Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 11
Solar Observation Outpost. Milky Way
The Solar Observation Outpost was a facility used by Ba'al to monitor stars and solar flares for the purpose of time travel. The outpost was located on the planet Praxyon, and this was one of the worlds that the Ancients had once called home.
I'd not actually known this, and even with the aid of the stone the Asgard used to make memories more clear I hadn't been able to locate this observatory. However the Asgard had been able find by tracking the subspace signals from one of the many satellites that were sending information to this place.
Someone, possibly Baal himself, had placed hundreds of satellites in the orbits of stars for the purpose of relaying real-time information back to the computers here at this outpost. This information, along with a Stargate, could be used to send a person or forth back in time by knowing exactly when a solar flare of the right kind would interact with a wormhole.
Within the outpost, there was a Stargate, a set of Transportation rings, a computer core and a hologram projector. Also we discovered that the outpost was several kilometers underneath the ground and seemed to go down even further. It wasn't powered by a ZPM sadly, but rather it drew energy from the planet's core.
It was pretty clear to me that this outpost was of Ancient origin, this facility was probably used to study solar eruptions or it possible that the creator was a rogue scientist such as Janus, who built this place in secret. He'd have to given the Ancient's leaders stance on time travel.
My guess was that Anubis had found out about this place while ascended and its use may have been part of his plans, and that Baal somehow found out about it later.
In the alternate timeline which Ba'al created, Qetesh murdered Ba'al and took over the outpost. When SG-1 tried to fix the timeline she sent several squads of Jaffa down to the outpost to stop them. SG-1 and the rebel Jaffa tried to hold Qetesh's Jaffa off while Samantha Carter tried to find a suitable flare to send them back to the right time.
She found a flare, but not before Daniel Jackson was killed by a staff weapon. Cameron Mitchell then escaped through the Stargate, just after Samantha Carter lost her life. Then Qetesh transported herself down to the outpost and found Teal'c still alive.
Foolishly Qetesh started to converse with Teal'c, trying to persuade him to become her First Prime, which is the highest rank a Jaffa can obtain, rather than go after Mitchell, and of course Teal'c rejected her offer before setting off a grenade, while informing her that he would die free. The resulting explosion took out the entire Solar Observation Outpost . However, when time reset, the outpost was left intact.
Not that this mattered really as the Asgard were in full agreement with the Ancients about the issue of time travel. Sure there was a chance that they could use it to save their entire race, but they could also makes things worse.
With this mind Thor was planning to blow this place up, but not until it been explored. Since the Asgard weren't physically very capable, the Supreme Commander had enlisted my aid in securing this outpost. Which made sense since it was one of the concerns I'd shared with the Asgard High Council while visiting their planet.
"Thor wants to blow this place up" I reminded Seven and Tali as they took a look around "So let's download any information we can get on the stars being monitored. They might even have maps here".
This was after all an observatory, and the Ancient computer could contain a lot more information than just solar flare activity.
"It is unfortunate that this outpost must be destroyed" commented Seven.
With that I agreed.
"We don't have the means to secure it, and since its Ancient that means Baal won't be able to build another" I said to her "So blowing it up is the best course of action".
Really the Ascended Ancients should have destroyed stuff like this long ago, but then they'd actually have to do something.
"Where are we going after this?" was Tali's question.
I had some ideas on that.
Heliopolis was the name given to the planet designated PB2-908, by the Tau'ri. It once served as a meeting place for the Alliance of Four Great Races before the alliance came to an end when the remaining Ancients moved on to a higher plane of existence.
The planet was rediscovered by the Tau'ri, but the meeting place was lost when it finally collapsed, and the Stargate was buried. I intended to swing by and check the place out in my ship. There might not be anything left, but it was worth a visit
There was another planet I'd like to visit, Dakara, which was originally inhabited by the Ancients; it was the first planet they landed on when they arrived in the Milky Way. On the planet, they built a superweapon/monument/terraformer, that once brought life back to this galaxy following the devastation of a great plague that had swept through this part of the universe.
After the disappearance of the Ancients, the planet apparently came under control of the Goa'uld. The System Lords were aware that a powerful weapon on Dakara existed, but were unable to make of it.
The planet served a sinister role at that time as Goa'uld used it to enslave the Jaffa. According to stories told by Jaffa, Dakara was the planet where their enslavement began, as it was the site of the first Prim'ta ritual, which involves shoving a larva Goa'uld into a Jaffa's pouch.
At the end of the reign of the Goa'uld, the planet lay deep within Ba'al's former territory, making any attempt to conquer the planet tactically unsound. Ba'al kept a number of Ha'taks in range of the world to guard it from such an incursion.
Now it was guarded by the forces of the Free Jaffa, who so far I was on friendly terms with, however it was unlikely that they'd let me poke around their most important planet so I'd have to skip that one.
"There are a few planets that I'd like to check out" I told the alien in human form "but there's no rush, and I want to head back to Atlantis for those upgrades".
We could always return to the Milky Way again later, but before we did leave we had some business in this galaxy to attend to.
(Line Break)
Camelot. Milky Way Galaxy.
Camelot, also known as PX1-767, was a planet inhabited by a medieval level population who were once ruled by King Arthur. Many of the Arthurian legends here differed from the Tau'ri legends I soon learned: Arthur defeated Mordred in the Battle of Camlann, while Merlin was viewed as a malicious trickster.
This planet was where Merlin hid his research on the Sangraal, to prevent the Ancients and the Ori from finding it. He locked his research in a library that contained a holographic guardian, and spread rumors that the library was cursed (protected by a Black Knight).
In the show Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell and Doctor Daniel Jackson were able to defeat the guardian, which then revealed a great treasure that the two of them gave to the people of Camelot.
My group had done the same, just in a fraction of the time. Merlin's force field was brought down by Seven easily enough, and I kept the black knight busy long for Tali to remove the power source for the holographic emitter that created the knight, which was easy for Seven to find since she had a tricorder.
Getting the Ancient device to show us all the treasure, as well as Merlin's message was a bit more work, but again Seven proved her worth by hacking the control console.
What interested me was that the sword I'd pulled from the stone, which had been easy to remove when the black knight had appeared, didn't disappear along with the holographic guardian. It was a physical weapon, not a hologram, yet in the centuries since it was forged the metal had not at all tarnished, I suspected that it had been built virtually by Merlin using metal that wasn't a type of steel, rather than be forged, but that was something I'd look into later. For now I had to deal with Meurik, who was the leader of this village.
"This treasure is all yours" I told the man "Just give us time to study the books here".
It would take hours, even with robots controlled by Cortana doing all the work, but we should be able to scan the pages of each book and upload them on a prothean disc, which would make the information much easier to sort through.
"You do not wish to claim any of this for yourself?" wondered Meurik "After all it was you who defeated Merlin's champion, and ended the curse upon this place".
Actually I hadn't done either of those things, my companions had done all the real work. I'd just battled a hologram, which had been easy thanks to my superior reflexes and speed, along with body armour that absorbed harmful energy.
"No we have plenty of treasure already" I told the man "Knowledge is our prise. We seek the Sangraal".
As I'd expected it wasn't here, but we did learn what we needed to uncover the next piece of the puzzle. And we might not even need to go that far as the Ancient laptop at found at Glastonbury Tor contained a lot of information. Combined with that was in this library, we might not even need Merlin, only time would tell.
(Line Break)
Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.
While the Asgard scientist Kvasir was somewhat aloof and even pompous at times, it wasn't his attitude that annoyed me, but rather what the had to say.
"Say that again" I instructed.
Kvasir was one of the Asgard who currently lived on Atlantis as part of his race's effort to help the Ancients rebuild what they could. He was also in charge of the upgrades being installed on to my ship. The Asgard hadn't as of yet shared with me any weapon or shield upgrades, they had been more generous when it came to installing the best hyperdrive, sensors, and communications that they could supply.
While the Asgard engineers worked on these improvements I was taking some time to enjoy the city-ship. I'd been here before, but I'd not taken the time to simply admire Atlantis, and while the remaining Ancients were set against humans messing with their tech they had no issue with me taking in the sights and touring the more public areas.
During my sight seeing Kvasir had asked to speak with me, and while the news he shared wasn't welcome it was important.
"The Ancients now living in Atlantis have become divided on the issue of their future" the small alien explained to me "Some favour utterly destroying the Wraith and rebuilding their civilization was best they can in this galaxy, while others wish to join the rest of their kind in a higher plane of existence".
Hearing this upset me as it sounded as if the Ancients wanted to abandon this galaxy, and the leave the human civilizations here to thrive as best they could. Without the Stargate network, they couldn't it turn back on with giving the Wraith the chance to start culling again, the different human worlds would be cut off from each other until the more advanced humans built FTL drives. That could be a good or a bad thing, I simply didn't know.
"There is a division, with the two parties being led by the captains of the two remaining Aurora-class warships" Kvasir was now telling me "The captain of the Aurora believes that the remaining Ancients have a right to chose how to live out the remainder of their lives. The captain of the Tria is of the opinion that they must destroy the Wraith and restore their dominion over this galaxy".
I had been hoping that the Ancients would go back to ruling this galaxy as the humans here did need some help rebuilding what had been lost during all those Wraith cullings. And as galactic rulers went the Ancients would be good ones.
"There's barely enough of them as it" I said "If half of them go off somewhere to try to Ascend the rest won't even be able to run this city".
Plus they kind of needed everyone they had to make babies so there would be future generations of Ancients, although with their limited genepool I could see that being an issue. Not that this was my problem.
"I have made the Asgard High Council aware of what is happening here" Kvasir let me know "Our ability to aid the people of other galaxies is limited at this time. Our energy and resources must be spent trying to solve our own problems".
No one could blame for looking after themselves. The Asgard had been through so much what with their war with the Replicators, and their genetic issues.
"Should the remaining Ancients become divided it might be wise to have the Tau'ri take ownership of this city once again" Kvasir mused "They have the potential and drive to aid the people of this galaxy in ways similar to how the Ancients once did".
That would not be a good idea. Sure things may have changed enough that the Atlantis expedition wouldn't unleash Michael upon this galaxy or mess with the Asurans, but that didn't mean they wouldn't screw up in other ways. Besides they had the Milky Way to worry about, with the downfall of the Goa'uld and the raising of groups such as the Lucian Alliance, and the founding of the Free Jaffa nation, the Tauri really ought to focus their efforts on the people of their own galaxy.
"What other option is there?" the alien the asked.
This required some thought.
"I've considered trying to unify the people of this galaxy" I mentioned to the Asgard "If the Wraith were destroyed and the Stargates reopened, it would be possible for the humans of this galaxy to start working together, the problem is building a... well let's call the Confederation of Worlds, is that I'm not going to be here a decade from now. Would any organization I built last long without me?".
Again the alien blinked at me.
"The Asgard High Council had considered this issue within our own galaxy" he (the little grey person seemed male to me for some reason) said "Perhaps you could simply lay the foundations of a more civilized galaxy, and then let others take over when the time was right".
It actually wouldn't be that hard, at least not once the Wraith were out of the way, I could just move from world to world inviting people to join my galactic civilization, and with the gates this worlds would have little trouble trading with each other. We could use the city-ship Seven had spent so much time studying as a capital city once it was fixed up. Atlantis would be better, but should the Ancients abandon the city, again, I was sure the Tauri would try to reclaim and fight for it.
The Tauri would be a concern in the long run, but in the short term it was the Wraith I'd have to deal with. To restore the gate network we'd have to switch off the device that was currently preventing the Wraith ships from going faster than light. Which means we'd have to hunt them all down.
That wasn't impossible, with the new and improved long range sensors, and access to the scanners of a couple of city-ships hunting down most of the Hives would be more time consuming than dangerous. However even if I could destroy every ship, the smaller craft were harder to find on sensors, there would still be Wraith inside their groundside bases and dormant Hives, those that hand landed, wouldn't show up on the sensors because they didn't give off much in the way of energy.
Again this would just delay things as sooner or later I would find the remaining Wraith even if I had to map all of this galaxy with probes, and any Wraith who did go into hiding well enough to remain hidden wouldn't awake for more than a century, of that I felt certain.
The hard part would be committing genocide as while I'd helped wipe out the Collectors back in the Mass Effect universe, the Wraith weren't soulless minions of the Reapers, they were in a sense a sort of people. But this wasn't the time or the place for that sort of moralising.
"So would the Asgard High Council support me if I start unifying human worlds in this galaxy and destroyed the Wraith?" I asked.
All I got in reply to that was very non-committal look. Now I couldn't be sure if the Asgard leaders were willing to back me or if this one Asgard had just been speculating on what could be done for the future of this galaxy. Not that it really mattered, I'd already gotten involved so my options were either keep getting involved or to run away and ignore the problems plaguing this galaxy.
(Line Break)
Cosmic Warehouse. Outside of Reality.
Since my group had spent our time in the Stargate universe going around plundering, stealing, or otherwise acquiring lots of technology I was rapidly filling up my warehouse, so in order to ensure that we ample room in the future Tali was removing the small holosuite, and Seven of Nine had come up with a way of optimising the available space that involved carefully placing each container (which all contained something of value) in a certain place on the shelves.
In order to free up some space, less important items, basically stuff we could build more of if needs be, was being transferred to my ship to be used a decorations, if they were lost it wouldn't be big deal, and there was plenty of room for more stuff, such as souvenirs.
Once this was done we should have enough room for technology that we hadn't been given the chance to study, as well as things that we couldn't replace. Although thanks to Seven's organisation we wouldn't have to get rid of much now that the placement of every object had been optimised.
Also we needed room for more Prothean data discs and borg data modules, which were using to back all the data we were gathering. That way should anything happen to my warship we shouldn't lose all the priceless knowledge we'd gathered over so many years.
"Have you decided on a course of action?" asked Seven as Cameron and I moved some boxes around so they fit within the new layout for the warehouse "Concerning the fact of this galaxy".
That was not an easy question to answer.
"No" I replied "deciding the fate of millions of people is not something you can just figure out in a few hours".
I might never actually make a choice.
"Understandable" said Seven of Nine "the issue of what to do with the Wraith is a difficult one".
It boiled down to keeping the gate network off forever and having no unity between humans in this galaxy, or turning it back on, which could only be done safely if the Wraith were gone. Now while it was possible that some Wraith might survive by going back into hibernation for a century or so, that wasn't good for the humans of Pegasus as it just meant future generations would be culled rather than the people living now.
Hunting down every last Wraith might be possible, but then I would have wiped out an entire species, and was that justified?
After all as the Doctor once said: Hunger looks very much like evil from the other end of the cutlery. The Wraith had to feed in order to survive, so one argue that wiping them out was just self defence for the whole human race, but the Wraith weren't really monsters, they were an intelligent race.
"Have you considered imprisoning a number of Wraith in stasis until a more permanent solution can be devised, such as gene therapy?" enquired Seven.
This I had considered, and I'd dismissed it.
"Some idiot, a Tauri team most likely, would stumble across the prison and wake them up" I told Seven "Or they'd be forgotten about and would awaken thousands of years from now, and they'd ramage across this galaxy".
I'd even considered asking the Asgard for a time dilation device so that I could imprison captured Wraith on a world with slowed down time, with the intention of giving the people of this galaxy thousands of years to figure out a solution for the Wraith. But then I'd have to figure out how to get all the Wraith onto one planet.
Maybe Beckett's idea of turning them into humans wasn't such a bad one, at least then they could have some sort of lives when they wouldn't be a threat to anyone. The problem with that was the treatment did not work, at least not in the long term.
"I need to give this more thought" I said to the former drone "For now there are other things we can do to benefit the galaxy without hurting anyone".
(Line Break)
Aurora-class Warship. Pegasus Galaxy.
"Doctor Keller" I said by way of greeting as the Tauri woman walked onto the bridge "I don't think you've been here before".
She was clearly impressed by the sight before her, the bridge of this ship was impressive, so I gave her a few moments to check things out.
"Where are we?" she asked when she saw the hologram of the planet we were currently orbiting as well as the space around it "Is that a debris field?".
This was good timing by her. I'd meant to go down to sickbay and talk with the good doctor about a long term solution for the Wraith issue, but that could wait a few moments.
"During the war with the Wraith, the Lantean Council, the leaders of Atlantis, ordered the scientists working on a Project Arcturus to build an outpost and conduct research on this planet" I told Keller "Eventually, a Wraith fleet arrived, including a Hive ship, intending to cull the planet, the remains of which you can see outside".
And which we were taking detailed scans.
"The Lanteans destroyed the Wraith fleet using their experimental power source and one of their most powerful weapons" I went on to say "Unfortunately, Project Arcturus had not been perfected: it began to overload and the weapon ended up destroying not only the orbiting Wraith ships, but leveling every building within range on the planet's surface, as well as a lot of the local wildlife. The Lanteans eventually managed to shut down both the weapon and the power source, but they were all killed by hard radiation while doing so".
10,000 years later, Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay, Chief Science Officer attempted to perfect Project Arcturus. Unfortunately, the power core overloaded, forcing McKay and Sheppard to flee with the resulting explosion destroying Doranda and 5/6ths of the surrounding solar system. Or at least they would have.
"A team of Asgard and Ancients are dismantling the power source and the weapon" I told the doctor "it's too dangerous to leave just lying around. The planet is no longer inhabited, and while its ecosystem was damaged the planet is finally starting to recover, one day this world could be a home to millions. I'd rather not have some people move in and then start messing around with something so dangerous".
The world could support life, but the winters on this planet were harsh, and a good chunk of it had been flattened or irritated thousands of years ago, which wasn't a long time for a planet.
"Anyway I'm glad you're here, Doctor Keller" I admitted.
Now she seemed both worried and curious.
"You are?" she questioned.
I gave her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.
"Yes" I confirmed "I've been trying to come with a solution to the Wraith problem. As things stand peaceful co-existence is impossible as the Wraith have to feed on people. Now I know Doctor Beckett started work on something that would turn the Wraith into humans. I'd like you to continue you with that research".
She seemed shocked, but before she could protest I spoke again.
"I'm not expecting any results overnight" I said "And it might not work, but I would like some solution to the Wraith problem that doesn't involve genocide. I'll get you any resources you need, and hopefully I can recruit some brilliant minds to help you".
While all the Asgard with knowledge of biology were busy trying undo the damage done to their race, and the Ancients didn't have people to spare, there were other advanced races out there. Not just clever humans, but also people like the Tok'ra, they might be able to help. And the both the Asgard and the Ancients might be able to spare some people in the future.
"That could take years" Keller prosted "If it's even possible".
I wasn't too worried about that.
"Sometime in the next decade would be nice" I said "And I know that the Wraith do have a digestive system, if you can't make them human, maybe we can them on solid foods instead of life force".
Keller gave it some thought.
"I'd need to speak to some people on Earth" she let me know "And I'll need Doctor Beckett's research".
That was no problem.
"The Asgard have finished installing their long range communications technology" I informed the young woman "We should be able to set up a receiver at the SGC that will let you talk to people back home".
That would take time, as Seven and Tali already had a lot to do. But I did need a long term solution to the Wraith.
