Summary: Merlin was an descended Alteran, who decided to break all rules to give the fleshlings a chance for survival. But who were King Arthur and the Knights of the Round table who could have held the trust and friendship of a being that wise and powerful.
Knights of the Round Table
Chapter 1: PrologueDuring the Protected Planets Treaty, Season 3, Epsode 3 "Fair Game"
Yu: We accept the apology of the human representative and agree to hear the Asgard proposal.
Thor:In return for Earth's inclusion in the Protected Planets Treaty, Addendum 10815, the Asgard will allow Goa'uld access to the passage of Nilor.
Yu:According to Treaty Law Section 326, no human planet will be allowed to advance technologically to a point where they may become a threat to the Goa'uld.
Thor: You are correct.
Nirrti: Definition of such threat shall rest solely in the hands of the Goa'uld System Lords.
With a sign, Colonel Jack O'Neill, with two L if you please, looked around the room in disbelief. Apparently, this really was getting them nowhere. This last amendment especially seemed completely unacceptable to him. Before he had a chance to react, however, he heard the door open, revealing, much to the bored Colonel's surprise, General Hammond and the President himself standing in the doorway. Behind them, four Secret Service Agents looked distinctively uncomfortable without their weapons in a room full of potential threats. For the first time that day, Jack O'Neill allowed himself a smile. It seemed the matter was deemed to important for his meager diplomatic skills and the government decided to sent a replacement or at least a co-chair. Strangely enough, the Colonels first thought was whether or not there was any pie still left in the Cafeteria.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, " General Hammond began, " allow me to introduce the President of the United States of America, Gene Glassner, the leader of my people. Mr President, Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard High Council and Lady Nirrti, Lord Cronus and Lord Yu of the Goa'uld System Lords, as well as Colonel Jack O'Neill of SG1."
While Jack nodded politely and wondered what the hell was going on, President Glassner stepped forward slightly ( causing the Secret Service Agents in the background stiffen even further - apparently they had read reports on a Goa'uld's increased strength and speed) and turned greeted the table. "My Lady, My Lords, Supreme Commander, Colonel; I apologize for the disruption, but I'm afraid our situation might have changed."
Turning to Thor, he continued: " Supreme Commander, if I could impose on you for a question? How would you describe the military advancements of the Goa'uld in the last, let's say thousand years?"
For a moment, Thor, and everyone else simply stared at the President unblinking, wondering just what he was aiming at. Then, with the Asgard's typical sense of order, Thor began his analysis:
"On Average, shield strength has increased 17 percent, weapon output 12 percent and sublight speeds 21percent. Just recently, with the conquest of the Jambadjin, Hyperspace speeds increased by a factor of almost one hundred. The biggest advancement, however, is that of numbers. While the Goa'uld population seems to have capped of about 70 years ago, the number of Jaffa is growing constantly, as is the number of Ha'taks and other ships."
President Glassner surveyed the room for a moment before turning back to the small sitting alien. "So modern Ha'taks still are no match for Asgard technology, even that of, let's say, a thousand Earth-years ago?"
For a moment, Jack could have sworn Thor was going to start laughing. Instead, he answered with a short "That is correct. I fail to see the relevance of all this, however. Earth does not have Asgard technology, not even technology this old."
Jack nervously glanced over at the three seated snakes. He had expected them to start protesting this interview long ago, but so far, they seemed to be as stunned by these proceedings as he was. At that moment, however, the President uttered the words that would break loose hell.
"Supreme Commander, I'd like to apologize for wasting your time here." Turning to the three Goa'uld, he continued "It is only my deepest respect for our friends the Asgard that prevent me from having you arrested and tried right now. The Goa'uld have proven before that they can not be trusted not to break any contract they sign. You will be sent to a planet of your choosing via the Stargate. Rest assured, though, that this is the last time you will be allowed to leave Earth alive."
For one moment, stunned silence hung in the room, before all three Goa'uld sprung to their feet to protest this treatment, while Jack O'Neill and General Hammond moved towards the President to find out what he was thinking and to stop him from condemning the people of Earth to death or slavery.
President Glassner, meanwhile, turned to back to where Thor still sat, watching the proceedings in what appeared to be uncharacteristically stunned silence.
"Supreme Commander. Earlier this week, you mentioned an enemy far worse than the Goa'uld. Were you talking about the Replicators?".
When Thor inclined his head slightly to confirm, Glassner continued: " I am task to inform you that old friendships run deep. As soon as possible, lightning shall join again and their enemies shall cower in fear." For a moment, Jack wondered whether or not the President went totally bonkers now, but judging by the widening of Thor's eyes, their slight gleam, and his nod of acceptance, Thor seemed to have understood the message.
"With all due respect, Mister President, " Colonel O'Neill began carefully when the three System Lords were brought out of the room, "but we wanted this treaty to happen since there is nothing Earth can do to prevent an Goa'uld invasion currently. And I'm pretty sure they won't take being commanded around like you just did lying down. In fact, if I were to guess, we are going to have an attack fleet in orbit within a couple of months."
"That's what we are hoping for, actually."
Jack O'Neill still stood there, staring at the spot the President had been by the time Glassner left the room.
.
1 Week Before
Season 1, Episode 17, "Enigma" shifted to the beginning of Season 2
With wide eyes, Ambassador Arthur Winchester looked down at his cell phone. Appearing to be in his early fifties, with just the beginning of a potbelly, light brown hair and blue eyes, Arthur was currently serving as the British Ambassador to the United States of America, by request of her Majesty, Queen Elisabeth herself. Well, actually he had asked Liz, as he liked to call her, to appoint him. As much as he loathed politics sometimes, it was imperative to have as many people as possible in proximity of the US government.
The darkening of his display shook Arthur out of his thoughts. Quickly, he reactivated his cellphone to confirm he read his last text message correctly.
"Hyperspace communication pulse detected in Colorado Springs at 19:27 local time. GPS 38.730397,-104.832338. Be advised: NORAD and Air Force Base in close proximity." A little green dot in the upper right corner of the screen lastly confirmed what he already knew. This message was not a normal text message via radio frequencies. It was transmitted directly through subspace from England, making its content completely private.
Luckily, he had taken a short day and returned home from the office early in order to clean up his little condo on the outskirts of Washington and maybe enjoy the last days of summer by taking a little swim in the Occoquam Bay right behind the house. He had, after all, fought hard to gain his freedom away from Capitol Hill and their security force. Instead of relaxing, though, Arthur quickly confirmed the message before laying his palm onto the mirror in his hallway.
For a moment, the surface seemed to melt before forming a whole in the middle, just big enough for a small screen offering a variety of functions. Choosing 'Hangar' caused the tile he was standing on to start moving down.
In the small, artificial cave underneath his condo, bathed in a dim blue light, stood a sleek, futuristic looking, fairly flat, one meter wide and 3 Meter high craft. In the center, a man sized transparent bubble was opened for entrance, and functioned as cockpit. Two long tubes traveled along either side of the craft, ending in a ion-firing weapon system on the front, and an ion drive in the back of the craft. Strangely enough, the whole craft seemed to be made from a single piece, with no weldseams visible. In front of the SMDP or "Single Man Drop Pod", the last rays of sunshine shimmered through the water of the bay, held back by a light blue glowing forcefield.
Arthur, however, ignored the craft in favor of the back wall, where he changed out of his suit and into a black outfit with quick, confident movements, that did not seem bothered by the cave's relative darkness at all. He quickly filled up his utility vest with various tools from his wall and lastly fixed two bracer onto either arm, before finally turning to his craft.
With his back to the craft, he easily found the two steps in the craft, placed his feet inside, and, after checking the room for anything he forgot, reached for two handles over his head.
Immediately, the bubble closed up, the twin engines began to glow white-blue, and various information appeared all over the cockpit, displaying position, course, altitude, and communications to the pilot.
With a quick pull on the both handles, the SMDP dropped forwards and started to hover parallel to the ground. Then, Arthur thrust both arms forward and accelerated out of the cave and right through the forcefield before shimmering for a moment and finally fading from view moments before he reached through the water's surface, not even a splash announcing his departure.
In the living room, the grandfather clock rang half past seven. No more than two minutes had passed since Arthur's cell first rang.
.
2400km away, and 45 Minuets later, another shimmer accompanied the pods reappearance in the night sky, just before it touched down on a little clearing in the Cheyenne Mountain State Park.
With a grimace, Arthur removed his hands from the handles, popped his shoulder joints, and stepped out of the opening cockpit. While the SMDP was one of the smallest, stealthiest and even fastest crafts they had available, it certainly was not the most comfortable one. It was, after all, originally intended for emergency use and short combat drops only.
Light shone from his right bracer and moved across the floor. It was easy to see several sets of footprints running over the hill, some of them, including several standard issued military boots, were days old, but two prints were fresh, most likely belonging to whoever sent a message here.
While his craft once again faded from sight, Arthur began a light jog following the footprints. Due to all the military boots, he was already pretty sure he'd end up somewhere with the military, so it was just a matter of finding the right base and building.
Half a kilometer into the forest, the Ambassador stopped in front of a wall of solid stone, staring at the footprints disappearing into it. The pair had stopped for a moment before, apparently, walking right through the stone. A small display on his left bracer told Arthur what he already suspected. There was a military base right behind this wall - the Cheyenne Mountain base, home of NORAD.
While opening a hyperspace window certainly was still a few steps ahead of the scientific understanding of Earth, phase shifting technology was something far, far more advanced. This certainly was not the Goa'uld's doing. Arthur's curiosity was certainly peaked.
With a quick mental command to his bracer, Arthur faded from sight and walked ahead through the wall, while at the same time activating his scanner to search for Naquada and several of it's isotopes usually not found on Earth.
Twenty Five levels down, Arthur finally found a a good dozen sources of trinium isotopes, spread throughout an area of about 20 square meters. Stepping through another concrete wall, he arrived in a usual, spartan, military bunker room, where he was surprised to see a group of people dressed in futuristic silver, not the white lab coats of a random scientist. The one notable exception was a single man standing in army green on the outskirts of the group. Apparently, they were just about to leave.
Arthur contemplated dropping his cloak and making his presence known, but had just decided against it when a young man in silver stepped away from the group and obviously began searching the area where Arthur stood.
"Show yourself. I can feel you standing there."
'Feel?' Arthur wondered. As advanced as these people seemed to be, he did not think they would put a lot of stock into their instincts, no matter how accurate they were in this case. For the first time since arriving, Arthur allowed his mind to extend, only to touch another, familiar mind nearby. One he had not felt in a long, long time.
"Father?" The young man standing before him seemed to be as shocked as he was. That, at least, was a relief. Finally, after resuming his original form, Arthur allowed himself to become visible again, standing at roughly 25 years of age, in the prime of his youth, with a light, golden complexion and dark hair and eyes.
After a moment of hesitation, he pulled the younger man into a firm hug, holding on desperately.
"We had given up hope to ever find you again, son. It has been way too long. Is your mother with you, as well?" Arthur asked, his eyes darting around the room and finding the female occupants. He was aware he was acting unprofessionally, but in this one case, he'd think it was justified.
Immediately, the young man embraced his father. "She is on our home world, still. Our trip here was not exactly planned. In fact, I was not even sure this really was Tau'ri. They always called the planed 'Earth' and it has been so long since I last saw it's stars."
"But, then, how did you get here? As happy as I am to see you, we are not allowed to leave this planet. In fact, we are not even allowed to do anything with the stars but look at them. It is the price of humanity's freedom."
"Through the Chappa'ai, of course. I thought you wanted to bury it, though."
"We did, and we guarded it for a long time. Ever since we lost you."
"Well, there is an active one a couple of meters under our feet, somewhere this way. And humans from Earth brought us here when they found us on Tollan, unconscious, when we were trying to evacuate."
The clearing of a throat finally startled the pair into silence. Turning, the two man found an elderly man in white, as well as the man in army green standing right behind them. Both seemed to be surprised by the sudden appearance of the obviously advanced being, as well as by their companions apparent familiarity with it.
"Officer Shran. What is going on here? Don't forget, no matter what technology they use, you can not tell these primitives anything. And we really have to go, these Nox could be coming any moment now." The elderly man was the first to speak.
Shran seemed to be sorry when he turned back to Arthur. "There seem to be people here intending on finding out our secrets. We have to go. We were told the Nox would be advanced enough to house us until we can find a way home."
Finally, Doctor Daniel Jackson seemed to have come to a decision what to do. While invisible people appearing was not something unusual at Stargate Command, Earthlings appearing and apparently knowing a group of secretive, advanced aliens while he was committing treason was a situation he had not been in before. Turning to Omac, he explained:
"They should be. As I told you before, they called us young and had some fairly advanced technology. They are also extremely peaceful, to the point of sacrificing themselves rather then fighting, so you should not have any problems keeping your neutrality." All the while, though, he kept glancing over at Arthur in complete disbelieve.
"I recognize that face. Dr Jackson, I knew we should have kept a close eye on you after these articles, but when you disappeared after being laughed out of every University this country has, we figured you were safe." Turning Omac, he went on "That does sound like the Nox I heard about. If they are, you definitively can not complain about them being not advanced enough. They have been traveling the galaxies since long before the first humans started walking four million years ago."
Finally, Arthur turned back to his son. "Go, for now, you should not even be here. If I am right, however, we should see each other soon. It seems to me like things are beginning to move here soon. I missed you, son, and love you. And please give your mother my love."
While both Shran and Daniel stood, staring at Arthur, Omac began to organize the group of Tollans for departure. With one last, lingering, embrace, Arthur stepped back from his son and nodded him towards the group. When he was alone in the room once more, he pulled out his cell phone and entered a long combination of numbers.
"This is Arthur, authorization code Avalon-Alpha-Zero-Zero-One, High Lord of Avalon, calling all Knights of the Round Table. Meet me at Avalon immediately. The Americans have an active Chappa'ai. I repeat, the Chappa'ai is open."
With one last looked around, he assumed his 'Ambassador' look once again before fading from view to begin the track to his craft. He had to get to England. There was lots to do.
In the opposite corner of the room, the status light of the room's security camera blinked apocalypticly.
