the creature was darker then the rest of the darkness of the chamber, it reminded Osiris of a very large prehistoric predatory bird.
Osiris, for a brief moment, felt a surge of terror ripple through her twin souls. This was a creature birthed from the darkest essence of creation. And for that brief rebellious moment Osiris believed that this dark creature was far more powerful then Anubis himself and that frightened the Goa'uld more then she wanted to admit. The being looked at the woman with eyes so black that not even the light glinted off of the iris, so unsettling was the gaze the System Lord was forced to look away.
Unsettled that she had been dominated by the vulgar presence of the dark winged newcomer Osiris seethed in her anger. "Who dares to enter my vessel without invitation? I have killed for less," the hand device upon the Goa'uld's right hand started to vibrate just slightly with the force of her anger.
"Not today I shall not die, and not by you. I can lay you out Osiris and fill your mouth with your dead mother's faeces or, we can talk."
"You're a Malakim."
"I was the first mate of the first queen, but like all true love it withered on the vine," the creature's black wings flared wide in its fourteen-foot fullness. "I was cast out many thousands of years ago by that same queen's daughter who now rules the Empire," the being seamed to smile widely.
"You're Calabim then," Osiris reasoned. "One of the Remnants."
"No. That war is nothing of me. That is a battle waged all on their own," the dark angelic waved a callused hand as if shooing a fly away from the face.
"Then what do you offer me. You wouldn't be here if you didn't have something to offer. What do you want?" Osiris challenged the dark malevolence.
"You did call to me little one," again came the thin lipped smile.
"I beg your pardon?"
"When you and Baal orchestrated the attack against Queen Novalis you set in motion events even you will be unable to truly comprehend. The World Symphony was changed drastically when the mortal born-knight came and took up the Queen and saved her life. That restoration caused the fusing of souls…. something I think a parasitical creature like yourself can understand. And upon that day of fate, the Nephalim was created. And thus, when that day came to pass, it created a cacophony that did rouse me from torpor.
"Where upon you decided to wage war upon that single soul, that Nephalim, such discord was generated that it drew me to you. As I have said, you did call to me Osiris and I did answer. You generate a great deal of dissidence, Goa'uld, it is nectar to one such as myself."
Osiris stared, her eyes flashing white-gold. "You are presumptuous Malakim. You still have not told my why you are really here. And you are sitting in my chair!!" The blonde gnashed her teeth together; glowering at the being that was perched rather then sitting upon her throne.
"I have told you. The Nephalim. You have to understand I don't care about you, and I don't care about the goals of Anubis. I don't care about this little fracas you started with the Mortals of the Taur'ri. This war is of pure malevolence and that is discord, and that is mine," he smiled.
"I don't need your help, Malakim."
"Oh did you hear me offer to help you?" The dark angelic sneered.
The Goa'uld considered for a moment.
"Either you can work with me for a short time or you can sit here in this vessel of yours until kingdom come. But you will still never triumph over the Nephalim. I can wait until the stars themselves burn out for you to make up your mind I have patience enough. However for you time is short."
"By what name do you go by? If I am to ally with you, I want to know who you are," Osiris hissed.
The male smirked. "I am Usiel, The former first lieutenant of the Archangel Gabriele: The First Queen."
"Usiel…." Osiris pondered the identity. Somewhere back in the mind of her host the name rang familiar…as did the Nephalim. They were of Hebrew dogma. Perhaps it was time to consider her position with a little more discretion. "Why do you want to join with me?"
"You started a war you can not win without me, Osiris. You wreaked discord throughout the waking universe. The World Symphony roused, as it has never stirred before, not for a hundred millennia have I heard such a noise. This female you have such hate for, has allies more powerful then you can possibly imagine, Goa'uld. You fight not a sect of mortals who must hide their identities deep beneath their earth, you fight entire legions of worlds."
"I have battled against such before," the words floated from the Goa'uld's lips like a shard of ice on still water.
"No you haven't. Not like this. The Nephalim is an angelic born mortal. A human who posesses all the power of the World Symphony and with her she will have many followers. Do you know how rare this mortal is and the events that had to be aligned for her to become a Nephalim?
"A warrior of the purist heart that even the Ascended will willingly become mortal to love her, though she accepted only friendship. The Nephalim is not simply a scholar but a genius, a child prodigy. She must be a paladin, a being of unquestionable integrity, unshakable courage even in the face of failure and death. She is a soul of deepest feeling, yet not prisoner of her heart's emotions. One who will save the life of another she had no heart to save. A mortal but mortal no longer. Many have come close but none have had all qualifications. And lest we forget the last…. to save the life of an immortal celestial, and thus doing so becoming as an immortal herself. A Nephalim," Usiel grinned.
"The irony is, Osiris, you created your greatest nemesis. Your actions were the catalyst that generated the spark for Samantha Carter to become the Nephalim. Now, she is the single most direct contact for the Angelics to the World Symphony and their bond to the Great Song. But destroy her and you destroy the empire and with it the Queen. The Queen can only live as long as Samantha lives. The Empire thrives only as long as Samantha is free of discord. Kill the Nephalim and you kill the queen, I win."
"I make my own plans to rid myself of that blight," Osiris snapped. "And if it is discord you want I've given it to that woman a hundred fold and I intend to offer her more. You see I DO understand these events more then you have given me credit. Samantha Carter, may be the link to this World Symphony for your kind, but that female has her own weaknesses. Hers lay in her wife and children. She would have killed Zipcana for the presumed death of her child, but she stopped for the memory of her wife. A weakness. She called again and again upon her wife's name while a captive of the Calabim and again while a captive of Baal's asylum. A weakness exploitable. Kill the wife and you kill the Nephalim…. I win," the blonde System Lord, gloated. "I do have an understanding of these events."
"You still need to get to this wife," Usiel commented dryly. "And to do that you will have to get into the heart of the Empire. The Malakim Empire is now at war with the Goa'uld to protect the Nephalim and her consort. You cannot stop them by acting precipitously. Kill a thousand, slaughter a million of the souls in the Empire and you will still fail to capture what you want. I have told you the World Symphony stirs, as it has not done since the creation of the first grain of sand. You will never win this war without me. But I shall be amused to watch you try."
"Samantha Carter is a pragmatist. When she sees the death toll of her new allies rise she will surrender herself to me to stop the slaughter. This is what I intended when I sent my warrior into the fold of the SGC. Now it is on a greater scale."
"Assuming they don't shoot you out of the skies first, "Usiel said. "Your underestimation of the Malakim will be your undoing, as it had been with Malphas, Imhotepe and Zipcana. Even Achelous did not survive the Nephalim. They underestimated the Malakim and they are dead. And how many of your own Goa'uld System Lords and Queens perished because they underestimated the Nephalim? She has even managed to free for a time the homeworld of the Asgard of the menace of Replicators. It matters very little to me if you desire to join the numbers of the dead and forgotten."
"Then why are you here offering your help, Usiel?"
"Because I can. Don't flatter yourself, Osiris, you are but a means to an end. We both want the same thing, the death of the Nephalim. And it is paramount. Your reasons are your own. As are mine. Motive is irrelevant. You know the mind of the Nephalim, I the Malakim heart, it is vital we work together. But I can wait a thousand years to learn how the Nephalim's mind works and how her soul sings before I challenge her. To you time is a commodity you cannot afford to expend," there was that blighted smile once more. "Nor can you afford to fritter away resources that you do not have. I know just how precarious your position is. I offer no guarantees. And I am certainly not one of whom you should trust. I will betray you as surely as the sun sets. I am dishonest. Honestly, you can always trust a dishonest soul to act dishonestly. It's the honest souls you have to guard your back from, you never know when they will go and do something stupid. What I do offer you is the only means to achieve your greatest desire. It is either work with me or ultimate failure."
Already Osiris hated that discerning grin flashing across the features of the dark angelic. She knew that working with Usiel would be underminingly begrudging as it had been with Anubis. At least Usiel was honest about his motives. Anubis simply threatened Osiris into submission. And it was this honesty of Usiel that terrified Osiris far more deeply; it certainly made her more paranoid and guarded. She hated that Usiel had done that to her, for she knew it would cause her to make costly mistakes she would not likely recover from. The worst part was she knew Usiel was counting on it.
The only way to surmount the Tau'ri homeworld was if its supreme warriors of the SGC were impotent. And to make them impotent, Osiris had to take their greatest among the elite: Colonel Samantha Carter and SG1 out of existence. Samantha Carter was the Bane of every System Lord. In fact there was not a Goa'uld that did not curse the name of Samantha Carter. Right now the blonde Goa'uld's only option was to join forces with this malevolent creature Usiel, The First of the Fallen if she wanted success. And if things went wrong at least she had someone to shift the blame to, as Baal had with Malphas.
Usiel gnashed a full toothy smile. "Their kind excel so at dying."
Osiris didn't think she heard correctly. There was something in the overtone of the dark angelic's words that caused the system lord to become guarded far more then she had been.
"Genocide. It happens every now and then. Your hosts are such frail creatures. I suspect that is why you have chosen that race, they are so easily repaired are they not?"
The blonde remained mute.
"This Nephalim is the messiah to all Malakim. For that grave sin, her people must die. A cleansing must prevail. Genocide insures purification. Samantha is a blight and her race are unclean mongrels unworthy of the benevolence of the World Symphony. A cleansing must succeed. You are Goa'uld and you know what it is to be superior.
"They are animals. …nothing more then talking monkeys. They cannot fathom the Grace of the Great Song. For one of them to be so blessed is an abomination and an affront to the holiness of the purity World Symphony. Better to wipe out the whole race then to allow a single contaminate to exist."
"These talking monkeys as you call them are a commodity. If you destroy them all then you lose a valuable resource," Osiris finally said. "One that the United Alliance of System Lords will not be agreeable too.
"A commodity?" Usiel chuckled dryly. "What? As slaves? As hosts? You want a Hok'tar, Osiris? In battle the Malakim will die to protect their Beloved Liege, delivering a plethora of available hosts to you and your kind. You want a new host …I will give you the queen herself. But Samantha Carter must die and with her, Janet Fraiser. Their line must end…. It is imperative that child Rebecca must NEVER procreate, and Samantha must never have another child especially from her own womb. That progeny would be a devastation beyond all accountability. You have no idea of the trouble that would cause if that were allowed to pass.
"Several thousand years I have waited for the arrival of the Nephalim. I usually count time in eons but in this case every second counts. We both want Samantha dead. I will provoke Genocide to insure this, to insure no progeny of hers lives. What will you do System Lord? Will you watch in a state of narcosis as your future ends in the hands of the Nephalim, or will you act? Only together can we put an end to this tyrannical nemesis."
"What else do you want, Usiel?"
"Nothing."
"I don't believe that," Osiris sneered.
"I do not care if you do," Usiel shrugged. "I do not want anything more than beyond the Nephalim's death, and of course the slaughter of her child and wife. What you must understand is I am far too lazy to be a megalomaniac. I don't want this system or that system. I don't want to rule the galaxy; I really don't want any kind of that sort of power. It's far too much work. All that plotting, scheming back-stabbing not my banquet, I'm afraid." The black wings stretched as if to yawn. "Samantha Carter is far to dangerous to be left to live. I want things back the way they were, back when the World Symphony was our own. I am not greedy. I just want what's mine. If that means genocide so be it, I'd rather simply have Samantha sent to oblivion."
"If you have that power why me?"
"Oh, you're the means to Genocide. Weren't you paying attention?" Black wings arched in frustration. "You are truly not the brightest pigment in the firmaments are you, Osiris? Its no wonder your 'little brother' stuffed you in a jar!"
Zephon charged down the long corridors with uncommon haste. The young maid was on a mission and would not disappoint her superiors. Actually the flame haired Malakim was more then pleased with herself and the developments that had so recently occurred.
"Boudicca! Boudicca…it is finished…. We can go...."
The older female looked up from the multitude of screens before her in the new astrometrics laboratory. The lab the woman was currently occupying was one of several dozen of such laboratories, in fact there was an entire wing of the new base that was solely dedicated to the study of astrometrics. Of course, there was also another wing that was solely for medical research, not including of course the hospital, which was now adapted to accommodate a human physician.
"Zephon, you scuttle in here like a featherling who devoured far too much sugar. Have a care girl!" Boudicca admonished. "Now calm yourself and proceed."
"My apologies," the silver wings of the younger Malakim folded ever so slightly in submission. Zephon knew she was excitable but she felt she could not help it, very soon she would be rejoined with her Beloved Liege. There upon her face was a broad smile. "Our Lieges' château it is finished. We can go and collect her and her consort. Even the greater repairs to the institute and the command base have been completed," the silver wings fanned the air in excitement.
"Zephon, I share your enthusiasm and your deep desire to reunite with our lieges, but it is not my decision to make."
"Boudicca, you are the Captain of the Wing, you command and the others will heed and obey. Please do not tarry longer. I am not the only one to suffer the malady of severance from our beloved Liege," Zephon was almost pouting.
Boudicca admitted bitterly that she too felt the pangs of severance from their Liege Commander. The love she carried for Samantha and her Consort, the Healer Janet, was strong, as it was for her own mate. It was the same for all of knights of the Blue Wing. It had been so since the mortal warrior had plucked their Queen from the very jaws of death itself.
Since that night the World Symphony had changed and did call to the Malakim, but now it was not from Novalis the Great Song was heard it was from Samantha Carter. The Queen's voice was almost muted, but the mortal's was loud, clear and beautiful. And all the Empire would tilt their wings in submission to the Nephalim.
Boudicca had thought deeply as all Malakim had upon the sudden arrival of the Nephalim. She was like a creature of myth and fantastic tales: a warrior, a knight with the heart of a scholar and the soul of a bard. Those clear bright eyes of the heavens showed so much power, that it was inherently her own and could never be denied. It was something Boudicca recognized straight away.
Even the manner of Samantha's arrival was something out of the mythic operas. Who could then deny she was the Nephalim in the stories she seemed to have been birthed from?
Angry scarlet blasts came from several directions at once. An explosion of blood and feathers rained thickly upon the canopy of the thick forest far below.
"The Queen! See to the Queen!" Arion cried out. "She's hit. She has fallen!"
"I am on it!" Zephon's answer sang out, her silver wings fully extended as she gained both height and speed. In her youth and exuberance it never occurred to the warrior she was both too late and too far away to be of any serviceable use.
"I come my Queen!" the woman-child sang. She shifted her flight pattern rolling into a dive. She could feel the heat of cannon fire behind her. She thought herself missed but she shivered, as she smelled the faint tang of burnt feathers. Too close. Far too close. She wasn't dumb enough to cast a glance behind her knowing that it would cost her what slim advantage she had against her pursuers.
Death Gliders sped forward, cannons firing indiscriminately at the eleven winged warriors. They had managed to strike down one already, the others were elusive at best. Though barely able to match the speed of the Goa'uld fighters, for they were only able to reach mach three, the angelics were far more maneuverable. After all the air was their natural element. Their command over the elements and the environments their natural weaponry. In a patterned attack they summoned the power within them. Rage filled the hearts of the warriors. Ten voices lifted up calling the power of the World Symphony through chants.
Mystic energy exploded off the starboard wing of the Death Glider sending the craft into a spiral plummeting for earth. A second fighter crackled in a burst of surging lightning, lavender flames streamed out of the hull of the craft sending it straight to earth in a ball of fire. The glider hit the ground in a bone jarring crash. Metal screeched against metal, against wood, against rock. Behind it, blazed a path of ground earth and flame.
The angelics soared higher. Emboldened by the two downed gliders, the nine would concentrate their collective energies on the remaining two vessels. They could feel the surge of the Great Song rising to heights it had never reached before. The Celestials would take this day.
Zephon managed to lose the glider behind her as she ducked behind a row of trees, too narrow for the Gliders to navigate. Her keen eyes refocused to their telescopic capabilities trying to find her queen. Trails of broken tree limbs, scattered foliage, feathers, blood, but no Queen. Novalis was not to be found.
White angry pain shot through every Malakim. The Song ended. There was no music, no epitaph. The notes of the World Symphony were suddenly silenced. Such remorse rang out that was never heard of before or since the Fall. Until now.
Oblivion was a small inconvenience.
Still dodging the glider Zephon managed to glimpse the Queen's body. She was downed.
"By the Great Song it's a hard battle to get clear of here!"
Ten voices screeched out, screaming their pain.
The Queen was dead!
Zephon unable, unwilling, to fight the battle fell to the earth encumbered by the agony of loss of her Beloved Queen. Novalis was gone. Her soul, as inconceivable as it was, had been consumed by the darkness around her. The Diabolicals had done this to her.
Hope destroys Oblivion.
From above Boudicca saw something she had not thought to see in a millennia, the coming of a Nephalim. The sun-touched mortal had reached Novalis even as Zephon was dodging the Gliders through the grove of trees.
A mortal woman, with no thought to her safety, cast off her pack of supplies and dove into the chilling, near frozen, lake. In a strength that belied her size this small mortal pulled Novalis from the depths of the water, and laid her out upon the beach.
Boudicca saw the blonde mortal reach into a soggy pocket of the vest she was wearing, pull something out, and cover the Queen's mouth with it. She then lowed her own mouth over Novalis's. It was vividly apparent The Nephalim was breathing life back into the Queen
Boudicca wanted to cry out for the hope. But it was futile. Didn't the mortal know it was futile? Death had taken Novalis. The World Symphony was listing, swirling in a kaleidoscope of cosmic chaos.
Even in the haze of the cacophony the mortal's words were heard clearly, "Cassie! Get Janet on the horn! Get her now!"
"Yes Ma'am!" A woman-child responded.
Ten angelics spiraled, plummeting to earth. The World Symphony careened, whirlpooled around the sun-touched mortal and the unmoving Queen.
"Come on….Live…. come on….come on!" The Mortal urged.
Before she crashed, Boudicca managed to see the Mortal pounding on Novalis's chest commanding life to be restored. She did not know how long she felt the Darkness swallow her. It would have been too easy to let go, to let the Emptiness devour her. But the World Symphony was weeping, crying out and churning as the hearts of a mother giving birth.
They were easily single-minded celestials, these ferocious angelic creatures. But then the World Symphony sang them into being as such. Duty fettered them, deeply inbred, ingrained. They had a sense of honor, of justice. They freely sacrificed themselves that dissidence may be rooted out and obliterated. They did not suffer the Dark to prevail, Discord to live. They were the embodiment of Virtue. They were the warriors of the Great Song. They were the Malakim. And they were lost.
The World Symphony was obfuscated and its bond to the Great Song obscured. No opus, no angelic voice steeped in ritual chant could call it back from the void. It had been leveled in a demonstration of divine omniscience. High Discord rippled and shook the very foundation of creation, and the angelics wept.
All of the Heavens were silent.
Mindless.
Indifferent.
Blind.
The Nephalim used a zat'nicatel , a Diabolical weapon, upon the Queen's hearts. But not directly, ingeniously she had created a defibrillator. Taking her knife she grounded it by slamming the blade into the earth, the hilt had wires coiled around it, the ends of which lead into the gaping cavity in the Queen's chest. Novalis's body lurched when the power of the EM field of the weapon's discharge carried itself along the wires and into her hearts.
And there in the Heavens a new song rang out.
It wasn't a mindless, indifferent blind Universe. It never was. The Nephalim had restored life. More then that the Nephalim had re-created, had given birth to a new Chorus. The World Symphony sprang from her as a child newly born.
"Mom's coming," the younger mortal female said.
The Nephalim nodded. "Good. Cass, get the Mylar blanket out of the pack. We need to keep her warm, she's in shock"
There was swiftness to the movements of the brunette human as she scrambled to obey her commander. " The alien is breathing, her heart….er... hearts are beating, but I don't know if it's normal. But she's alive."
In the beginning there was only the Song. And The Song gave life to all that was, that is and will be. This was the World Symphony and it was no longer the Queen's. She had no true voice. The Song belonged to another. In her the World Symphony would thrive. Only through her would the Malakim know its melody. She was the Nephalim. With the Heart of an angelic and the soul of a mortal.
"ColonelCarter!" A warrior of the Diabolicals called out and pointed into the air. "Incoming!"
The Nephalim looked into the sky, her azure eyes widened when she gazed upon the flight of the Blue Wing. "Oh my god!"
The earth churned slightly as the winged knights landed. In order to protect the wounded body of the Queen, the Nephalim used her own body to shield Novalis.
Ten angelics kneeled before the blonde warrior. The arch of their wings eloquently folded tightly back so that their fourteen-foot spans were pressed hard against their bodies. This was submission shown before a greater being. Ten heads bowed in the grace of the new source of The Great Song.
"We mean no harm," the lyrical notes of the blonde Nephalim said. "She was wounded severely. Shot by Goa'uld cannon fire. I managed to get her hearts started again…but she's going to need help. I sent for our physician."
Ten heads rose and stared at the Nephalim in blank wonderment.
"Do you understand me? My name is Colonel Samantha Carter of Stargate Command SG1…She…" Samantha looked down to the body of the Queen. "She needs help. She's lost a lot of blood, I…don't know about her hearts…and she's in shock… and her arm and wing are broken."
Rushing out of the woods charged another youthful female no larger then a featherling. She was trailed by a male with spectacles. "What do we have here?" the featherling demanded as she kneeled beside Novalis, her hands becoming encased in latex gloves.
The ten could not move, too stunned, too shocked by the shifting of the World Symphony. They could only listen as the Nephalim repeated the injuries she had discovered upon the Queen and what methods she had used to bring Novalis back from death.
The Featherling only nodded and started to demand items of medical nature from the taller though seemingly younger brunette. It was obvious then the featherling was a Healer.
The ten Malakim were numb and blinded by the surge of the shifting Song; they watched the liquid movements of the healer. None knew the passing of time but in their dazed condition they witnessed as the Healer removed shrapnel from the queen's chest.
The Nephalim continued to squeeze a clear bladder, which had a cup covering over the Queen's mouth, to the Blue Wing it looked like an arcane way of delivering air into the four lungs of their queen but it was keeping her alive. They had no name for the devices that the mortals were using but the queen's life was being restored despite their lack of knowledge of ancient mortal tools. They watched as the Nephalim and the Healer brought Novalis back from the Darkness. The Blue Wing knew only that the World Symphony was not composed by Novalis but by the Nephalim.
The Nephalim turned again to the Blue Wing as a whole. "Daniel, try to talk to them. I think they understand we mean no harm…but this female needs help," blue eyes turned to the Healer. "Janet?"
"I don't know Sam, she's got two eight chambered hearts and four lungs.... I need more time. Time she doesn't have. The cannon fire would have truly killed her if it weren't for the redundant organs. The physiology of this alien…. is…..so different, I don't know how much I can do for her without endangering her. I've got her stabilized but I don't know for how long. She needs blood. And I don't dare give her any antibiotics or any other meds, I don't know what it will do to her."
The tiny woman flashed an apologetic look to the other winged beings. "My name is Janet Fraiser. I am a doctor…. A Healer…. however I know nothing of your anatomy, I am sorry. I can tell you, your companion is in danger. I know that she is in shock. I can't tell if she has a fever, but I would say she does but I don't know what's normal for your kind. Her right arm and wing are fractured in several places, she has several bruised ribs. I can set the bones, and wrap her waist. She will need both appendages immobilized so that no further damage is done. She has second and third degree burns covering her chest, right clavicle and arm. I have strong analgesics but without knowing what could cause your species harm, I don't dare use them. But her burns, lacerations and the several contusions have been cleaned, sutured and bandaged. From the way she is drawing in breath, one of her four lungs have been punctured, however I've managed to stop the bleeding and close it for now. I at least need her to get her to some place safe before I can do more. Do you understand?" Janet turned to the archeologist. "Daniel, do they understand us?"
"Nephalim," Arion was the first to recover from the shock of the juxtaposition of the World Symphony's new voice.
"Nephalim?" The blonde mortal frowned as she looked to the male with spectacles. "Daniel, is that a greeting or a name?" Sam asked.
"Nephalim?" Daniel took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Nephalim…. It sounds Hebrew….." He looked to Samantha then back to the Blue Wing. "Are you saying that Sam is a Nephalim?"
"Daniel….?" Sam and Janet urged, both for different reasons.
"In Hebrew mythology a Nephalim was a child of divine fornication."
"What!" Blue eyes blazed in ice-cold fire.
"It might not mean the same to ah…. these angels Sam," Daniel quickly covered. "Nephalim were children born between the union of an angel and a human. Hebrew legends were filled with them, a heart of an angel and the soul of a mortal. They could be very nasty when provoked and very hard to kill. You had to remove the heart, or they wouldn't die, no matter what you did to them."
Sam looked to the angelics who now moved to take up their queen. "Okay…so why do they think I am a Nephalim?"
"Because you are the heart of the World Symphony," Boudicca said. "You, the Healer and our Queen are the Triumvirate. The World Symphony is at a renaissance."
"Look! We can discus the Nephalim and everything else later, right now we need to get your Queen to safety. Do you have a physician with you?" the one called Janet snapped taking full control of everything, even the Nephalim. In the vibrations of the Song it was evident that the Nephalim and the Healer shared a lifebond. They were mated, their souls had been sung into loving each other.
"We do, Healer," Arion said. "We will tarry no longer but take to the air. Blue Wing come by; take our guests, Zaire and I will see to the Queen."
As Arion took Novalis into her arms, a bashful Zephon would take Sam into her own. Turel gathered Janet, Razeal caught up Daniel, the giant Turelim would take Teal'c and Boudicca would take Cassandra. The others gathered the belongings of the mortals and followed the tailwind of the first four flyers, ever mindful to keep sharp eyes out for the Diabolical Warriors.
Ten warriors knew only now they were as bonded to the Nephalim as her consort. This was not a finite conception, it was eternal as the Song itself. Samantha Carter had become the Beloved. Consort Janet had become the Light Bringer. Without them despair and darkness prevailed. More than any other chorus the Blue Wing would love them for they were the most devout. The Blue Wing existed because Samantha had willed it so.
"I know the want is dire Zephon, and yes I feel it too. And no I do not like this dissidence, this feeling as if I am a ghost without her presence. We will go to her anon."
The words of the elder woman caused a hopeful smile to strike the flame-haired knight. "I will summon the others Boudicca," Casting the next words over her shoulder as she walked away, Zephon was almost giddy. "It will please the Liege commander to see the ship named for her."
Nine warriors lifted their heads and sang out their great elation that they would be with their Beloved. The whole of the ship was filled with their joyful voices. Pan flutes, and Taiko drums played merry tunes and the angelics seemed to dance as they prepped themselves to take back their Beloved and the Light Bringer. In hearing the music, no mortal could resist a tapping of the foot or a broad rimmed smile and even a desire to join the dance. Such exuberance filled the Malakim as well and a hundred fold more then that.
Janet Fraiser was a woman who had learned very early on to be strong considering her line of work. She had to be.
Sometimes out of pure survival necessity she had to slam down a faceof detachment, because her heart would have been crushed all too easily if she didn't. Janet was easily an extremely compassionate woman filled with warmth, charity and wonder. She loved healing those in need, and giving back hope. She enjoyed medical egoisms that seemed to dominate the majority of her career as the CMO of Stargate command. Now here she had a chance to learn more then she could have hoped for.
The Malakim Physicians Guild had offered her a place amongst them. She would be given the opportunity to study the unique angelic physiology. Of course, taking up the studies would make her feel like a first year med-student but still, it was an offer of a lifetime. The forever-young physician was completely fascinated by the Malakim biology.
When Sam had saved Novalis, the Queen had in fact died, which wasn't an easy task for an immortal. The blast had caused heart failure, she went into arrest, and because of her weakened condition, when Novalis hit the frozen waters of the lake she was unable to rise to the surface, she had drowned. The Malakim were bred to fly not swim. In fact their wings hindered them in the water, bogging them down with saturation that swimming was nearly impossible. Sam was fortunate the weight of the saturated wings didn't take her down as well when she pulled the Queen from the icy depths.
Janet was amazed by the recuperative powers of the Malakim body. No human, in fact no Jaffa, could have survived such a serious fall, drowning and cardiac arrest. The doctor doubted that a Goa'uld/ Tok'ra could have survived such, as the damage would have been too much for the symbiote to heal and remain alive itself. Granted, that was why the Goa'uld had chosen the human race as hosts, because they were so easily repaired if one had a sarcophagus.
What the angelics did was purely natural. They didn't need a sarcophagus or hand device to heal they simply regenerated given enough time. Of course afterwards they had serious protean and sugar craving . But Janet knew that spontaneous tissue regeneration tended to do that.
After Novalis had been restored to health, Janet was flabbergasted that the queen devoured seven steaks and two-dozen bits of pastry. If Janet ate two-dozen doughnuts she'd be sick and she couldn't even think of devouring several three-inch thick steaks. Of course that brought to mind that Sam, her lovely almost always anemic wife had consumed three steaks, a side of fries and a large diet coke (diet because she liked the taste better) when she wore those damn Antonik armbands, because her metabolism was hyperactive. And they called Janet the energizer-bunny!
The Malakim had an exceptionally high metabolism and required vast amounts of fuel to stabilize them. That was why the Malakim had regular banquets; their bodies demanded it. That breakfast served to them after the first night returning from Chimera was a typical breakfast for the highly energized Malakim.
It wasn't only the metabolism that fascinated the petite physician. The winged beings entire physiology captivated her. Twin eight chambered hearts, four lungs, two livers four kidneys, two stomachs (no wonder they could eat they way they did. If Janet had two stomachs she figured she could as well). There was an organ in the larynx that Janet was totally fascinated by, this difference in their throats allowed the Malakim to purr not unlike that of a feline. Of course it sounded like a tiger purring but still it was completely interesting. The variance also allowed for the Malakim to sing with apparently four voices at the same time.
Janet thought more and more about the suggestion that Sam had brought up about staying off world. Here in the Malakim Empire they were safe from Goa'uld assignations. Nearly two decades in the SGC and Janet was almost ready to retire. She had toyed with the idea of a private practice but always dismissed it as she was needed in the SGC and would be so as long as Sam held a position there. Now Janet had an opportunity to study alien physiology, which she thought was fun, and have a private practice leaving the threat of Goa'uld attack behind. If Sam was serious about leaving earth…Janet was beginning to believe she was ready for it. The topic definitely needed more serious discussions.
Hell Sam could have her own military faction, Already she had nine warriors at her beck and call and no doubt the Queen would let her use the Samantha Carter for exploration if Sam wanted it. Leave Earth. Leave the SGC that was assuming of course the Blue Wing and the missing ship could be recovered.
Maybe for a year. A year would be an adequate test to see if they truly wanted to live off world. They had a home in the heart of Elysium the capital city of Hy-Basil they had everything they truly needed. Rebecca and Cassandra would be safe. Cassie…. She may not want to leave the SGC, but she could act as a liaison in an exchange program and serve in the Malakim Wing for a year. Hell they could all act as liaisons in different capabilities: Janet for medicine, Sam as an ambassador and Cassandra as a member of the Malakim Wing.
Yes Janet would miss her family, as would Sam. But in truth neither one of them saw their families more then once a year, if that, and who's to say that they couldn't take a fieldtrip to earth for a visit?
Mark Carter however was a nasty piece of work. He wanted, even in this day and age, little to do with his little dyke sister. It had hurt Samantha deeply that Mark had pretty much cut her off from his life. Julie, Mark's wife, wouldn't have anything at all to do with Sam, and it was a miracle that either bigoted parent allowed their two children to interactwith their Auntie Sam.
Of course the kids were adults now, but still, when growing up, Sam had little interaction between them because Mark would scarcely allow it. But Sam had continued to contact them when she could. She had sent presents for their birthdays and holidays, called them regularly and took them places when they came to visit or she visited them in San Diego. Sam loved her niece and nephew deeply, but Mark and Julie forbade Janet from interacting and made sure Sam kept her 'dyke life' in the closet.
Janet knew how brokenhearted Sam was over the conditions but had tried to reassure her wife, that at least when the kids were grown they could make up their own minds. What hurt more was that Mark wanted nothing at all to do with his nieces; he saw Rebecca as an abomination, and Cassie was going to be a dyke too because she was raised by dykes.
Sam would leave very little behind in regards of blood-family if the Fraiser-Carter family decided to take up residence off world and there was little to go back to earth for.
More determined then before Janet was decisively leaning towards living amongst the Malakim people. Of course as a mother, Janet would want both of her daughters close. She didn't think she would have a difficult time talking Cassandra into living in the Empire as well. A mother worries for her children no matter how old they get. And both Sam and Janet would want Cassandra close, but far more importantly safe.
Her mind drifted to the fourteen dead. The idea that her daughter's and wife could very well have numbered amongst them chilled Janet to her soul. She barely managed to get Samantha back the last time death decided to pay a visit. Janet didn't think fortune would favor them much longer, why tempt fate when you had other options open?
The Fraiser-Carter family didn't have to contend with merely visiting Hy-Basil. They were more then welcome to live amongst the angelics.
"Why not?" Janet said aloud. "We deserve it. We've saved earth from annihilation more times than I can remember. My wife more then a few times single handedly. Hell if it weren't for my girl, Earth would have been swallowed up by a black hole all those years ago. The Broca Syndrome, the Nightwalkers…. to name but a few earth based traumas. Apophis, the Replicaters, those friggin Ashen…that whole Atlantis deal. Earth owes us, and its time to collect. They can let their heroes go," Janet said to the stars.