Stargate Aurora

The following is a fan fiction based on the world of Stargate, originally written by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin and expanded upon in Stargate SG1, Atlantis and Universe by Brad Wright, Johnathan Glassner and Robert C. Cooper.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last one but especially Lone-ranger1 for Beta-reading and for giving me writing tips and Proclarush Taonas for giving me support every step of the way (even before I contacted her about the it.) :)

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Episode II: Tuebor.

Adalyx felt the dusty concrete, glass and bent steel creak and crack under his leather boots as he ran through puddle after puddle. His breathing got heavier and faster as he bent down and slid into the cover that he had spotted as he entered the boulevard. He kept himself close to the floor as he relaxed a little on the side of what had once been road, now pockmarked with missing chunks.

Possibly an early version of the Wraith transportation system had pulled parts of the floor up as well as the innocent people that must have been running over it at the time, or maybe some careless human had crashed there vehicle during the confusion ?

Maybe it was simply time that had done this to the ground?

It didn't really matter now.

He took off running again through the dusty dry streets of the dead city on the dead planet. Not fifty years ago Katara had been a planet rich in life; its inhabitants had mastered gate travel and were beginning to make leaps in Quantum Computer technology.

Their vehicles went about their planet on six legs instead of the more traditional wheels, their mathematics were based on base four principles and their writing was an interesting mix of runes, hieroglyphs and shapes...such a unique civilisation that had such potential.

They even had a small fleet of ships, not as massive as the failed 'first Coalition of Human Worlds' or the Lantean Classis but it was still enough to keep themselves as a known people and as a defender of several smaller, less advanced civilisations.

But now they were gone, no more than forty eight years into the Wraith War a huge Wraith fleet had dropped into low orbit and had stripped the planet bare of life...nothing was spared from the Wraiths vengeance.

He crossed the city's square and the enormity of the tragedy struck him, as it did every day that he had ran through it for the past two weeks. Flanked by two ponds that now lay dry as a bone stood a huge tarnished silver statue of Rheia, the first Lantean to make re-contact with the humans of Katara.

She stood at the heart of the city to signify the bond the two peoples shared, a similar statue of the Kataran Prime Minister Tigus stood on a small island of the coast of the main city...the water signifying the oceans of the universe.

Even he, the son of the first patrician of the House of Oliverias hung his head in reverence at the sight of this monumental show of friendship.

He continued on, past the huge silver tarnished woman with her arm outstretched into what had once been called the palaces of government. The automatic doors no longer worked but he had no trouble in using his powers to push them to the side. He walked into the room and then reclosed the huge metal and stained glass door behind him.

The main reception had been hit quite hard by incoming fire, the entire second, third and fourth floors had collapsed into it. The room was filled with rubble and it was impossible to see the floor.

Making sure that no one was near he wrapped his minds hand around the vast amount of rubble that lay about the room. Beneath the vast amounts of bent metal, broken glass and obliterated concrete lay a circular plate...a device so rare in this galaxy that it was possible to search the galaxy for five years and never find one.

Adalyx made his way to the top of the device and stood in its centre. He sighed as it activated and five small rings rose into the air. As he saw the expected white light flash all around him he felt his body transforming into energy...

...............

The rings reassembled him on the summit of a small still intact building, the Trierarchus Building to be precise. Not a hundred feet in front of him sat another officer of the Spector Milites overlooking the clearing below. The other officer had the same uniform as him but it was clear by the way he was slouched over the side it was clear as day that he originated from a different branch of the military.

"Above the sun to you, Iohannes." He said loudly as he approached the side of the building as well as the other officer, Iohannes. The officer wore a mini drone launcher over his shoulder that he would use in case of Wraith attack. The officer turned around with the launcher on his shoulder.

"Futuo! Watch where you are aiming that Sergeant!" Adalyx exclaimed to Sergeant Iohannes who simply shrugged and moved his attention back to the ground floor.

"Above the sun, Second Captain." He spoke roughly as he regained his watch over the Stargate.

"What's the status of the refugees coming in from Ai- Taris?" Adalyx interrogated his subordinate from over his shoulder. Down below the Stargate stood aloft on top of a huge pyramid made of glistening steel and crystal that was untarnished by the years of neglect.

"As you can see, Second Captain they have not arrived yet." The sergeant spoke in a sarcastic tone that was typical of the Custos soldiers. The Custos acted as Lantean ground forces during engagements, they were the Lantean soldiers that truly fought in the trenches and fought in the dirt. For all his disrespect the Sergeant deserved to be angry.

Service in the Custos was considered less glamorous than its counterpart of the Classis. A surprising fact considering that the last Supreme Commander before the High Council assumed command of the military spent most of his career in the Custos.

Suddenly both men felt the so familiar feel of energy running through the air that the lower species tended to dismiss subconsciously. Iohannes turned from the edge of the tall building to look at his commanding officer and rolled his eyes before both men turned their attention back to the Stargate, the chevrons on its front lighting up one by one to denote the imminent arrival of the refugees.

"I change that answer Second Captain, the refugees are on time for their arrival. " Sergeant Iohannes said with a grin as the first refugee stepped through the blue, water like event horizon.

"I shall go and take them to the camp. Good work soldier. I'll send someone to relieve you in two hours." Adalyx said grudgingly as he made his way to the buildings staircase...

.................

Karyan cursed as she felt the young woman's heart beat descend quickly. The blood on her hands was still wet and the white gloves that were now stained red were quickly becoming unusable. She looked at her compatriot across the side of the table who wore the same uniform that she did but his eyes were so differen...glazed and cold.

She realised that there was nothing she could do with what little equipment they had in camp. Concluding that there was only one thing she could do she quickly pulled the thin, white neoprene surgical gloves from her hands and placed them over the woman's open chest cavity.

To her colleagues' horror a white light flashed from between them and as Karyan felt the life force leave her body she could also see that it was helping her patient. First her heart began to beat again, slowly but it was still a beat and then it got faster and then the chest cavity itself closed up.

Suddenly the woman opened her brilliant green eyes and Karyan fell backwards, the stress of healing the young woman was far too much even for this ancient healer.

The human nurses stood in amazement of the natural Alteran abilities. The other physician, Sontar sighed to himself and looked around.

"Nurse, someone...get this young woman a blanket." Sontar said disappointingly as he stared at Karyan who was now sat with her back against the medical table. One of the half a dozen nurses that stood around the room, a tall dark haired woman came and draped a silver blanket over her. "Please take this woman to the wards and keep checking on her stats every thirty minutes."

Two other nurses came and set a gurney up and took it along with the woman to another area of the camp. The two Alterans stood alone in the surgical area, Karyan sitting on one side of the medical table while Sontar stood on the other side.

"So I see that Captain Villgans has corrupted you." Sontar spoke disdainfully from behind his white medical mask that covered his entire body.

"Renatus is a good man, but it has not been his influence that affected my choice." She replied as a sigh left his mouth.

"Renatus Villgans concentrates on the here and now; he never looks into the future. Much as you did just now. He and those like him always fail to see the negative consequences."

"I fail to see how saving that woman's life can have negative consequences." Karyan countered.

"How can you not? In expressing your own abilities in front of the human staff you have helped to breed the idea that our kind are in some way of the divine, we become Gods, Spirits...something to pray to. As the energy through prayer is transferred to the Ascended they slowly lose sanity and reasoning until..."

"I know Sontar, they become nothing more than the Ori." She said calmly.

"Good, you understand then. None the less, that was impressive work Karyan." He said as he left to parts of the camp unknown. She sat there, her back against the cold metal table for what felt like an eternity as she gathered her inner energy back. For even the most gifted of the Lantean race healing another was exhausting, potentially threatening depending on the disease or injury and although the human woman's medical needs were far from that severe, she still felt heavily drained.

As she finally stood up the cloister bell at the centre of the camp suddenly rang throughout the artificial cavern. She sighed as she made her way through the medical street into the main avenue...In the past the area that served as the Katara Refugee Camp was one of Katara's largest underground vehicle garage, so large in fact that it needed a fleet of smaller vehicles to ferry the owners to their own metal contraptions.

Now the vehicles had been pulled apart, used to make a huge gate that kept most vermin and wild animals out however it would prove little hinderance if the Wraith ever discovered the location of this place...

To her own discomfort the human residents of the camp bowed in reverence as she walked through to the main gate where the newest group was being checked in. She could hear several women shush some children, and a man begin a prayer. She walked with her head down in a vain attempt to draw as little attention to herself as possible until she reached the rusty metal gate.

"Karyan." Second Captain Adalyx said from behind as she saw the sheer magnitude of the crowd approaching the camp. She imagined at least forty four hundred...

"Second Captain Adalyx." She replied, the distinct hint of disdain could easily be heard in her tonality. She didn't care for the second captain in any shape or form, his views on racial superiority and the government scared her. She had been through far worse and she knew that going down the road he sought could mean the end of the Alteran race. "Do you have the information on these people?"

"Yes, three thousand eight hundred and ninety four males, two thousand two hundred and six females, all of various ages. Six thousand in total. No noticeable diseases reported on visual inspection however I still think you should still do a..."

Suddenly a great shout rang throughout the artificial cavern, so loud it was that all the other sounds of people going back and forth and the sounds of the water pipes. Adalyx gestured to the gate staff to admit the refugees while he and Karyan quickly made their way to the direction of the scream....

.....................

R'deus, the local Spector Milites commander stood over the little girl who sat across from a corpse. The old official was not what one would call a weak man, before he had enlisted in the Spector Milites he had been in the fleet, a confidante of General Hippaforalkus. He was a tall man, with thicn patches of hair and a stone, chiselled face.

It wasn't hard to see how the man had died; the knife in the skull was not indicative of any civilisation that the three officers were aware of. Adalyx and Karyan instinctively bent down to examine the man as they entered the room, while not four meters away from them the commander still stood and the girl still cried...

"What happened here?" Adalyx asked his commander.

"I don't know, I heard the scream and followed it to find the girl here crying in front of this corpse." The old man replied as Karyan reached into her left breast pocket and retrieved a medical scanning device. She ran it over the corpse's mangled skull and broken body and gasped to herself. Karyan stood up and leaned over to the Commander.

"Commander, my scanner has detected energy readings...It looks like it could be from Wraith weapons fire-"R'deus bent down and placed his hand on the little girls shoulder.

"Go find your mother." He interrupted his subordinate. "I'm sorry, what were you saying, Karyan?"

"Sir, this man appears to have been shot by a Wraith stunner before being stabbed." The little girl went running from the room.

"That's impossible, the entrance to the camp is heavily hidden, the main Wraith fleet is still laying siege to Lantea and the Stargate is guarded twenty two hours a day. The dampening field that we installed to mask the life signs is still operational. There is no way a Wraith could get inside the perimeter or even know of its existance." Adalyx broke into the conversation as he closed the dead man's eyes.

"No, you are correct. It is virtually impossible for the Wraith to get into this location according to logic." R'deus said as he stood up again. "I believe that a Wraith Worshipper may have come in with one of the refugee groups."

"Sir, I'm afraid you've caught me unaware. What are Wraith Worshippers?" Karyan softly spoke as she stood up and replaced the scanner in her pocket. R'deus sighed...

"It wasn't long after the war began that some of the humans of this galaxy began to make their own alliances...some did it because they generally worshiped the Wraith while others simply believed that in the end the Wraith would be triumphant." Karyan became physically repugnant at the idea of the humans siding with the Wraith."Some work by spreading Wraith made propaganda while others are more bold and become little more than terrorists and auxiliary troops for the Wraith."

"I've seen them before, during the battle of Procyon Alpha XI. It was about a month before you came aboard Karyan." Adalyx said as he gazed at the physician. "We were supposed to be co-ordinating a battle group made up of fleets from Tri-Exalon and Valos Alcorsateda, as well as a dozen other smaller world's galactic navies when about thirty five ships broke through the lines and began attacking their comrades."

"I read about that battle in the archive, it was an achievement worthy of the general himself that the Aurora managed to survive." R'deus said.

"It should be called the 'Massacre of Procyon Alpha XI', sir."

"...And so now we must conclude that there is at least one Wraith Worshipper on this planet." Karyan said.

"How else would the murderer have Wraith technology?" Adalyx countered.

"Yes. Second Captain, go to the stargate and inform Atlantus that we a problem and thenwait for my arrival to de-activate this planets Stargate for the time being."

"Yes sir." And with that he ran back to Sergeant Iohannes and the Stargate.

"Karyan?"

"Yes sir?"

"Gather the medical staff; I want a full autopsy done on this man. I want to know when he died and if he was dragged to this location. Then I want you to start looking around the camp for any signs of Wraith feeding on any of them. I shall be with you after I've contacted the High Council and deactivated the stargate."

"Yes, Sir."

...........

In the centre of the camp, in the centre of his tent Commander R'deus placed the small holographic array on the cold concrete floor. Suddenly a live holographic representation of High Councillor Moros appeared in his room.

"Commander R'deus, may I ask why you have decided to contact me instead of your own superiors in the Spector Milites?" Moros said solemnly.

"Yes sir, I and my staff have reason to believe that one of the Wraith's Human agents has managed to infiltrate this facility." R'deus didn't expect to see the High Council in shock, he who had made some of the toughest decisions in the history of their kind and had led them into battle...It was all too easy, even for a Lantean for their superiors to become Olympian figures.

"What evidence do you have?" Moros regained some of his composure.

"A man was murdered, not ten minutes ago by my estimates. One of the physicians' detected energy associated with Wraith Energy Weapons and as you know sir, no wraith could hope to infiltrate this facility..."

"But there is the possibility that a Human Wraith agent could..."

"Yes sir."

"What do you require? I can have the LWS Solaria in your location in three hours..." High Councillor Moros said before being interrupted by the Commander.

"No sir that might create a panic and at worse it might even bring the Wraith down on us." R'deus said slowly and cautiously.

"Do you request the assistance of an Operative?" Moros said.

"Yes sir."