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Chapter 21.
ELF.
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1781 AD, Planet P3301E(Stone Eye) - Main Eratan Exploration Outpost.
Erika stepped through the Stargate and arrived in a large underground cavern. Accompanied by six squads of her mother's imperial guards, the princess glanced at the one commanding them - Zyr'na - one of her mothers personal bodyguards. "Why is it that you're here, and not on Eratna, with mother?" she asked.
"My sister can guard her well enough in my absence."
"That wasn't what I meant and you know it."
Zyr'na raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Yes. I doubt I'll need all this security here. After all, it's a heavily fortified outpost."
"But this isn't all the security I brought."
Erika thought for a moment at the answer. Her mother, like any Goa'uld, was really paranoid. But unlike most Goa'uld, she was actually smart (and sane,) enough to make all sort of back-up plans that backed the back-up plans. "Please tell me we don't have half the fleet in orbit."
"We do not," the commander replied. "However, two days ago, we reinforced the outpost."
"I see," Erika sighed. "I know I am only the researcher here, but is there really such a great need for all this? After all, it's only one visitor. The outpost is already well defended. It's not like he can do that much harm."
Zyr'na pondered her princess' words for a moment before answering. "Princess, do you remember when you found a way to destroy a sun by using a stargate with a disabled dialing protocol?"
Erika glanced cautiously at the Jaffa, hoping that she wasn't thinking of ending all possible dangers to her life by destroying all the suns that had planets that hosted those dangers. Her mother had been adamant in her refusal. That would never be done unless they had no other choice. "Yes..."
"You are a far more dangerous person than I am. Even if this visitor appears to be harmless, we can not afford to be overconfident. Think of what can be done to take down an entire civilization from the inside. Genocide, like what might have happened with the plague... or like what we could do if we really wanted."
"You are right," Erika sighed. "But still, was it really necessary for you to come here personally? I thought you were busy with those shock troops you and Zar'na are drooling over."
The commander touched the tattoo on her forehead and gave Erika one of her rare smiles. "I am never busy when it comes to you. Besides," the Jaffa shrugged, "there's that new "Dark Shroud" they're developing here."
"Oooah!" Erika nodded sagely. The device was a type of power generator, shield hybrid. "It's still in testing, but I think you'll be impressed."
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Two hours later, after she had a meeting with Ka'na - the Outpost's commander, the two were in the control room when a newcomer made his way towards them.
Ka'na nodded politely. "Commander Ghost."
"Commander Ka'na," the man nodded back, before bowing absentmindedly to Erika. "Princess." The man who was now the commander to the "Specters" glanced at one of the monitors that showed the inactive Stargate.
"Is there a problem?" Erika asked. Had she not known better, she'd have thought that Ghost was anxious about something.
Ghost glanced at the princess before giving Ka'na a short glare. "No," he answered curtly.
Erika glanced at Ka'na for an explanation.
"Ana," Ka'na said as if that explained everything.
"She's part of the team that's bringing him here?" the princess deduced.
"Yes."
"I don't think you have anything to worry. Your sister can take care of herself. She's a big girl now."
"She's a healer," Ghost pointed out. "And this is her first mission in a potentially dangerous environment. But... you're right. She'll be fine. If she isn't... I'll ..."
"If you forgot, you passed up the opportunity for membership in the twins' mayhem and shock troops," Erika reminded him.
After Bastet's attack, the twins wanted to recruit Ghost for their shock troops program - heavily armored, shielded troops that would pack as much destructive power as possible.
He'd turned their offer down and was put in charge of the small Specter program instead.
"Please," the man snorted, "me, one of those psychopaths?"
"I don't know," Erika said slowly. "There was a reason they wanted you for it. I think you more than proved that you'd be able to fit in."
"Yes," Ghost grimaced. "That Flagship fight. Still, that was because we were forced into a corner. I'd never want to do that again. If you want to kill someone, better do it cleanly. Slaughter and mayhem is not my thing."
"I thought that you turned them down because the twins make you uncomfortable," Erika said.
"What!?" Ghost had a confused look on his face. "What do you mean?"
"You're always tense when you're around them," Erika said slowly.
"All right," Ghost huffed after a moment of thought, "you're right. I think they're both creepy."
"Creepy?" Erika asked.
"Yes. I think it's that fanaticism she serves you and Lady Lilith."
"I believe there's another reason," a new voice behind Ghost said.
Ghost whirled around to confront the one who managed to sneak on him. "Commander!" he said in surprise.
"Zyr'na," Erika smiled deviously. "And what might that be?"
"Commander Ghost has always been a prodigy." Zyr'na stated. "He has never met someone that was so far beyond his skill..."
"Until you," Erika finished.
"You know," Ghost said with a smile, "I'm starting to miss London. The women were always meek there."
"Speaking of meek," Ka'na said as the Stargate begun to activate. "Your sister is about to arrive."
"She's not meek," Ghost half protested. "She's ..."
"I don't know if it's her looks or her personality," Erika begun.
"They just scream "protect her"," Ka'na finished. "It's actually why I sent her. That girl can charm everyone."
"Yes she can," Ghost nodded. "But can someone remind me why we are breaking our own rules about not allowing strangers onto our worlds?! And not only that, but we also told him so much about us."
The stargate activated and people begun to come out from the event horizon.
"It's because we managed to get, (discreetly,) a genetic sample. He has the Alteran Gene. Also, our sensors got what was clearly Alteran tech. There is also the bit about his "Urgo" nanotech. It would be quite a useful tool to have between the members of a squad."
"In some areas, Togar is even more technically advanced than we are," Erika added. "Also, from what we got from our team and the genetic sample, it appears that he is older than he looks."
"Immortality?" Ghost asked.
"It appears to be so," Ka'na nodded. "Our analysis puts his age somewhere between two centuries and six centuries. Think about it - centuries of accumulated knowledge, new Alteran artifacts. He agreed to give us a list of gate addresses, though he didn't mention how he got them. Our hope is that he has a functional Chair."
"I hope it's better than the one Sokar sold to us," Ghost said. "That thing was useless."
"That is not quite true. Yes, the chair was damaged and most of its components were missing, but it did help us significantly in understanding the Alteran tech."
"You know, we don't need all this diplomacy. We could probably just take all we need."
"We could, but we will not," Erika said firmly. "If we want to coexist with other civilizations, we must have a behavioral standard, we have to keep our side of the bargains. We wouldn't want to become like the System Lords, would we?"
Ghost nodded and glared at the large man besides his sister.
The large heavy shields around the stargate area were deactivated and Erika, Ka'na, Ghost and Zyr'na moved to meet their guest.
"Togar," the delicate-looking woman besides the man said warmly.
The man, who had a severe look on his face, relaxed slightly at Ana's musical voice.
"Allow me to introduce you to ..."
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"Commander Ka'na, may I ask a question?" Togar asked. Currently, he was having dinner with Erika, Ka'na, Zyr'na, Ghost and Ana.
"Of course."
"I have wondered. What is the significance of the tattoo you have on your forehead? I noticed that not all of your people have one."
"You know of the Goa'uld, do you not?"
"Yes, though until now, I stayed away from them."
"After Lady Lilith defeated Bastet, we ... declared ourselves independent of her rule. As such, Bastet's mark was removed. However, most Jaffa decided to take Lilith's black moon to show their allegiance. Some of the humans under Eratan rule - decided to take it as well."
"I see. And the black dot?" Togar asked.
"That would be me," Erika sighed.
"The princess is the designated heir to the Eratan throne. The dot represents her and her status."
"Fascinating," the man said. "I must say that I find it somewhat curious that a Goa'uld would choose a human as her heir."
"Mother is unlike most Goa'uld. She made a choice to coexist with her host. It is not unlike the Tok'ra."
"Tok'ra?" Togar repeated. "I have never heard of them."
"That is not surprising. The Tok'ra is a Goa'uld ... subspecies," Erika explained. "They are formed of queen Egeria's spawn and a few Goa'uld who chose the Tok'ra philosophy. Basically they coexist with their hosts on equal terms. Unfortunately after they lost their queen, the Tok'ra also lost their ability to breed."
"And are you and these Tok'ra, allied?"
"No. The Tok'ra wish for the destruction of the Goa'uld. Eratna is somewhat neutral to the situation."
"May I ask why?"
Erika nodded. "Mainly, the Tok'ra think that with the destruction of the Goa'uld, the galaxy will be some sort of perfect society. Unfortunately, humans and Jaffa that were raised under the System Lord's domination won't necessarily be better rulers than the Goa'uld. There are things far worse than the Goa'uld and the Tok'ra want to destroy a system that preserved the current galactic status for millennia."
"Worse things?"
"Yes. Even the Goa'uld explored little beyond their borders. There may very well be worse things out there. Simply destroying the dominant race will only result in further bloodshed as those who served the Goa'uld System Lords and the many independent worlds, do what they learned from the Goa'uld."
"From what I understand," Togar said slowly, "your technology is more advanced than the Goa'uld's. Unlike them, you use advanced technologies and your people are highly educated." At Erika's nod, the man continued. "Then why do you not take the System Lords' place?"
"To take the Goa'uld domains, not only must we be able to defend them, but we have to impose our rule over them. We would rather not involve ourselves in such a risky venture."
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It was the next day that Togar was shown into the control room to see a routine mission. The man had provided them with a list of gate addresses and was waiting to see what was on the other side.
"You only send unmanned probes to scout?" the visitor asked.
"Yes," Ka'na nodded. "We study the received data thoroughly before sending our personnel. Exploring carries many risks. Some of the worlds we explored proved to be quite lethal."
As soon as the Stargate opened, an uncloaked probe followed by a cloaked one flew through the event horizon.
On the large screen in the control room, the image of a strange planet appeared. The sky was filled by heavy clouds and there were strange buildings in the distance.
The first probe began to scan around. For a few seconds, nothing happened, but then, a bolt of energy slammed into the first probe. A second later, the cloaked one was also hit.
The probes begun to fly towards a large floating object. Then the image disappeared.
"We are still receiving data," one of the techs said, "but our computers can't analyze it."
An alarm begun to sound as a bolt of lightning shot through the Control room.
"Close the gate," Ka'na shouted.
The stargate shot down, but it was too late.
"Commander," one of the techs said, "there is something in our computer systems."
"What is it?" Another bolt of lightning shot out.
"A virus. It's a good one, too. It's spreading through our systems."
"Shut everything down and purge," Ka'na ordered.
"Yes, Commander."
It took less than a minute for everything to come back on-line.
"Start sweeping all systems," Ka'na ordered.
"What was that?" Zyr'na asked.
"I'm not sure," Erika answered, "but I think that those lightning discharges were some kind of weapon."
"Commander!" one of the techs shouted minutes later. "The self destruct has been initiated."
"How?" That wasn't supposed to happen. The self destruct could only be triggered by physically introducing three passwords.
"I do not know."
"Can you shut it down?"
"No. We have thirty minutes till detonation."
"Get me a security team," Ka'na said walking away. "I'm heading over there."
Zyr'na glanced at Erika's security detail. "Evacuate the princess and Togar to one of the cloaked scouts. Ghost," Zyr'na added, "take Ana and go with them."
"What about you?" Erika asked.
"I will catch up to you."
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Erika and her group were quickly walking on their escape route when they met a squad heading in the opposite direction.
Their movement was slow and deliberate, unlike Erika's group. When they got in front of Erika's group, they stopped and pointed their weapons at them.
Ghost pushed his sister out of the way and two other guards stepped in front of Togar. Two other stepped in front of Erika, not caring that she already was too well protected by her shield.
The first shots hit Erika's group and the guards that were in front got peppered by plasma blasts. The guards pointed their rifles at their attackers and opened fire. At the same time, a shockwave from Erika's hand device went towards the enemies, who got thrown back. Erika and the Eratan guards kept firing until the suits could move no more.
One of the guards advanced to check their attackers. "They're empty," he said. "The suits are empty!"
Erika approached the damaged empty suits.
Togar came from behind his protectors, curious of their attackers. He headed towards the Eratan princess who was crouched down in front of one of the suits.
Erika was looking over the damaged suits when she saw something half hidden. Her eyes widened in horror, recognizing a small, but powerful bomb. "Bomb!!!" she shouted. She mentally commanded her shield to go on maximum power and crouched down with her back toward the bomb.
Togar came crashing down as the slight frame of Ana slammed into his back. He grunted as he felt two more weights on his back, and closed his eyes.
The explosion overloaded Erika's shield, flinging her away from it. Checking the status of her suit, she realized that the suit protected her after the shield collapsed. She rose unsteadily to her feat and breathed a sigh of relief. The shield saved not only her, but the ones behind her as well.
Erika stared at the remains of the empty suits.
One of the enemy suits which was not in the direct path of the explosion, had escaped unscratched. Suddenly, a lightning burst from the empty suit and headed towards the princess. She tried to activate the shield, but it would not work. Just as she was about to be struck, a dark shadow fell on Erica. She could feel a slight decrease in temperature as Zyr'na stepped behind her.
The energy struck the Dark Shroud and retreated. Erika breathed a sigh of relief at Zyr'na's ingenuity. The Dark Shroud could extract power from the ambient energy around. The technology was one of the Alteran abandoned experiments. They abandoned it because they realized that its use as a power generator was limited. However the Eratan scientists thought differently. Even if it wasn't a very efficient power source, it could become a useful shield technology by drawing energy directly from attacks that entered the shroud. The problem was that they hadn't found a way to direct it only at outside sources. As it was now, prolonged exposure would freeze one's body. The tech was still limited, but against this energy entity, it was the perfect defense.
The entity, now deprived of her target jumped up and then, down, behind Erika and Zyr'na and among her companions. Before she could do anything, the strange energy crashed into Ana.
The healer stiffened, drew her stunner and tried to point it at Erika. Ghost tackled her and the possessed Ana lost her only weapon. She tried to take one of Ghost's but her suit was that of a healer while Ghost had a Specter suit. He immobilized her. "Surrender!" he said.
His possessed sister struggled a few more seconds, and then, she froze.
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Erika, Ka'na, Ghost and Togar were in an observation room above the possessed Ana's cell.
Two healers approached them to give them their report. "It appears," one of them said, "that the entity possessed healer Ana. Its control over her physical functions is quite good. It is capable of doing that by using her nano-bots as processing power."
"Anything else?" Erika asked.
The healer hesitated for a second before continuing. "We believe that attempting to forcibly remove the entity is risky. The possibility of death is high."
"Even if we use the shroud?" Ghost asked.
The healer nodded. "It would take time to destroy the entity. Not long enough to also injure Ana permanently, but in that time, the entity could produce massive damage to her nervous system." The healer paused and added, "The damage may be great enough to permanently destroy her mind. She could be revived by a sarcophagus, but she would be an empty shell."
"I see," Erika said. "Then we'll see if we can negotiate."
"Princess, you should not approach the entity," Zyr'na said. "It was obviously going after you - our princess. When it failed, it possessed Ana, who while not of a high rank, is a non-combatant that is close to many of us."
"Blackmail?"
"Yes."
"That means that the entity was able to understand our language, discover who is who, recognize us. Make a plan to deactivate my shield and know that I had one."
"Understand that we would never willingly harm you," Ka'na added, "and to a lesser degree, Ana."
"I think it's time to have a chat with the entity."
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Erika stepped into the room followed by Zyr'na. The princess had her shield activated. And her bodyguard brought the Dark Shroud with her.
"You are Imperial Princess Erika." Ana's emotional voice stated.
The entity in control of Ana turned her attention on Zyr'na. "Commander of the Imperial Guards Zyr'na."
"And you are?" Erika asked.
"I have no name."
"I see. Tell me why did you attack us?"
"You attacked."
"We did not," Erika replied. "We only sent two probes."
"Yes."
"The probes are not weapons. We use them to see if a place is dangerous for us."
"Energy was emitted from your probe. It caused contagion. Much damage was caused within."
"Within what?"
"Within us. It spread before we understood it was damaging."
"You were damaged by our scans."
"Yes."
"That was not our intention. We did not want to attack you."
"Yet the damage is done."
"Why did you come here?"
"To preserve."
"How?"
"By destroying you."
"I'm afraid I can not allow you to do that," Erika said.
"My world must be preserved."
"Then you have been successful in your mission. We will not return to your world."
"Your words could be false," the entity said.
"Yes, they could. However, I will do my best to prove that I am not lying. As apologies for our unintentional attack, I will also tell you how you can protect your world from a repeat of this incident."
"How?"
"If you bury the Stargate, you will be defended from being damaged by those who come through the Stargate. Alternatively, we could give you a shield that could be put around the Stargate and filter any dangerous energy. It will not protect you from any ships that may come," Erika added, "but it is better than nothing."
"Ships?" the entity asked.
"Yes," Erika nodded. "The Stargate is not the only way to traverse galactic distances, just the easiest."
"What do you ask in exchange?"
"For the shield, nothing," Erika said. "However, we could cooperate further than that. An alliance between us could be beneficial for both sides."
"If you send me back to my world, we will consider it."
"And in exchange, you will release Ana."
"Agreed."
"We will have to find a way to communicate with you without damaging you."
"Agreed."
Erika smiled at Ana's emotional face. "Agreed."
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Published: April 2, 2010;
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