Aschen

This article is about the people. For the planet also sometimes known as Aschen, see Aschen Prime.

"It's like an entire planet of accountants."

The Aschen (emphasis on the second syllable) are a human race who use biological weapons to defeat their enemies, often by stealth.

Overview

The Aschen are an advanced human species that have developed technology centuries ahead of Earth. They are not explorers, and are hesitant to travel outside their own Confederation. However, they are quite interested in increasing their knowledge about the rest of the galaxy.

Aschen personality is quite different when compared to those of the Tau'ri, and most other encountered human civilizations. They have little to no personality, or even emotions in general; they lack a sense of humor and can appear quite arrogant. This has led Colonel Jack O'Neill to call the Aschen a race of "accountants". The Aschen compensate for these faults with their extreme intelligence and practicality.

Because of this practicality, the Aschen tend to think on a long-term basis, sometimes planning centuries ahead. As a result, the Aschen are renowned for their patience. Also, they are very perceptive, and can recognize problems long before they present themselves as such.

Aschen fashion consists predominantly of grey uniform-like tunics. They are also sensitive to loud sounds, such as gun shots.

The Aschen home planet, Aschen Prime, was presumed destroyed in 2001 by a black hole. (SG1: "2010", "2001")

History

The ancestors of the Aschen may have been kidnapped from Earth millennia ago by the Goa'uld to work as slaves, as most human races in the Milky Way. There has never been any direct evidence or reference to this stated during their appearances, but the inclusion of the Aschen homeworld's address on the cartouche on Abydos, containing every Stargate address known to the Goa'uld, would make this extremely likely.

Also, the Stargate on Aschen Prime, a planet known to Stargate Command as P4C-970, was found buried, like the one found on Earth and several other worlds, suggesting a successful uprising against the Goa'uld which either killed them all or drove them from the planet.

Subsequently, the Aschen rediscovered the Stargate. No Dial Home Device was ever recovered, and without the device to compensate for stellar drift, the Aschen could only use the Stargate to travel to their closest worlds. This situation was comparable to how the Tau'ri could only dial to Abydos and the planet Ernest Littlefield became trapped on in 1945 before they discovered the Abydos cartouche. The Aschen were able to adapt the Stargate for their own benefits, and eventually used it to travel and trade between the members of their Confederation, mostly composed of nearby planets.

By the Tau'ri year 2001, the Aschen had developed their own technologically advanced society. Aschen technology had advanced to a point where it had surpassed that of the Goa'uld, much like the Tollan. (SG1: "2010", "2001")

Contact with Earth

In the year 2001, SG-1 made contact with the Volians when the team discovered their homeworld. The native Volians, members of the Aschen Confederation, subsequently introduced SG-1 to the Aschen.

The Aschen, interested in increasing their knowledge about the galaxy, were quite eager to start negotiations with the Tau'ri. Stargate Command was offered advanced Aschen technology and assistance in Earth's battle against the Goa'uld in exchange for information about the Stargate system. Negotiations between the United States of America and the Aschen were subsequently initiated, sending diplomats to Volia. The Aschen had ulterior motives. Like in the alternate timeline, it was their intention to slowly sterilize Earth's population and transform the planet into yet another farming world.

During the first stages of these negotiations, the Aschen, who had no Iris to protect their Stargate, and were therefore extremely vulnerable, were hesitant to share the address of their homeworld with Earth. Because no one at the SGC knew the identity of the inhabitants of P4C-970, or had the address to the Aschen homeworld, they didn't immediately make the connection between the advanced people and the mysterious note they had received a year earlier. When they deduced that P4C-970 was one of four worlds close enough to the Volian gate to avoid the problem of stellar drift, the SGC suspected the Aschen as being the race they had been warned for, and began sending teams and probes in search for confirmation. The United States government, on the other hand, had high hopes for these negotiations and subsequently prevented the SGC from continuing their search.

The Aschen's intentions were eventually uncovered when members of SG-1 unearthed the remains of what used to be a thriving urban civilization on the Volian world, learning that the Aschen's Anti-aging vaccine had the effect of sterilizing the entire population, after which they were wiped out. Unable to completely prove this, Major Samantha Carter was sent to trick them into revealing it. As part of the planned treaty, the Aschen were given several gate addresses as a gesture of good faith. The deal fell through when Earth discovered their treachery. Since SG-1 had already been suspicious, the aforementioned addresses were all apparently dangerous locations ("first one being a black hole and all. They get progressively darker from there."). (SG1: "A Matter of Time", "2010", "2001")

Revenge

A couple of years later, a group of Aschen- led by Mirris, the mate of Mollem, who had died due to the actions of the Tau'ri- attempted to avenge themselves on Earth by arranging for an alliance to be formed between the Tau'ri and the Pack, a group of space-faring nomads who had previously rejected the 'offer' to become part of the Confederation. Having contaminated the Pack's agricultural crops and provided a prominent member of the Pack with a new version of the sterility pathogen, the Aschen intended for Earth to be decimated by the pathogen and thus conquer it once the population was low enough. However, a team from the future that would result if this plan succeeded- including a future version of Jack O'Neill, his daughter Jade, and a Re'tu- revealed that the pathogen would mutate to the point where entire planets would become completely incapable of supporting life, with human life facing extinction by 2033 as a result of the Aschens' actions. With the aid of their future visitors, the SGC were able to undermine the Aschen plan for revenge, destroying Mirris's ship and exposing her ally among the pack, although the planned alliance was now merely the SGC providing the Pack with a new planet to live on after most of their fleet was destroyed by the Aschen. (SG1: "Stargate SG-1: Relativity")

Aschen Confederation

Main article: Aschen Confederation

The Aschen are the leaders of their own Confederation of planets, mainly located in close proximity to the Aschen homeworld. Most of these planets are primitive farm worlds and have very few Aschen living on them. Crops from these planets are transported back to their homeworld via the Stargate to meet the Aschen populace's requirements. The Confederation seems to be a collection of races that the Aschen have conquered, or are in the process of gradually conquering.

The Aschen usually invite newly-discovered worlds into their Confederation by sharing their advanced technology with them, only to gradually eliminate the population and use the member world for their own purposes. Earth almost became a member of this Confederation before uncovering the true plans the Aschen had with the planet. (SG1: "2010", "2001")

Volians

One of the members of the Aschen Confederation were the Volians. When discovered by Stargate Command, the Volian civilization consisted only of a scattering of a few thousand people who farm their rural planet, Volia, for themselves and the Aschen Confederation. Their language was related to Ancient Celtic, suggesting they lived in ancient Britain on Earth before being abducted by the Goa'uld. The Aschen had assisted the Volians in collapsing a Gas giant in their solar system into a Star, doubling the growing season on the planet.

Originally the Volians were a peaceful and productive society who had reached a level of technology comparable to Earth's early twentieth century. The entire species was struck by a deadly plague and the Aschen, known to the Volians as the newcomers, provided a cure for the entire population. It also caused the majority of the population to become sterile. The Volians tried to fight back, but were abruptly silenced. The Aschen eventually covered the urban areas for farming and made certain no Volian remembered the truth about his or her people's history. Today, the few remaining Volians are ignorant of what the Aschen had done to their people, some Volians are even raised by Aschen families, brainwashing them into forgetting the past and providing maintenance to the farm land. (SG1: "2001")

Alternate Earth

In an alternate timeline, Earth had contacted the Aschen in 2000 and formed an alliance with the Aschen against the Goa'uld. SG-1 failed to uncover the Aschen's true intentions, and anyone discovering the truth, such as George S. Hammond, was eliminated.

By 2010 of this timeline, the Goa'uld had been defeated likely through the use of bio weapons which had also brought the Tok'ra to the brink of extinction and left the Jaffa numbers heavily depleted due to lack of symbiotes. The Earth had become a technologically advanced paradise. Also, the Aschen had begun to distribute a drug among the Earth's population that promised to extend human life, but which also resulted in a 90% drop in the worldwide birth rate. The Aschen's plan, which would take decades to come to fruition, was to depopulate the Earth until only a bare remnant of humanity remained. They would then be able to simply take control of the planet without the need for costly invasion, conquest, and pacification.

Eventually, the former SG-1 discovered the Aschen's conspiracy, which would otherwise have gone unnoticed until Earth would have been too weak to resist occupation. Using advanced Aschen technology, SG-1 could predict a Solar flare, and by activating the Stargate simultaneously with the flare, dialing an address precisely opposite the Earth with the Sun in between, they would utilize the space-time warping properties of the Sun (much like what they did in the year 1969) to connect to their own Stargate in the past. Carrying out their plan, they sent a message ten years back in time, to the SGC before they had contacted the Aschen: "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES GO TO P4C-970." The note was in Colonel Jack O'Neill's handwriting with his signature written with a bio-degradable compound that had yet to be invented. The note was also stained with his blood. Hammond subsequently ordered the Aschen homeworld locked out of the dialing computer and all contact with that planet forbidden. (SG1: "1969", "2010", "2001")

Aschen technology

"...half the time the science they're talking about is so far over my head, I feel like a lab assistant..."

―Samantha Carter

Main article: Aschen technology

In the year 2010 (in an alternate timeline) and 2001 (in the current timeline) the Aschen possessed advanced technology that were commented by Major Samantha Carter as being at least a hundred years ahead of Earth. Impressive examples of their superior technology are Harvesters, enormous floating craft used to harvest crops. These crops are later transported to the Aschen homeworld or other Confederation planets offworld through the Stargate. The Aschen have also developed transportation technology, capable of transporting persons between continents in only seconds, and advanced bio-weapons. Aschen medicine is also very advanced, capable of developing vaccines against deadly diseases including cancer, drugs to double human life-span, and machines that can mend broken bones in seconds. (SG1: "2010", "2001")

Known Aschen

Worlds under Aschen control

Aschen Prime (Aschen homeworld)
Volia
Earth (In an alternate timeline)
Unknown number of planets in Aschen Confederation

Behind the scenes

Aschen (pl.) is the German word for 'embers' or 'ashes.' These two terms easily describe the Aschen species' actions.
The message from the future saying not to contact the Aschen was another homage to the final message in Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2010: Odyssey Two, "All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landings there." The other homages to the novel were the Aschen's planned conversion of Jupiter into a Star, and of course, the episode's title, "2010".

External links

Aschen in Kathleen Ritter's Lexicon.
GateWorld's article on Aschen in The Stargate Omnipedia

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Aschen. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with SGCommand, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.