ZnK here with chapter twenty-one! I'm sorry I've taken so long! I was hit with a pretty severe case of depression. Hell, it's still here, but it's not as strong anymore. I haven't been doing pretty much anything for a long time, so while I haven't updated for a long time, you can take solace in the fact that I haven't actually been doing anything else, either. This fic is, and will always be, at the very top of my list of priorities. Anyway, in this chapter, Harry tests out his new ship (Yes, it looks like the Normandy, for those who were wondering), meets a newly Descended friend, and then travels to the Ida galaxy to meet a very, very old creature.
–
"Wow, this... is incredible..."
Harry gave a chuckle as he sat in his new ship, which he had named Sujan. In exchange for trading some information with her, Harry had promised Sujanha that he would name his first private ship after her. The ship itself was currently landed on an island in the Pacific. No one knew about the island, and Harry had claimed it as his own. The waters weren't very well-traveled, so he didn't need to worry about a ship suddenly running aground on his shores, considering the entire island was covered in a cloaking field. Just to be safe, however, he had set up a Muggle-repelling ward around the island, so that any Muggle ship that approached felt an urge to circle around the island.
Carter was on the ship with him. Due to him using the Sujan's Asgard beaming technology, he got her past the wards.
"I thought you might like getting an inside look at this ship," Harry said, sitting in the pilot seat of the ship, looking over at Carter, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat, staring at the control panel in front of her, which was composed of a beautiful mix of human, Asgard, and Ancient technology.
"And once again, you make me feel like a novice," Carter said, shaking her head in disbelief as she ran her hand across the control panel. "I mean, I don't even know what half these things do..."
"Want some pointers?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You are offering to give lessons?" Carter asked in surprise. "I thought you, in your own words, 'couldn't be bothered teaching babies how to breathe'?"
Harry chuckled at that.
"Yeah, well, you got to learn sometime, and my schedule is surprisingly empty at the moment, so... Interested?"
"It feels wrong, getting lessons from someone younger than me..." Carter muttered, crossing her arms.
"Only, what, eleven years and six months?"
"Only?"
"Hey, to an Asgard, that feels like no more than an hour."
"But we're not Asgard."
"Alright, fine," Harry said, crossing his arms. "I won't teach you how to understand all this advanced technology."
"Alright, alright, alright," Carter said, laughing. "Teach me."
"Very well," Harry said as he got out of the pilot seat and walked over to the co-pilot seat, pointing at the control panel. "We'll start off with the easiest. The Asgard crystals. Now, the thing about Asgard crystals is that each crystal had a particular order written in it. For example, let's make it simple. Say you have a control panel for a lightswitch. The circuitry and everything controlling the light is in the panel. However, in order to turn it on, you have to connect the on-crystal. It makes things much easier, because you can use the same crystal to control several other functions as well."
"But how do I know what the crystals or panels do?" Carter asked, raising an eyebrow.
Harry explained that as well. He explained everything as well as he could, and he was very surprised to find that Carter didn't need to be told twice about how everything worked. But, of course, that was just with Asgard tech. Although his explanation perfectly registered with Carter regarding Ancient tech, he knew that she was a long way from being able to tell what a crystal did just by looking at the pathways in them.
"I'm surprised, though," Carter said as they walked through deck three, which was the crew deck, and also housed the main battery. "This ship is a little big to be crewed by just one man, isn't it? And it's not like you're the type of guy who would get a crew."
"That's true," Harry said, nodding. "That's why I've made sure that an AI can connect to the ship, handling everything I'm not handling at the time."
Harry stopped and looked around, puffing on his cigarette thoughtfully.
"I would have designed a smaller ship, but other than my lab, I feel kind of claustrophobic in tight spaces. Hell, the ride to the planet where Anubis had set up the Ancient weapon in the X-302 was horrible. If I didn't have Frank there to keep my mind off things, I would have gone mental."
"It's a little late for that, isn't it?" Carter teased with a smirk, which made Harry snort.
"That's cute."
"I thought it was," Carter said cheekily. "Now, show me the drive core."
"I don't think I should. It'd be a fitting punishment for what you said," Harry said, smirking back at Carter, who gave him a playful glare. "But then, there is this saying about a woman scorned, so... it's this way."
–
"Master," Frank said a few days later as he stood in Harry's lab in the SGC, "this boredom is killing me. Figuratively, of course, but even dying figuratively is annoying for me. Can we not go out and incinerate some meatbags, master?"
"You know, Frank, you need a hobby," Harry said with a snort, working on Frank's flight tech. "Something relaxing, peaceful... You should start crocheting."
Frank didn't answer. Instead, he just stared at Harry, who stared right back at him. Then, Harry gave a conceding nod.
"Alright, bad idea. But you need to get something to focus on, other than violence. Like it or not, we won't see much action for a while, with the way things are going here."
"Master, should you not have accompanied the rest of SG-1 on the shakedown cruise of the Prometheus?"
"No need. Everything was in perfect working order," Harry said, shrugging. "Besides, Sam knew where the emergency communicator to me is located, and the communicator to Thor. There were no problems."
There was a knock on Harry's office door, and General Hammond came inside, his brow furrowed.
"Dr. Potter, do you have a minute?"
"I have more than one," Harry said as he looked up from his work. "What can I do for you, General?"
"Doctor, I respect your privacy. After everything you have done for earth and its people, I think you deserve to do some things that others wouldn't be allowed to. However, having an unregistered spacecraft docked somewhere on this planet is something that, while I could care less, makes the high-ranking officers very nervous."
"Well, that's just fantastic, isn't it?" Harry asked with a grin, which made Hammond very confused, by the looks of it, so he decided to explain, "General, I greatly enjoy making leaders nervous. It keeps them on their toes, and shows that no matter how strong they think they are, there are always things out there that they simply aren't in control over."
"I see... Mind telling me where it is?"
"The less who know, the better, right?" Harry reasoned.
"But you showed Major Carter."
"Sam doesn't know where it's docked. I beamed her onto it. It's protected by both cloaking and phasing technology," Harry explained, smiling at General Hammond. "Only I know where it is. Not even Frank or Aceso know. It is perfectly safe."
Slowly, Hammond nodded.
"I'll hold you to that, Doctor."
With another nod, this one of goodbye, Hammond left Harry's lab.
–
It had been a very boring few weeks for Harry, he had to admit. After all, he hadn't been brought along on any good missions. He had missed out on so much, especially a few days ago. The only help that had been requested from Harry was that he program a couple of sentries to obey O'Neill's orders, so that the Colonel could bring them to Abydos.
Right now, Harry was taking the Sujan on its official maiden voyage. SG-1 had headed to one of the planets that O'Neill had put into the SGC computer when he had the Ancient Repository downloaded into his brain, the last one on the list, to be exact, in order to find something called the City of the Lost, which was a terrible name in Harry's opinion, an Ancient city that had been under construction by the time the Ancients were struck by the plague that infected them.
"How is she holding up?" he spoke up suddenly. To the left of the pilot seat, a holographic projection of Aceso, about six times smaller than the real one, appeared on a holographic table.
"All systems are working to your expectations. The sublight engines suffered a point-two percent loss in power once you activated the hyperdrive. It was a minor miscalculation regarding the power distribution, but I fixed it."
"Miscalculation?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. He never miscalculated.
"One of the Asgard who built the ship must have misread your plans, master," Aceso placated immediately. "After all, I have read the plans for this ship, and I adjusted the power distribution accordingly. Therefore, it is only safe to say that the plans were misread."
"Good to hear. I was afraid I might be losing my edge," Harry said, lighting a cigarette.
The eyes of hologram-Aceso flashed once, and then she said, "Master, we have an incoming transmission on a private channel, code Blond."
"Oh, that's Sam," Harry said with a smile. "Put her through." A beep sounded, and Harry said, "Sam?"
"Harry, is that you?"
"No, I am Desmond. I stole this ship from Harry for giggles."
"Very funny. Listen, how long until you get here?"
"Oh, about three minutes. Why?"
"We've found someone here on the planet... You're not gonna believe it if you don't see him for yourself," Carter said, which made Harry narrow his eyes.
"Is it Daniel?"
"How... How did you know?"
"Lucky guess. I mean, we don't really know anyone else who's been gone, right?" Harry said, puffing on his cigarette. "So, Daniel's there, huh? In what form?"
"He's somehow Descended, it seems, and he doesn't remember anything. The people here call him Arrom."
"Arrom?" Harry asked, blinking. "That's Hebrew, 'Naked.'"
"Yeah... Apparently, that's how they found him."
Harry snorted at that.
"Well, I'll be right there, see what's going on."
With that, Harry cut the transmission.
So, four minutes later found the Sujan dropping its cloak over the ruins of a city, where the scanners were reading plenty of life signs, along with picking up the signal from Carter's communicator.
"Alright, Aceso, keep the ship up here, and beam me down there. Stay locked on my signal, in case something goes wrong."
"Understood, master. Do you believe something will go wrong?"
"No, but it never hurts to be safe," Harry said, getting out of the chair. "Alright, beam me down."
Harry was enveloped in a bright light, and when it cleared, he was standing among the ruins of the city, surrounded by tents and people who were obviously nomads. They didn't look like they lived in the city, but just stayed there for a while. In front of him stood a visibly surprised Carter, who blinked at him.
"I thought you'd land and get here on foot," she commented, which made Harry chuckle.
"What's the point of having a Asgard transporter if you're not gonna use it?" he asked, then looked around. "So, where's Daniel?"
"Colonel O'Neill is with him right now. You can go see him if you want," Carter said, turning around and pointing at a tent a couple of yards away. "He's in there."
"Thanks," Harry said, patting her on the shoulder, before walking off toward the tent. When he got there, O'Neill was just exiting, immediately taking notice of the ship hovering in the sky.
"Nice, that," he commented, pointing upward.
"Yeah, she's a beauty. So, he remembers nothing?"
"Not a damn thing," O'Neill said with a shake of his head. "Nothing before waking up somewhere near here a couple of months ago."
"Well, let the doctor take a look," Harry said, grinning as he passed O'Neill and entered the tent, where he found Daniel sitting, in the process of lighting a few candles. "Hey, Daniel!"
Daniel blinked and turned to look at him, his eyes widening at the sight of the mad scientist.
"Don't remember me?" Harry asked, gesturing for his face. "This isn't exactly a face that's easy to forget."
"Sorry, I'm drawing a blank," Daniel said, turning back to the candles. Harry hummed as he walked over, putting a cigarette in his mouth and leaning over a candle to light it, before sitting down in front of Daniel.
"Well, I'm Dr. Harry Potter, a good friend of yours, though you would never have admitted it," Harry introduced himself, puffing on the cigarette. "I was also your field-physician."
Daniel tilted his head to the side, his brow furrowing.
"And that means...?"
"It means that while your regular physician is Janet Fraiser, I take over for her whenever she is unavailable, most often in the field," Harry explained. "So, it's my responsibility to make sure you are physically fine at the moment, so just relax and let me examine you."
"Wha-"
Daniel couldn't as his question, as just then Harry reached over and grabbed the sides of Daniel's head, using his thumbs to keep his eyes open as he stared into them.
"A bit distant," Harry muttered, staring into them. "Yeah, it sure does look like you have a case of layered amnesia."
"Layered?" Daniel asked, looking a bit disgruntled at the rough treatment as Harry let go of him, leaning back.
"That's what I've come to call it. It's a relatively light case of amnesia. Think of a painting, a painting depicting everything you have in your memory," Harry said, taking a long drag on his cigarette. "Now imagine that someone has taken a blank, white screen and covered the painting. That's the layered amnesia I'm talking about. Your memories are still there in pristine condition, it's just hidden by a screen, so you just have to either figure out a way to tear down the whole screen at once, or you can just poke little holes in the screen one at a time, picking up snippet after snippet of information."
"Is that supposed to assure me, or something?" Daniel asked, which made Harry chuckle.
"Whether you wish to feel assured that you'll get your memory back or not is entirely up to you. I'm just telling you how it is."
They were quiet for a while, and then Harry smiled at Daniel.
"You don't want to leave this place, do you?" he asked, gesturing for the tent. "You're afraid you won't like who you were."
"How did you know?" Daniel asked in surprise, to which Harry shrugged.
"Lucky guess."
"Yeah, I mean... What if I don't want to be who I was? What if I don't have it in me to make up for something I've done wrong?"
"You Ascended, Daniel, because you believed you were worthy of it," Harry explained. "You have nothing to make up for, in my opinion. You are a great man. Not as great as me, naturally, but great."
Harry leaned back and puffed slowly on his cigarette, a smirk appearing on his face.
"I counted you, and still do, as a friend, which really is saying a lot. I don't have a lot of friends, mostly because I'm a bit impossible to get along with, and I find most people to be too stupid to befriend. You care about people, a valuable trait, and you have an incredible passion for what you do, which I can really respect."
The mad scientist got to his feet and patted Daniel on the shoulder.
"I know that you know that you don't belong here," he said simply, before leaving the tent, finding Carter waiting outside. He patted her on the shoulder as well. "Tag."
"Hey, Harry!" came O'Neill's voice as the Colonel jogged up to him. "I was thinking, that ship's gotta have some kind of scanner, right?" he asked, pointing up at the hovering Sujan.
"Yeah," Harry said, pushing back his sleeve and opening his control device. "Anything in particular you want me to scan for?"
"Yeah, big honking weapons, big honking energy sources, pretty much anything that's big and honking... and filled with some kind of energy."
Harry slowly nodded at that, though he honestly hadn't believed he'd ever meet anyone who spoke in a simpler manner than Ronald Weasley...
"I think I know what you want me to scan for..." he muttered, then pushed a button on the control device. "Aceso, scan the surface of the planet for energy signatures, no matter how faint."
"Understood, master."
"Yes, that," O'Neill said with a nod, which made Harry sigh.
"You know what the worst part about this whole thing is?" the scientist asked O'Neill, who raised a curious eyebrow. Harry pointed accusingly at him. "You are perfectly capable of speaking in a smarter manner than you do, because you're smarter than you make yourself out to be, and it ticks me off something fierce!"
O'Neill opened his mouth to speak, but just then Aceso said, "Master, I have finished my scan of the surface. No energy signatures were detected."
"Much simpler than a UAV, isn't it?" Harry said with a smile to O'Neill, before pushing a button on his control device again. "Alright, Aceso, beam me up in fifteen seconds."
"Affirmative, master."
"I have to go," Harry informed O'Neill. "Thor wants me to be there when they make a couple of calibrations to the Asgard plasma cannons. I'll be back soon to check on Daniel, though."
Without waiting for a go-ahead from O'Neill, Harry allowed himself to be beamed up.
–
Carter stood in the briefing room of the SGC, making a presentation to the occupants, which consisted of O'Neill, Daniel, Hammond, Jonas, along with a group of various Tok'ra members and SGC personnel.
"As you know, Harry made the F-302's hyperspace generator work flawlessly. So, if our calculations are correct, we believe that a short, controlled burst would send the 302 into subspace just long enough to bypass the mothership's shields."
"And if your calculations are incorrect?" O'Neill wanted to know, always one to want to hear the worst-case scenarios in these situations.
"The 302 would bypass the mothership altogether, or worse, re-emerge inside it. Which is why I would've liked to have Harry here to confirm this..."
"Speak of the Devil, and He shall appear," a new voice said as Harry entered the briefing room, holding an open file in his hand. "I just got back, and I took a look at your calculations. A slight miscalculation, but I can fix it," he muttered, looking at the file. "A point-oh-four second burst would put the 302 too close to the ship to pull up. I suggest a point-oh-three second burst."
"Glad you could finally join us, Doctor," Hammond said in a tone of obvious disapproval.
"Hey, if you don't like it, I could just, you know, avoid upgrading the Prometheus weaponry and the ion cannons," Harry said with a shrug, setting the file down on the table. "So, what are we going to be doing that requires the Nym to get past a set of shields?"
"Should I start over?" Carter asked the rest of the room.
"No!" O'Neill said quickly. "God, no!" He turned to Harry. "Anubis' mothership has a great big space gun-"
"Big and honking?" Harry asked with a smirk.
"The biggest and honkiest," O'Neill confirmed. "Anyway, it's got a big honking space gun, and we need to take it out. That's why we need to get past the shields." Now, the Colonel turned to Carter. "Continue."
Carter cleared her throat. "Now, uh, according to intelligence provided by the Tok'ra, the power core of Anubis' new weapon must be cooled by a ventilation shaft on the exterior of the ship. If that can be targeted and destroyed just as the weapon is powering up, the crystals will overheat and be destroyed."
"Where is the shaft, exactly?" O'Neill asked, which got Carter to adopt a somewhat annoyed look.
"As Colonel O'Neill is well-aware, we don't know exactly where the shaft is."
"Our operative in Anubis' ranks has been unable to get aboard the new ship, and has only been able to glean a very limited working knowledge of it. Anubis protects his computer systems with elaborate ciphers coded in the oldest known Ancient dialect. We have been unable to translate them," a female Tok'ra said.
"Question," Harry said, lighting a cigarette and puffing on it slowly. "Why don't we just bring the full might of the Prometheus down on the ship? Saves us the trouble."
"As simple as that would be, the Prometheus has not yet been cleared for active duty," Hammond said. "There are apparently still many tests to run on it."
"Well, that's annoying..."
"Anyway, Jonas Quinn and Daniel Jackson will sneak onto Anubis' ship and access the computer," Carter continued her briefing.
"We have devised an injectable radioactive isotope that will allow them to move freely on Anubis' ship, undetected by its sensors, for eight hours."
"Do we know what kind of sensors the ship's running?" Harry asked curiously.
"As we said, we haven't gotten as much information as we would have liked, but we are assuming they are normal Goa'uld sensors."
"Well, it's a bit foolish to use something that hasn't been tested on an operation this important, don't you think?" Harry said, puffing on his cigarette.
"Did you have something else in mind, Doctor?" Hammond asked, to which Harry nodded.
"Yeah, my cloaking device can hide one from even a sensor on the level of an Asgard," Harry said. "Not to mention that it hides one from view as well. How long would it take before this operation is ready to go?"
"Well, it would take about a week to relocate the inhabitants of the ruins..." Jonas reasoned.
"Then that's enough time for me to set these two up with their own cloaking devices. Could probably create linked visors that will allow them to see each other, too."
"Can you do that in a single week?" Carter asked, to which Harry grinned.
"Imagine what I could do in two. Also, I'm volunteering the Sujan for the run."
"Your ship is a bit too big for the operation," Carter said, shaking her head. "It wouldn't be able to veer off-course after making the jump past the shields."
"But I was thinking..." Harry started, but then stopped and hummed. "No, maybe he..."
"What?" O'Neill asked.
"Well, I was thinking that I could hook up my phasing technology to the Sujan. It would have to replace the hyperdrive, so I'd have to do it once I got to the planet, but I just realized that Anubis' shields might protect against that as well. Forget I said anything."
"Right," Carter said slowly, before getting back to the briefing. "Anyway, the week will give us more than enough time to build a makeshift runway and get the 302 through the Gate and reassembled."
"Once everything is established, the Tok'ra will plant our fake tablet and, with any luck, we'll lure Anubis to the planet," Jonas continued where Carter left off.
"Tablet?" Harry asked.
"Tell you later," Jonas promised.
"Let's move," Hammond said, officially ending the briefing as the lights in the room came back on, and people started leaving, with Harry, O'Neill, Daniel, Carter, and Jonas remaining.
"Well, I should get straight to work making those cloaking devices for you guys," Harry said, patting Daniel on the shoulder. "Damn good to have you back, mate."
–
The day before the operation was to take place, Daniel and Jonas entered Harry's lab, where Harry sat working out some kinks in Frank's pretty much finished flight tech. The bloodthirsty AI stood in the corner, his eyes flashing when he turned toward the new arrivals.
"It seems your statement was not in jest, master," the AI commented with a small hum. "Puzzling. In my experience, meatbags do not have the annoying tendency to return from death."
"Well, I apparently wasn't dead, technically..." Daniel said slowly, staring at Frank. "Just Ascended."
"You don't seem surprised," Harry said, jutting his thumb in Frank's direction.
"No, I... I remember him," Daniel said. "I definitely remember him."
"You needed us for something?" Jonas asked, getting to business.
"Oh, yes," Harry said as he rose from his chair, pulling out a drawer in his desk and picking up two devices that looked an awful lot like his own control device. "I finished your cloaking devices. I labeled the buttons, so you should be able to figure them out without a manual, and even if you couldn't, instructions are on the screen," he said, handing them over. "They render you completely invisible, and permits brief phasing through solid objects."
"How brief?" Jonas asked.
"Well, with that small an energy source, if you have the anti-sensor and anti-visual cloaking activated at the same time, you'll be able to phase for a total of four seconds before the power is completely drained, and the whole thing dies, rendering you completely visible."
"Hm, question," Daniel said, having opened the cloaking device and looked over the buttons on it. "Why does this button say 'Boom,' and this say, 'Other boom'?"
"Oh, the boom is for the blue keron detonator attached to the side, there," Harry said, pointing at the blue keron block on the side of the device. "You'll notice on the underside that there are six extra keron blocks inserted in it. They can be used to either be put together to create a bomb, where you just attach the blue one and press 'Boom' to detonate, or they can be used to replace the spent block if you accidentally drain the power."
"And the other boom?" Jonas asked cautiously.
"Oh, well, there's another detonator built into the cloaking device," Harry explained with a grin. "So, if you're captured, I advice you to press it to activate the self-destruct so that the enemy won't be able to study it."
"How long do we have?"
"Hm?"
"The timer on the self-destruct," Jonas clarified. "How long do we have?"
"Oh, it blows the second you press the button. That prevents the enemy from being able to disarm it."
"But wouldn't that blow up our arms as well?" Daniel asked, which made Harry scoff.
"Sometimes, sacrifices are necessary," the scientist reasoned with a shrug.
Before the two could comment on that, however, Harry took out two pairs of what looked like extremely high-tech sunglasses, their shades being a matte black that looked like they were impossible to view anything through.
"Here are your visors. Just push the red button on the side there to link them with your cloaking devices. The buttons on your device is able to shift between visions. Daniel, this one is yours. It's adjusted to your vision."
Daniel put on the sunglasses and pushed the button, then went, "Oh, wow... Infrared..."
"Yeah, those visors have infrared, short-range X-ray, cloak-sight, and, of course, normal vision."
"Cloak-sight?" Daniel asked, looking Harry over. "And wow... What is that thing on your right side?"
"Anti-venom sack," Harry explained simply. "And the cloak-sight is what I call the third vision. It doesn't have an official name. It's just normal vision, but it's calibrated to the frequency of each other's cloaking, so it should outline each of you to the other."
"You did this in six days?" Jonas asked in surprise.
"Not quite. I've had the designs for them filed for a while. I just haven't found the time to create them."
"Well, thanks," Daniel said, nodding. "I'm sure these will be very useful. What will you be doing?"
"Thor contacted me a couple of hours ago," Harry said, scratching his head. "Apparently, the Asgard have found a lifesign reading on a planet in the Ida galaxy that has so far been considered uninhabited. They can't recognize what type of life it is, so they want my help in identifying it."
"Do they really need your help for something like that?" Jonas asked in confusion. "I mean, from my understanding, they managed fine before you came along."
"They can do it themselves, but because of their gratitude toward me, they feel compelled to include me in things like this."
Harry held out his hand for Daniel to shake.
"I wish you luck," he said as Daniel shook his hand, and then he shook Jonas' hand. "Both of you. And please, try to return the equipment in one piece. If I have time, I might make an appearance with the Sujan to help with the Anubis situation."
–
So, the next day, Harry dropped out of hyperspace near the planet in question, finding Thor's O'Neill-class ship in orbit around it. He had a bright smile on his face, and for good reason.
"Congratulations, master," came Aceso's voice from the ship. "The superdrive is a success."
"So I noticed," Harry said, still smiling. "Alright, open up communications with Thor."
"Yes, master."
A faint beep sounded, and a holographic screen appeared before him, showing Thor, who had a faint smile on his face.
"Harry, how good to see you. Thank you for coming."
"My pleasure. I'm always thrilled at the prospect of studying new lifeforms."
"Would you be opposed to be beamed aboard?"
"Not at all. I'd like to hear about this in person," Harry said as he lowered his shields, and was immediately enveloped in the familiar white light of Asgard beaming, reappearing on the bridge of Thor's ship.
"So, what is this new lifeform?"
"It is unlike anything we have ever seen," Thor said, rising from his command chair and walking up to stand next to him, gazing out the window at the planet. "It is most certainly an aquatic creature. The planet is ninety-three percent covered in water, and the sensors detect it right in the middle of the deepest part of the ocean."
"Why haven't you discovered it until now?"
"Our sensors had not been calibrated to detect it. It is mostly hidden, and it is only thanks to you that we managed to calibrate our sensors to find it."
"Oh?" Harry uttered, his eyebrows rising in surprise. "How so?"
"Before we met you, we were not quite as advanced in the study of biological energy as we are now, Harry," Thor explained. "Long ago, the Asgard found an artifact on a planet near Othala. We thought nothing of it, and believed it to only belong to some long-lost religion. We brought it to Orilla for storage, and later moved it to Othala. Only now did we notice that the artifact was giving off a biological energy signature, which greatly surprised us. The artifact was transmitting a signal to this planet, which led us to calibrate our scanners."
Thor led Harry over to a table nearby and made a gesture over it with his hand. A holographic 3D image appeared over the table, revolving slowly, showing some kind of creature. It bore a remarkable resemblance to a cuttlefish. With several tentacle-like appendages extending below the body and from the sides. The body itself appeared to be covered by some kind of bony, heavily ridged plates.
"The creature is massive in scope," Thor said, observing the creature. "We estimate the body itself to be approximately five hundred and twenty-three meters in length. We have attempted to make contact with it through the artifact we found, as you say, 'hitching a ride' on the signal with our own radio signals."
"No response?"
"No. We are unaware if this is due to the creature being unable to respond, or if it simply chooses not to."
"Shame, that. If I had the equipment suited for it, I would have liked to go down there and investigate. How deep is it?"
"Our estimation says that the creature dwells at a depth of three thousand two hundred and sixty-seven meters," Thor said, which made Harry hum.
"No way to get down there?"
"We do, actually," Thor said. "A small vessel can reach those depths using a new type of shielding we have developed for the sole reasons of deep diving. Oxygen will be limited, but the shield will prevent any mass from passing through it, even water. If we install this on the Sujan, you will be able to venture down to that depth and investigate. We would have done so ourselves, but I have been unable to locate any volunteers."
"For the sake of discovery, I'll do it."
"That is what I was hoping you would say."
And so found Harry three hours later diving through the atmosphere in the Sujan, straight down toward the ocean. The new Asgard shield was installed and had temporarily replaced his usual shielding, and as he hit the water at great speeds, he was greatly surprised when the ship didn't even shake from the impact, instead simply shooting straight through the water.
"Alright, Thor," Harry said, opening up communications with Thor's ship, "I'm nearing the proper depth. Here's hoping the creature is up for a chat."
"Good luck, Harry. We stand ready to beam your ship out of there in case of trouble."
"Yeah, well, just remember that we don't know how the creature communicates, so don't beam me out until I push the button," Harry said, keeping his hand on a device of his own design, a sort of distress beacon calibrated to send a signal to all nearby Asgard vessels.
"Understood, Harry."
The Sujan reached the correct depth at the last known location of the creature and halted its descent, leveling out as Harry stared out the window.
"Master, have you any idea how to call the creature?" Aceso asked, her usual monotone voice holding a hint of curiosity.
"I was thinking we wait, and maybe it'll come to us to investigate."
Just as Harry said it, bubbles started rising in front of the ship, and Harry's jaw almost dropped at the sight of the creature that followed the bubbles.
It was one thing to see a framework hologram of it, but it was a whole other thing to see it in person...
The creature's plating was very dark, and pretty spooky, with all the aquatic plants and such growing on it. It also had two sets of three eyes embedded symmetrically on the lower dorsal surface of the body, all of which were glowing blue, and quite clearly staring straight at the Sujan.
Harry felt a tingle in his head, but before he could slam down his Occlumency shields, the creature had already made entry, and it suddenly felt like the time when he had installed the bolt in his head, like someone had stabbed a scalpel into his brain. He gave a yell of surprise and gritted his teeth, doing his damnedest to shield his mind from the foreign presence.
"You resist..." a deep, guttural voice echoed in his mind as he screwed his eyes shut in concentration. "Your resistance is impressive, but ultimately futile. I will have access to your mind. It will be mine. Struggling will only cause unnecessary pain."
Harry kept his eyes screwed shut and his jaw clenched as he tried to focus. Then, in an instant, the pain disappeared, and Harry opened his eyes to find himself standing in blackness. There was nothing around him, below him, or above him, except empty blackness.
"Your mind is now mine," the dark voice said from behind him. "Breathe slow."
Harry spun around, and found himself staring at...
"Nym?"
Nymphadora Tonks, standing in front of him, slowly shook her head.
"Your memories give voice to our words," she said, and it was incredibly strange to hear the dark voice coming out of her mouth. "Your nature will be revealed to us. Accept this."
"If you now have access to my mind," Harry said, narrowing his eyes, "you should know I don't accept servitude."
"Indeed. Yours is a strong one. I am unable to extend my influence far enough to control your actions. But I can keep you here. I can make you a prisoner in your own mind. You will die down here in the deep if you resist."
"Who are you?"
"My name and race are irrelevant to you. Your primitive, underdeveloped mind would be unable to cope with the understanding that such a truth might bring."
"Try me," Harry said, narrowing his eyes. He felt very insulted that the creature would consider his mind primitive and underdeveloped, like he was some kind of monkey.
"My race is older than time itself," the creature said, walking past Harry and circling around him. When it came into view again, it had taken the shape of Adrian. "We were the first, the apex race. Our kind was once the apex of life in the galaxy. The lesser species were in our thrall, serving our needs. We grew more powerful, and they were cared for. But evolution, as it always has, set in."
The creature stopped its slow pacing in front of Harry and adopted a thoughtful look.
"Our servants grew more intelligent. They evolved, they became stronger. They no longer needed us."
"That must have stung," Harry said with a smirk.
"On the contrary, it filled us with pride. You cannot conceive of a galaxy that bends to your will. Every creature, every nation, every planet we discovered became our tools. We were proud to see them rise from servitude to stand on their own. The single drawback was that they stopped paying tribute to us."
"So, how did you go from 'undisputed rulers' to living at the bottom of the ocean of a planet with no people living on it?" Harry wanted to know.
"We had already existed for millions of years. We now understood that our presence was no longer needed," the creature said, holding its hands behind its back as it stared up into the blackness. "We had seen what was going to happen, as the same thing happened in other universes, so we withdrew, and became observers."
"What happened in other universes?" Harry asked, blinking. "Your consciousness can reach through realities?"
"Yes. In other realities, we tried to protect the lesser species. We made mistakes. We were almost wiped out," the creature said, humming softly, which sounded more like a growl. "We did not take this path. We withdrew."
"So, why are you trying to take control of my mind?"
"Our solitude is voluntary. Our silence as well. We thrive in being unknown. You know of us now, as do the Asgard. They need to be destroyed in order to preserve our secret."
Harry chuckled softly. The chuckle slowly built into loud laughter. It wasn't his usual mad cackling, but rather laughter of amusement.
"And you think I'll allow that?" he asked, calming down. "I know why you're telling me this. I know why you're trying to distract me."
"Do you?" the creature asked, turning to look at him.
"You can't reach me," Harry stated, smirking widely at the creature. "You have control of most of my mind at the moment, but you cannot control all of me. You are trying to distract me so I will lower my guard."
The creature gave that humming growl again, giving Harry a long stare of mild curiosity.
"Yours is a fascinating mind. From this distance, I can brush that of the Asgard orbiting the planet. I cannot take control, but I can read them. Your mind is vastly superior to theirs. You have only unlocked a small part of your potential, and yet you are superior to all those you have encountered thus far."
"You should release control of me right now, and go back to quietly observing," Harry said simply. "If you have access to my mind, you should know that whenever I encounter a problem, I overcome it. It's only a matter of time before I turn the tables on you."
"You cannot."
"Can't I?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. "Surely, you already feel that tickle in the back of your mind? I'm already attacking you."
The creature's eyes narrowed in concentration.
"Indeed. As stated earlier, yours is a fascinating mind. I have never encountered anyone with as resistant a mind as yours. Not even your ancestors were as resistant."
"The Ancients?"
"Yes."
The creature was quiet for a moment, appearing thoughtful for a moment.
"Perhaps you are the one..."
"The one?"
"I am, as you say, thinking out loud," the creature said slowly. "Very well."
The creature turned its back on Harry and looked up into the blackness again.
"If you can assure me that these Asgard will not reveal my existence to anyone, I will let you go."
"That's it?" Harry asked, his eyebrows rising. "Hell, now I almost want to stay, just so that I can probe your mind for whatever idea you just had."
The creature didn't answer. It just faded away, and the blackness blinked out of existence. Harry was once more sitting in the pilot seat of the Sujan, and he blinked rapidly, his eyes dry. He had apparently kept them open that whole time. Well, his left eye was the only one that was bothering him, at least.
He looked to the creature outside, to see it slowly sinking out of view again.
"Farewell..."
"Well..." Harry muttered, exhaling slowly. "That was interesting..."
"Harry," came Thor's voice as his face appeared in front of him, the Sujan heading upward toward the surface, "are you alright? Did you encounter the creature?"
"I did. It doesn't want to be disturbed, and it would be a bother to disturb it. Let's just leave it alone... Well, for now, anyway."
"Understood."
–
End of chapter twenty-one! What do you think? Love it? Hate it? Let me know! For those of you who figured it out on your own and were wondering, yes, that was a Leviathan, like the one in Mass Effect. This is because I have actually been planning on ending this little Madness trilogy with a Mass Effect crossover. Don't know if I've already mentioned that or not. Ah well, I have now, at least! In the next chapter, we pick up in the middle of the assault on Anubis' ship! Stay tuned!