Work Text:
THE LAND OF LIGHT
by Bethany
“I think we might have finally found the answer…” Dr. Janet Frasier stated. “And it may even be able to help Breta’c as well. I’m not promising anything, Teal’c, but are you willing to give this a try?”
“I must try this treatment before Breta’c is subject to it.” Teal’c had made up his mind. “The day when all Jaffa will safely take this medicine to become free men is faraway, but one man must try this treatment in their name… Since I owe this to my people, it shall be I.”
“No. This I will not allow… I am the old man here, Teal’c.” Breta’c said, as he lay in the Infirmary.
“You came to me for help, Master…” Teal’c said softly.
“I came to you so that I would not have to die alone.” Breta’c looked at him pleadingly. “And so that the Tauri could crush my symbiote before it got among the free men and women who have already been denied their homeland of Chulak… They need great guidance, Teal’c, and there are some brave leaders there, but if a fully mature symbiote were to come among them…” He trailed off.
“It does not have to be your time to die…” Teal’c replied.
“What purpose would I serve beyond this point? All men must eventually die, Teal’c.” He told his student.
“Eventually, yes… But think what it will be like to experience life as a truly free man…” Teal’c looked at him intently. “Let me do this task for you, and you may yet have that chance… I must take this chance for freedom… How else will the way be paved for my people to see that there is an end to their slavery?”
“I will taste freedom, my friend… I shall soon taste freedom more pure than that known to a man of any kind… I will be going to the Eternal Life.” Breta’c explained, with the wisdom he had earned, and the real faith in his heart. “Let me do this for you, Teal’c, as my final farewell to my greatest and dearest apprentice…”
“You are very week, Master Breta’c. This is not wise. I will not permit it.” Dr. Frasier held the old man’s hand in her own.
“You will!” He spoke with a force beyond the mortality he faced. “And, perhaps, if you good people use your minds well enough, and determine the process safe for my apprentice also, he will serve his people in showing them, once again, that freedom is theirs for the taking… I am old now, and we do not truly know, if I die, whether my death will be attributed to the pellets, or to Keb calling me home…”
Sam Carter walked by Dr. McKenzie on her way to the Infirmary. “Hello… Good to see you again, doctor… Glad to have you back at the SGC.”
“Ahh, yes, Captain Carter… Thank you. I am very glad to be back onboard.” McKenzie was a genuine man. “I don’t believe we met when I visited the base to evaluate Teal’c prior to his Jaffa Last Rites last year…”
“No. We didn’t. But I have been meaning to thank you all this time for the help you gave me years ago when Daniel was almost lost to us.” Sam stated.
“I am glad that both situations worked out…” McKenzie said.
“Yes.” Carter said. “Anyway, Doctor… I just wanted to tell you that I recalled your name immediately when I heard that you were on your way back… It’s been too long since you were on our staff, and I am happy to have had my memory jogged by the return of a familiar face!”
“Thank you,” he paused.
“It’s Major Carter now, by the way.” She filled in the unsure silence for him. “Samantha.”
“Thank you, Samantha… And you may as well know me as something other than a familiar face whose surname you can now recall. “I’m Gil, or Ogilvie, to be precise… But Gil is easier on the tongue.”
“Welcome back, Gil.” Sam Carter said, as she and he continued on their separate ways.
“Is he doing ok?” Sam asked, as she took her seat in the Medical Observatory.
“Which?” Daniel asked. “Breta’c or Teal’c?”
“Both?” Sam asked again.
“Breta’c’s just had his symbiote removed. Dr. Frasier has now put it to sleep…” Jonas Quinn said, peering down at the operating table.
Jack looked at him oddly for his turn of phrase.
“Breta’c is now having the super antibiotic slow release fluid pellets imbedded.” Jonas continued.
Jack squirmed.
“Is the component we mixed with those antibiotics, from the reanimated blood sample of Arris Bok melding well???” Sam referred to the blood sample that they took from the bounty hunter, when he had also given them a sample of the addictive substance, Rus’na.
“How should we know?” Jack said. “I’m gonna go and check in on Teal’c…” He got up and left.
“Where is Teal’c?” Sam asked Daniel.
“He’s in the deepest form of meditation he can muster…” Daniel explained.
“He says he wants to offer prayers up to Keb that the Free Jaffa will not lose their greatest warrior this day…” Quinn finished.
Jack got to Teal’c’s door, and decided that he could not disturb him, so he changed courses, and went to see the General in his Office. Everyone on the Base new the enormity of this day, and everyone on this base needed some form of distraction. Meditation was Teal’c’s.
“Hello, Colonel…” Combs passed him in the corridor. The Mathematician cum Archaeologist cum Palaeontologist cum Linguist, (the man had four post-graduate degrees, and knowledge that dabbled in most any subject you could throw at him…) or The Walking Oracle and Mad Trekkie, as he was also known, smiled at O’Neill. “How is Teal’c?”
“He will be glad when all this is over…” Jack paused, and frowned. “I hope.”
“We’re all thinking of you guys…” Combs said pleasantly, smiling shyly, and hurrying on his way.
“Thanks!” Jack shouted after him, genuinely.
Breta’c awoke, and immediately saw a beautiful but concerned face. Dr. Janet Frasier hovered over his bed like an angel.
“Welcome back, Breta’c…” She smiled, relieved so greatly Breta’c was sure he could see tears in her eyes.
“Where is Teal’c?” Were Breta’c’s first words.
“I am here, Master… What do you need?” He asked, coming into view. Teal’c had been gowned up entirely, so as to prevent any germs being transmitted to Breta’c. Everyone in the vicinity of his master was similarly attired.
“How did you know he has woken?” Frasier said in awe at the younger Jaffa.
“He has loyalty like no other man’s understanding of the word… It runs deep, incredibly so…” Breta’c said creakily.
“The pellets are stable?” Teal’c enquired of Dr. Frasier.
“At the moment…” Frasier replied quietly.
“Do not implant any more into Teal’c until you are certain I will not die.” Breta’c asserted.
“You have my word, Master Breta’c.” Dr. Frasier assured him.
“So, these pellet thingies that were developed from the research done after Carter got kidnapped last year, they really work???” Jack paced around the Briefing Room table. He was talking about the Super-antibiotic that was derived from the discoveries and research done through the dissection of the Goa’uld symbiotes that had been cloned, and almost taken over a small town not so long ago. “Boy, those Medic guys did good!” He grinned, sitting down in his seat.
“The Super drug has been enhanced by the sample siphoned and synthesised, or replicated, from Arris Bok’s blood sample, apparently. Which also, handily enough, makes a Jaffa truly free from Goa’uld tyranny, because they can no longer be re-infected.” Hammond looked at the notes Doctor Frasier had passed onto them. She was busily monitoring Breta’c’s gradual recovery, which had taken weeks already, in the Infirmary. “Is that correct, Doctor Warner?”
“It is, sir, yes…” He paused. “And we now are hoping it is safe to believe that we can go ahead and implant some of these pellets into Teal’c.”
“That is good news!” Hammond satisfyingly stated.
“You are hoping..?” Jack repeated.
“It is all we are capable of, Colonel.” Warner warned him.
“No one knows for sure, right?” Daniel Jackson asked for confirmation of the nasty thought that had just, unfortunately, occurred to him.
Sam and Jonas sat quietly, each taking in this awful consideration.
“Each individual could have a differing reaction, and the substance, as well as the pellets themselves, are not ready for widespread usage… We don’t have enough of it, for one thing…” Warner commented. “The Jaffa, on the whole, are better off living a full life with their symbiotes, than hearing of this so soon, and submitting themselves to a very experimental form of treatment…”
“Is he well enough that I may go and see him?” Breta’c asked.
“He is awake, and I believe that he will welcome your presence…” Frasier smiled.
“Good!” Breta’c said. “I am not sure, as such a truly old man now, how much longer I have left appointed to me in this existence, but I wish to thank Teal’c for the freedom he helped me to realise.”
“You both are free now, Master Breta’c, truly…” Frasier said. “And you can return to spend your final years in the Land of Light, guiding Teal’c’s son, and being part of your apprentice’s family now…” Teal’c’s family had come from The Land of Light to be with him during this time…
Yes… I believe I can…” Breta’c tried to hide the tears that were forming in his weary eyes. “It is time for this warrior to stop roaming an unwelcoming galaxy…”
“And to go home, to taste freedom…” Frasier smiled.
“Before my final journey…” He paused. “I will no longer return to the hideouts of my fellow Free Jaffa… I shall turn my attentions to instilling my last bits of knowledge in the mind of Teal’c’s eldest son.”
A good few weeks later, Teal’c stood in the glow of a sunset that bathed The Land of Light… “Farewell, my friend, and father…”
“Farewell, my friend, and son…” Breta’c hugged his most loyal apprentice as if he were the father, as he had indeed seemed to become, of this magnificent man. “One day, when your own son is old enough, he will be strong enough to discard his symbiote as we have finally done…”
“And he would not now have that opportunity if it weren’t for you…” Teal’c held the shoulders of the Jaffa Warrior Breta’c, and embraced him yet again…
THE END…