Authors Note: I do not Own Harry Potter, or any of the Stargate franchise. This is written for my own entertainment, and hopefully yours as well.
It was not long after bringing Jonas to Atlantis that Harry suffered a heavy loss. It was one that he knew was coming, but the expectation did not make it any easier. Hedwig had been flying less and less often as she aged, and for the past few months had been looking tired and week. While Ayiana was able to assure Harry that she wasn't in any pain, there was nothing that she could do for the old owl, she was simply too old and her body was shutting down. Eventually, one morning, when Harry went to feed her an owl treat he found her lying dead under her perch.
Chaya held him as he cried mourning the death of his oldest friend. They both took the day to just sit and be together, Harry telling tales of some of the antics that he and Hedwig had gotten into on their flights. Both Hermione and Ayiana came by to visit and spend some time with the couple. It was Hermione who came up with the idea of what to do with her body.
The next day those that were closest to Harry gathered as Hedwig's body was placed in a small cylinder and shot out into space. She would travel towards the Altera sun for the next several months before burning up. After she was out of sight, Harry thanked everyone for their support.
A month later, none other than Jonas Quinn asked to speak with him in a conference room. Harry was surprised to see several other members of the community, including Hermione and his wife when he arrived.
Jonas started the meeting after Harry greeted everyone and took his seat. "Thank you all for coming. I would like to take this time to present an idea that we have been working on for a while now with the help of Fleur and several other members of the community." Jonas motioned around the room to indicate those who had helped him. It was then that Harry noticed Sirius in the back of the room with a large grin on his face.
Harry spared a glance at Chaya who smiled and winked at him in return. "We approached Hermione and Chaya a week ago to get their thoughts on the project and while they both had suggestions, they felt that it was a great idea. Before I tell you our idea, let me explain a bit. Altera is hidden. As I understand it, there are only a small handful of people that know exactly where we are. From a security perspective this makes sense, as this is the new home world for a fledging Alteran people, it is important that it stay secure as the population grows. Of course, Altera is also the site of the academy, where generations of Alterans, both young and old, will learn, research, and grow.
"It is due to this security however that we have cut ourselves off from the majority of the galaxy. We have our allies in the Nox and the Asgard, but there are thousands of civilizations out there, many of which are now living free from the oppression of the Goa'uld. We feel that the people of this galaxy need a central, neutral place where they can come together to trade, exchange ideas, and participate in diplomatic talks. While the capitol world of the Alliance serves this purpose for those that are members, there are many advanced worlds that have chosen not to join.
"If it were not the Alteran home world, Altera could serve as this location. It cannot however, due to the security concerns mentioned earlier. Despite Altera not being the right location, we believe that it is the responsibility of the Atlerans to provide this neutral ground." Jonas paused with a large grin on his face. "Fleur, please dim the lights." The lights dimmed slightly and Jonas paused again for dramatic effect.
"May I present, Hedwig Station." A large hologram appeared in the center of the room. It looked like an Alteran city ship on steroids. Lacking the traditional docks, this image had large spires covering the entire surface area of the complete circle. The center and largest spire was capped by a giant statue of Hedwig with her wings spread. Jonas continued as Harry studied the image. "As you can see, Hedwig Station was designed to house a much larger population than the original city ships. Whereas Avalon has rooms for about 1.5 million people, Hedwig has room for over 10 million. Along with that are countless meeting rooms, auditoriums, empty shops, and gathering places. Fleur please rotate the image."
Fleur complied and the image slowly flipped upside down, revealing a large green space, consisting of trees, plants, grass area, and even a few small lakes. "As you can see, Hedwig is not designed to ever land. Below the city we plan to have a large park where those on the station can enjoy the relaxing feeling of being in a more natural environment." Jonas turned to Harry and everyone in the room focused on him as they waited for his reaction to the idea.
Harry paused for a moment as a single tear slid down his face before he turned to Jonas. "This is incredible." He spoke softly. "Who came up with the idea for the name?"
Jonas looked over to Sirius who spoke up, "That was me, pup. You weren't the only one to love that old bird, and we thought this would be a good way to honor her memory."
"That means a lot to me Sirius. Thank you." Harry replied, getting a hold on his emotions before getting up to get a closer look at the hologram.
'Give me the run down Fleur.' He requested mentally.
'The station is powered by nine ZPM's, three groups of three located here, here, and here.' As she spoke in his head, the hologram spun and zoomed to highlight the different sections of the station. 'The gateroom is located here at in a secure zone at the bottom of the central tower. Everyone entering through the gate will be scanned for weapons and disease before being processed. They will then give their reasons for visiting, estimated length of stay, and any specific needs. From there they will be assigned quarters and beamed directly to them. Any weapons will be confiscated for the duration of their visit and those with disease will be taken to a quarantined medical bed and treated before processing.
'The entire station is surrounded by a meter thick transparent solid casing that will use illusions of a sky to simulate daily cycles. Outside of the casing are standard Alteran shields to protect from any debris as well as the off chance of an attack. Sensors, cloak and defensive weapons are those that come standard on city ships. This is not a war station, but it can defend itself. The park below will be almost self-sustaining, needing only fake sunlight and some oxygen to be pumped into the air.'
'Thanks Fleur.' Harry turned back to the room, "Where is it going to be?" he addresses his question to Jonas.
Jonas looked a bit sheepish, "Well, we haven't quite figured that part out yet. We have some ideas, but we want it someplace neutral everything is either close to Goa'uld or Alliance space."
Harry nodded and thought for a moment before an idea popped into his head. After some quick calculations from Fleur to confirm it was possible he turned back to the hologram that was now displaying the Milky Way Galaxy. "Who says it has to be here?" Harry asked gesturing to the hologram. Jonas looked confused so he continued, "Why does it have to be in the Galaxy at all?"
The hologram zoomed out to include the Pegasus Galaxies and highlighted a point in the middle of the two. "What if we put it out here? Add another gate room connecting to the Pegasus network, and we can essentially bridge the two. No one can argue that the intergalactic void isn't neutral space, and currently only we and the Asgard have the technology to get there by ship, so an attack is next to impossible."
Hermione cut in. "Harry that's brilliant. We can invite our friends in the Pegasus Galaxy to come trade as well. Of course with the Wraith, we will have to…"
"Fleur ensures me that any Wraith, ship or soldier stupid enough to come through that gate would be swiftly dealt with." Harry reassured her.
And so it was decided. Fleur would divert the necessary resources to construct the station. There were several small changes to the design, the largest of which was to have the station able to split at the middle, exposing two star drives that would allow the station to propel itself to its destination. Even with thousands of constructors working full time, and recycling the materials from the Asuran homeworld, the construction would take several months.
Once briefed on the plan, the Asgard high council was in full support and agreed to send a permanent delegation to the station. The Tollan also agreed, however hesitantly, as they still had some issues with interacting with those less advanced than themselves. It was only after they were assured that no technology would be given to less advanced races until they were deemed ready by those in the great alliance did the Tollan agree. As expected the Nox declined to have a permanent representative, but they would be willing to visit when their presence was requested.
'Harry' Fleur's voice broke through his pondering, 'A ship just launched from Earth's surface, hesitated in orbit for a small while and then jumped into hyperspace.'
'A Goa'uld ship?'
'No, it is the ship that Samantha Carter and the U.S. Air Force have been building.' Fleur replied.
'I thought you said they couldn't get the Naquadria hyperdrive stable enough?'
'It is likely that they did not. The ship was taken hostage and there is a Goa'uld on board that most likely made the modifications to the hyperdrive.'
'Well, Jack is going to be really pissed if they spent all that time building a ship and it gets stolen. You are tracking it I assume?'
'Of course'
'Then let's go! This should be fun.' Harry sent off a quick message to Chaya and the rest of the council informing them of the situation before flashing into the Lily and jumping into hyperspace, escorted by three Fleur controlled ships.
They easily caught up to the Earth ship just as it fell out of hyperspace. Due to the speed they were going by the time Fleur was able to get the ships out of hyperspace they had overshot by several light years. Quickly turning around and making the calculations for a small jump, the four fully sized Lilly class ships appeared in front of the stationary ship.
'Scan them.'
'There are several life signs on the bridge, including those of SG1. There are also several dead bodies onboard as well as one human containing a Goa'uld drifting away from the ship in open space. Also dead.' Fleur responded after a moment.
'Right, let's see what's going on shall we?' A moment later he appeared as a hologram on the bridge of the Earth ship.
"Harry! Buddy! Great timing." Jack greeted him as he looked around the bridge.
"Hey Jack, I heard a rumor that someone stole your new ship so I came to lend a hand, it looks like you have everything under control though." Harry responded while smiling in greeting to Sam, Daniel and Teal'c.
"Actually, we could use your help." Sam interjected. "You see, we are a bit lost and without knowing where we are, can't plot a course back to Earth."
"I see. Well, perhaps I can tow you back. I'm not sure I trust that Naquadria hyperdrive of yours." Harry replied, "You do know that the more power you try to extract from it, the bigger the chance that you all go boom?"
Sam nodded, "It is something that we are working on."
Harry just sighed and shook his head slightly. "You know, you do have all that Naquadah from the asteroid, ever think of using something, oh I don't know, a bit more stable?"
"We were unable to design a hyperdrive that could power this ship using Naquadah." Sam looked pained to admit. "The power output of Naquadria makes up for our lack of experience in design."
Harry sighed mumbling something about just giving them the damn Marauder and nodded, "Fair enough." He turned to Jack, "So, haven't seen you guys since Anubis tried to blow up your gate. Been keeping out of trouble?"
Jack snorted. "As much as we can. We keep running into Alliance worlds, it's so strange to see Jaffa and humans working side by side."
"It's a beautiful thing Jack." Harry turned to Teal'c "Speaking of the Alliance, I hear your wife and Ishta have become friends. Also that your son has entered in the Alliance academy. Do you get to see them often?"
Teal'c gave a deep nod, "I have been to visit them on Goronak several times. Ishta has been guiding Drey'auc in the ways of Alliance politics, and Bra'tac enjoys his command of several ships. Rya'c wishes only to be a great warrior, and I fear he often becomes distracted in his studies. It is good however that the Alliance Army will take no Jaffa that has not completed their basic education."
"Yup." Harry replied, "The days of Jaffa as cannon fodder will soon end. Those that fight for the Alliance do so knowing that their lives matter." Harry turned to Jack "You know, if Earth would join the Alliance, you get access to their academy and the entire repository of Alliance technology which includes the latest Goa'uld hyperdrives."
Jack scoffed, "And all we would have to do is have a unified world government, and go public with the Stargate program. My money is on Carter figuring out the hyperdrive long before that is even considered as a possibility."
Harry shrugged, "You're probably right."
Daniel cut in. "Did you hear that we found what might be the key to removing the Jaffa dependence on symbiotes?"
"You talking about tretonin?" Daniel nodded. "Yeah, I must say you guys caused quite the stir when it came out that you had found Egeria. I have some insight on the rest of that story if you are curious." Of course SG1 eagerly nodded.
"Do you all know the original story of Egeria?" They shook their heads so Harry started the story.
Egeria was spawned as a Goa'uld queen and served as an advisor to the System Lord Yu for some time. She was on a diplomatic trip to visit Ra when her transport ship was attacked by an unknown mother ship. When she awoke her ship had crash landed and all of her Jaffa honor guard had been killed. It took her several days before she was able to repair the damage to her host. Once she was strong enough she walked clear of the wreckage in search of a Stargate.
During her wonderings she came across what seemed to be a primitive people, living in simple huts, they twigs in their hair and were eating nuts and berries straight from the tree. Egeria used the traditional Goa'uld party tricks and demanded that they escort her to the Stargate. Her words for the most part ignored as they offered her some of their meal.
This changed when she used her hand ribbon to kill the one closest to her. The remaining people gathered looked upon her, not with fear or anger, but rather with pity. The eldest approached, "You are no longer welcome here. I will escort you to find what you seek so that you may leave." She nodded and as they walked away she saw the others had gathered up the body and placed it on a long table.
Egeria had killed thousands over the years, but this once made her think as they walked. Perhaps it was the response of the others, how dare they pity her. She had half a mind to return to this planet and bombard it simply out of spite. "Your violent urges will not help you find what you seek" her guide interrupted her thoughts.
"How dare you lecture me, I am a goddess!"She hissed at him.
"If you were, as you say a goddess, than you would be able to see the truth in what I say. However we both know that you not. It is quite sad; your species with its genetic memory has such potential. It is a pity to see it wasted as you do."
They continued to walk in silence for some time. It was long after dark that her guide stopped. "This is our journey's end for today. I will return tomorrow to continue our walk." And without another word he disappeared.
The next several days passed mostly in silence, her mysterious guard continually refusing to tell her where or how he would vanish. Her threats not working, she at one point turned to use her hand ribbon on him only for him to vanish before she could attack.
She was left to wonder the woods alone and completely lost for several hours before her guide reappeared. "I would ask you not to attempt an attack on myself again. Since you behavior is like that of a child you will be treated as one. Continuing to threaten and attack myself will result in me finding others to spend my time with." He said as he started walking in the complete opposite direction she was headed in.
"I am not a child." Egeria grumbled to herself before turning and following him through the woods.
It was several hours later when she broke the silence. "If I am such a child, then how old are you?" she sneered at him.
"Oh, I'm quite certain you have been alive longer than I. However, physical age means little in how one acts. My people remember when your home planet was nothing more than molten rock." He responded.
"The gatebuilders?" Egeria gasped!
Her guide let out a small chuckle. "No, we did not create the gate system; however those that did were our good friends."
"Tell me about them." Egeria demanded. Studying and retrofitting Ancient technology had been something of a hobby of hers. To have the opportunity to learn more about them could not be passed up. Her guide simply raised his eyebrows at her. She stared at him a moment and considered torturing the information out of him before realizing that wouldn't get her anywhere. "Would you please tell me about the gatebuilders?"
Her guide gave her a large smile. "Of course I will, all you had to do was ask! Our friends came to us millions of years ago…" He spoke for hours, telling her the original story of the Alterans, always leaving out their name. As their conversation went on, Egeria found herself asking questions, not only of what, but also how and why. Slowly her tone turned from demanding to that of a student searching for answers.
Along with her tone, her attitude started to change as well. Here was an example of a species that was clearly superior to the Goa'uld, but they choose not to lord it over anyone. In fact it seemed that they went out of their way to remain unnoticed. Some of her fellow Goa'uld would call this a weakness, but she saw a strength in her guide that she had never seen in a Goa'uld. It honestly scared her. But at the same time it inspired her as well. 'What could the Goa'uld be if we did not spend all our energies towards war and being worshiped?' 'What sort of advances could we make with the benefit of our genetic memories?' 'Could we someday make ourselves equals to the gatebuilders, instead of merely posing and using their technology? ' These were only some of the questions that she started to ask herself.
Several more days passed this way, some hours in silence, and others in lively discussion. Eventually she saw the gate in the distance.
"Nofarau", she had finally bothered learning the name of her guard. "The man I killed at your camp…"
"Lontmer, my son." Nofarau nodded in response.
Egeria gasped, "Your son? I…I… I'm sorry for what I did to him." And for the first time in her life, she actually was.
They walked the rest of the way to the gate in silence; Egeria wanted to say more but couldn't find the words, Nofarau seemed lost in thought. When they got to the gate, Nofarau waved his hand and a stable wormhole was established. "As I said before, you are no longer welcome here. I encourage you to continue to act like an adult. Our conversation has been most pleasant the last few days. As for Lontmer, you may rest easier to know that he has recovered quite well. The Nox do not believe in death before ones time. Lontmer has many years ahead of him before he is ready to pass on." Without another word, he vanished and Egeria had no choice but to leave through the gate.
"It was two years later that she spawned the first Tok'ra." Harry concluded his tale.
"Wow" Daniel was not the only one fascinated by the brief history lesson. "How did you learn that story?"
"Oh," Harry smugly replied, "Egeria told it to me."
"WHAT?" Jack shouted.
"The Tok'ra that took her body made an appeal to me that I passed on to the Nox. Egeria and her host were dead for only a few hours. While Egeria is no longer young, she still has a few good years left once the damage from the Pangarans was repaired, and spawning a new Tok'ra queen is now her priority number one." Harry informed them. "For the first time in thousands of years, the Tok'ra can look forward to some population growth. Already there are many humans that have gone through the Alliance Academy that have expressed interest in blending with a Tok'ra." Harry shrugged, "It wouldn't be something I would want, but to each his own I suppose. The Tok'ra at the Alliance Academy are now researching the tretonin. They plan on having several volunteer Jaffa on in within a few months."
The rest of SG1 was too busy processing this information to respond at the moment. Several minutes later Harry announced that they were back in orbit around Earth and that he would be contacting them in a few months with a nice surprise.
It had been almost a year since the replicators were defeated. In that time the Asgard worked hard to rebuild their depleted armada as well as their assorted outposts and science stations spread throughout the Ida Galaxy. Thanks to the assistance of Alteran drone weapons they had been able to turn the tide of the war several years earlier, but each battle was hard fought and many Asgard consciousness's were lost.
Due to several hundred years of war, the Asgard race, once numbering in the billions spread across two galaxies at the peak of their civilization, was reduced to several hundred thousand. Once the war was truly over, the traditionally stoic race took the time to morn all that had been lost.
Their time was not all spent in mourning and reflection however. For the first time in thousands of years, the Asgard looked forward to a bright future. The pride, joy and hope of the Asgard race was symbolized by one little girl, the first Asgard to be born in millennia. Although in the past year there were several hundred Asgard children born, the birth of Harri was the turning point that the Asgard had been waiting for.
What amazed her tutors was how intelligent she truly was. At only just over a year old, she understood all but the highest math and sciences. It quickly became apparent however that while she could easily understand what she was taught, the wisdom and moral code that the Asgard subscribed to would take longer for her to fully grasp. Because of this, the plan and schedule for her schooling was undergoing a large overhaul to include lessons in ethics, morality, justice and at least one year spent living with the Nox before she would be considered an Asgard adult, ready to take her place in society.
The Nox of course were more than happy to accommodate their old friends. Children were somewhat rare for the people of the Nox and as such they were considered extremely precious. Having the honor of playing host to every Asgard child in the coming years was something that the Elders were greatly looking forward to. Many of the Children of Avalon had come to visit the Nox homeworld over the past several years, but at this point there was no planned system of semi-permanent exchange planned. This was something that Lya meant to speak with Hermione about at her next opportunity.
Along with the re-creation of their ships and outposts, the High Council had directed that a new age of scientific discovery was in order. Most Asgard that were previously dedicated to the war effort were re-directed into assignments based around scientific advancement. Everything they knew about astro-physics through zoology was being re-evaluated, questioned, and challenged. The goal was that as they once again took the time to focus on these subjects, a greater understanding of the universe would emerge.
It was as a part of this initiative that the High Council had requested the presence of several Asgard researchers on Avalon. The Alterans were quick to agree with the stipulation that they also participate as educators in the Academy and as contributing members of the community. The invitation was also extended to the Nox, who politely declined, preferring to live as they had been for generations. Lya of course continued to commute to Avalon on an almost daily basis as requests for her classes and guiding wisdom continued to increase.
Bjorg's research, with the help of Fleur and two Asgard assistants was going well. The Asgard had long known how to transfer one's consciousness into another clone body. This process was basically straight forward as the vessels were almost identical. However it was considered too risky to attempt the process directly into a body composed of nanites as any mistake would result in the loss of the Asgard consciousness. Such a loss was considered unacceptable and so the first hurdle was to successfully duplicate a consciousness.
After months of theory and simulations, Bjorg and his team felt that they were ready to attempt the duplication process. Using a modified apparatus that traditionally extracts the consciousness from a clone and places it either in storage or a new body they were going to intercept the datastream, duplicate it, and do both. Hopefully resulting in the consciousness placed in both storage and the new clone body. Once there was a backup of the consciousness in storage, the procedure could be duplicated repeatedly without risk of losing the original.
As it was his research, Bjorg refused to allow any other Asgard risk their existence and decided that he would be the one to perform the procedure. His clone body was getting old as it was and he was due for a new body anyway. With Fleur monitoring the procedure, everything went smoothly and Bjorg now had a full backup of his consciousness stored in data crystals.
From there it was a matter of creating a body that was similar enough to an Asgard clone that the consciousness would be able to transfer to it and take control. This was a delicate balance as the nanites needed some level of base programming to control low level functions such as movement and communication with each other. The Asgard were smart, but even they would not be able to directly manage the trillions of nanites that composed their bodies.
It was a feat of programming that took several months before a prototype was ready. The problem in simulations was finding the balance of autonomy vs intelligence. Whereas all nano-Fleurs were completely controlled by the guiding Fleur AI, the new Asgard bodies needed to allow full control to the consciousness occupying them while at the same time not needing to be micromanaged.
The first prototype was a disaster. The body could stand, walk, and perform basic functions on its own, but when Bjorg's consciousness was uploaded into it, he was unable to take control. The nanite programming that was designed to protect the body from outside cyber-attack identified Bjorg as a threat to the body and destroyed it. As they analyzed the logs of what happened, Bjorg turned to one of his assistants and commented, "It is quite disconcerting to read of one's own death in such a fashion." The assistant simply nodded in agreement, now grateful that Bjorg rejected her own offer to be the test subject.
After that initial setback, they started with simpler base code and worked their way up. Their best attempt thus far had been when Bjorg's consciousness was able to take control and blink several times answering yes or no questions before being overwhelmed by trying to control the functions of trillions of nanites. They continued to work however, and as time went on, Bjorg became somewhat adjusted to watching himself die.
When construction of Hedwig Station was complete, Harry and several of those key to its formation went to the Pegasus Galaxy to pick her up for her voyage out to the void. As soon as they set foot in the command center Harry turned to Jonas. "Captain, she is all yours."
Jonas thanked him and started running Fleur through the pre-flight checks. It had taken some convincing, but eventually Jonas had agreed to accept the responsibility of being the captain of the station. He and a few other Alterans were going to live on the station and be a living Alteran presence keeping the station operating smoothly and facilitating meetings when needed. Fleur of course would be responsible for security and the running of everything technical.
Susan Turner, who had been dating Jonas for several months now, was one of the Alterans joining him on the station. Her son Ben, now 12, would spend his nights on Hedwig and his days of classes back at Avalon Academy. It was for reasons like this that they decided to have Hedwig's fake daily cycle mirror that of Avalon's.
Having finished the pre-flight checks Jonas asked Fleur to activate the stardrives that would take the two separate halves of the station into the galactic void.
When they arrived, Fleur coordinated the connection of the two hemispheres and with a small tremor that shook the station, the two were locked in place and Hedwig Station was fully operational. Minutes later Fleur made an announcement, out loud, but directed to Jonas. "Caption, long range sensors have picked up a ship moving away from us at almost the speed of light."
Jonas looked over at Harry who simply shrugged and gestured back to him as if to say, 'It's your station.'
Note:
Yes, the idea for Hedwig station is stolen from Babylon 5. Also, credit goes to althor42 for giving me the idea that the Nox were the cause of Egeria's creation of the Tok'ra. I believe it was in Isis' Bane: Tar'Chell's Wrath. Anyway, it is a great series and if you haven't yet go read them. I believe that TheLordofChaos is now continuing the latest in the series.
Delays in writing happen. My life is crazy, and I'm working a lot of extra hours. I would not expect another update until December at the earliest. Also I have no artistic skills, if anyone wants to draw Hedwig station, or even better make a 3d model, that would ROCK and I would love to see it.