HOPE

by BabyBoy349

For more than one race, the rebirth of the old shall bring hope to all...

2. Chapter 2

THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS, FOR THE LAST CHAPTER! THEY REALLY DO HELP AND ALL IDEAS ARE WELCOME!

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Prologue II
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Earth Year 1995
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Some time ago, Harry created a base uniform for his people. The base uniform was created so that more technology could be added as time or the need arrived, but each uniform was built ready to defend, communicate, and gather information. Harry was able to do this using nanotechnology, more specifically nanites; it also allowed him to make the suits skin tight thus allowing for the ease of movement. Harry's theory here was less is more. The uniform conformed to the wearer's body and was able to change its color and shape to anything that the wearer desired. While on duty he would require the wearer to conform to the basic uniform guidelines that he created but off duty, they could change their uniform to anything that they desired.

Harry's uniform was a special one; he powered his uniform with the ZPE that he naturally created. It was for this reason that his uniform had enough energy generation to power the integrated Asgard technology that his suit contained, beaming technology. There were three functions to the technology that was available to him through his uniform, he could lock onto objects and beam them anywhere that his uniforms scanners can lock onto, he could beam himself anywhere that he could lock on, and the last function was the best. If he had the power available, he could use the beaming technology to create things from any pattern that was stored in the uniforms memory or even anything that he could think of as long as he knew exactly what it was that he needed. The standard uniform was powered by several well placed power crystals. While it couldn't support Asgard beaming technology, it still allowed the suit to do its base functions.

Harry stood in front of the activated stargate wearing his new uniform and was using its scanners to determine the viability of the atmosphere on the other side. The connection was to the coordinates that Harry had that lead to Atlantis. His scan showed that there were no life signs present, minimal power readings, and that the air was breathable. This information flashed directly into his mind using the mental interface that the uniform offered.

Behind Harry was a sight that he thought that he would never get used to, Asgard wearing one of Harry's uniforms as well. These were specially made for them; Harry gave the wearer of the suit the ability to access and control Alteran technology, even though they did not have the required gene. Harry would be able to deactivate the access that the suit gave a person but he didn't foresee this happening with the Asgard that was accompanying him.

Harry picked up the case beside him and turned to the Asgard that would be accompanying them. "Scans from Atlantis show that it is safe to go through. The ships have arrived in orbit of the planet but we can't communicate through the stargate due to the city's shield being active. When we go through I will need you guys to stay in the control room and start activating the cities systems and run operational diagnostics; we need to see what damage there is from the city's long slumber. I will head to the main power chamber to check on the city's power levels. I will meet you back in the control room after I'm done."

Kvasir was the chosen leader of the Asgard contingent and was the one that responded to Harry. "We are ready, good luck Magnus."

"Good luck to us all Kvasir." Harry replied before turning back to the engaged wormhole and without waiting another moment waked up to the event horizon and stepped through the event horizon. Harry loved traveling through the stargate. He didn't know what it was like for others but he got an immense sense of freedom while traveling at speed to quickly to comprehend.

After a ride that much too short in his opinion, Harry arrived at his destination, Atlantis. Harry moved away from the stargate so that the Asgard that was coming through could do it unimpeded. As he walked into what he knew to be the main control room of the city from his studies of the layout and schematics of the great city ship, Atlantis responded to his presence. When the automatic systems started to come online, his suit automatically connected with Atlantis. While he knew that he could mentally connect with Atlantis by himself, the suit focused that connection. Harry knew that he had to hurry, his suit was blaring a warning in his mind's eye, two of the three potentia were dead and the third was approaching maximum entropy.

With a thought, Harry activated his suits transporters, making him appear right in front of the potentia power core room. He quickly entered the room and pulled a brand new potentia from the case that he was carrying. As with the control room, the monitors and stations activated with his presence and this allowed Harry to quickly pull out a dead Potentia and to insert the new. Once inserted, Atlantis began to draw massive amounts of energy from the potentia, awakening systems that have slept for several millennia.

Harry wanted to check on the status of the city so he hurriedly replaced the other two potentia's. After the third was inserted, Harry felt a foreign emotion, one of joy. After several moments of introspection, Harry could only speculate that it was Atlantis herself. This warranted some investigation; as far as he knew, this has never happened before. There were other, more pressing matters so Harry focused on them for now.

Harry wanted to do a full system scan and analysis so he quickly made his way by foot to the tower that housed the command chair. His suit would be able to tell him the status of the city through its link that it maintained but nothing could replace or outstrip the capabilities of the command chair. On the way to the chair room, Harry passed by several windows and gasped at what he saw; the entire city was submerged under the water that she once rested. For Harry, the view was spectacular.

Harry arrived at the room that housed the command chair and entered it. He made his way to the chair and took a seat. In the past, all of his dealings with a command chair had been on a small scale, basically for learning purposes. But with the command chair of Atlantis, he had thousands of systems that he could manipulate and the saturation of information was simply astounding. Luckily, Harry was taught very well and could control the chair instead of vice versa.

The first thing that he did was to contact the Asgard contingent that was scurrying across the control room. "Kvasir, what is your status?"

"Commander Magnus, we are running diagnosis on all the main systems. We have yet to discover anything that is not running at peak efficiency. May I enquire as to your whereabouts?"

"I am using the command chair, running through all of Atlantis's systems. Once you are finished, I want you to raise the city from the ocean floor; it's time for Atlantis to shine on the surface once again."

"We will do so immediately Magnus."

After talking with Kvasir, Harry leaned back and fully submerged his consciousness into the command chair, becoming a part of Atlantis. From his perspective, Harry slowly took his consciousness from system to system, learning all that he could and performing diagnostics on all of them. He wanted to learn everything that his city was capable of and the state of everything within. Some of the things that he discovered not only angered him but shocked him as well.

There was a creature on board that if let loose would feed on every power source within Atlantis, himself included. Luckily, when he repowered the city, the device, an artificial pocket of subspace that could be used to store an untold amount of things in, was also repowered and the risk of the dark entity escaping was minimal.

Harry also discovered a lab that had an interesting device; it was designed to speed up an Alterans evolution to a point where they could ascend. Not knowing what this ascension was, he quickly referenced Atlantis's main data core and got was shocked at the answer. Nowhere in the repository of knowledge that he had access to did it ever reference the next evolutionary step of his people; the ability to shed the constraining human form and to exist, as a being of pure energy on a higher plane of existence. While he never thought of such a step, he could see how his ancestor's evolution could lead to that. After a few more moments Harry continued with his sweep of the city.

The next place of interest was the labs that were dedicated to waging war. It wasn't that Harry wanted to fight but he knew that he would need to. There was a lab for everything: weapon and starship designs, armor, physical enhancements, and even a lab that used nanites to wage war. This pushed Harry's curiosity over the edge. While inspecting the labs he started to wonder why a peaceful civilization, one that as far as he knew, hasn't waged war in eons, was so focused on the art of war. The answer appeared above him in holographic form.

Harry looked intently at the three different figures. These three figures represented the entirety of their society; the Queen who ran a hive, the commander who ran the ships for their queen and commanded the warriors, and the warriors who were treated as cannon fodder. They were known as the Wraith and with a start, the answer to one of Harry's questions about his ancestors was answered. His people returned to Avalon because they lost the war against these creatures. And the kicker was that his ancestors were responsible for these creatures existence in the first place!

With that realization, Harrys immersed himself in the data that he had on the Wraith. What he didn't know was that the amount of data that was collected was massive and he would be there for several hours, learning about his new foe. The reason that his people lost the war was quite evident; they were a peaceful people, one that hasn't seen a major war for millions of years and they didn't know how to fight. Advanced technology could only do so much, especially if the Alterans were faced with an enemy as numerous as the Wraith appeared to be. Harry knew that if he was going to survive the inevitable conflict, he was going to have to go about things in a completely different manner than his ancestors of old. He would stay true to the ideals of his lost civilization, but he would do it his way. With that understanding, Harry concentrated on learning all that he could about his foe.

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It was several hours and a replicated meal later that Harry made it back to the control room. The Asgard was still at the consoles, manning the stations and getting used to the operation of the technology that their uniform allowed them. Harry walked over to the sensor station. While learning about the Wraith, he learned many things and he was going to reveal one of them now. Harry walked to the Asgard that was at the controls that operated the powerful sensors, "Hello Avmir, how are you getting used to the controls?" Harry liked this Asgard, he was very diligent in his work but while not on duty had the most personable personality of all the Asgard that he met besides Thor.

"I am quickly adapting to them Magnus. The sensitivity and power of the scanners are immense."

"I'm glad that you are picking this up quickly Avmir. Are the ships still in orbit?"

"There is one. The others are scouting the surrounding systems."

"Have it run high intensity in the waters surrounding the city. I want to see how good the technology really is."

Avmir sent the request to the ship in orbit from his station, after which he replied to Harry, "The Milldar has received the request and are initiating the scan."

As Avmir said that, Harry felt the powerful energy of the Asgard scanners as they ran at full power over the area. He felt his own energy reach out and touch that of the scanner, causing Harry to pause for a moment, Avmir was monitoring his station and didn't notice Harry's reaction and continued with his report. Harry didn't know what happened for sure but he had a hypothesis, one that he would fully explore at a later time.

"I have established a link with its scans and am receiving the data."

"I'll be back in a few moments and will hear what the scans have discovered." Avmir nodded, while Harry walked to the front of the astria porta and held out his hand.

From the floor a pedestal rose up and met with his hand seamlessly. With a scan of his energy signature as well as recording his unique brain wave pattern, the city as well as all other Alteran structures throughout the known universe was put under his authority and was recognized as the new leader of his people. This was made possible by the failsafe programing in the data core and the use of several devices that would connect to all Alteran structures regardless of the distance involved (similar to the long range communication stones that allowed communications possible across the universe). The failsafe programming recognized Harry as the new leader based on the scans performed on him during his interface with the chair. The programming found him worthy and it knew that while not necessarily being the last of his race, he was the one that the city chose. Knowing that he might not be the last Alteran left something for Harry to ponder as he was given access to files that have been locked out to the standard user; all the secrets of his people was revealed to him. While the command chair informed him that he was the new leader, activating the command pedestal was necessary to take actual control and to broadcast that control everywhere else.

Harry returned to Avmir's station to see what was discovered by powerful Asgard sensors. "Did the sensors discover anything Avmir?"

"As a matter of fact, the sensors have discovered several interesting things. There appears to be a geothermal energy tap designed to supply the city with power. There is also the remains of Wraith Hive ship not too far from energy tap."

"Is that all that the sensors discovered?" Harry asked.

"Besides from the animal life in the area, yes, that is all that was discovered." Avmir replied to Harry's inquiry.

"That's good. That means that the technology works better than I expected." Harry said aloud, more to himself.

"Excuse me, what technology do you speak of?" Avmir asked.

"When I interfaced with the control chair, I looked for any infrastructure that was built off world that might have survived the passage of time. I based this search on the knowledge that the Alterans spread throughout all of Avalon. Terra was the seat of power for the Alterans and everything that the Alterans built was done at different complexes and shipped throughout their territory, via ships and astria portas alike."

Avmir nodded his head in understanding. "That is the logical choice. As you know, we Asgard do the same, by spreading ourselves out; it would make it much more difficult to defeat us."

"I too see the merit in the logic. But when I went through the data of what was available off world, there was very little. There were scientific and explorative outposts spread throughout the galaxy but little to no infrastructure to speak of so I queried the database and what I found was surprising. Come, I will show you of what I speak of."

Harry left his new office with Avmir following right behind him. On his way to the balcony, he called out to all the Asgard. "Everyone follow me, there is something that I wish to show you." With that everyone dutifully followed Harry after putting their stations on automatic control. It only took several minutes for all the Asgard to make it to the balcony where Harry was waiting. With everyone there, Harry smiled and mentally connected with the computer core and sent the coded authorization that he learned earlier in the day.

In a flash of light that was eerily similar to that of the Asgard transporter beam, the massive industrial complex that supported the Alterans throughout the entire galaxy appeared. Avmir looked as shocked as any Asgard that Harry had ever seen.

"And to think, neither our own nor the Alteran scanners detected anything around us; this technology is most impressive."

"It is indeed," Kvasir agreed, "what exactly are we looking at?"

"What you are looking at is the infrastructure behind my Ancestors grasp of the galaxy. This is where everything was built from the drone weapons to mighty vessels. All that it would need is raw materials and the autonomous functions of the complex would build whatever it was told to. While it was autonomous, that was just an option; there were facilities that could house the millions of people that the complex could support."

"This goes against what we learned of the Alterans. They did not have everything so centralized like this." Kvasir retorted.

"That is the way that they were before almost being destroyed by a plague. It killed so many of my brethren because they were spread throughout the galaxy. I won't pretend to guess what would of happened if they were centralized like they done here, but the plague came close to breaking the spirit of my ancestors. So instead of spreading like they did before, they built what you see before you. There are still hundreds of Alteran outposts throughout the galaxy but only a handful of what could be considered colonies." Harry told the crowd of curious Asgard.

"Have you discovered why your ancestors left this galaxy, leaving all this behind in hiding?"

"Yes but to understand that I have to tell you what they did after they arrived in the galaxy. After arriving in the galaxy, my ancestors started anew. They choose this system do to the abundant resources that it offered. Those resources were used to build all that you see before you and the beginnings of the stargate network in this galaxy. After the resources here were exhausted, mining vessels were constructed to find and mine new resources. When the stargate network spanned the galaxy, and they discovered the absence of intelligent life, it was decided to seed life where there was none. They even terraformed hundreds of planets so more life could be created and prosper."

Harry looked around at the enraptured Asgard and continued on.

"On one planet that they seeded with life there was an insect known as the Iratus bug. It began to feed on the newly developed humans and started to take on human characteristics. Thus, the Wraith was born. They developed into a humanoid species that were highly intelligent and very aggressive. The aggressiveness can be attributed due the fact that the Wraith culture was that of a hive and that they had limited food supplies, humans. They feed on the life force of other beings through their right hand."

You could see the disgust on the faces of the Asgard which was a surprising feat in upon itself. Harry continued on with his tale.

"Using the stargate network built by my ancestors, the Wraith claimed new worlds and fed off the people that inhabited them. To stem the flow of death and destruction and to not interfere in the natural evolution of primitive races, even that of the Wraith, my people removed the stargates from the planet and put them in space. This effectively stopped the Wraith from spreading for the time being but it also made the Alterans an enemy of the Wraith; they interfered with their food supply. This drove the Wraith to develop space capabilities."

"Once they made it to space, they started to attack worlds with a vengeance. Their population was multiplying exponentially and they needed food to feed it. No one in the galaxy could stop them, save the Alterans. So warships were built and because of the advanced technology employed, they managed to push the Wraith back, deep into their own territory. Thinking that the fighting could be stopped and in their arrogance, the Council decided to send a small envoy deep into Wraith territory. That envoy never returned."

"It was after that envoy was lost that the Wraith started their counter attack. But this time they were pushing the Alterans back. They made up for their lack of technology with numbers. Numbers that didn't seem to end no matter how many my ancestors seemed to destroy. For every Wraith that was killed, five would take its place. For every ship that was destroyed, new ones were waiting to take their place. It was a war of attrition. There was a ring of defensive satellites that were placed in this system that held the entirety of the Wraith back before they were finally destroyed. Atlantis was held under siege for a hundred years with only the powerful city shield for protection. With no chance of victory, they submerged the city and fled back to Terra to either ascend or to live out the rest of their lives with the second age of man in Avalon."

"But surely the Wraith would have destroyed everything that wasn't protected by the shield. The city shield was not designed to cover all that we see." Kvasir pointed out.

"That is true but who said that they knew of it or could see it." Harry said with a smile.

It was an Asgard from the back that had the answer. "It had to be more than a cloak because weapons fire would have impacted it from orbital bombardment. Since there was no indication that there was anything there, even to our own sensors, I would conclude that one of your ancestors was able to create phase shifting technology."

"Indeed." Harry said with a smile on his face. He walked over to the rail of the balcony looking at the view from the tallest spire. "When the Wraith was making their approach towards the city, contingency plans were made. Using the tried and true technology of the drones, the aspect that allowed them to phase through shields and hulls of ships, a device was created that would transition everything but Atlantis out of phase. This device was activated before the Wraith was able to obtain a scan and learn of its existence. There was really no other choice as you are correct, this would surly have been destroyed. When all the resources were used, it was decided to submerge the city and set it to slumber on the bottom of the ocean, waiting for their descendants to reclaim it and start anew and to finish what they started."

"It is a tragedy what happened to your ancestors Magnus; the fact that they were able to leave all of this for their descendants is remarkable." Kvasir paused for a moment, giving respect the Alterans. "The device that was able to shift all of this out of phase the phase and maintain that shift for thousands of years is remarkable."

"Well come, we shall inspect this device together. I'm sure that there is much for us to discover." Harry left the balcony and some Asgard followed him while others returned to their duties in the control room.

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It has been some time since Harry and the Asgard contingent came to Atlantis and much has happened and many things have been discovered. While the industrial complex of Atlantis was too large for every section to be visited by Harry and his team in the week that they were there, Harry did discover the location of the Hub that controlled all the autonomous functions of the complex deep in the bowels of Atlantis. There were other ways to interface with the complex but this was the most viable control option. Harry installed holographic projectors all throughout the hub for better manipulation of the controls, just like he did in his office in the control center. This was especially helpful in designing new ships and new technologies.

With the discovery of the Hub, Harry transferred several of the Asgard duty stations to operate and monitor it. It was also discovered that there were dozens of stargates in the complex, one to each major focal point. These were used to route resources and personnel to the correct parts of the complex. This was achieved by dialing the Atlantis gate address, once a connection was established, a code would be entered that designated the specific gate that was needed in the complex and the computer would route the incoming wormhole to the appropriate stargate in the complex.

The shipyards in the complex were truly massive. There was dozens of berths that could construct a vessel in only a few weeks' time. While there were no warships of any kind in the berths, there were several autonomous mining ships that were ready to be used. An Asgard vessel has been tasked with the duty of finding sites of raw materials that would be needed to fabricate everything that would be needed. The upside is that with the major power in the galaxy being the wraith and them keeping majority of the other planets on such a low technological level, there was a galaxy full of resources with little competition; they just had to find them.

The most startling discovery was a intact but damaged defense satellite that was deployed throughout the system during the height of the Wraith war. An Asgard vessel that was scouting the area around Atlantis discovered it and towed it back to Atlantis. Harry immediately referenced the satellite specs and was awed by what he saw. The destructiveness of the satellite came not from the amount of power that was required to fire it, which was minimal, but from the type of beam that it employed. The beam utilized the exotic particles that are found with the use and creation of the potentia modules, it was discovered how to capture and contain those particles for future use and the beam that it created was truly devastating.

For some time now, even before he left Statim Disce, Harry had been designing his flagship. This ship would house the most advanced technology that he had at his disposal; this included select Asgard systems such as the transporter system that they deployed on all of their ships. Harry decided to put the designs on hold until he could go through all the data in the Atlantis database and discover any other possible viable technology that could be included in his design. But one thing he knew was that he was going to put at least two of these weapon systems into the design of his vessel, giving his ship the teeth that it needed.

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Atlantis was a jumble of activity for Harry and the Asgard that now called the place home. It has been a month since they have arrived and things were progressing rapidly. Harry finished going through the database for any new concepts and technology and was now familiar with all that was done; this was established by opening a wormhole to Statim Disce and established a link between the database there and Atlantis, from there it was as simple as uploading all the new knowledge into a special repository device.

This repository wouldn't download everything in his head but it gave him a brief overview of all the additions. To say the least, Harry was impressed. There were some experiments that should he be able to get them to function properly, they would give him the edge that he would need to achieve his goals. His goals were coming closer to fruition every day, especially with a new influx of raw materials that were being mined. The Asgard discovered a system devoid of any life and technology that had an abundance of natural resources. The few mining ships that were available were soon dispatched and refined materials were already being stockpiled for the creation of much needed equipment.

With things progressing as they were, Harry decided to take a week or two to go see the planet of his birth. Atlantis was in good hands with the Asgard. They knew what they had to do while he was away and even had a device to get in contact with him while he was a galaxy away. To make the trip, Harry did have one thing built from the resources that have been gathered, a modified gate ship. While it was the same in diameter, it was elongated to hold more technology as well as a small bunk in case he needed to sleep on the ship. The ship would have enhanced scanners,

a more powerful shield, a beam weapon, more drones, larger memory core, a dedicated Asgard transporter system, and most importantly a hyperdrive. Due to the increase in power hungry systems and the lack of space, a ZPM was needed to power it. Harry had one meeting to attend to before he left.

"Kvasir, come in. How are you my friend?" Harry stood as Kvasir walked into his office and made for the Asgard sized seat on the other side of Harry's desk. While their stature had increased a few inches in height, the Asgard race was still small in comparison to Harry's filled out and powerful frame.

"I am well Magnus." Kvasir blinked after saying this, waiting for Harry to continue.

"As we talked about before, I will be leaving for Terra after this meeting. Are you ready to take care of things here?"

Another blink, "We are indeed Magnus, we know what needs to be done and we have the means to contact you if the need shall arise."

"Excellent. I know that you will make sure everything here will run smoothly; I will be gone for about twenty standard days."

"What is it that you wish to gain from this visit to Terra?" Kvasir asked, genuinely intrigued.

"I wish to see the planet of my birth and to also decide for myself on the correct course of action. There will come a time, after the Wraith are dealt with that I will return to Avalon and free the galaxy from the oppression of the Goa'uld. The question is what I do with Terra. If there was a capital planet of my ancestors, it was Terra. From what I was told by your own people, there are still off-shoots of the Alteran race living on the planet but they live in seclusion, hiding themselves!"

"While that is true, you must consider that percentage that can trace themselves back to your forefathers is significantly less than those from the general human population. It sounds to me Magnus as if you are considering reclaiming the planet."

"In a sense, that is one option." Harry brought up information to be displayed that was gathered by the Asgard. Harry learned that some of the information was gathered by the Asgard infiltrating many of the computer networks on the planet. "As you can see, there are many of these communities around the planet." Being displayed by the holo matrix was the planet Earth. It displayed the population of the hidden communities in comparison to that of the rest of the world. "When this information and also the data pertaining to witch hunts," Here numerous records recovered from Earth's own networks was displayed, "this could be part of the reason why they are still in hiding."

"This is indeed compelling. They may be a people that live in fear of persecution. Being as you say 'cousins' of the Alterans makes this situation all the more complicated." Kvasir said, still looking at the documents being displayed.

"That it does. I am going there to determine how the situation needs to be approached. How they are as a society will be extremely important in making that determination. Also I need to get this started so that by the time that we return to Avalon, most of the hard work will be complete."

Kvasir was most surprised when he was informed of the difficulty in learning about this society. Even though they were even more primitive than the baseline humans of the planet, they were in some ways more advanced than even the Alterans of old in energy manipulation. This caused all types of problems for the advanced race that was observing them. How could a population be so primitive and yet so advanced? The way that they hid themselves seemed quite effective, that is until Harry made a modification to the Asgard scanners. With the modification, it was soon realized that there were these societies spread throughout the entire planet but still, they were in the minority.

"While I see your point and the point is valid, just know that you must consider the ramifications of introducing the planet and all of its many inhabitants to life beyond their own planet. The things that work in your favor are that you do have a legitimate claim to the planet, not only because there are those that can be ties to the Alteran race, but because no one entity have claimed the planet and there is conflict amongst themselves on who should rule and speak for the planet as a whole."

"I know that if I were to reclaim the planet, there would be several issues that I would have to deal with. When I go there and see it for my own eyes and not just sensor readings, I will decide on the correct course of action."

"While I do not speak for the High Counsel, know that I will stand behind you no matter the course you decide to take. You have proven yourself to be rational and also to have considered all the consequences of the decisions you make; I believe that you will make the right choice. Good luck on your trip and from what I learned of your people, have… fun." Kvasir stood up and dipped his head in respect. Harry stood and did the same.

Harry smiled. "I will indeed Kvasir. Take care of Atlantis for me."

"I will indeed." And with that, Kvasir left Harry's office and Harry stood and transported himself to the waiting modified gate ship that he would use to take him to Terra.

The challenge was getting the gate ship to Avalon. While it was true that the gate in Atlantis was the only gate that was able to connect to Avalon, due to the control crystal, and the only gate that it could connect to in Avalon was the one on Terra, any Alteran with the right code could connect to any gate anywhere on any network. Harry simply had to go to a planet with a space gate and input the gate address that he wanted, immediately followed by the master gate code that he got from the database. Once the code was inputted, as long as there was enough power, the connection could be made. Since the ship would contain a ZPM, supplying the gate with enough power was not an issue.

It was several hours after his departure from Atlantis that Harry exited hyperspace from the dark side of the moon that orbited Terra. Immediately after exiting hyperspace, Harry activated the gateship's standard cloak and made his way to the planet. There were two points of interest for Harry to begin with, one was above a state named Colorado, this was where the astria porta was located and the other point of interest was above what was known as England; this is where Harry was taken from by the Asgard.

While the Asgard sensors were indeed powerful, they paled in comparison to those of the Alteran. Through the neural interface, the gateship picked up on Harry's thoughts and started scanning the planet, focusing on England, the location of the astria porta, and for anything that may have been left by his Ancestors all those millions of years ago. The first scan results came from that of the astria porta.

'So they have the astria porta but not the astria navigo to operate it.' Harry said aloud. Looking through the sensor data, he located the database for the facility and copied its contents to the ships computer core. According to the data, they were very close in getting the astria porta operational; they were trying to figure out what the symbols were on the cover stones that was found with the device. They didn't know that the symbols were actually the address to another astria porta; one that was very close to the planet. Harry planted in a sleeper code that would send out a subspace signal, using the gate itself as the conductor that would alert him when the gate was activated.

The scans that were returned from England were very interesting. What Harry discovered was that these people didn't just live their lives in seclusion but that these people had a society, a culture, and an infrastructure all of their own and hidden from the world at large. In England, where his scans were concentrated, Harry discovered shopping districts, a bank according to the amount of valuable medals held within an intricate complex of caves, and other buildings under stealth protection that Harry could only guess what there purposes were. Not only that, but there was different species that lived amongst them as well as animals and plants that only they knew about. 'How were they able to hide all of this from the mainstream population and more importantly, the Asgard?' This though kept flashing through Harry's mind as he tried to extrapolate the answer from the data that he had before him.

After more than an hour of staring at data, he got frustrated. 'I have to go down there if I want to find the answers that I need.' The data just lead around in circles with a lot of contradictions. Harry decided to leave the ship in orbit so that it could continue to run deep scans of the planet. The scans had to be deep because the planets land masses were different from millions of years ago when the planet housed the Alteran society.

Harry decided that he would go to the shopping district that was closest to where the Asgard found him. He would be able to gather the most information here and still stay as inconspicuous as possible. From his scans, Harry new what the normal clothing was that he would need in order to fit in amongst the crowd that was inevitably there. With a thought, Harrys clothes changed to that of a plain black robe like garment. Finally he was ready to beam himself down to the surface. Picking a spot between two buildings that had no one around to see his method of arrival and initiated transport, taking him to the surface.

The first thing that Harry noticed after he arrived was the old and worn looking buildings that surrounded him. Knowing which way he had to go to get to the main street, he headed that way, carefully stepping over trash and other large items that tried to block his way. He could hear the many people that were on the main road, going about their business with what would appear carefree abandon.

Arriving on the main street, Harry could see little kids running back and forth between friends and parents with smiles. The parents however looked as though they were looking over their children's shoulder, ready for anything. There were vendors on the streets, peddling their wares to shoppers as they passed them. There were numerous stores that specialized in certain items but there was one thing that stood out to him; magic. People were saying it all around him and he could see signs talking about it as well. 'So that is what they call their energy manipulation techniques, I wonder if they know why they have the ability to use this magic.'

Harry decided that he wouldn't find the answer to that question or any others just standing there so with that thought; he headed out into the street, looking for a place that would have his answers.