The Alpha Site
Chapter One: A New Command
Alexander had to admit that Earth had some scenery as rugged and impressive as anything Q'onos could offer. The colours were prettier, too. Cheyenne Mountain loomed before him, and he wondered why StarFleet had an operation here. Like much of Earth nowadays, Colorado had been allowed to return to a near-wilderness state outside of the carefully-contained urban centres. The thriving colonies of the Federation provided almost everything the home planet of humanity required, so Earth was left to provide culture, education, entertainment, government and, most importantly, people. It was said that in this 24th Century, less than 10% of the people born on Earth either lived, worked or died there.
"This is Cheyenne Mountain Traffic Control." A pleasant but firm female voice on the communicator. "Shuttle pilot, this is secure airspace, please identify."
"Captain Alexander Rozhenko, StarFleet. I'm here on orders from StarFleet Command."
"Ah, yes. We've been expecting you, sir. Please use Pad 3. Someone will be there to meet you."
Alexander brought the shuttle in deftly, on manual. It was something he did as a discipline. Having conquered the clumsiness of his youth, he was Klingon enough to continue to test himself. He secured the shuttle and stepped out into a warm, dry day. Nearby was an entrance into a facility backed up against the side of the mountain. The figure who beckoned him forward was familiar, but it wasn't until he came closer that he recognised:
"Data?" He said, wonderingly. "No, that can't be right, Data was killed. B4?"
The golden-skinned android grinned and shook his head. "I get that a lot!" He said. "I'm Gnosis." He put out a hand. "Welcome to Cheyenne Mountain, Captain Rozhenko. Come with me, please. We've got the base computer to give you temporary clearance. We can make it permanent if you decide to take the job."
"What job?" Alexander asked. "I report back after leave, and get sent here without a word of explanation. What's going on?"
Gnosis shook his head. "I'll leave that for the Admiral to explain."
"Right." Alexander said. "But what about you? Did Dr Soong make a fourth android?"
"No." Gnosis said. "I used to be Lore."
Alexander stopped in his tracks, and Gnosis chuckled. "I get that a lot, too!" He said. "Don't worry, Captain. Lore doesn't live here any more! But that's a long story we don't have time for now."
Alexander followed Gnosis through the facility, which seemed to be part operations centre and part construction store.
"The main entrance to this facility has been blocked off since the 21st Century." Gnosis explained. "We got into it through this entrance, which was originally an emergency exit, and this is where we bring equipment in for the modernisation. We're working on the main entrance, but the original owners did a very thorough job and it's necessary to move carefully. There's a lot of archaeology here that we don't want to damage."
"So this is a dig-site?" Alexander asked.
"Yes and no." Gnosis replied. "There is certainly a great deal of valuable historical material here, much of it from the early to mid 21st Century. As you know, due to the Third World War and Post-Atomic Horror, a lot of the history of that time was lost. We hope to be able to fill in some of those gaps.
"But this is also a soon-to-be operational facility for what might yet prove to be an entirely new branch of StarFleet Command.
"Through here, Captain."
A large door led into a fairly large space, recently cut from the living mountain and mostly taken up with a freight turbolift.
"We all have to come in through the goods entrance at the moment. At least until we can get Transporters installed." Gnosis said apologetically. "Priority has been given to other tasks. Like keeping the place from collapsing on top of us!"
By the time the lift stopped, Alexander judged that they were not so much inside the mountain, as considerably below it. The facility was clearly extensive, and was a hive of activity. Engineers and technicians were hard at work replacing crumbling concrete walls, floors and ceilings with plascrete, and archaic, harsh lighting with modern fittings.
"We're working from the centre outward, you'll find out why soon enough." Gnosis told him.
"How old is this place?" Alexander wanted to know.
Gnosis shrugged. "Records are sparse, but we think the original base was begun in the early 1960s, old calendar, during the period known as the Cold War. It was expanded several times and underwent a change of function in the late 20th Century."
"You have to respect those people." Alexander allowed. "To achieve all this with the crude tools and materials they had back then is extraordinary!"
"One thing I've learned as an android," Gnosis stated, "is never to underestimate Humans!"
"A mistake my fathers' people made all too often!" Alexander agreed.
By now, they had reached an area where the work was not construction. Alexander noted that the rooms they passed had been laboratories, computer rooms, libraries (some of which apparently still contained books), rooms filled with bizarre artefacts, armouries and offices. Most were occupied by StarFleet staff engaged in various tasks.
They turned a corner in time to see a tall, angular man in a Commanders' uniform, talking with a Tamarian Lieutenant.
"Shaka, when the walls fell." The Tamarian was saying in a tone of frustration, while showing a PADD to the Human. The Human looked at it, made a few adjustments, and handed it back.
"Telimi, her threads untangled." He stated. "Valtar, on the banks of Kibari."
"Sokath, his eyes opened!" The Tamarian answered with a smile, and hurried off.
The Commander turned, saw Alexander, and broke into a wide smile.
"Alexander! You came!" He exclaimed.
"Uncle Reg, I didn't know you were here!" Alexander embraced his old friend. "When did you leave the Comms Centre?"
"I was reassigned here -and promoted – just over a year ago." Barclay told him. "They needed a Diagnostic Engineer who could help upgrade the old tech here. A lot of what was done here back then seems to have been made up as they went along. It's my job to try to unravel it all.
"How have you been, Alexander? Seen your father lately?"
"I've been good." Alexander said. "Just finished my first tour as Captain on the Intransigent. Hard work, but well worth it!
"Haven't seen Father in a while – not face to face -but we talk regularly. He's in command of StarBase 57, way out on the Klingon border. They're getting a lot of incursions and some privateering out there. He's enjoying himself!"
"He always liked being where the action was." Reg allowed. "But since you're here, I expect it's time for the briefing. Let's go."
Alexander suspected that the Briefing Room had served this purpose when the complex was originally built. It had been completely modernised, of course, but at least three things seemed to be original, all mounted on the back wall.
One was a tarnished but still readable metal plaque which read:
United States Air Force
Cheyenne Mountain Complex
StarGate Command
Another was a tattered piece of cloth, faded and dirty but carefully preserved in a force-field. It was dyed in an unfamiliar pattern of red and white stripes, while in one corner was a blue rectangle patterned with white stars.
Finally, and also preserved in a force-field, was an ancient 2D photograph of a Human male. Hairless, with a strong face and a direct gaze.
"General George Hammond," a womans' voice, "officer commanding this facility from 1997 to 2004, old calendar.
"Captain Rozhenko, I'm Admiral Janeway, welcome to StarGate Command!"
Admiral Kathryn Janeway, former Captain of the Voyager, was a legend in StarFleet. The fact that she was here, in command of this facility, was all the proof Alexander needed that this was no ordinary assignment. She began the briefing with no unnecessary preamble.
"You've met Gnosis, and you know Commander Barclay, let me introduce some of the others you'll be working closely with.
"This is Major Colin Marks, UFPMC." Marks was a man of medium height and compact build, with blunt, prepossessing features, steady brown eyes and close-cropped dark hair. "The Major was one of the first to volunteer when the Marine Corps was formed during the Dominion War, and has served with distinction.
"Elucidator Skane joins us from the School of Genetic History at the Vulcan Academy." A rather tall, slender Vulcan with a thin face and a penetrating gaze. "He has spent many years studying the biological and cultural commonalities between the various races and species of the Galaxy.
"Finally, Lieutenant Eglantine Scamander." A petite Human woman with ash-blonde hair, a pointed, attractive face and a pair of large blue eyes that seemed focused somewhere else. She was wearing an unfamiliar, rather old-fashioned-looking silver and blue uniform. "She has been seconded from the Space Fleet of Wizard Humanity, and is what is called an Unspeakable, a research witch."
Janeway took a seat at the head of the table. "Gnosis and Commander Barclay are already familiar with the information I am about to give you. For the rest of you, please note that what follows must not be repeated, or even mentioned, to anyone outside this facility for the time being.
"Three years ago, the Bajoran Government, at the urging of the Vedek Council, took action against a cult known as the Children of the Serpent. It seems this cult had always existed among certain Bajoran families, and that it pre-dated the worship of the Prophets by millennia. But the cult never sought converts among other Bajorans, who they called 'Shol'va', a word which, I am told, is not Bajoran, but according to the Children of the Serpent means both 'traitor' and 'heretic'.
"However, when Bajor was freed from Cardassian rule, and the Provisional Government established relations with the Federation, attitudes changed. The Children of the Serpent were violently opposed to having any dealings with Humans, who they referred to as 'Tau'ri' and accused of being enemies of the true religion of Bajor. It seems that many of the anti-Federation actions blamed on opponents of the Provisional Government or the Maquis originated with or were assisted by the Children of the Serpent. But at the time, there was little or no hard evidence, and the then Kai was reluctant to expose any religious division on Bajor to outsiders.
"Matters came to a head three years ago, when proof was found that the Children of the Serpent were preparing a religious coup. They had infiltrated the Vedek Council and were poised to replace the Kai with one of their own. The Vedeks cleaned house -rather ruthlessly – and persuaded the Government to suppress the cult and arrest its members.
"In the process, the estate of one of the oldest member families was seized, and an ancient temple, unlike anything else on Bajor, was found beneath the manor house. At the heart of the temple was a large metal ring, several metres in diameter, engraved with unusual, non-Bajoran, symbols. Nearby was a free-standing device which had buttons or panels etched with matching symbols.
"While Bajoran scientists and archaeologists were trying to puzzle this out, however, another discovery was made. In a side chapel was a common grave, some three or four centuries old, containing five skeletons, the remains of what seemed to be military uniforms, and a number of primitive projectile weapons of non-Bajoran design.
"When the DNA of the bodies was analysed, they were found to be Human, not Bajoran!
"Naturally, this caused something of an upset, and the remains were immediately sent to Dr Bashir on Deep Space Nine for further testing. He was also sent the metal tags that were found on chains round the necks of the skeletons. Dr Bashir didn't know what to make of these until Captain Sisko recognised them as the identification tags carried by all Human soldiers up to and beyond the Third World War, they called them 'dog tags'.
"Though the tags were old and corroded, staff at DS9 were able to retrieve the information from them and ran a search on the Federation database. The response that came back was that the files had been sealed in 2056 and could only be unlocked by the President of the United States. Fortunately, all such codes and passwords were made available for historians a century ago, and one was found that opened the files, which proved to be the service records of the individuals concerned. Examination of these led to other sealed files, and those files led us to this facility."
Admiral Janeway got to her feet. "If you'll follow me..."
She led them along a corridor into a room that might once have been spacious, but which was now crowded with ancient computer equipment to which modern devices were linked. But the groups' attention was drawn to the large window that dominated one wall.
On the other side was a much larger chamber, showing signs of recent modernisation, at the centre of which stood a remarkable object. An upright metal ring, some seven metres in diameter, with odd symbols etched along the circumference and seven metal chevrons evenly placed around it. Heavy cables of various kinds ran to it from junctions in the walls, and a ramp led up to the raised platform on which it stood.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Admiral Janeway announced, "what you see there is something known at various times, on various worlds, as a chappa'ai, an Astria Porta, or a StarGate. From this place, using that device, Humans from Earth explored the Galaxy centuries before Zefrem Cochrane was even born!
"Captain Rozhenko, Major Marks, in two days time -if you are willing, and if the work is completed on schedule – you will be the first two people to travel using the StarGate for over three hundred years."
Military life, even in StarFleet, involves a lot of 'hurry up and wait'. Alexander had two days to kill and not a lot to fill his time with. He tried researching the StarGate, but all he could find were the bare bones. The object had been discovered in Egypt in the 1920s, and brought to America just before the Second World War. It had been kept at Edwards Air Force Base until the 1950s, when it had been moved to the ultra-secret Groom Lake facility. From there, it had been brought to Cheyenne Mountain in the 1990s, where it had finally been made operational. StarGate Command, or SGC, had been officially operational from 1997 until 2056, when the facility had been closed and sealed at the height of the Third World War.
"That's really all we have at the moment." Gnosis had told him. "There are literally thousands of mission reports, and a mass of historical and other data on the computers here. But it takes time and effort to restore all those old hard drives and clean up the data so we can scan it onto our systems.
"We've prioritised technical data about the operation of the device and the thousands of 'addresses', as they call them, that can open the Gate to other worlds. The historical stuff will have to wait."
Alexander sensed that there was a lot of urgency in the work, but couldn't figure out why the project was so important. The Admiral, Gnosis and Barclay were all working flat-out, and had no time to do more than share a quick chat over coffee from time to time.
Major Marks was a different matter, being in the same boat as Alexander, so it was no surprise, the day after they arrived, that the Major unceremoniously invited himself to sit with Alexander at lunch.
"Captain." He said. "Pardon my curiosity, and you can tell me it isn't my business, of course, but Rozhenko isn't a Klingon name?"
"It's my father's adoptive parent's name." Alexander told him. "He was a Klingon orphan who was rescued and raised by them. He was the first full-blooded Klingon to serve in StarFleet."
"You're Commodore Worfs' son?" Marks asked, and when Alexander nodded, Marks grinned widely. "My aunt served on the Enterprise-D on Security, he was her immediate superior. She admired him a lot. In fact, I think she had a little crush on him!"
Alexander laughed. "I think that's more information than I needed! I was only a kid then, but they were good days.
"I'd have thought you'd have been more bothered about the fact that I'm a Klingon at all, these days!"
Marks shook his head. "You wouldn't be here if you weren't Federated Klingon. We've got a lot of them in the Corps, you know."
Alexander nodded. The Dominion War had shown once again that a military force needs specialised infantry. StarFleet and its allies had matched the Dominion and Cardassian forces in ships, but had had little to counter the ruthless Jem'Hadar ground troops. The United Federation of Planets Marine Corps had been set up to meet this deficiency, and, with unusual foresight, had not been disbanded afterwards.
"So, what about you Major?" Alexander asked. "Where do you call home?"
"Well, I was born and raised on Tau Ceti Beta 3." Marks told him.
Alexander raised an eyebrow. "A heavy-worlder?" He asked.
"Sixth generation." Marks allowed. "I could pick you up with one hand and carry you around all day, Captain!"
"Well, let's hope you never have to!" Alexander told him.
They chatted for a while. The Major had the relaxed, solid air of a man with nothing to prove, something Alexander admired even thought he couldn't share it. Alexander was only three-quarters Klingon, but that was more than enough to make him see life as a challenge, a battle to be faced and fought. It was his Human blood that caused him to fight, not for glory, but for the best outcome.
But Alexander and the Major were not the only ones at a loose end. While exploring, Alexander found Lieutenant Scamander ensconced in one of the old offices, among piles of ancient books, scrolls and artefacts.
"Come in, Captain," she said in a dreamy-sounding soprano as he hovered in the doorway, "I know you're curious about me, so sit down and ask."
Alexander did so.
"You've met magical people before." It wasn't a question.
"A few." He allowed. "Mostly civilians or StarFleet personnel whose abilities have been Awakened. And one Klingon Mage. Never anyone from the Wizard Systems."
"Oh." She replied. "Well, that's not really surprising. We still don't have very many long-range ships, and most of us aren't really comfortable on StarFleet vessels. It's been a long time since technology interfered with our magic, but all those straight, white corridors and too-bright lights feel awfully cold and distant. We like to make a connection with a place if we're going to live there for a while, and your ships are so impersonal, it's hard.
"What are Klingon Mages like?"
It wasn't easy talking to her. She was clearly looking straight at him, but Alexander couldn't shake the feeling that her eyes were focused somewhere else. Not in the room but beyond it. As if she was looking past the surface of things into their cores.
"Powerful, dangerous, proud and soft-spoken." He said. "Their existence was never a secret, but they stay in their own communities to develop their skills. They do that by duelling, sometimes to the death. Just as any Klingon who survives military training is, by that fact alone, a redoubtable warrior, so any Klingon Mage senior and respected enough to deal with non-magical Klingons will be immensely powerful."
"I suppose that suits the Klingon mindset." The Lieutenant allowed, then went on without a pause to indicate the change of subject. "You're wondering why I'm here.
"Well, oddly enough, we wizards know more about some parts of Earth history than Earth people do. We've always been a smaller community, and we had different values, so things that muggles kept secret were common knowledge among us.
"We knew about this place and the StarGate, for instance. Not in detail, but more than the muggles remembered. This room was the workroom of a Dr Daniel Jackson, the scholar of ancient languages who theorised what the StarGate was for and how the symbols on it worked as coordinates for travel. We know that because he was a friend of a famous wizard called Harry Potter, and anything and everything to do with Harry Potter is important to wizard historians.
"But the main reason I'm here is because, even though we have scrying glasses and the Knowledge Web, we still use books and scrolls a lot, far more than muggles do. I'm here because I have the skills to study this type of material more quickly and easily than muggles who are used to screens and PADDs. I come from a family of wizard scholars." She gave a small smile. "The Scamanders have always been keen to go out into the wider world and look for strange things, and the Lovegoods have always been ready to believe that there are things out there worth finding, even if other people don't.
"But I'm sure you've got other things to do, and I'm probably making you uncomfortable. I do that, even to other wizards. Comes of being a Legilemens -what you'd call a Psyker. I read minds. I don't always mean to, but sometimes people think awfully loud thoughts. Also, people tell me I have no filter. I'm not sure what they mean, but I seem to upset some people with the things I say."
The only other person who might have had time to talk was the Vulcan, Skane, but after the manner of his people, he was courteously taciturn. All he did was tell Alexander that, as of the moment, he had nothing substantive to discuss, and that he would prefer not to waste time in small talk as he had no skill in such things.
"I am first and foremost a scholar." He said. "A pursuit which is not only deeply involving in and of itself, but has also left me with neither the time nor the opportunity to develop what Humans call 'social skills'."
And that was that.
Alexander had been told that he could choose his own quarters, so he had found a room for himself. Like a number of the rooms, it had been sealed and vacuum-protected, so that much of the original furniture and fittings remained. There was a narrow, soldiers' bed, a locker, a desk and a chair. The hangings that had been on the walls had been taken away for preservation and study, but the archaeologists had arranged for holographic copies to be placed where they had been, to preserve the look of the room. They were textiles, woven in abstract patterns that Alexander found oddly evocative.
In one corner there was a mass of candles, of different lengths, girths and colours, set on the floor surrounding a clear space. Alexander guessed that this was where the original inhabitant of the room had performed some kind of meditation. Deanna Troi had taught the young Alexander to meditate, as a way of finding a balance between his aggressive Klingon instincts and his gentler Human portion. It was this as much as anything that decided him to use the room. He felt sure that whoever had lived here all those years ago had also been a warrior.
Still, he was glad when the Admiral finally summoned him to the briefing room. Barclay, Gnosis and the Major were also there.
"I am informed that the work has been completed on schedule." Janeway said. "So the test will proceed tomorrow. However, Captain, you and the Major need to be aware of the risks you will be taking.
"Gnosis?"
"We have an advantage over the original StarGate Command," the android said, "in that we at least know where the StarGate we will be sending you to is situated. By comparing the addresses on file here with the carvings in the Serpent Temple on Bajor, we have achieved 99% certainty that the address we dial will be to that gate."
"And if we land on the 1%?" Alexander asked.
"Then you're in trouble." Gnosis said. "Records here indicate that a substantial number of gates were buried or otherwise rendered inaccessible by the local populations. It seems they were used by a race of hostile aliens -now believed extinct – so many gates were sealed as a precautionary measure. Others have been lost through natural disasters, or open to worlds which are – now at any rate – uninhabitable.
"Should you arrive in a place which is habitable, you will need to try to get back here. You'll have a PADD which will contain most of the address of our Stargate. Each address consists of six symbols, plus the Point of Origin – the symbol which relates to the world you are on. There is an algorithm on the PADD which should be able to calculate the Point of Origin of any gate you scan with it. With any luck, you should be able to come straight back."
"I hope you're right!" Alexander said. "Is there anything else we need to worry about?"
"Only one thing." Reg told him. "When the StarGate was activated in the 1990s, it hadn't been used for millennia. The systems it was linked to had, of course, shifted considerably from their original positions. It seems that the gates can adjust for these shifts, but only if they remain active and are regularly used. The original SGC staff had to recalibrate the gate manually to adjust for the shift.
"Now in this case the gate has only been inactive for some four hundred years, so the shift will be less. But we've still had to recalibrate. We don't know how accurate we've been, so the first trip might be longer and bumpier than later ones will be. Don't eat just before you leave!
"You might also experience some dizziness and disorientation the first time. But you've both been through Transporters often enough, so you may not be affected."
"Well, gentlemen, now you know what you're being asked to do." Janeway told them. "If this experiment is successful, then there will be further work for you, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
"Are you both prepared to make this attempt?"
Alexander and the Major shared a glance, they were both grinning.
"We are." Alexander spoke for both of them.
"Then report to the Gate Room tomorrow morning at 08:00. Dismissed."