Hi everyone! I'm terribly sorry for the wait. I have been beyond busy these last few weeks with my job that I've barely had time to think! Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's admittedly a bit of a transitional chapter but the next one will get back to more action!
*The elvish language belongs to J.R.R. Tolkien.
*The weapons are from the TV shows Sanctuary and Shadow-hunters.
*(Symbiote talking aloud)
*(Symbiote\host thoughts)
*(Speaking in Sindarin)
*(Speaking in Alteran)
*Again I own nothing but the Plot and the OC
Chapter 9 – Vulcan's forge
Remi was already moving as he reappeared, his magical blade activated. When he took a moment to notice his intended victim, he saw it was a little grey alien with large black eyes.
He immediately deactivated his sword and switched to the Alteran Language (his Nox teacher had insisted he speak only in Alteran to practice). "Forgive me, I was just surprised." He said bashfully.
The Small Asgard nodded, "It is I who should apologize, I am not used to having to warn anybody when I transport them. I am Thor, supreme commander of the Asgard fleet."
Remi sank to one knee and placed his hand on Thor's shoulder, the Alteran method of greeting an ally. "It is an honor Supreme commander Thor; I am Remi Beauchamp of the last Alteran family."
Thor held out his hand, and with his other hand Remi carefully grasped his forearm (not many knew that the Jaffa way of greeting –grasping forearms- was actually based off of the Asgard old greeting).
"It is a pleasure to meet you. I extend greetings to your symbiote as well, though we have not had contact with the Tok'ra we are aware of their movement." He paused and then continued, " We knew of your birth Remi, but lost track of you and your family very soon after." Thor told him.
Remi was surprised, "You knew of my birth?"
Thor nodded, "We have a cloaked galaxy wide satellite network that monitors everything in this galaxy. We had been keeping watch over your family for centuries. We even subtly helped them a few times. Part of the terms of the Old Alliance is mutual aid. After your birth though, a barrier was erected over the town you were in and we have been unable to penetrate it with either our sensor or transporter technology."
Remi understood now, 'Their sensors cannot penetrate magic like the Ryoo sensors' Adair agreed with him, (and was ecstatic to finally find out how the Asgard seemed to know the Goa'uld movements even before the Tok'ra) automatically joining them in Alteran.
Remi told this to Thor and offered to calibrate the Asgard sensor technology so that it could penetrate Magic fields as well. Thor happily led him over to the sensors and transportation computers and let Remi work. After Thor explained to Remi about how to use the unfamiliar computer systems, Thor went over to another computer and started uploading the memory crystal with Vulcanus's location. All the while Remi multitasked and told Thor about his and Adair's story up till that point.
Remi finished his story at the same time as he finished calibrating the computers with the new formula. Thor inspected his work and nodded, "This is ingenious Remi. I will send it to the Asgard High council and they will upload it to our sensor networks. It should take fifteen minutes until it is fully updated. While we wait, I will set a course for Vulcanus."
Remi grimaced, "If you don't mind, I promised my family I would see them first thing after I helped the Tollan. I would at least like to communicate with them and maybe bring someone with us?"
Thor nodded, "Of course, forgive my thoughtlessness; we will go to Earth first." Thor moved a crystal on his command chair and the ship lurched into hyperspace.
To Remi's immense surprise they arrived in only a few minutes where as the Ryoo would have taken at least a month and a half at their speeds.
Thor input a few commands into his systems and the view port projected a hologram of East End. "Your new calibrations are working wonderfully; we have not been able to see this much in many years." Thor said gratefully.
Remi looked back at the screen and noticed when six life signs appeared. Three of them were clustered together beneath the town and were flashing different colors.
"What does that mean?" Remi asked
Thor started working faster, "The red flashing life sign is your fathers, and is very weak. He is apparently very injured. The other two in that cluster is your mother and Sister Freya; their heart rates are elevated. I am going to simultaneously transport everyone here to the bridge." Thor said, just as there was a bright white flash signaling the transport.
When it faded, Remi's entire family was looking around shocked while Viktor was moaning on the ground. Remi rushed over to them, "What happened?!" he asked in English just as a green light came down from the ceiling and started to scan his father.
"Remi?!" His mother exclaimed.
Remi fell down next to his father and started slowly running his hand over his father's injuries chanting, "Nesta, Nesta, Nesta." His hand glowed pink and Viktor's injuries slowly started healing. 'It is not enough; his injuries are too severe for one person to heal.' Adair told him.
Remi looked to his mother temporarily ignoring everyone else, "Mom his body is too badly damaged! And there is internal damage, I need help!" Joanna nodded grimly setting aside her questions to focus on Viktor.
She dropped to her knees and held out her hands over Viktor, Remi and Wendy held out their hands over different sections of his bruised and battered body. Looking at them she said, "Ok repeat after me: Haec vulnera sanaret, Emendari damno, dolore pulso. Sana, Sana, Sana." All three chanted slowly while running their hands through the air over Viktor's body, it took almost ten whole minutes of chanting but finally Viktor didn't have a scratch on him, though he was still unconscious.
The little green light zoomed down from the ceiling again and Thor said, "His injuries have been healed but he is very weak, with your permission I will transport him to my ships medical bay until he fully recovers." Remi nodded gratefully to Thor and Viktor vanished in a flash of white.
Remi jerked, slightly shocked, when his mother grabbed him tightly and hugged him crying. He held her tightly, tears of his own falling, as his sisters, Aunt Wendy, and Fredrick also joined the hug with tears of their own. They sat like that for a while just holding each other sobbing. Remi hadn't known how much he was keeping in. Thor politely let them have their moment and transported himself to the medical bay to watch over Viktor.
Eventually everyone started to calm down but they stayed on the floor of the bridge in a small group around Remi.
Viktor startled them all by suddenly stumbling through a door to the right, Thor was apparently still giving them some family time. When Viktor saw Remi, he sank to his knees in front of him and for a moment just studied him, then pulled him into a bone crushing hug. They sat like that for a moment, Remi basking in the presence of his family. Gently pulling away Remi says, "I've missed you all, so much." His mother squeezed his hand tightly.
"So this is where you've been?" Wendy asked him. He nodded, "yea, it's a long story." He paused for a moment, "That day on the beach I witnessed a space ship crash in the water, the pilot was very injured but I still managed to bring him to shore. He told me his name was Tirian and that he knew he was dying. Then his eyes flashed and in a deeper voice told me his name was Adair. He explained that he; Adair, was a symbiotic Alien that needed a host to survive, and that he was a member of something called the Tok'ra. I offered to be his next host." Remi told them.
Fredrick spoke up, "So wait, you have another being inside you right now?"
Remi nodded, "He is eager to meet you if you are ok with it? He is my best friend, almost like a soul mate." Joanna and Wendy exchanged a look. "We would love to meet him." Viktor said.
Remi nodded and bowed his head. Adair nervously took control and lifted his head, his eyes flashing causing all the Beauchamp's eyes to widen. "It is an honor to finally meet you all in person, I am Adair."
There were mixed reactions. Ingrid looked fascinated. Freya looked intrigued. Fredrick looked like his whole world was slowly losing its rules. Viktor was smiling in wonderment and fascination but didn't look all that surprised like Remi expected him to be. Joanna and Wendy had looks like they weren't sure what to think.
"It is a pleasure to meet you Adair. I must say this is rather exciting the academic in me." Viktor said.
"So Adair, what exactly does it mean your bond with my son?" Joanna asked.
Remi was chuckling in their mind 'queue the worried mother' he thought to Adair.
Adair looked at Joanna, "It is hard to explain, my species the Tok'ra are symbiotic beings. We share a host body to survive. When we blend with our host we blend our very being completely, our personalities, our souls... We share our memories, thoughts, experiences, and wisdom. We enhance our host's health, extending their life span, giving them advanced healing and reflexes. Our personal life span is very long, the eldest of us currently is my mother at 2000 years. I myself am the second eldest of the Tok'ra at 1,901 years old. (There was shocked silence at this) When we blend with our hosts we also share our familial connections. For instance, I feel Remi's immense love for you as though I have lived with and loved you myself for sixteen years. And Remi feels my love for my mother Selmak and her host Saroosh, my brother Lantash and his host Martouf, and their mate Jolinar and her host Rosha as though he himself has lived with and loved them for the past hundred years or so."
Everyone was very engrossed in what Adair was saying that they almost didn't notice Thor coming back into the room.
Remi nudged for control and said, "Every one, I'd like to introduce you to Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet."
Thor walked over to the now standing family of Ancients and held out his hand. Viktor, to Remi's surprise went down on one knee and softly laid his hand on Thor's shoulder while grasping the little aliens forearm with his other hand, like he himself had been taught to do and spoke in Alteran. "It is a pleasure to meet one of our old allies. I had never thought I'd see the day. I am Viktor of the House of Beauchamp, last of the Ancients."
Everyone else looked just as surprised as Remi at his greeting.
Thor nodded, "It is an honor to meet you friend Viktor, I hope you and your family will rejoin the old Alliance."
Viktor smiled softly at Thor, "That has yet to be decided, I must confer with my family and we will choose."
Thor nodded and turned to the rest of the family switching back to English, "Welcome to my ship the Beliskner. It is an honor to see you all." They all politely returned the greeting with wide eyes, "The actual Thor from the stories?" Ingrid asked to Remi's amusement. He answered his sister in the affirmative to her amazement and then Remi looked at Viktor.
"I wasn't aware you all knew about all this." He gestured around.
Viktor smiled at his youngest son, "They didn't, only the future king is told of our ancient past. Before your Grandfather went crazy and he still recognized my position as next in line since I married your mother, he took me aside and shared with me the old history and customs."
Remi nodded though he was still a bit confused, king?
But before he could ask something else Thor spoke up, "I am sorry to interrupt, but Remi and I must continue our journey to Vulcanus as my time in this galaxy is limited. Is there anyone who wishes to stay here before we depart?"
The Beauchamp's looked at one another and Joanna grinned and asked, "Is the house locked up and the oven off?"
Wendy chuckled and nodded as she was the last one there. Joanna looked back to Thor, "If it is no trouble we will all accompany you." Thor nodded, "It is no trouble at all, this will give us time to exchange stories since the trip to the passage of Nilor where the station is located is an hour long journey." He said as he input the coordinates.
For the next hour Remi and his family exchanged stories about what had happened in the past year. Remi told them a bit about his time with the Ryoo, Adair more about the Tok'ra and their history, views, culture, and their war with the Goa'uld. Joanna and the girls told him about their family curse, their crazy year, all the ups and downs. (Adair had been horrified at the curse part, and Remi had been slightly disappointed when Freya told him she had broken up with Dash.) When Joanna had told him that she had been poisoned, Remi had been ready to rain destruction down on the culprit, but Joanna told him that she and Wendy had handled it. When they were getting close to Vulcanus, Remi turned to them all and said, "I can't help but feel that this is our path as a family. From what I know of our old allies and this galaxy they are suffering; mainly from our ancestors mistakes but even though we personally didn't cause the problems I feel it is our duty to fix them. I want to bring The Great Races together again, I have a feeling that we will need a united front for what's to come. Finally I want to remind everyone of what the gate builders are capable of. "He paused then said, "I was taught the Ryoo form of magic, but I'd also like to learn ours. It's my heritage and part of the Alteran legacy."
His mother smiled softly, "I will of course teach you everything I know just as I did with your sisters."
Viktor smiled, "You have become a very fine young man Remi." Fredrick nodded in agreement ruffling his brother's hair.
"Will you stay with me and help me? Our family has lived in the shadows long enough. It's time we emerge and take up our Ancestors legacy. " Remi spoke to them all with brightness in his eyes.
Viktor looked around, pleasantly stunned to see everyone with a similar look in their eyes; apparently they were all tired of hiding also.
"We will have to settle some things in East End; the house for instance, and all our belongings…" Joanna said already going through everything she would need to do.
"It would be nice to claim all the scrolls, books, and Grimoirs' in the Great Library in Asgard." Fredrick said disappointedly.
Remi frowned, "I didn't know there was one, but why wouldn't we be able to?" he asked.
Viktor frowned, "Unfortunately the king still lives and from what Fredrick has told me he sealed the Library long ago. Until the danger that he represents is gone, we will have to wait to claim anything from Asgard."
Remi sighed but nodded.
An alarm sounded and Thor started inputting commands. "We have arrived." He said calmly as the ship settled back into normal space.
Everyone headed to the view port but Remi held on to Fredrick's arm holding him back. "You have a soul brand on you brother." He said to Fredrick calmly.
Fredrick winced and looked ashamed, "How did you know?"
Remi just grimaced, "Soul brand magic was band from Ryoo many generations ago. It is such a heinous crime there that all the Magi are taught to sense if someone has one. The perpetrator is severely punished."
Fredrick just nodded, "I was forced to take it centuries ago, when grandfather was in one of his tortuous moods. Now he has used it to also store his soul in it, he wants me to find him a body so he can live longer. He told me he wants to reunite the family but I'm no longer sure I believe him."
Remi grimaced in disgust, "Do not believe him brother, soul brand magic warps and damages the mind.. I can remove both his soul and the brand later. The Ryoo developed a spell for it long ago."
Fredrick looked shocked and then a tear came in his eye. "I would be forever grateful brother. I am tired of living life as a slave."
Remi smiled at him and hugged him, "You will never have to feel like that again when we are done."
He gave one final squeeze to his brother and they went to join the others who had not noticed their little moment.
Remi looked out the view port at the planet they were orbiting. It was a beautiful forest planet with only one continent.
Suddenly Remi gasped, Adair was equally as amazed. There in far orbit opposite them was Vulcanus.
Thor brought it up on the screen. The computer gave them the dimensions- The station was 19,000 meters long and 3000 meters tall. It was easily recognizable with its Alteran architecture that Remi had been studying with the Nox. Adair was in awe, 'it could easily fit sixteen Hat'ak class ships.' He thought in shock. The station was Cylindrical in form and absolutely beautiful.
Suddenly alarms blared and Thor got a shocked look on his face before inputting some commands into his computer.
"What's happening Commander Thor?" Fredrick asked the question everyone wanted to know.
Thor amplified three smaller almost spiky like structures that were positioned around the station.
"Those are Alteran defense satellites and they are powering weapons." Thor said.
"What?!" Joanna and Wendy asked at the same time.
The satellites they could see were gyrating around to target them and then stopped.
"What happened Thor? Why did they stop?" Remi asked him.
"They scanned us and determined we are not a threat, most likely they sensed the presence of Alterans." Thor said just as his controls beeped. "We are receiving docking instructions from Vulcanus." Thor told them calmly as he commanded the ship to follow those instructions.
The ship started inching closer on autopilot as Thor scanned the interior. "I am detecting power sources in the station though they appear to be inactive. There is currently no breathable atmosphere but there is artificial gravity as it luckily runs on the same principle as ours and requires no energy input." Thor said simply.
Remi nodded, "Would you synthesize me a suite please?" He asked him.
Thor nodded, and began to input commands.
"Please make Fredrick and myself one as well commander." Viktor said and smiled at his youngest son.
Remi smiled back overjoyed to finally have his family with him.
There were three bright flashes, and in front of Remi, Fredrick, and Viktor appeared three silvery space suits. The girls helped them get them on just as the Beliskner docked with Vulcanus. Thor brought up an internal map of the station, "This here(a section lit up) is the closest I can get you to the control room as it is apparently shielded. You will have to walk the length of this corridor and then ascend two levels.
Once there, go left and the door for the control room should be right there. Thor beamed the three men to the aforementioned point and they looked around in wonder.
(LINE BREAK)
The station was even more impressive on the inside, if a little confusing to Remi. The corridor they were walking down to head to the control room, had a completely see through wall facing the inside of the station. The whole inside was mostly just empty space to their puzzlement but in the distance Remi saw three long structures. His excitement grew. He couldn't be positive yet but he was pretty sure he knew what those were.
If he could have, Adair would have been jumping in his mind in excitement, though he was also puzzled about the lack of internal structure.
"Do you know why there aren't any construction docks? Isn't this a construction station?" Fredrick voiced the questions Remi and Adair had as well.
"Guess we'll have to see when we power it up." Viktor said quietly.
Finally they got to the door to the control room and Remi stopped when he saw the long thin panel on the side with three crystals sticking out. He studied it for a moment. 'Perhaps Thor knows how to open it?' Adair questioned. Remi shrugged and activated his com device. "Thor? Do you know how to open these doors? There is a long panel with three crystals." He asked.
"If I am correct, waving your hand over the top crystal will open the door." Thor replied.
Remi tried, and sure enough the door opened.
Upon entering Remi felt his eyebrows almost escape his face again. The room was enormous! On the far wall in front of them was one large window that looked out into Vulcanus, with a long control station set up underneath it. In the middle of the room was a large flat work station that Remi was pretty sure was some kind of hologram projector. Then, on either side, between the center station and the side walls were four evenly spaced smaller flat work stations. All the work stations in the room came up to about mid stomach in height. On the left and right walls were doors to other secondary rooms.
Remi went over to the right door while his brother and father explored the large room a bit more.
He approached the door and opened it, inside was a control station and behind that was a raised platform with three glowing cylindrical crystalline objects resting in a standing position in three slots. 'I think those are the power sources' Adair commented sarcastically. Remi rolled his eyes at his symbiote's sense of humor.
"Remi! I think I found the "on" button. " Fredrick called to him from the front of the room where he was standing at the long work station. Remi joined him just as Viktor did.
Remi looked at what Fredrick was pointing at. It was a small panel that did indeed say 'activate' in Alteran but Remi wasn't sure that was what Fredrick thought it was. Still he pushed the button, and… nothing happened. Remi frowned and went back to the room with the three power sources, his father and brother trailing behind him.
He went up to the control console, which to his surprise lit up at his touch. In the middle of the console was a depiction with three hexagonal symbols in the middle, set in the exact layout of the power sources in front of them. Next to the three hexagons was another 'Activate' button. Getting an idea Remi selected one of the Hexagons which made a little noise and then pressed the activate button. In front of them one of the power modules slid down into its slot and that section of the table lit up. Nothing happened in the control room though.
"Thor? I activated one of the power modules but nothing happened in the station." Remi said over the comm.
"Remi?" it sounded like Ingrid. "Try activating the rest of them also. Perhaps it requires all the available ones working in unison to work."
Remi shrugged and selected the other two and activated them. They also slid down and immediately Viktor called out from the control room to say that a screen had just lit up.
Remi thanked Ingrid and went over to his father in the control room. He was indeed standing in front of a lit up screen that had a bunch of options on it. Remi inspected the options, there was life support, shields, lighting, control, transporters, and engines all in grey, docking stations, and orbital engines were in yellow.
Remi selected life support and turned it on to full power. Then he selected lighting and then turned on the sub-option for the lights to only come on in the sections of the station where there were inhabitants. Lastly he turned on the control room fully.
His suit beeped and some information came up holographically on his view screen telling him that the suit was no longer necessary. He informed the others while taking his suit off. Adair eagerly nudged for control and Remi gave it over, chuckling at his friend's excitement.
Adair took control and went over to inspect the central work station just as the rest of the family and Thor came into the control room.
The work station activated and a hologram of the inside of the station came up. On the far end were three highlighted areas in yellow.
Thor joined him and Adair was sure if the Asgard could have, he would have been jumping in excitement. "Are those….?" Thor asked him.
Adair nodded excitedly, "Yes Commander Thor, those are three brand new fully functional Alteran Guard ships." Adair selected one in the air and it magnified bringing up a hologram of the ship.
Thor read the script flowing to the side giving the ships specs.
"These ships are perhaps just a shade more powerful than my own." Thor said calmly.
"How can that be? Didn't you say the Alterans were always more advanced than you?" Fredrick asked curiously.
Thor nodded, "That is true, however the Asgard has had the last ten thousand years of the Alterans absence to advance our own technology. Had your ancestors remained in space you would still be far beyond us."
Fredrick nodded in understanding.
"If I may, I would like to request use of one of the ships for the Asgard. It is sorely needed." Thor asked Remi\Adair.
Adair frowned, "You may of course use one as we currently only need use of one or at the most two." Adair paused, "Though you have not yet explained the situation with the Asgard?" Adair asked politely.
Thor sighed, "We have our own war in our home galaxy of Ida that we are fighting. Because of that we had to make the Protected Planets Treaty with the Goa'uld. We currently do not have enough ships to both fight our own war in Ida and police the Goa'uld here.
Adair looked at him incredulously, "The treaty is a bluff!?"
Thor nodded, "Yes it is, we were hoping that there would be at least one ship here so that we could ask you to help us police this galaxy in order to focus on our own enemy." He finished with a respectful bow.
Remi switched control with Adair and looked to his family who all nodded to him trusting in his decision.
"We would be honored to help out our old Friends the Asgard. We will be rejoining the old Alliance as well and building up our resources and assets in the galaxy."
Thor bowed to them low in respect, "Your decision warms my heart, the high council will be very happy as well. Is there anything you need to get started?"
Remi frowned thoughtfully, discussing things with Adair, "We will require your help to understand Vulcanus's systems as well as the Guard ship systems and I would like to update the ships with some of your technology as well.
Thor nodded and for the next few hours they all went around the control room with him and deciphered the stations systems.
They discovered that the station had no internal structure because the inventor, Vulcanus, wanted to be able to create ships of different forms and sizes. Therefore one could design a whole ship on the central work station in the middle of the room and then select where in the station it was to be built and movable docking arms would zoom into place to begin the construction.
The second thing they discovered was that one floor down there was a stargate. It was of newer construction than the ones they were used to in the Milky Way galaxy. Thor told them it was most likely the updated stargate design that the Ancients had employed in Pegasus before returning to the Milky Way. He also explained that the Ancients had been known for placing Stargates on their space stations and cities.
Next they understood that they were in orbit around the planet below because it had a high concentration of minerals. It was a mining planet and there were drones that mined the minerals, and brought them up to the station for use. The building of the ships was completely automatic. The whole station of Vulcanus was able to be fully used by only one person. Even the individual parts were made by drones who then installed them into the completed ships.
Freya had discovered that the side work stations were for different individual and important designs for parts of the ships. Such as the engines, hyper drive, shield generator, drone systems. On one, Remi found the designs for a transport system much like the Asgard's 'beaming' technology. It did essentially the same thing but since it was designed by an Alteran it had a different effect. Instead of a white light, the entire object\subject would 'burst' into a shower of blue orbs and disappear, it would then rematerialize in the destination with all the blue 'orbs' merging together to reconstitute the object or person. The new Guard ships already had been incorporated with the newer technology thankfully, and in fact they found out that Vulcanus had a more powerful form of this technology and that was how the completed ships were released from the station. There were no ports opening to the outside like traditional construction docks. Instead the ships were transported out into space.
Thor uploaded the designs for the Asgard weapons technology that Remi had asked for. He had asked for the transport technology as well but because of the newly found Alteran version he didn't need it.
The weapons systems were simply an added precaution to the already existing Alteran weapons systems, the drones. The drones were very powerful granted, but Adair thought, and Remi agreed that it would be prudent to have more than one weapons system. Remi used the central work station and added the new systems to the designs for the guard ships. Immediately there was an option to upgrade the three existing ships. Remi checked on how long it would take and since the estimated time was only 24 hours he initiated it. He, his entire family and Thor watched happily as the activity in the station picked up as the once inactive drones flared to life and started to work on their task.
(LINE BREAK)
-Translations-
Haec vulnera sanaret, Emendari damno, dolore pulso. Sana, Sana, Sana.- The wounds will be healed. Damage mended, pain expelled. Heal, heal, heal.