A Voyage of Convergence
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Disclaimer The following story is a fan fiction it is just for fun... This is a multiple crossover. Characters you recognize from other TV shows, books and films will belong to their respective creators. Any characters you do not recognize are figments of my own warped imagination, and bear no resemblance to any person, living or dead. Since I make some reference to a previous fan fiction of mine Chicago Convergence ( .com/Story-12939/tenwaters+Chicago+ a more fast moving story ) as part of this work I am including all references in both works in this disclaimer.
I apologize to the authors, producers, publishers and owners of Andromeda,
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-Chapter Ten Passages
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Elizabeth's Fleet headed into the Florida Strait they were bound for a spot on the west coast. The Map referred to the island as Capo D'Aquada. It was in passing through that they spotted the sails. Five eastbound ships grew larger and bolder as the distance closed.
The Fleet executed a simple plan raising British colors. On some ships a rapid change of wardrobe was also made. As the ships passed the pseudo-British convoy saluted a Spanish Flotilla consisting of two Frigates and three ships of the line. It was after all a time of peace.
That night there was another passing. A floating phantom pasted the fleet. The Flying Dutchman brought great fear to the uninformed. However on the flagship it was waving, blown kisses, and a babe held up for view and a proud father that disappeared into the mist.
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The Frigate HMS Whippet escorting two sugar laden merchant vessels through the night. The night's quite was broken by a cry from the watch. Off the starboard stern a light was spotted. The light, bright beyond the normal glowing of the sea, rapidly overtook them and passed beneath them.
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The Abraham Lincoln's and Mystic Lady's captains checked their charts they checked the stars. The latitude was right. The coastline and the maps were so similar it just had to be the right location. More than thousand years would reshape things some but not so much to lose the general lay of the land. The virgin marshes, swamps, and forests gave no sign that they might one day yield to. This was the spot were in many universes would be a city. Missing was the city of Savanna. They continued north up the coast and encountered only the next rift.
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Nothing travels faster then bad news. It was only a few weeks after the disaster that 'Amir received word of the massacre. To almost all the merchants of Basra except 'Amir this was in fact good news, but much to the consternation of all other powers within the Caliphate, no one could claim responsibility for what befell the pirate village.
For 'Amir his first response was to family, he sent ships to relocate his nephew Aasim before old enemies could take advantage of his weakened, position to extract revenge.
Rumors abounded in the port other ships were overdue or missing. Sailors and merchants worried and tales of ships crewed by Jinn moved about the port.
Well out at sea Thaqib heard none of these rumors as he captained his ship. What concerned him was the storm that placed him well south and west of where he wanted to be. Today however, was a new day. With a fair wind and plenty of fresh water, captured from the storm, he gave thanks to Allah the most merciful. He headed north.
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Aboard the USS Nimitz Captain Harry Blake was being briefed on the results of his latest aerial intelligence missions. His staff had prepared the maps and photographs to answer three vital questions, where are we, when are we, and what do we face. The first high altitude photos showed the Arabian Peninsula, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and their current position in the Arabian Sea. There was a collective groan of recognition; the last mission, the carrier was on prior to its involvement with rifts was in the Persian Gulf (well at least they had lots of recon to compare with). They then were shown side-by-side close-up views of known settlements. The most telling photo was of Baghdad. As best they could tell they were looking at the height of the Abbasid Caliphate somewhere between 661 to 750 AD or its equivalent in this dimension. They did not know how long they would be here so once again they had to deal with the issue of human intelligence. Plans had to be made hopefully with less impact there last intelligence success.
A short time later aboard the Pacific Princess a discussion took place. The objective was to find a way to gain some local intelligence with a minimum of risk. The meeting lasted about two hours, and they actually came up with a nice simple plan.
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It might be noted that a few other things were going on aboard the Pacific Princess. For instance you may have wondered what happened to Orlando Delgato, Willard, and Vergil. Ok you probably are not wondering about Vergil, he was Orlando's other second and he was never mentioned till now. However, the three of them were on the Kiwi when it left South Port. Not long after the Kiwi returned to the fleet the trio was given quarters aboard the Pacific Princess. This was of particularly good for Vergil who was subject to bouts of seasickness and he welcomed the larger, more stable ship as well as such modern wonders as Dramamine. On deck nine the fitness center had made a rather interesting metamorphosis. It had become more and more a dojo as the voyage continued. At this time Sensei Duncan MacLeod was working with a group of advanced students Orlando Delgato, Willard, and Vergil were part of the class along with Amanda, Angel, Buffy Summers, Cordell Walker, Faith Lehane, Frank Parker, Jane Vasco, Nick Knight, Sammo Law, Spike, Sydney Fox. The warm up was routine.
After the warm up MacLeod went into lecture mode; "There are times when you want option other then killing or disabling your opponent. In Today's lesson we on going to work on several of these techniques for controlling your opponent as well as the situation." He went through several techniques and after each technique had the group break into pairs and practice the technique. After they practiced unarmed techniques MacLeod brought out the weapon of the day, handcuffs. MacLeod had Spike repeat his comment so the rest of the class could enjoy it. He then had Walker and Law demonstrate some techniques. In another words to the casual observer, it was fairly boring until the sparing session at the end of the lesson. The first match was a two on one Willard, and Vergil trying to handcuff Faith the match ended with Vergil handcuffed to Willard. Amanda gave a quick mini lesson on ways to get out of handcuffs.
On the same deck in the internet Café Willow Rosenberg, Sean Radmon, and Riley Jensen were conducting a salvage operation they had taken some older PC that were found in store rooms and other locations on the various ships and restoring them to usefulness. "I see you got that old Dell working, how did you do it, asked Riley?
"It was a virus," answered Sean.
"That's odd I tried just about every anti-virus I brought," said Riley.
"I used one Willow wrote," said Sean.
"Neat, how is this anti virus different from the other, Riley asked turning to the red head.
"Not that much, I used an open source scanning routine, a fair sized fault library, and added an exorcism and a blessing to the cleansing routine," explained Willow.
While Riley stood there open mouthed Willow said,"You get three more questions."
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"All right you pirates lets get moving exhorted Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale.
"What's up skipper," asked Christy?
"We are taking a little trip over to the Richard and picking up a few Gyrenes," said McHale.
"Marines, why are we picking up Marines," asked Ensign Parker?
"They wanted to give us a little extra muscle, and one of them talks what they believe, is the local lingo," answered McHale.
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Aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) First Lieutenant Walter Garland prepared his group for a mission. He carefully selected just seven men from his platoon because he was sure they were the best he could find for the mission also that was all there would be room for on the small boat. Seven veterans, Staff Sergeant James McFadden did a quick role call, the inspection that followed was as informal and purposeful. They double checked equipment weapons and supplies. Prepared and briefed they awaited their ride.
Ten minutes later Lieutenant Garland and his team boarded the PT boat. McHale handled the introductions and gave one last briefing before they departed.
"Ok, before we begin I want you Marines to know your way around the seventy-three. The Lieutenant here brought us a bag of goodies and his men will show us how to use them,' said McHale.
After a bit of show and tell they were underway.
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The fair wind out of the south persisted well into the evening. Thaqib and his men were in good spirits at least until the strange bird blotted out the moon. Then the men's talk turned to ill omens and Rocs that flew by night. Things had calmed down by the time they heard the noise. It was a faint rumble at first, coming from the north and growing slowly. It was a boat moving quickly toward them barely visible against the night. It passed them then came about and caught up with them again taking up a position an arrow's flight away. Out of the darkness a voice called out to them, its accent was strange but understandable. These were no monsters just some strange sailors on another ship wishing to talk. Only the one named Farhan new more then a few words of Thaqib's language yet they all seamed friendly enough, once they got past the first encounter. Friendly or not these men had the look of warriors. Thaqib dealt with them with care he sailed to their great floating cities he learned from them tricks of navigation he traded with them for items of wonder then sailed for home.
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Two days after Thaqib ship left them the Captain Harry Blake's motley fleet departed through a rift.
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After a few days of fresh air, coconuts, and fresh fish West, Reynolds, and Vansen decided being in the middle of a war zone however primitive the combatants was less then healthy. The plan they came up with was simple, they spent a good bit of time studying the photos they had of the planet, and headed for an uninhabited region on the planes of Argentina. They moved in a tight formation, the hammerheads protecting the freighters, not long after liftoff, a rift hit them again.
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One good thing about three days of leisurely planetary orbit in a galaxy far far away in a dimension you never heard of Lando finally got around to having that talk with Ben it only took an hour. Ben was adapting better to the shifting universes enough to make a few theories as to the cause of his discomfort. Each universe was somehow different the force alien to him after each shock of separation he adapted trying to allow his force sensitivity to come into balance with the new universe. The really bad part was just as he started to tune to one universe it was rift time again. Lando was developing some theories as well, actually more like estimates, estimates of the prices raktajino and chocolate could command if he ever could get home with them.
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To Aronad Harf the difference between marketing and diplomacy was becoming evident. In this case his marketing worked to well. Two java addicted annelids had located the source of all raktajino in this hodgepodge fleet and were trying to transfer their quarters to the HMS Bounty. "We are a small ship and have little additional living space," complained the Andorian.
"We are not a very large species we do not take up much room," replied the worm named Jeff.
Mudd had told the Andorian their was no way he wanted the coffee guzzlers anywhere near his cargo and so the diplomatic duty of convincing the worms that moving to the Bounty was not a good idea fell to Harf. Watching Tul Ghobe' eating lunch gave Harf a sudden inspiration. Dropping to a whisper and getting close to the communicator Harf said, "There is also a safety issue we have a Klingon on board."
"That's nice I shall be glad to meet him they grow wonderful coffee," replied Jeff.
"And I am sure he would love to eat you, after all gagh is one of the favorite foods of Klingons. You might even say that Klingons like gagh as much as you like coffee," said Harf.
"What is gagh," asked Jeff?
The Andorian shifted the viewer so Jeff could see the Klingon security officer enjoying his meal. Jeff withdrew his request for transfer to the HMS Bounty.
Fortuitously the next rift hit before Aronad Harf had to do any more diplomacy.
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"This is Larry King, tonight we are here with Captains Dylan Hunt, John Crichton, and Dean Pault the three captains of the inter-dimensional spaceships currently orbiting our planet. First gentlemen I would like to welcome you to Earth and Larry King Live," said the interviewer.
"On behalf of my colleges and myself thank you," said Crichton.
"First the question that we all want to know is what brings you to our planet," asked the host?
"Actually we are here quite by accident. We are caught in a chain of inter-dimensional tears in the multiverse. Each of our ships is from a different universe and different times within those universes. We are trying to find out what caused these tears so we can get back home again and figure a way to permanently close them. We believe some intelligent life created the rifts form and are slowly taking us to their source. Unfortunately the tears get worse each time someone falls through them. We hope to find a way to shut down the rips before they do any major damage," said Hunt.
"What do you mean by major damage," asked King?
"It is just your usual end of existence on an unimaginable scale type problem," said Crichton.
"It is not an immediate problem and we believe we can solve it," added Pault.
"How much time do we have," asked King?
"Our best guess gives you at least a couple centuries before it gets bad enough to start eating planets. About one-hundred twenty of your years before it starts causing major local disasters. Right now you only have to worry about it grabbing ships, planes, and automobiles so if you notice an area of high electromagnetic interference don't go their unless you really want to get on the same tour, we are on," said Crichton.
There were more question and answers about the travelers and their worlds. The show had record ratings.
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According to their best guess (Trance Gemini's) they had about ten more days till the next rift grabbed them. The residents of this earth requested to send a science expedition of their own. After some debate between ships they agreed to take an expedition with them providing that the expedition provided their own habitat, and supplies they also charged, a small portage fee for lifting the habitat and a few other items into orbit. It took seven days for the UN Security Council mission to be assembled. It took far less time for nations and corporations to take advantage of a one time only lift to orbit rate of five hundred dollars a pound. It was a busy week.
Out of a clear blue North Carolina sky the Transport Pod quietly descended coming to a hover over the parking lot of a local strip center. Five passengers disembarked and begin a quick survey of the various signs and logo's of the assemblage of shops. One such sign is immediately recognized by the tallest male in the party and the group proceeds to the shop. After two day of moving satellites, shuttle modules, and a good sized chunk of an inflatable hotel into space it was time for a little shore leave. And so it was that John and Aeryn Crichton carried their young son D'Argo into a small North Carolina pizza joint with Chiana and Seamus Zelazny Harper tagging along. John passed a moment to sample the aroma before going to the counter.
"Hello and welcome to Dominic's Pizzeria," said the young man behind the counter.
"Yes, I would like a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese and four cokes," declared John Crichton.
"That will be twelve ninety-eight, say, are you the guy that was on Larry King three nights ago, asked the young man.
"Well I was one of the guys, but this is strictly a family outing so take a fifty dollar tip and don't go telling all your friends for a few hours, OK," said Crichton handing him a prepaid Visa debit card.
"No problem Mr. Crichton," said the young man.
"Thanks, and where's the parmesan," said John.
Ten minutes later. "Pepperoni pizza and cola food for the gods!" Exclaimed Harper. "How did you find this place," asked Harper?
"Born and raised in North Carolina just trying to see how parallel this parallel universe is," said Crichton.
"And," asked Aeryn?
"Better crust here," commented Crichton between bites.
After their feast they made an active tour of the rest of the stores in the area they had some heavy shopping to do, starting with video, and music, then moving onto clothing, and hardware finally finishing with Piggly Wiggly.
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After several missions placing primitive satellites in orbit Lambda-class shuttle 247 was on the move to pickup a special cargo. Flight Lieutenant Zarck skillfully piloted the shuttle through the gray and rainy sky. The landing zone was a large flat area paved with a mixture of tar and gravel marked with a strange pattern of parallel yellow lines. A refrigerated ground transport awaited their arrival. Zarck made a pinpoint landing and lowered the cargo ramp. A protocol droid and two crewmen walked down the ramp to meet two men from the large wheeled vehicle. A cargo handling droid soon joined them. While the four men and the cargo droid transferred the frosty cargo, the protocol droid checked inventory against a bill of material. "Allergy test kits, Buttered Pecan, Chocolate, Chip, Cookies 'n Cream, French Vanilla, Homemade Vanilla , Mint Chocolate Chip, Natural Vanilla Bean, Orange Swirl, Pecan Pralines 'n Cream, Rocky Road, more Rocky Road it is Captain Pault's favorite, Strawberry, Buttered Almond, Cherry Vanilla, Chocolate Brownie, Coffee, Fudge Brownie Nut, and Neapolitan," read the protocol droid.
Now you may be wondering how the Captain of a Star Destroyer developed the idea of a few truck loads of ice cream as a moral booster. It started shortly after Crichton's little shopping trip. Captain Hunt held a quite little dinner aboard the Andromeda for the purpose of planning for the UN Security Council mission. Harper provided the desert Rocky Road Ice Cream. Harper had already taped into the planet's primitive Internet it did not take him long to set up the deal with a moderate sized Texas Creamery. Between satellite placement, supply runs to the international space stations, grocery, and milk (frozen and flavored) runs like this the Balance's Lambda-class shuttles were kept very busy.
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The Eureka Maru was doing the heavy lifting, from whole groups of cargo containers, to hastily readied add-ons to the international space station Beka Valentine's ship was the real workhorse. It was little wonder that as the time in system was nearing its end that the Maru was the ship lifting the UN mission's platforms into space. Having to meet the need for a space capable habitat and supplies the Nations of this Earth came a simple expedient, the main habitat would be two nuclear submarines the Dmitry Donskoi and the Texas with addition supplies to be carried in large pallets in vacuum safe sub-containers. The larger Dmitry Donskoi was placed aboard the GADF Star Destroyer Balance while the Texas was brought aboard the Andromeda Ascendant. Most of the addition supplies wound up on Moya. After the UN loads were secured Beca and Harper made one last mission picking up a load Harper had assembled and packed for him by an agent in Singapore.
"How much junk did you buy," asked Beca.
"Well you try to spend Fifteen Billion Euros in less than a week, on a world this backward, I got everything off all the lists we made and then had to get inventive," complained Harper.
"Somehow it seams against some law of nature that I had to do all the hauling while, you got to do the shopping," complained Beca.
"Trance helped," said Harper defensively.
"And I have been stuck with Rhade on most of the runs," fumed Beca.
"You got me there, but as your relatives go --," said Harper.
"Don't go there, we have a landing to do," interrupted Beca.
Things were all business after that, inspecting cargo, attaching bucky cables, lifting out of the gravity well. About twelve hours after their return to Andromeda the rift again took them.
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The Alliance police ship ChenYuan was chasing shadows and ghosts, mile long ghosts but uncooperative ghosts nonetheless. Once again they were chasing the image of large ships that appeared in a massive electromagnetic event cumulating with a spike in the 590 and 600 nanometers range. Once again before they could close on the three huge phantoms they disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared leaving enough evidence behind to indicate something was there. After the reporting the last three monster ships they spent days tracking down every stay whiff of gas and ion trail they could find. After days of exhaustive research they began to move on again only to detect another event.
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Not long after they entered the new universe, the USS Helin detected the presence of a native craft heading toward their position. Commander Vincent Tangora immediately reported the sighting to the Vree. Jul transmitted a message to the approaching ship warning them of the dangers of the rift.
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Lieutenant Commander Vladimir Brooster commanding the Alliance police ship ChenYuan was closing on a new set of elusive intruders as the distance closed his sensors began to make out the shapes of the objects. The first image to resolve was a large double disk, then two smaller disk shape objects were resolved two other objects remained only vague and shapeless masses. At this time the ChenYuan began receiving Jul's transmission. After weeks of chasseing shadows he now had contact, contact with flying saucers and gray aliens. He began relaying all transitions back to base as he attempted to close and negotiate.
Five days later Commodore John Fang of Alliance Cruiser Austin led a small fleet to investigate the disappearance of the ChenYuan, in route he reviewed the three days worth of data the ship transmitted before it disappeared with the alleged aliens.
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Everyone has one of those days were getting out of bed in the morning seems to be an ill-advised and unpleasant venture. Rich Pierce the assistant traffic controller at asteroid 511 was averaging one such day out of every three. On this day it all started innocently enough with a small incident in the cafeteria. Not only did it cause him to miss breakfast he was the one who had to set up the investigation, as to how powdered egg, powdered milk, and flower had gotten near enough an open flame to cause an explosion. Somehow, Pierce felt a little safer with those two cooks in the medical wing as he chewed his food bar.
The damage to the kitchen proved to be minor and things were under control by lunch. Contrary to the ongoing scuttlebutt, his bologna sandwich failed to detonate and the day was looking up. Things only continued to improve as the shift wore on. It was not until he was down to the last two hours of his shift that the results of multiple universes conspiring against him became evident in another rift opening.
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Compared with the last universes this rift stop was very much a hub of activity," said Vala Mal Doran as the sensors snapped back on line after the rift crossing.
"It looks like the rift opening was a bit more energetic, this time," observed Samantha Carter.
"I have incoming communications, I think they are trying to talk to us," said Daniel Jackson. Isolating the single Jackson played it so everyone could here it.
"This is sector 511 traffic control to inter-dimensional travelers we bid you welcome," said the broadcast.
"Greetings we are the Tau'ri we come in peace, our mission is to attempt to contain damage to your universe by a dangerous technology used by an ancient and now extinct race from our universe." broadcasted Daniel Jackson.
"Are you here to shut down the rifts?" asked traffic control.
"I would first like to apologize for any trouble or inconveniences the rift may have caused you. We realize you may have lost ships to the rift others have. To that end we request any listing of any beings lost to the rift or any ships that may have pasted through your area. We realize by now you scientists have noted the dangers inherent in the growing instability of the rift and only ask your indulgence while we shut it down. You may observe us closely while we shut down our entry rift. We must however caution you to keep a distance while we depart least another ship be drawn along with us," returned Jackson.
Moments later video contact was established things were still fairly moving along smoothly until Jackson turned communications over to Lieutenant Colonel Mitchell.
"John, John Crichton is that you," asked Rich Pierce the assistant traffic controller.
"No the name is Cameron Mitchell, Lieutenant Colonel United States Air Force why do you ask," replied Mitchell.
"We had a ship through here, a living ship, a guy on it was a dead ringer for you," said Pierce.
"It sort of makes sense, we are dealing with parallel universes," explained Carter.
The Star Gate Teams closed the rift it took more time and energy then the other rifts they closed. The Federation Ship and the Star Gate teams were eventually given copies of all the audio and video logs of contacts with the other ships from the rift. It was the first time they could appreciate the enormity of the dislocations. On the lighter side everyone had a good time kidding Vala and Cam about how cute the baby was. They left the dimension behind without any additional incidences.
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One of the best things about a retainer is you get paid for sitting around doing nothing. One of the worst things about a retainer is you get paid for sitting around doing nothing. All and all it was not a bad gig for Harry Dresden it meant the rent was paid, the electric stayed on, and the was ready and waiting to ring. It also meant learning a few new spells and a weekly trip to Deva to deliver a retainer fee to Myth Inc. It also meant that he had to tell any perspective clients that his time may be unexpectedly preempted. He worked a case or two during this time but that is another story.