Telchak Device

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Activated Telchak Device

Summary

The Telchak Device is technology left by the Ancients and is named after the Goa'uld Telchak who used its design to create the first sarcophagus. The technology worked as a healing device for the Ancients, but it proved dangerous to humans if they were exposed to it for too long a time at too close a distance. If a human were exposed to the powers of the device after death, the energy absorbed by the dead tissue reanimated it — creating a zombie. Anubis used similar technology to animate his Kull Warriors.

Stargate References

Introduction

Anubis's Kull Warriors were animated with similar technology

Telchak was the Goa'uld who created the first sarcophagus based on Ancient technology now known as the Telchak Device. Anubis went to war with him for possession of the original Ancient technology, and although he defeated Telchak, he never found the device. After his ascension, Anubis gained knowledge on how to produce a similar device that could animate tissue and give life to his Kull Warriors, genetically engineered beings with programmed Goa'uld symbiotes. (7.11 "Evolution Part 1")

When the SGC obtained the body of a dead Kull Warrior, Jacob Carter/Selmak studied the energy signature in the Warrior's tissue and noted the similarity between it and the sarcophagus'. He told Daniel the story about Telchak and the Ancient technology, and Daniel immediately recalled that his grandfather, Nick Ballard, had done decades of Mayan research into the Fountain of Youth (legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters) in which he claimed he'd found evidence indicating the source of the fountain's power was a piece of alien technology used by early Mayan tribes around 900 B.C. Nick traced its origins to Chac, the Mayan god of rain. Daniel, Carter and Jacob/Selmak theorized that if the device was kept hidden near a water source, it could have been the basis of the Fountain of Youth mythology. (7.11 "Evolution Part 1")

Ballard's research notes turned out to be written in an obscure dialect of Goa'uld, and Selmak translated them to reveal that Telchak's Ancient device was hidden in a temple in southern Hondorus near a waterfall and a river. (7.11 "Evolution Part 1")

Discovery

Telchak Device hidden in a temple in Honduras

Daniel and Dr. Lee found the Telchak Device exactly where they thought it would be, but weren't immediately able to get it back to the SGC because they were kidnapped by Honduran revolutionaries. During their time in captivity, the leader, Rafael, tinkered with the Device until he activated it. Upon realizing that the Device was activated and that it was harmful to humans, Daniel urged Rafael to turn it off, but by this time, the Device had affected the Honduran's thinking and he couldn't be reasoned with. One of his subordinates, Chalo, urged him as well, telling him that it was cursed and that he was afraid because he was already feeling strange effects. Irrationally, Rafael shot Chalo over Daniel's head while he was tied to an interrogation chair. The revolutionaries placed the body on a cot in the same room as the activated Device. (7.11 "Evolution Part 1", 7.12 "Evolution Part 2")

Once Daniel was returned to the small shack that he shared with Dr. Lee, he started to execute an escape, saying that they'd surely die if they stayed and waited for a rescue. While making their way out of the back of their unguarded shack, Chalo reappeared in the camp, firing his weapon at the other men, who returned fire. Chalo took several bullets in the chest before falling. (7.12 "Evolution Part 2")

Already under the Device's influence and freaked out by Chalo's reappearance, Rafael went to the prisoners' shack and found Daniel and Bill gone. He and two of his remaining men chased after them. Jack killed the three men as they threatened to kill Daniel, and then the two were attacked by Chalo, who was still going strong, even though he was obviously killed twice already. Jack's partner in the search for Daniel and Bill, CIA Agent Burke, used grenades against the zombie, bursting him into several pieces and ensuring that he could not attack them again. (7.12 "Evolution Part 2")

Derivative Technology

Three distinct technologies were derived from the Telchak Device:

Telchak created the Goa'uld's sarcophagus
 The sarcophagus, created by the Goa'uld Telchak, is used by the Goa'uld to prolong their lives. It has also been used as a stasis chamber. Human bodies are easily healed by the technology, even from death, but are adversely affected with addiction if continuously exposed to the energy of the device while healthy. (Stargate: The Movie, 2.05 "Need", 7.11 "Evolution Part 1")
Jack uses the Tok'ra's new weapon against a Kull Warrior
 Realizing that the technology was seriously dangerous for humans and knowing that the Tok'ra wished to study it, the SGC handed the Telchak Device over to the Tok'ra at the Alpha Site. After a month of study, Jacob Carter/Selmak and Carter had a working prototype weapon that would cancel out the Kull Warrior's energy. They created this weapon similar in shape to a Transphase Eradication Rod (TER) that was used effectively on the Reetou. Anubis learned of this weapon's development and the location of the Alpha Site and sent Kull Warriors to track down the technology. The Alpha Site, and thus their research, was destroyed when the Alpha Site's commander issued the self-destruct, but Carter managed to escape with the fully calibrated power unit, which Jack used effectively on the Kull Warrior that was hunting her. (7.16 "Death Knell")
Daniel uses the SGC's Kull Warrior Nullifier attached to a P-90
 Taking the Tok'ra's design, Carter developed a small attachment for the SGC's weapons. Its presence on the weapon is evident by its blue light. The energy emitted by the device also appears blue. This special adaptation was first seen used by SG-1 in the Antarctic Outpost when Anubis attacked Earth during the search for the Lost City of the Ancients. (7.22 "Lost City Part 2")

Similar Energy Patterns and Effects

Volnek is made a zombie by a Prior of the Ori

The Ori and the Altera lived million of years ago as advanced humans on the evolutionary path toward ascension. The two groups grew apart and the Altera fled their home when the Ori threatened to wipe them out. After thousands of years of travel, the Altera settled in the Milky Way where they became known as the Ancients. The two groups eventually ascended and found that they could sap energy from humans to grow in their own power in the ascended planes. The Ancients decided to cut themselves off from humanity while the Ori developed a religion called Origin so that they would be worshipped and empowered. (9.02 "Avalon Part 2", 9.03 "Origin Part 3", 9.10 "The Fourth Horseman Part 1")

Eventually the Ori learned of humanity in the Milky Way and decided to sap the energy from new worshippers. They sent their advanced human missionaries, called Priors of the Ori, to the galaxy through the Stargate. These Priors demonstrated impressive abilities, accentuated by their staffs that had orbs that glowed when activated. Those who witnessed their power and longed for guidance in the Path to Enlightenment (ascension) turned to the Ori as gods, including the Sodan Jaffa who had lived 5,000 years in freedom after their ancestors turned against their Goa'uld master Ishkur and searched for Kheb. But, the Sodan were proud warriors who valued honor in battle, and they turned against the Ori when the Prior asked them to annhilate a planetful of poor peasants who could not effectively defend themselves. As punishment for this rejection, a Prior activated his staff against one of the Sodan warriors named Volnek, turning him into a vicious zombie who killed all of his people, except for one. (9.08 "Babylon", 9.11 "The Fourth Horseman Part 2", 9.18 "Arthur's Mantle")

Knowing that the Ancients and the Ori shared technological history, Teal'c recognized Volnek's condition as similar to Chalo's after he was exposed to the Telchak Device. He knew that Volnek was dead and the only way to stop the creature that remained was to use explosives so that the body could no longer reanimate. Volnek was destroyed with C-4. (9.18 "Arthur's Mantle")

Episodes

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Further Reading

--DeeKayP 19:33, 8 July 2007 (PDT)

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