Through A Glass Darkly, by Sophonisba [doppelganger challenge]
-title- Through A Glass Darkly
-author- Sophonisba (saphanibaal)
-warnings- Gen, general audiences; sort of a loose sequel to a pre-series story I wrote called " Forever Young."
-timeframe- During second season, before "Coup d'État."
-characters- AR-1
-disclaimer- SGA, of course, is not mine. The title is drawn from a very, very famous passage in a letter to a chapter of a then-new and questionable mystery cult in a city in Greece.
-word count- 904
-summary- "It is a mirror for seeing things that are not now present."
Through A Glass Darkly
They found the mirror in an Ancient outpost on the moon of a planet whose other moon they'd visited three times before. The last time, Teyla and Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard had been waiting in one of the other puddlejumpers for something to go wrong when AR-4 handed over the corned gunpowder -- the memory of the Genii was still fresh in all their minds, even when what they were trading was not so much a technological advance as a quality too costly to produce of a substance already known to the people of Sereyna -- and experimenting with long-range scanners when they'd discovered the third moon also had an atmosphere and signs of terraforming; only the fact that Doctor McKay and Ronon Dex would never have forgiven them for being left behind kept them from taking off as soon as the deal was safely closed and AR-4 back in their own jumper.
The moon, on closer examination on its own mission, proved to have three sites with power sources. The first one still had items haphazardly laid on what appeared to be counters. Ronon picked up a rifle-looking one and turned it over, and Doctor McKay yelled at him, pointing out that he had no way of knowing what might be the safety lock, whether it were on, or whether (should it be a gun) it might be loaded.
Teyla wandered over to one side, looking at a wall that appeared to display a large bowl stood on its side. The bowl reflected light well enough, and appeared to be smooth, but had no reflection of her or any other thing present in the room.
"That is unusual," she said quietly to herself, going closer to have a better look.
As she gazed into it, its smooth surface seemed to grow cloudier and then, slowly, clearer again. This time she could see a figure within it, although there was something odd about the light behind it; it was darker, perhaps.
Teyla walked up to it and stared at the figure. It was of a brown-skinned girl, with high cheekbones and a thin body holding the promise of beauty once she had grown beyond her mere thirteen annu. The girl's sleep shift had been lifted under her arms so that she could touch forehead, palms, and nipples to the concave mirror at once. Her features were currently distorted with shock; Teyla felt the same sort of familiarity and disjunction that she had had when looking at her lost ferrotype of herself and Sora at age thirteen.
Oh. Of course. She remembered this.
And as she remembered, she smiled, and leaned to lay her forehead against that of the maiden-in-the-glass, and carefully mouthed "Hello, me."
"Teyla! What are you doing?"
The mirror clouded again in response to Rodney McKay's voice, clouding over before returning to its original state.
"It is a mirror for seeing things that are not now present," Teyla explained, straightening and turning to face her comrades. "It showed me myself when I was thirteen annu of age."
"How do you know it was a thirteen-year-old you?"
"I remember seeing myself as I am now, and the three of you, in the mirror the Genii kept in their Ancestor's Fane when I was thirteen." Teyla smiled ruefully. "Of course, you were all -- out of focus, I believe the term is -- and I thought myself to be my mother."
"Huh," Doctor McKay said thoughtfully. "You're saying they talk... through TIME to each other? Like some sort of fourth-dimensional videophone?"
"The Genii I spoke with said that they showed one one's future husband if one chanted the proper incantation."
The archwizard's face was a wonder and a joy to behold.
"They were all maidens less than seventeen annu old."
"Oh, well, teenage girls..."
"It's activated by focused will, but sometimes it shows you what you need to see instead of what you want to see," John Sheppard said from one of the other walls. "That is, if it is this 'mirror of clear seeing' and I'm reading this catalogue thing right."
"You found a catalogue?" Doctor McKay did not quite race to the Colonel's side, but he moved with the surprisingly fast grace of a large predator.
"It says the mirror will show things that have been, and things that may be, and things that are in other worlds than this. Didn't I read about some mirror that did that last?"
"Well, the quantum mirror let you not only see but walk into other worlds, with the added opportunity of dying a nasty and very painful death if there was another you on the other side..."
Ronon, meanwhile, had put the not-rifle down and walked around to stand behind Teyla. He spoke her name quietly, worry and protectiveness a subtle undercurrent.
"I am well." Teyla smiled up at him. "It was... a chance to see what once was, and remember what it was to think and speak as a child."
Ronon nodded, and the two of them moved to help the colonel and doctor take pictures of themselves removing the memory unit from the catalogue device while arguing over whether they should take away all the artifacts, or come back with some of the studiers-of-old-things and help them pack up the artifacts after examining them in their original places.
-author- Sophonisba (saphanibaal)
-warnings- Gen, general audiences; sort of a loose sequel to a pre-series story I wrote called " Forever Young."
-timeframe- During second season, before "Coup d'État."
-characters- AR-1
-disclaimer- SGA, of course, is not mine. The title is drawn from a very, very famous passage in a letter to a chapter of a then-new and questionable mystery cult in a city in Greece.
-word count- 904
-summary- "It is a mirror for seeing things that are not now present."
Through A Glass Darkly
They found the mirror in an Ancient outpost on the moon of a planet whose other moon they'd visited three times before. The last time, Teyla and Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard had been waiting in one of the other puddlejumpers for something to go wrong when AR-4 handed over the corned gunpowder -- the memory of the Genii was still fresh in all their minds, even when what they were trading was not so much a technological advance as a quality too costly to produce of a substance already known to the people of Sereyna -- and experimenting with long-range scanners when they'd discovered the third moon also had an atmosphere and signs of terraforming; only the fact that Doctor McKay and Ronon Dex would never have forgiven them for being left behind kept them from taking off as soon as the deal was safely closed and AR-4 back in their own jumper.
The moon, on closer examination on its own mission, proved to have three sites with power sources. The first one still had items haphazardly laid on what appeared to be counters. Ronon picked up a rifle-looking one and turned it over, and Doctor McKay yelled at him, pointing out that he had no way of knowing what might be the safety lock, whether it were on, or whether (should it be a gun) it might be loaded.
Teyla wandered over to one side, looking at a wall that appeared to display a large bowl stood on its side. The bowl reflected light well enough, and appeared to be smooth, but had no reflection of her or any other thing present in the room.
"That is unusual," she said quietly to herself, going closer to have a better look.
As she gazed into it, its smooth surface seemed to grow cloudier and then, slowly, clearer again. This time she could see a figure within it, although there was something odd about the light behind it; it was darker, perhaps.
Teyla walked up to it and stared at the figure. It was of a brown-skinned girl, with high cheekbones and a thin body holding the promise of beauty once she had grown beyond her mere thirteen annu. The girl's sleep shift had been lifted under her arms so that she could touch forehead, palms, and nipples to the concave mirror at once. Her features were currently distorted with shock; Teyla felt the same sort of familiarity and disjunction that she had had when looking at her lost ferrotype of herself and Sora at age thirteen.
Oh. Of course. She remembered this.
And as she remembered, she smiled, and leaned to lay her forehead against that of the maiden-in-the-glass, and carefully mouthed "Hello, me."
"Teyla! What are you doing?"
The mirror clouded again in response to Rodney McKay's voice, clouding over before returning to its original state.
"It is a mirror for seeing things that are not now present," Teyla explained, straightening and turning to face her comrades. "It showed me myself when I was thirteen annu of age."
"How do you know it was a thirteen-year-old you?"
"I remember seeing myself as I am now, and the three of you, in the mirror the Genii kept in their Ancestor's Fane when I was thirteen." Teyla smiled ruefully. "Of course, you were all -- out of focus, I believe the term is -- and I thought myself to be my mother."
"Huh," Doctor McKay said thoughtfully. "You're saying they talk... through TIME to each other? Like some sort of fourth-dimensional videophone?"
"The Genii I spoke with said that they showed one one's future husband if one chanted the proper incantation."
The archwizard's face was a wonder and a joy to behold.
"They were all maidens less than seventeen annu old."
"Oh, well, teenage girls..."
"It's activated by focused will, but sometimes it shows you what you need to see instead of what you want to see," John Sheppard said from one of the other walls. "That is, if it is this 'mirror of clear seeing' and I'm reading this catalogue thing right."
"You found a catalogue?" Doctor McKay did not quite race to the Colonel's side, but he moved with the surprisingly fast grace of a large predator.
"It says the mirror will show things that have been, and things that may be, and things that are in other worlds than this. Didn't I read about some mirror that did that last?"
"Well, the quantum mirror let you not only see but walk into other worlds, with the added opportunity of dying a nasty and very painful death if there was another you on the other side..."
Ronon, meanwhile, had put the not-rifle down and walked around to stand behind Teyla. He spoke her name quietly, worry and protectiveness a subtle undercurrent.
"I am well." Teyla smiled up at him. "It was... a chance to see what once was, and remember what it was to think and speak as a child."
Ronon nodded, and the two of them moved to help the colonel and doctor take pictures of themselves removing the memory unit from the catalogue device while arguing over whether they should take away all the artifacts, or come back with some of the studiers-of-old-things and help them pack up the artifacts after examining them in their original places.