A/N We don't own any of the franchises referenced in this story. We are just fans.
Chapter 8
The combined fleet of the Terrans, Free Jaffa, and Asgard was sitting on the outskirts of the Heliopolis system. Dozens of ships were waiting for the signal to come from Earth that all was ready to begin their strike against the Aschen.
On the bridge of his ship, Thor was looking over the intelligence report detailing the abilities of the Aschen. He was grateful for the good news, if not slightly disappointed that there would be no real battle. The Aschen had used up the last of their strength in their futile effort to capture Earth. They had less than 15 ships and all were damaged.
A few minutes later, the last of the crews arrived on the Earth ships. Thor was glad that these personnel were not on his ships. They were news crews. They were meant to show the Terran civilians how this war would be fought. Many had only seen the war over their skies. Thor heard from O'Neill that the news crews were traveling with the fleet to help raise morale among the Earth civilians.
Thor understood why this was important, but like many other commanders, he despised having to cater to civilians that would simply be in the way. He was immensely grateful that The Asgard civilians knew to follow the orders of the military. The Replicator war had cured the Asgard of any lingering civilian dislike of the military.
Finally the order was given and the fleet jumped into hyperspace. Thor looked at the readouts on his computer and grumbled. He was somewhat annoyed at how slow his ship must travel to wait for the Jaffa and Terran ships. The plan necessitated that the fleet arrive together.
As the ships dropped out of hyperspace, Thor prepared to give the order to open fire on the remaining ships. The combined fleet would quickly remove the threat represented by them, however, he never gave the order.
"This is the Aschen Confederation President, calling the combined fleet approaching Aschen Prime. We surrender. We are standing down. Do not fire! Again I say, we surrender."
Instead of ordering the attack, Thor opened a channel to the rest of the fleet. "This is Supreme Commander Thor. The Aschen Confederation has surrendered. Stand by for orders." He then beamed the Aschen President aboard his ship.
The man materialized a few feet away from Thor, and he was terrified. "Remain calm," Thor told him, without any appearance of compassion. He didn't feel any. This man had ordered the death of millions of Terrans. If the man was terrified, so be it. Thor manipulated his communications system again, and quickly heard, "Jackson here."
"Greetings, Chancellor Jackson. This is Thor. The Aschen have surrendered."
There was a pause. "But you just got there."
"I am afraid they saw our fleet and surrendered without a shot, Chancellor. I have the president of the Aschen Confederation aboard my ship. Would you like to speak with him?"
It would take some time for Daniel Jackson to develop the skills of a seasoned diplomat. "Not really, Thor. I'd prefer to…" He stopped and regrouped. "Yeah. I suppose I will talk to him."
Thor appeared unruffled by Jackson's slip away from diplomacy, but the truth of the matter was, he would gladly help Jackson in whatever he wished to do to this… paltry excuse of a person. Even Lya of the Nox had approved of what they were going to do to these people. There would be no killing, but they would instill a considerable amount of fear.
Jackson, for his part, quickly put a completely emotionless expression on his face as a hologram of him quickly formed on Thor's bridge. He looked around, and saw the Aschen President cowering where he had materialized.
Thor was enjoying making this individual cower, as well. He slowly zoomed in the image of Jackson, making it grow larger and larger almost imperceptibly. He finally stopped when Jackson appeared over eight feet tall. The Asgard were masters of instilling awe into others, and while his expression never changed, he slipped on a recorder to save the meeting for posterity.
Jackson stared at the Aschen President for a long moment. The man was clearly afraid, and if their intelligence was right, he had every reason to be. The Aschen had no way to wage any type of war. "My terms for your surrender are as follows:
"Your people will be relocated off of Aschen Prime. We will place you on a planet near the edge of the galaxy, where there are just enough trace metals for you to survive, but not enough to develop a thriving society. You will go through the stargate to this world with just the clothes on your back, then the stargate will be removed, along with the DHD. We will beam down enough supplies for you to last six months, with enough seeds to suppliment what you can gather. After that time, you will be on your own."
The president started to sputter. Now, he was not afraid, but mad. How DARE these Tauri threaten this! The Aschen Confederation had been enormous at it's power! This Tauri chancellor had no idea of military might! Then he realized that the Tauri chancellor was smiling, and he knew that he would have no choice. The chancellor then confirmed his worst fears.
"Take care before you reject this offer, Mr. President. You have fifteen very damaged ships, and they are under the guns of well over six hundred undamaged. Should you refuse what is a very generous offer, under the circumstances, we can and will destroy every last piece of technology on this planet. In doing so, you will have a burned out hulk for a homeworld. Your colonists will be transported back here as well. You will have to support all of your colonists on this planet, with no resources to do so. Your people will die very quickly.
"Contrast that to what will happen if you accept our offer. You will be transported to a world where all of you will be able to survive. It is your choice, Mr. President, but I will not wait long for you to make it."
Thor made a quick movement with his hand that dialed an address on the stargate. While Jackson was talking to the president, the Asgard's scans of Ashen Prime showed that people were massing near the stargate. He did not want someone dialing the gate while negotiations were being made.
The surface of Aschen Prime...
On the planet's surface, people were waiting for a gate address to be dialed. The President had told his people that he would try to hold off the Terrans long enough for them to escape through the gate. Once the gate opened, hundreds of people surged towards and through it. The official who had been supposed to dial the gate tried to shout that he had not been the one to open it, but over the shouting of the crowd, no one heard.
Those who went through, however, ended up on the planet that the chancellor had picked out for them. It wasn't where they were supposed to be and they knew it. A couple of men decided to try going back through the gate, even though they knew they couldn't. A man standing near the gate tried to stop them. He threw himself in front of one of them, and they both fell into the gate, although his lower leg didn't make it past the event horizon. Someone had enough presence of mind to grab it and pull him out, and in so doing, both of the men were pulled free. Had they not, they would have been killed when the gate shut down. The one who they were not able to pull free was dead. There was no way to retrieve him from the gate.
On board Thor's ship, when Jackson finished and was waiting for the President's decision, Thor said, "If I may, Chancellor." At Jackson's nod, he turned to the President. "Where were the people going to go, Mr. President?"
"What?"
"Your people on the planet. They were massing to go through the Stargate. Where were you sending them?"
"That is not your concern." His demeanor changed to triumph as he continued. "They have gone through by now, and you may do what you want with me. My death will insure the life of my people."
Thor shook his head slowly. "Your people have indeed gone through the gate, Mr. President. But not to the planet you had chosen. Instead, I activated the stargate before your people could, and they are where we intended to send them. The DHD has been removed from the destination."
Jackson heard this, and nodded in approval. This had been considered, and Thor had followed his instructions to the letter. He turned to address the president: "So while you were 'negotiating' with me, you were trying to do what we refer to as an 'end run'. So be it. These 'negotiations' are at an end." Jackson's image disappeared, and Thor manipulated another control. The President disappeared as well.
When the president reappeared, he was in a room about six foot cubed. There was a vent in the ceiling that was providing fresh, warm air, as well as a lighting panel. Other than that there were no features on the blank walls. He wondered how long he would have to wait. He also wondered if the Asgard had been telling the truth about his people.
Even before the President was beamed to the holding cell, Thor was speaking to the rest of the fleet. "The Aschen have tried to escape. Those still on Aschen Prime and their colonies may try again. Remove the DHDs from their stargates. We will need to transport them to their new home. Commence operations."
The combined fleet started the mop up of the Aschen system, as well as their conquered systems. There was no more communication with the governments of the planets. The President had ruined the possibility of that happening. The DHDs were beamed away from each gate and then the people were simply transported to their planet's stargate and herded through.
After the last of the people went through the gates, the President was beamed to the surface of Aschen Prime, however, his clothing had not been transported with him. The Stargate had been moved to a desert location on the surface, so there was no place for the man to run. Thor beamed himself down as well. He stood a few feet away from the president, and activated the stargate. It flashed into an active wormhole. "You have two choices, Mr. President. You may choose to step through this gate, and rejoin your people, or you may choose to remain here. Keep in mind, however, that there is no water within five days walking distance, nor is there any shelter. If you choose to remain know that you will die. Neither I, nor any other, will ever return to Aschen Prime. I will leave the Stargate here for the remainder of it's open duration, then I will beam it up. Goodbye, Mr. President."
With that, Thor beamed aboard his vessel. The President sat down on the steps before the gate and considered his options. When he thought he was sacrificing himself for his people, he had been brave, but now, there was no sacrifice. His people were on the other side of this gate, safe. If he stepped through, he would rejoin them. But he would be in disgrace. He would be naked for all to see. He sat for several minutes, unsure of what he should do. Finally, he stood and faced the gate. He took one step towards it, and the gate closed. He had stayed too long, undecided. Then, a few moments later, the gate disappeared, leaving him standing alone on the platform where the gate used to be. He sat down again, and started to cry.
On the new home of the Aschen…
People were milling around aimlessly, near the gate. Suddenly, a ship lowered into the atmosphere and beamed up the gate. The ship, a Terran GD-305, hovered only about fifty feet above the surface.. There was a sound, like thunder, as a loudspeaker somewhere on the underside of the ship came alive. Then, a voice sounded, incredibly loud. "This is Colonel John Sheppard of the Terran ship, Nathan Stark. Welcome to your new home. You will find that it is a nice home, and that you can build pleasant lives for yourselves here. There are no raw materials with which you can generate electricity, however. The Bronze age is about as far as you will be able to get here, but there is ample food and water to build a thriving bronze age empire.
"We will be removing any items from your persons which represent any kind of technology. It is early spring here, and you will have a summer through which you can store up food for the winter. The year is approximately four hundred days here, so I suggest you store up a lot. About a mile north of you, you'll find we left you a little present. There's several wooden crates with food and seeds to get you started." He paused for a moment, the said, "Ok, I've just been informed that you are technology free, so I'll say goodbye, and we'll be on our way. Have a nice life."
The Nathan Stark gracefully pivoted, and started rising through the atmosphere until it dwindled to a point, then the point became a line which stretched into infinity and disappeared as the ship entered hyperspace.
The Ashen were alone.
At Aschen Prime...
Once Aschen Prime was devoid of it's population, Dr. Bill Lee was beamed into the capitol building and began downloading the database into his computer. Hopefully it would contain a cure for the disease that poisoned the Earth. While looking through the data, Dr. Lee found that the Aschen had located Tollona and that on one of the colony planets, there were Tollan survivors in a prison designed to defeat Tollan technology.
Dr. Lee informed Thor, and the information was relayed to the ship conducting the evacuation of that world. Having the coordinates of the prison, the Tollan were promptly found and beamed aboard to be treated by the medical staff.
It took little more than one Terran week to transport all of the remaining Aschen to their new world, and the quick, bloodless response to the attack endeared the Terran Chancellor to his people even more than he had been.
The surviving Tollan were brought back to Earth by the Asgard. Thankfully, Narim, a Tollan with whom SG1 had had multiple dealings, was among them, and able to speak for the them. Once he was settled into a military hospital, Sam O'Neill paid him a visit, and he told her that soon after their world was lost, they had been found by the Aschen and brought to their home world. The Tollan thought that they had been saved by a human race just as advanced as they were. However, they soon learned the truth of the Aschen. They tried to leave but were thrown into prison while the Aschen tried to crack the secrets of Tollan technology. Unfortunately, the technology base was too different and they needed the Tollan prisoners' help. They had been tortured to get the information they needed. As much as possible, the Tollen had resisted, but the Aschen had a device which could read their memories when they did.
"How come they didn't just read your memories and be done with it?" Sam asked Narim. "Why did they need to torture you?"
Narim was laying on a bed, unmoving, as he had been for many days while his skin was repaired from multiple burns.
"Honestly Sam, I think they just enjoyed it. But, they didn't get much from us. Yes, they learned how to use our technology, and how to build it, but I don't think they were able to blend it into their own; the differences are just too great."
"Well, even if they did learn how to build your technology and expand upon it, they can't use it now," Sam said, matter of factly.
"Did the president really die rather than join his people?"
Sam nodded her head. "We found his body on the stargate platform right before we left Aschen Prime. He had apparently tried to stand at one point, and fallen. He hit his head on the platform, and gave himself a concussion. Dr. Fraser thinks it unlikely that he woke up after that."
Narim nodded. He was a peaceful man, who wouldn't normally hurt a fly, and although he didn't say anything more about the Aschen president, Sam could tell that he was just fine with the man's fate.
The Tollan were all on their way to recovery, but unfortunately, Dr. Lee wasn't able to find any cure for what the Aschen had done to Earth. What he did find, however, shocked him. In a computer file that he was easily able to open, he found records of Aschen genetic experiments dating back for the last hundred years.
In the database, he found experiments on people, goa'uld, plant life, even entire ecosystems. One of Aschen Prime's sister planets had once been a thriving world with an ecosystem rivaling her own. Now, it was a wasteland, devoid of life, and with almost no atmosphere at all.
The Aschen had worked for decades, trying to perfect terraforming. In several experiments, their work had led to results similar to their sister planet. But in others, they found things that could be weaponized. On one planet, they had developed a bacteria that metabolized water in a way that would cause it to react in a human body similarly to alcohol. On another planet, the same organism, with a bit of tweaking, created an acid out of water when exposed to normal, unmodified water. These planets were in the gate network and their addresses were carefully noted. Not only would it be unfortunate for someone to travel to one of these worlds unaware of the dangers, but there also existed possible strategic uses for such oddities. If someone started using any of them as weapons, Earth wanted to know about it.
