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Aberrant: Stargate Universe - Nice Genes


Mr Fox

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((This thread takes place in the week following the Washington mission.))

With the return of the Prometheus came Heimdal and an answer to the genetics questions that had been posed to the Asgard. Kyria, Yseult, Gwynn, and Cam along with anyone else they chose to bring were invited up to the ship for a meeting with the little grey alien. When they arrived Heimdal seemed positively cheerful compared to his normal dry way of speech. He blinked more often and there was an ever so slight quirk at the side of his mouth that might have been a smile and his first words were, "Good morning."

Cam raised an eyebrow and smiled in amusement but said nothing while he waited for the others to get comfortable.

When everyone did seem situated the Asgard continued, "I have results from the DNA analysis we performed. Let me begin with the easiest answer first. "Specialist Kyria, your DNA is only slightly different from that of the other Specialist DNA we have now studied. Some of the imperfections in the strands seem to be missing from yours. That appears to be the only difference. However, of course you are a clone and that was to be expected."

Turning to Yseult, "The small sample of the substance known as Eufiber could be cloned, however, it will take some time to perfect the process. While it is not as complicated as a human being, the substance does have some rather unique properties." Heimdal raised his hand and above the console a small glob of whitish substance shimmered into existence. "Here is the sample that we used for the analysis. Further study can be simulated."

"Finally, Specialist Kyria, we will continue studying your DNA in hopes that it might assist the Asgard with our own cloning problems. At a time when you are able to visit our homeworld, we would appreciate your direct assistance with this."

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Kyria nodded through most of the revelations, shifting uncomfortably for a moment when the peculiarities of her parentage came up. She took the glob of eufiber and handed it over to Yseult; her own eufiber had long since recovered from the samples taken from it.

She blinked in surprise at the last bit of Heimdall's speech, and shot a questioning look to Cam. She didn't know if the SGC would allow that, but from everything she'd learned about the Asgard, if Heimdall was in this much of good mood they must think she could help them a great deal. "Um, sure, if I'm allowed. Would...could others come too? I know Livy at least would love the chance to learn more about your culuture and history, and I'm sure several of the others would, too."

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Yseult was in the mess hall, having lunch with Olivia, when she got the call from Heimdall about the results of the genetic testing. Her turquoise eyes brightened with anticipation, and she tilted her head at Olivia, asking her if she was coming.

"Are you kidding? Of course I want to come, try and stop me," Olivia said, her own dark eyes luminous with eagerness.

"Olivie, I would not dream of doing such a thing," Yseult laughed, then sending back to Heimdall that they were ready to be beamed up.

On the Prometheus, Yseult listened intently to Heimdal's genetic analysis of Kyria, her posture betraying curiosity but little else. Tapping her lips in thought, she focused, looking deeper, comparing what differences she could see among the specialists with her new awareness.

But her attention was riveted by the sample of eufiber and the way she could now perceive it. "Thank-you, Kyrie," Yseult said gratefully, reaching out for the small blob of whitish substance with her telekinetic touch. She circled the floating substance, steadying it from every angle, a faint smile on her lips.

"Heimdal, that is interesting to know about cloning the substance, but I am more concerned with discovering... mmmm, how to grow it."

At the offer of visiting the Asgardian homeworld, Yseult distractingly acknowledged that she would very much like to go, but she was far more intent on the eufiber.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The asgard started with the last question first. "I do not believe the substance you call Eufiber will grow, it will have to be manufactured and the process will require both time and resources but should be possible with Asgard technology."

Heimdall looked to Kyria directly, "With your permission, we would like to start creating more of it, our scientists see great potential benefit from it's addition."

Looking to Gwyn, "The data you provided will be of some use. It is perhaps one more small piece in a very large puzzle to use a human phrase."

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Heimdall nodded, "We would certainly be willing to supply you with that much in thanks. There are also perhaps other applications of the material that could be beneficial to the people of Earth. Any technology related to this would be shared with you since the initial discovery came from your people. We will not share Asgard technology with the people of Earth and advance your people beyond what they are capable of on their own. However, the Asgard High Council has discussed this and the consensus is that no such prohibition should apply to situations of this nature in as much as they don't require revealing too much of our own technology."

"As for visiting the Asgard homeworld. We would very much like to begin immediately. Our war with the replicators is at a critical stage and any advantage we can achieve will help even if it is only to free up scientists from one problem to work on another. Please convey our request to your superiors as soon as possible."

Cam pursed his lips in thought, "I believe that they will agree. Give me a moment and I will have an answer for you." He stood and left the room heading for the bridge.

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"I am meaning grow in a more euphemistic fashion, similar to the way quartz crystals form organically, yes?" Yseult replied to Heimdall, still gazing at the colours only she could see running through the white substance. "Though the Eufiber, it does show properties in common with living organisms."

"The morphic qualities of the substance, they are truly amazing. I can see many potential uses for it, beyond mere clothing. If possible, I would very much like to be involved in the process of manu..." Yseult's request trailed off into shocked silence as she managed to pry her eyes away from sample of eufiber floating before her and looked up at the Asgard.

Yseult's vision was still focused on her unique perception of life and she now beheld the small alien in a plethora of colours beyond its uniform grey. She was riveted, her hyper evolved mind and medical expertise studying the alien biology, piecing together how the various systems worked. The genetics at first were baffling, rigid and somehow both simple and complex at the same time. Some more time, perhaps a chance to reach out with her new capabilities...

"Heimdall, due to the Ascension Device, I have recently developed new senses and... abilities relating to living organisms." Yseult at first seemed slightly hesitant speaking about her newly emergent abilities, but her eyes were intense, almost entirely blue-green with the possibilities of what she could now accomplish.

"I am believing, with access to both Kyria samples of Asgardian DNA, maybe even full clones, I may be able to provide you with valuable insight into the problem of replicant fading, as well as unique methodologies to counteract the difficulties."

Click to reveal.. ( I spy with my Quantum Eye...)

Medical Prodigy (First 2 Mega): 7d10.hits(7) = 6 successes = +6 Dice on Medicine Rolls

Medicine Roll to see what she can notice about Asgardian Physiology.

Xenology 2 hopefully reduces any penalties on the roll.

Medicine Roll (First 2 Mega): 18d10.hits(7) = 9 successes

Discerning Quality: 2d10.hits(7)= 2

11 Successes total.

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"It was organic. I mean, it was living. A colony. Well, I guess technically it was hair, but it was also capable of independent existence so long as it was attuned to a quantum signature most of the time." Kyria frowned, her brow furring in concern as she watched the floating ball of psuedo-eufiber. She knew that her eufiber had been different once they'd gotten here, less vibrant, but the thought that she might have inadvertently killed it with a universe that was toxic or even just not nutritious enough for made her feel guilty.

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"Heimdall," Olivia said, her voice hesitant, "perhaps the Asgard haven't yet realized what the Specialists are capable of. I'm much smarter than I used to be. I'm not gifted scientifically, but even I have been able to grasp advanced scientific concepts that were once alien to me. Gwyn is doing absolutely amazing things that are way advanced of what humanity was doing three months ago. I can hear radio waves; if I wanted, I could listen to Cam's conversation with the general right now and even interject on it. We're taking humanity to the brink of what the Asgard can do, and someday, beyond. How will that change the Asgard's relations with Earth?"

Olivia's interest in history was evident in that last question; her eyes glinted with curiosity as she wanted for Heimdall's reply.

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Heimdall blinked and cocked his head at a slight angle, "That his not yet been discussed. Since Earth has not officially informed the Asgard of your existence no change of status is possible. However, if your advancement is as you say we would like very much to work more directly with you all. In time perhaps a new arrangement might be made."

Cam returned as the speech was ending, "The General said yes. We can assist the Asgard for the moment, but he wants us home by 11 and we are supposed to look both ways before crossing the galaxy." He grinned, but the humor was lost on Heimdall.

The little alien just blinked then reached to his panel and turned one of the white teardrop shaped stones and made some motions with his hands. When he looked up blinking again, he said, "The High Council will send a ship. It should arrive in approximately three hours. I will beam you down to your rooms to gather whatever belongings you might need."

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"Mind if I just hang out here on the ship? I don't really have belongings yet. Just a few books I've picked up, and I think there'll be enough to do while we travel anyways." She bit her lip, regarding the alien.

"They really haven't told you about what happened? That seems....dumb." Leave it to understatements to remind everyone that Kyria was, at least by technicality, still a teen.

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Gwyn grins at Kyria's responce, "Dumb it maybe, but it's typical of military and governments knee-jerk reaction to smother things under 'Need to Know'."

He turns to face Heimdell and Cam, "I guess Cam had better check how much we are currently allowed to tell you about that before we leave. How long are we likely to be away for? Just so I have some idea of how much in the way of clothes to grab."

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Ryan had come along to learn, and while he wasn't as intelligent as most is his fellow specialists he did well enough. He let the others speak, and simply listened only towards the end did he speak. "When I volunteered for the procedure, I never thought it would led here." He smiled.

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"Merveilleux," Yseult said upon hearing Cameron revealing Landry's answer. The exotically beautiful doctor gave Heimdall a nod when he mentioned the ship, already planning what she needed to pack and what she wanted to pack, according to the amount of time they would be away.

Yseult's lips twisted, brow furrowed in disgust as Gwyn mentioned 'Need to Know'. That had caused her more than enough problems recently. She may have understood the reasoning, but that did not mean she had to like it.

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Cam chuckled, "Well, they have given permission for full disclosure so we won't have issues with that. The general's words, 'I think they can figure it out so might as well tell them everything.'"

Heimdall looked with is blank expression at Cam, "Knowing the full history of how you became enhanced would be helpful in our research." He turned his head gracefully toward Gwyn, "Bring whatever you feel necessary, it is unclear how long this will take."

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Gwyn grins at Cam, "Nice of them to finally catch up with reality. Ok Heimdell, well I guess I'm ready to go pack then."

[Gwyn will pack his standard mission backpack with extra clothes for a couple of days, including both some casual stuff and one more formal set, just in case. His laptop will have pdf's of whatever textbooks and Go'uald and Ancient data he has currently been working on deciphering/adapting.]

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Kyria poked around the engineering control room as she usually did while she was waiting. She tilted her head in thought for a moment while looking over one of the interface junctions between the Earth-based technology of the ship and the Asgard technology; then reached out with her telepathy.

*Hey, Dec? You wanna go to the Asgard homeworld? The High Council has cleared us to go so we can help them with their genetic fading problem. Oh, and they've managed to clone my eufiber, so you could probably pick up a suit if you wanted. And the General cleared us to tell the Asgard about the 'Specialists', which is good becaue Yse and Livy already were and not telling them was a dumb, dumb idea. What'ya say? Their ship will be here in about three hours. Oh, and we might get to renegotiate our treaty or tech-sharing or something with the Asgard because of all of this. Nifty, huh?*

The barrage of words came to his mind with an overlaying of high spirits and small amount of tech-geek joy. Apparently she was having a very good day so far.

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After being beamed down to her quarters, Yseult absently packed what she thought she would need, focusing most of her attention on reviewing what she had seen when she had looked at the Asgard. With her eidetic memory, she could recall every minute detail precisely.

Heimdall's genetic and organic structure was astonishingly ordered, even rigidly so. Interpreting the colours she saw, she believed his biological makeup was highly efficient, yet was conversely quite fragile. The eufiber showed obvious signs of planned construction, but even it had some flaws and quirks unavoidable in living organisms. Heimdall evinced none of these.

Which may be one of the causes of the Asgards' problem. Living organisms needed a certain element randomness to grow, to evolve, without which they stagnate. As it seemed the Asgard had done.

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*Wha-? Kyria?! Ack...Hang on.* She had evidently caught Dec in some sort of exercise, and caught flashes of whirling staffs and Tealc's face from the Ranger's lightning-quick thoughts. A few seconds later, Dec's mental voice came back. *Okay. Now what's this? Asgard homeworld? Sure. Sounds like a blast.*

*Sure does.* Red's mental voice cut in. *Tell the truth I was getting fuckin' bored of hanging around here. Don't the asshole brass realise we're their best chance for winning the war? They need to use us better: I'm fuckin' wasted here.*

*Guess that's unanimous.* Dec cut back in. *I'll get showered and pack. Want me to grab anything of yours?* As was common with non-telepaths, Dec's thoughts and emotions bled closely together, so Kyria could hear his affection underlaying his brisk 'surface' thoughts. *And should we bring weapons?*

*Cuz we're probably goin' to anyway, sweetness.* Red supplied. *We just need to know if we should keep them low-key.*

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*Um...we're going to an ally's homeworld that's been off-limits to us before to help them avoid extinction, so yeah, low key is probably a good idea. In fact, if you can keep it to simply useful items that aren't blatantly just weapons, that'd be best. I mean, you could make a weapon out of just about anything, yes?*

The last was directed at Red specifically; they both could feel her concern of him showing up laden for war on a mission of life. *Your standard issue stuff would probably be fine, too. And no, can't think of anything else I'd want here other than you.*

He could feel her affection in return and the phantom feeling of her kissing him. *See ya once you get up here.*

The conversation took no more than a minute or two, and she turned back towards Hiemdall. "Declan will be coming too, if that's okay. He's another 'Specialist'."

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Dec packed with the typical efficiency of a man who'd spent virtually his entire adult life in the military, and NOT in a rear-echelon support role. A large duffel sufficed for baggage, holding several changes of clothing, his wash-kit, an assortment of books he was reading or about to read, and lastly, after some thought, about twenty large chocolate bars of various types. He smiled to himself at that: Kyria would be pleasantly surprised to have chocolate light-years from Earth.

Sap. Red grinned from the dark area in the back of Dec's consciousness where he crouched like a crimson shadow, 'watching'.

Kiss my ass. Dec thought back to him without any real rancor. Red was just bored. There was no one to kill or terrorize, after all.

Hey, I ain't a two-trick-pony. I do more than kill and terrorize. There's the torturing too!

Comes under the heading of 'terrorize'. Dec returned mildly, packing a few magazines on top of the books. Weapons-wise, he decided that some magnesium flash-bombs and a Zat would be all he needed in an emergency.

What, no blades? Pack the machetes! Zats are boring piddly-ass Mattel shit. We can say they're tools... for survival in case we get marooned or some shit. Red's voice was insistent, and Dec considered that for a moment before nodding and putting the sheathed heavy blades into the bag too. They would double up as tools if things became dire, after all.

Won't they think it's weird we brought two?

Naaaaw. You like to be prepared, and you brought a spare.

Right. Dec didn't bother arguing further, chuckling as he zipped up the bag and slung the strap over one brawny shoulder. Let's get up to the Prometheus.

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When she got back to base, Olivia went straight to Vinny's office. Thankfully, he was there; he gave her a lazy smile when she knocked on his open door. "Hey, darlin'," he drawled, leaning back in the chair.

Olivia shut the door and came around his desk, sitting on his lap. His grin widened as she wound her arms around his neck. "How," she asked with a coy smile, "would you like to visit Orilia?"

"Fuckin' Asgards?" he asked, his smile fading with surprise. "Fuckin' kidding me?"

"Nope, the brass just cleared it for any specialist who wants to go," Olivia told him. "Wanna come?" She hoped he would. This was the kind of experience she wanted to share with him.

"Betcha ass," he told her. "When we leavin'?"

"Ship'll be here in three hours."

"Better get packin'," Vinny replied. Olivia started to get up but he caught her and pulled her back into his lap. "Not gettin' away so fast," he informed her, moving in for a kiss.

Olivia pulled him close and gave him what he wanted. It was what she wanted, too, and she took the time to do it right. When she was done, he still didn't let her up, his arm across her legs while the other circled her waist. She sighed with mock exasperation and gave him another kiss. "We have to pack," she said when she was done.

He grinned and considered, then released her. When she stood, he gave her a swat on the ass. Giggling, she playfully swatted him back then dodged his half-hearted attempt at grabbing her again. "Later," she promised, making him grin even wider.

It took her only an hour to pack. Vinny was ready within half an hour, since he'd had a lot more training on packing on short notice. He hung around and made a pest of himself until she was done. Together, they went back to the Gate Room, where Walter signaled the Prometheus.

As they waited for the beam up, Vinny leaned in and murmured, "Gotta count for the Mile High Club."

"What?" Olivia asked, wondering if he was proposing having sex while waiting for the Asgard ship.

"Fuckin' in space," he replied, his voice still pitched low for her.

"I think there's another club altogether for that," she said. She didn't add that she'd joined that prestigious group before she'd met Vinny; it'd only upset him.

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An Asgard ship arrived in just under three hours to pick up the Specialists. It was a new sleeker design than those the SGC personnel had seen in pictures and footage of previous encounters. Thor was at the helm as everyone was beamed in. "Greetings. I am Thor and this ship is the Samantha Carter our newest fastest ship."

He made a gesture and a hologram appeared of the ship as seen from space a small dot pinpointed the bridge and other sections began to light up as the small alien spoke. "The trip back to our galaxy will only take a few hours but if you wish, you can tour the ship." He continued with a recitation of the various ship areas.

He turned to Colonel Mitchell, "Mitchell, the object you requested has been transported aboard and is in cargo bay one if you wish to inspect it."

Cam's smile would have only looked more perfect if a canary feather were sticking out of the corner of his mouth. He looked to the other specialists and gave a too innocent shrug, "I took the liberty of asking Thor to bring along the ascension device so it wouldn't be getting underfoot while we are gone. I'm sure we'll hear about that when we get back, but the General did say to 'take whatever we needed'." The smile turned into a full on grin, "Besides it really might help with our mission."

The journey took slightly over four hours at maximum speed. The view was impressive. The city over which the ship came to rest stretched as far as the eye could see.

orilla.jpg

Thor spoke as everyone was looking out the viewport. "Welcome to the Asgar homeworld Orilla. Thanks to Colonel Carter's actions in regards to the replicators we have had time to develop new methods of combating them. I was just returning from observing their final destruction when Heimdall notified us of your willingness to assist with our cloning issue. Whether your help allows us to succeed or not, please know that your assistance is appreciated." He pointed with his spindly arm at a large floating object the size of a small town visible through the viewport. "That is our main research facility and where you will be during your stay here."

Without warning the Specialists found themselves and their gear in a large room with numerous Asgard consoles spaced about the walls. Half a dozen of the little aliens moved about the room and all looked up at the arrival. In the room's center stood a large platform with what appeared to be a stasis field, in which lay an unmoving Asgard. Along the outer wall near where you were beamed in stood the Ascension device.

As the group was getting their bearings a pair of Asgard walked over, "Greetings. I am Hermiod and this is Loki, we will be the ones working with you during your stay here."

There was something about Loki that seemed a little odd for an Asgard, some aspect of his demeanor suggested he was less thrilled with the help than Hermiod but it did not enter his voice as he said, "Please get settled and return here at your convenience. You will find quarters suited to your physiology along the corridor there." He pointed to an opening in the outer wall.

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She gave Dec a grin and asked telepathically, *Mind picking out a room for us? I didn't really bring anything along.*

"Is it okay if I look around while the others get settled in?" She directed her audible question towards both Loki and Hermiod, curious as to the former's sense of apathy towards the novas. Now that she was 'on duty' again, most of the bubbly teenager had disappeared and been replaced by a mature and focused woman. "I know your technology is more advanced than Earth's, and from what I've seen it's a fair step above what I was used to at home and created without the integration of nova or psion capabilities. Getting an understanding the general Asgard thought process, as well as how that integrates with your technology, might allow those of us with quantum-enhanced intelligence to assist more directly in this endeavor. Or at least to offer a different perspective on the research that has already been done."

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Hermiod responded, "Feel free to look around as you wish. Please do not touch any console. As for your request, our first step will be to do complete scans of all of your physiology to fully understand how it compares with a normal human. That should give us a good idea of how specifically you were changed. Our hope is that learning this may give us hints on how to work with our own physiology."

Loki spoke, "The simple DNA sample that was taken is insufficient to learn what we need. A full scan will give us all we need to know. We should not need your quantum-enhanced intelligence."

Hermiod cocked his head as if in question toward Loki then turned back to Kyria, "You assistance will be appreciated in whatever capacity."

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Yseult spent the trip to Orilla mostly silent, eyes half close, reviewing the biological data she had collected on the specialists and the Asgard, then correlating it with what she knew of the physical changes caused by the Ascension Device. A portion of her thoughts were reserved for the study of eufiber. Calculations and hypotheses scrolled through her mind's eye at a frantic pace, and the four hours passed quickly.

It appears that the Asgard have traveled down an evolutionary dead end. If the Ascension Device could be recalibrated, perhaps the Asgard, they could be reinvigorated into a somewhat more primitive form, one where they were still capable of natural procreation. with a more dynamic genetic structure.

The view of the Asgard homeworld drew her astonished attention, but she was far more intrigue by the sight of the room where they would be doing their work, particularly the Asgard held in the stasis field. In her intensity to begin solving the Asgard's problem, she absently noted the quirk of Loki's demeanor and discarded it, simple nodding and swiftly headed down the corridor, choosing the first room on the right.

She noted the dimensions and furnishings of the almost sterile quarters with a raised brow, then set down her pack, only removing her laptop and a Earth-Asgard adapter, and immediately returned to what she thought of as the laboratory.

Yseult caught only the tail end of Kyria's question and after hearing the reply, asked her own, suppressing a frown at Loki's comment. "Hermiod, Loki, are you possessing accurate biological or physical data of the Asgard physiology from earlier generations? Preserved, organic material, it would be phenomenal."

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Kyria nodded to Hermiod, "Then you shall have it."

The bulk of her attention was on Loki though, the barest hints of a smile lurking around her lips. She hadn't really been challenged in a while, and unlike baselines, the Asgard seemed less phased by nova beauty or presence. "Perhaps you don't, but you are a scientist, yes? I would assume that's why you're here. Do you ignore a tool simply because you dislike the packaging?"

She shifted more towards Hermiod and continued, "A key difference between my genetic sample and those that you might take from the others is that I am not native to this universe and while constructed, the genetic material used to create me was from two natural novas. So far as I know, I do not possess the 'ATA gene' that allowed the others to erupt- to change. Who is that? And why are they in stasis?"

She flowed into the questions seamlessly, hardly giving Hermiod a chance to take in the information before being asked for his own in return.

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"The body in stasis is a clone, my own in fact." Hermiod made a willowy gesture in the direction of the center of the laboratory. "As for your assistance I will be most happy to accept, we only ask that you restrain yourselves from trying to delve into our technology. Loki may not use what aid you might provide beyond genetic sampling but I certainly will."

Loki made a very slight sound that might have been a grunt or huff of dismissal but did not otherwise reply.

Hermiod continued, "Also, I believe Loki is still somewhat bitter over being caught last year experimenting on humans. Since then he has been remanded by the High Council into my supervision. He is quite brilliant despite his moral shortcomings."

This time Loki audibly snorted, then spoke, "I was only doing what the High Council lacked the will to do. My research was very useful and no harm was done to the test subjects as you well know."

It was Hermiod that answered Yseult's question, "Yes, thanks to the assistance of SG1 we were able to obtain a genetic example of an Asgard that was frozen in stasis several thousand years ago. Unfortunately, so far we have not made significant progress. The fault lies in the the fact that with each generation we must engineer our clones with larger and larger brains to contain our ever increasing knowledge and experiences. We could simply use the genetic sample and engineer clones of that type, but we would lose significant portions of our knowledge and experience in such a transfer. Our hope is that your own physiology will be the answer to this problem and in such a case we could create bodies similar to your own that could contain all of our experiences. Using our own DNA of course."

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Gwyn, like Yseult, simply dropped his pack off in the first available room he came to grabbed his laptop, power adaptor and a couple of video cameras. Arriving back in the lab he quickly set up one camera on a stand near the door so that it got a good overview of the room and simply left it running. As he passed Yseult in their search for a place to plug their laptops in he indicated the camera he still carried, "Bill would get sulky if I didn't bring back any information for him."

Gwyn had arrived back in time to hear Hermiod's answers to Kyria, including the exchange between Hermiod and Loki.

"The test subjects may have been largely unharmed, but the same couldn't be said of the clones that you produced of them."

At the end of Hermiod's answer Gwyn quickly sumarried their plan, "So you want to create an Asgard version of an enhanced intelligence Specialist. Would the aim be to simply continue cloning or to revert to reproduction as a species?"

If cam could do that with the Device he'd need to try to make it so that they couldn't gain additional powers as we seem to do. No one would be happy for long with an advanced technological race that were all 'superpowered' as well. Most might be fine, but they've proven with Loki that they couldn't all be trusted.

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Kyria thought for several moments, her brow furrowed. "For novas, the increased capacity for well, just about everything, as well as our ability to power the more active powers we possess comes from the capacity for holding directing quantum energy. For psions it is noetic, and in either case, without that capability a nova is not a nova. They are simply baseline. If the Asgard genetic structure does not already possess the potential for that, or it cannot be..." she waved her hand, "...artificially manufactured somehow through machinery, then a purely genetically Asgard answer may not be possible."

She frowned, "A hybrid, perhaps would work, but you are more than likely looking at least some major cosmetic changes beyond even then dealing with a population that can process and alter quantum. You had said that the SGC had not officially informed you of the existence of novas- Specialists. How much have you observed?"

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Almost on cue the tall shaggy silhouette of Sgt. Perault stepped back through the door, the frozen mercury of his eyes flicking over the Asgard present, starting with the two nearest to his fellow Specialists as he stepped over to stand next to his friends.

"Nice digs they got for us here." he said laconically to Kyria. "Kinda feels like Cloud City." Even relaxed, the sergeant projected his usual air of spring-coiled potential energy as he looked around at the others. hands thrust casually into the pockets of his BDU pants. "So what's on the itinerary?"

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Hermiod walked over to a nearby console and moved a pair of tear drop shaped stones and a hologram appeared of a much taller and more human like Asgard. It still possessed the thin willowy characteristics so iconic to the little grey aliens but that was where the similarities ended. The head and eyes were much smaller, and the mouth larger in comparison, it also was not nearly so grey, the skin was more white like a like a Nordic human. Looking at the hologram it was possible to see, with some imagination, how they Asgards might have chosen to portray themselves as nordic gods. Perhaps in the distant past thousands of years ago they did look human, or almost so.

"This is one of our ancestors many thousands of years ago, as you can see he is much closer to human in appearance than our present clones are. Even so we are not looking to create hybrids, but rather to engineer Asgard clones more in the likeness of our ancient selves." There was something in Loki's voice that said he wouldn't enjoy being in a hybrid body.

Hermiod countered, "On the other hand, if it is not possible to create pure Asgard clones then hybrids might be the only choice. I for one would welcome this as would most of the Asgard I believe."

The question of how much the Asgard knew or had observed of the Specialists went unanswered.

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Kyria nodded, noting that her question wasn't answered but figured that given the secrecy of the SGC, that was pretty fair at this point. "Do humans and the Asgard share any sort of common ancestry, or is the similarity merely cosmetic?"

She smiled at Declan and reached out to squeeze his hand, still very much in the touch-comfort state of their relationship. Hesitant she reached out to the clone body, curious if it would feel like dead people did -devoid of any sense of mind- or something different as it was created to be a mental vessel.

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Yseult waited for the Asgard's response to Kyria's latest query, though she doubted that there was any biological between between their two species. She would have a more definite conclusion if she could see there ancestral genetic material. With access to it, the modern Asgard clone material, specialist genetics, and Kyria's unique genetics, she was sure that a solution would be possible.

"Hermiod, would it be possible to view the recovered genetic material? I would like to study the biological differences between it and your contemporary forms." Yseult paced, shifting her sight into her unique biological spectrum, her attention split between the Asgard and Kyria, looking for genetic similarities among the clones. That would give her a basis of where to look for analogous structures.

"There is something else you will have to consider, as well. The Asgard, a cause for their - your lack of continuance, I believe is your reliance on clones. It is a very efficient design, too much so, and rigid. It lacks the dynamic capability to adapt, evolve naturally over time."

She turned and faced the two Asgard directly, her intent eyes huge and impossibly vivid, seeming to look through them, into them. "I am thinking, without engaging in your natural method of procreation, the Asgard, they will face this problem once more."

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Loki responded, "No. If we are able to create Asgard genetic equivalent bodies based on your genetic enhancement then there will be no further need to alter clones every generation. Once perfected, all that would be needed is to grow a new body based on the original template which we will keep stored." A certain tone of distaste entered Loki's voice, "We do not share common ancestry. At one time our bodies did look much like your own, but we are not of the same stock."

Hermiod almost sighed and added, "It is not known specifically of our origin, but some have theorized that like the human race we too were the result of the Ancients genetic manipulations."

To Yseult's vision it was not obvious what similiarities might exist between Kyria and the Asgard, that would take close detailed examination and a good deal of time.

Kyria wandered over and examined the clone and was surprised to discover that it was not completely empty. It had no conscious but it did have memories, possibly preprogramed.

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"How do give a clone memories?" she asked idly and she poked about in the proto-mind. It was strange to feel memories in a mind that had no consciousness, no will of its own.

I wonder if my temporal manipulation would be useful in discovering a genetic bridge between the ancient Asgard and their modern bodies? Everything else I've done with it has only seemed to affect the durability or actual age of an object or organism, not the genetic history of it. I don't know if that would be a wise area to experiment in....but they do have these empty clones. If I failed in a deathly manner, it wouldn't mean the death of sentient creature. I should probably ask the others about that, first; they're very paranoid about knowledge of my new ability getting out.

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