As Arin flew the Jumper, I sat behind her, turned to face where Samantha was seating behind Woolsey. Apparently, the diplomat suffered from motion sickness, so he was placed nearest to the window to alleviate the situation.
"We're keeping the nanites in a special glass container, and they've been programmed not to eat it. This control tablet is designed to accept building specifications, and inform the nanites about final shape and position. Simply set up the tablet with all required information, then brush the nanite slurry onto the area to be joined with a foam brush. The nanites have been programmed not to eat foam brushes, ever, along with flesh, and a few other specific things. While in their cage, they will eat nearly anything fed to them, but will not expand past their cage. The tablet will inform you about the general state of the nanites within the cage, and offer suggestions about what to feed them, so as to maintain a strong pool."
"So, we can't just feed them whatever we have on hand?" she asked.
"Not if you like having structural integrity," I replied. "They will eat paper, but get enough of it into the mix to start messing with percentage points, and you'll begin to have a problem on your hands, hence the cage monitoring. That said, there's no harm in feeding them classified documents that you want destroyed. They don't report back anything but their overall status, so classified remains classified and extraordinarily well destroyed."
"What happens if we spill the slurry?" O'Neill asked from the back.
"It won't eat anything once removed from the cage, until it returns to the cage. If spilled, it'll do it's best to get back to the cage. Depending on the amount spilled, the collective group may take an animalistic form, or possibly a vehicular form. Regardless of form though, it will continuously ping the tablet with it's location every fifteen minutes. In the event that the collective mass decides it will be unable to return to it's cage, it will chose an appropriate form for it's location, inform the tablet of shape and location, and immobilize itself. It will take an automatic proximity command from the tablet to mobilize it once again," I replied.
"And how do we know it won't fall apart on us, or go rogue?" Sam asked.
"I suppose you don't," I replied sheepishly. "and I suppose my word is not good enough?"
"It will be viewed with some suspicion," Jack admitted. "But there's really not much that can be done about it, is there?"
"How so, sir?" Carter asked, turning towards O'Neill.
"Think about it Carter," he started. "These nanites are really tiny, right? Small enough to be easily airborn and gods know what else. We could already be infected by these machines and not even know it. For that matter, you could even have programed some sort of kill order in them, so that they take over and destroy a person from the inside."
"Those things could be done," I agreed readily. "But I'm not wacko enough to do it. A lab carrying a special weaponized nano platform doesn't exist in my city like it did on the show. You know, the one where they went mad, then had massive hemorrhages? It never existed in my city, because it was too great a risk for me to even contemplate allowing it to exist. Besides which, in the show, that project had failed miserably to begin with."
"I thought it simply wasn't fielded," Carter responded.
"No, they had some trouble getting the targeting right. I honestly don't know how they managed to survive themselves," I replied. That comment yielded some strange looks, and even Woolsey glanced at me for a moment. "These people created a bunch of amazing stuff, but when their stuff was flawed…it was lethally flawed, and usually on something that ought to be a simple thing, like targeting." I shrugged. "Honestly, I just don't get it. With stupidity like that, they should have wiped themselves out long before they could achieve hyperspace. In fact, they only reason they weren't wiped out was because they figured out how to Ascend. I'm not entirely certain what the deal was with the Nox, beyond the serious 'flower power' mentality, but they seem to be intact as a people. It's rumored among the community that the Furlings were the ones that created those quantum mirrors, or whatever you'd like to call them, and fled this reality. If they didn't flee, then they explored. It's a toss-up between whether or not they simply never returned, or if they ran into something too big for them to handle and got smacked out of existence. And the Asgard cloned themselves out of existence! It grew to be so bad that the Asgard simply handed over everything they knew to you guys, then detonated themselves!"
"What about the Wraith?" O'Neill asked, when I'd stopped to take a breather.
"Or the Goa'uld for that matter," Carter added.
"They stalled. The Wraith were rumored to be created by yet another malformed Alterran project, dedicated to the pursuit of immortality. Their research capabilities were barely there, which seems flat wrong if they were originally Alterrans. The Goa'uld had slightly more research capabilities, but they had to put in a lot of work to get things done. They did have some things in their favor though; namely, a strong workforce, and strong working knowledge of the technology they did put on the field. Still, their inability to work with one another combined with their poor research capabilities meant that they were doomed to failure the instant someone with a higher collective IQ arrived."
"Was there anyone you had a higher opinion of?" Woolsey ventured cautiously.
"Honestly, the best options available are either the Nox or the Tollan; and while I wasn't much for the Nox, the Tollan were straight up arrogant. I guess out of all the races, the Nox were the smartest," I answered at last.
"What about us?" O'Neill asked, slightly outraged.
"You in particular had a nasty habit of mouthing off to your enemies, and collectively, humanity had a nasty habit of poking their noses into things. You only narrowly avoided getting your noses bitten off on several occasions. Oh, and then there was McKay's monumental stupidity with the Asurans. Jackson's event with the Ori I can comprehend at least, because he kinda didn't have a choice. That said, shouldn't have been poking around with things beyond your understanding like that. Oh, and why you didn't seal your stargate after your first mission to Abbydos I honestly don't know. Even Jackson knew better."
"What are you saying?" Carter asked.
"I'm saying that you won because of pure luck, not because you were the good guys, or had superior tactics, or awesome weapons. You won because your enemy managed to be even more stupid than you."
"I don't think I was that bad," Woolsey stated, entering the conversation.
"You weren't as bad, though you did gamble a time or two. Remember the wormhole drive? That could have been spectacularly terrible, but you cashed in on all the good luck you'd been saving up. Let's face it, at the end of the day, humanity won not because they had everything they needed to win, but because the writers of the story decided that comically cosmic chance was all you really needed." I shook my head, then continued, "Not that there's anything wrong with that, I only said it because it needed said. I got to my current position because of a massive single stroke of luck, and I've had some good luck afterwards, in that I managed to save my family from being kidnapped. Had I thought about it before simply going, I wouldn't have had the problem to deal with in the first place. I don't intend to continue to ride my luck. Luck is finicky, and not to be relied on."
"You speak as though you've had experience in that department," O'Neill said.
"Not seriously, no," I replied. "And I don't want to."
O'Neill stared consideringly at me for several seconds, then nodded. "Fair enough."
"So, before I showed up, what were you guys up to?" I asked, trying desperately to change the subject.
"Well, I've been working on a project dedicated to keeping certain creature of a mythical nature protected, both from society at large, and from their own tendencies in the case of the more dangerous ones," Carter answered. "It's something I do on a rotating basis, and SG-1 was an entertaining diversion, though I hadn't expected it to last quite as long as I did, and I most certainly wasn't expecting to be recalled to the role."
"I was retired!" O'Neill said happily. "I've been spending time with my family and fishing. You know the cabin I had in SG-1? I actually do own that, and frequently fish in that pond."
"Catch anything?" Daniel asked, deadpan.
"Ha-ha," O'Neill answered sourly.
"Have you ever thought to put fish in the pond first?" Woolsey chimed in.
O'Neill blinked, stunned by the question. "I'm going to guess that look roughly translates to 'no'," I said wryly.
"Pretty much," O'Neill said sheepishly. Daniel and Sam both snorted softly, and Rachel laughed slightly.
The moment was ended when Arin stiffed slightly in the pilot's seat, then began to bank to the right. "Atlantis One, turn right to heading three-three-five, descend to flight level one-five, and maintain current speed, roger," she said into her radio.
After she'd clicked off the mic on her radio, she said "We're being escorted by three Air Force fighter jets. They'll turn us over to a set of helicopters as we approach the landing zone."
"And what happens when we land?" I asked.
"They will have boots on the ground before we even get there. They are taking as few chances as possible, and want to be able to do something the instant we appear to be hostile. The same applies to Atlantis Two," she explained.
"Fair enough. Typically, a nation with this level of technology doesn't simply show up out of the wild blue like this. I wonder what happened to the stock market when we arrived," I mused.
"Most of them dropped about four hundred points, and they haven't climbed more than two hundred points since then. In fact, a hundred and fifty of those two hundred points were only picked up when the whole embassy thing was declared," Woolsey said. "Most experts don't expect anything to change much for at least three months, citing that nothing is truly certain until the embassy is actually built."
"Well, here's to reassuring the investing public!" I said, making a mock toast.
"Hear, hear!" Daniel cheered. "My coffee company dropped nearly three hundred points, though most of that was gained back when I tweeted that I was going to Atlantis as an ambassador. I'm still missing about fifty cents a share, though."
"About that, just who thought it would be a good idea to send Stargate cast members in character as ambassadors to Atlantis?" I asked.
"Well, apparently, the CIA were the ones who figured out you had Atlantis, and two plans were cooked up, one of which was the kidnapping thing, and the other was suggested by psychologist Kathryn Heightmeyer. She said that based on your profile, largely garnered from the website, you would most likely be positively responsive to those who had assumed the roles of those you viewed as heroes. With that in mind, we went through the list. Anybody Starfleet was ruled out, because they were all about three hundred and fifty years into the future. Given how badly the Eragon movie was mucked up compared with the books, we figured there was nobody there we could use. We couldn't find anyone to cast as Aragon, beside which the character of Aragon was considered a risk given the relationship between Aragon and Ajax," Daniel said.
"How much of a risk?" I asked, concerned.
"About fifty-fifty. Either you'd react very positively, or you'd kill him, according to the good doctor," O'Neill said somberly.
"Wow, really?" I asked. "Personally, I always found Aragon a bit too cynical for my tastes, but I wouldn't have outright killed him."
"Well, we didn't have anyone that could have done magic anyway," Daniel stated. "We knew we couldn't simply send in a bureaucrat, as you'd likely defenestrate them, though, oddly enough, Woolsey got a pass."
I smiled as I thought about it. "True, defenestration would have been the likely response, but Woolsey gets a pass because he tells the truth. He's a little overfond of his rules, but I can respect a man that sticks to the truth."
"Essentially, we wound up being the best option, simply because of the stargate, but Gibbs, Hettie, Abby, and Ducky would have been a good second, and if they didn't work out, Malcom Reynolds from Serenity," Daniel finished.
"Yeah…that last one would have backfired spectacularly. I'd have offered him a copy of his ship, all new and shiny. I'd have listened to Gibbs though. He's got a good head on his shoulders," I said.
The Jumper began decelerating, and I glanced forward to see that we were descending near the building site. As everyone began preparing to leave the Jumper, I turned back towards Carter. "I know that the tablet I have you is an example of new technology, but I'd like you to refrain from disassembling it to see how it works. This USB stick has all the data on all the components of that tablet, so you now have no reason to tear it apart. I will not replace it if you damage it. Am I clear?"
"Crystal, sir," she said, accepting the stick. "I'll let them know."
We exited the Jumper, and I looked around to see four Pave Hawk helicopters touching down nearby, with armed and armored soldiers pouring out of them. Slightly further away, a Sea King was settling to earth.
"Isn't that the President's helicopter?" Daniel asked.
Woolsey peered at it for a few seconds, then said "I believe it is, Dr. Jackson."
"Well, that was unplanned, but we're still moving forward," I said. I clapped once, to get the attention of the work crews, and we got to work.
Arin was painting the edges of the pieces with the NanoBond, and I was levitating the pieces close enough to each other that the painted surfaces could touch. Once the edges were bound to each other, I would move on to the next piece.
Within the first five minutes, we had a very good pool put together, with seven towers rising out of the water, along with a number of smaller decorative spires. The center tower was larger in circumference and height compared with the outlying six towers, and walkways extended out from the tops of those towers to each other as well as the central tower.
Three hours later, it was done, it was a very serviceable office complex with a few apartments hidden below the waterline. For the most part, the entire structure was self-sufficient, lacking only a means of food production.
"That's a beautiful bit of architecture, Your Excellency."
"Thank you, Mr. President," I answered. "So what brings you here?"
"Well, it's not everyday that a nation shows up out of thin air and sets up an embassy somewhere," he replied. "So, just so we're on the same page, what are your intentions internationally?"
"I intend to mind my own business, politically speaking. I won't declare war without suitable provocation. Those who provoke me will regret it," I answered quietly.
"Is that a threat to me, Your Excellency?" the president asked. His voice carried a warning note that said he was serious.
"Only if you attack. I'm willing to be on friendly terms with you, and everyone else into the bargain, but if you attempt through policy or force to control me, there will be a commensurate response," I replied, equally serious.
The president was silent for several moments, then he reached out a hand for a handshake. "I can respect that," he said.
A/N: And it appears this story gets an update again! Yay for updates, and have a happy new year!
Gual1: In short, I'll get back to the first, and for the second part, no. That was all one shot, though portions of it may reveal themselves further down the line if required.
/\
Orionastro: To quote Q of Star Trek, "This is a court of the year 2079, by which time all 'United Earth' nonsense had been abolished!" No, Atlantis is her own nation, and I honestly don't think that a completely unified planet is such a good idea. At least…not right now. In the future, when humanity has learned from it's mistakes, and matured as a species, perhaps. Currently, we don't have the maturity or technology required to properly sustain a unified world, especially in a top-down leadership style. Make no mistake, Imperator Alex is currently engaged in a top-down leadership structure. The advantage to this is that it gives clear direction, when the head has a vision worth pursuing, but the downside is that it necessitates limiting itself.
There must be clear lines where the government stops and the private sector begins, and there should be absolutely no overlap. Atlantis aside, the other governments seek to add more sectors to their purview, whilst pushing the private sector out of the way, and ultimately, out of existence. In itself, this wouldn't be an absolutely terrifying thing, if it wasn't for the fact that when the government gets involved, laws are included, and freedom, liberty, and personal responsibility all suffer because of it.
Sorry for getting so heavy in an arena that should have been dedicated to entertainment, but I felt it needed saying, and your comment accidentally led into it. Anyway, as far as the rest of your review goes, yes, Atlantis will be reaching out to the stars and making their presence known as a major galactic power.
/\
SupremeCommanderDan: I'm glad you think so, here it is, and to your post script…I will not retcon my story! My story shall retcon reality! (Because I said so; so there!) Uh, I'm going to have to cover that with the standard 'this is fiction' line, and leave it at that because reasons.
/\
Ok, I'm done here for now. Leave a review, they especially inspire me when I've been lazy and not writing for a while, and I come across one of the bigger ones that inspire me to get up and going again, so…the bigger and juicier the review, the better! Also, if anyone disagrees with what I've said in my response to orionastro, feel free to drop me a PM explaining why the frilly heck I'm wrong, almost certainly evil and probably kick puppies. I would be more than happy to explain my position in expanded format, just not here.