AN: I do not hold the right to Stargate regrettably and they belong to MGM. On another note some readers have been confused by James'/Ares' actions in letting Anubis go. He did this because he could not kill Anubis and needed more time to find a way. The best way to buy time was to prolong the war and thus he allowed Anubis to escape.
Rebirth of Ares
Frozen and Power
August 2003
Areya – Ares' Homeworld
The past few months of the war had been draining for James as he sat once more in his offices on Areya. Anubis had escaped many times now, even eluding Ba'al and his fleet. Anubis had been tracked to a world not far from Ba'al's domain, a human world known to the SGC as Langara and host to a rare, unstable, variance of Naquadah called Naquadria. Anubis had started to occupy the planet before Ba'al showed up, having been informed by James at the behest of the SGC. Upon failing to surrender Anubis' ship was promptly destroyed by Ba'al though once again Anubis escaped through the use of his escape shuttle. A positive to this was that Anubis had lost his command ship and his super weapon yet again, the negative was he had escaped again. He was quite the slippery snake especially given his non-physical self. James' research into ascension and possible ways to fight them became more urgent and took up much of his spare time when not ruling his domain or dealing with issues at Evans Industries on Earth.
On the Earth front his company was doing well and had managed to miniaturise the reactor to the size of a lorry meaning that it was now usable for large buildings or aircraft carriers, if a bit overkill, for power production. For a starship though it was most suitable. That said it would need to be modified to produce enough power, perhaps through the use of Naquadah. His CEO, Francesca Dowing, had reported that apparently the US Air Force was interested in his designs and wished to purchase them. James suspected it was likely to be the SGC wanting it for their space ship rather than the air force but he was inclined to permit the deal. Francesca was not too happy helping the US military but admitted it was a good deal and could boost the company's prestige. Apparently they wanted to speak with him in person to discuss it too, likely due to the secrecy and that they reportedly wanted to modify the reactors thus supporting his theory the SGC was after his fusion reactors.
One issue though that was causing problems for the System Lords was Anubis' new warriors. They had appeared barely a month ago and had dealt a number of ground defeats to the collective might of the Goa'uld. Wearing energy dampening armour superior to his elite guard's these warriors were cutting through swathes of Jaffa showing no sign of weakness, resisting everything up to a Ha'tak staff blast. Using these warriors Anubis assassinated a number of minor Goa'uld leaving them open to absorption by his forces. This had bolstered his own forces bringing the conflict to a more even level. Still out numbered but with superior ships and these creatures the fight was now in the balance and leaning Anubis' way despite James now fighting him more frequently to tilt battles in the System Lords favour. Still it was not enough. They needed Anubis removed permanently and these warriors of his exterminated. James sent a data transmission to Earth in relation to energy dampening armour hoping they might be able to figure it out using Tok'ra and Asgard knowledge or their own ingenuity. He was hopeful as the SGC had gathered a reputation for pulling a rabbit out of a hat with daring last minute escapes and defeats of various System Lords. Still he continued to research it, or rather set Carol to look into it while he focused on ascension and the Potentia factory.
November 2003
Sol System
Home, he was home though admittedly not on the planet but he was nearby. He was on his command ship, the Achilles, due to its superior sensors and was joined at his location by Earth's own ship, the Prometheus. It was a small vessel but tough. Thanks to the hints from the Repository and some knowledge he had shared at the beginning of his interactions with the SGC they had come up with a reliable hyperdrive based on Ancient designs which was superior than normal Goa'uld one. His scans of the Earth ship also revealed a few plasma cannons not dissimilar to those used on Anubis' command ship. Its sensors were also interesting in design, crossing Ancient and Goa'uld styles while also using old fashioned radar and thermal imaging as well. The reason the ships were in orbit of the sun was that he had finally cracked the codes and found the present location of the Potentia factory. Of course where was it? In orbit of Earth's sun, right under everyone's noses. According to the Repository it was cloaked and out of phase so as to not be dragged into the sun or irradiated. To de-cloak it a signal had to be sent, forcing it to reveal itself and thus be able to be boarded. They were now waiting for SG1 to come aboard his own ship. He had purposely come with as few crew as possible, bringing only his First Prime, Carol and two of his elite that his prime trusted implicitly. An alert came from his side console indicating the rings were activating. A few minutes later Honeric led the four from Earth onto the Pel'tak. "Nice digs, sweet ride too?" came the undeniable voice of Colonel O'Neill.
"Colonel, others of SG1, welcome aboard. And yes it is a 'sweet ride' as you put it. We are ready to proceed. Are you?"
"Prometheus will monitor from a distance and maintain sensor lock once the factory is located" Sam answered while Daniel seemed to be hopping with excitement too.
"Very well. Honeric transmit Ancient identity code."
"Yes my lord. Transmitting now."
Out in space, in orbit of the star, a visible distortion began to form. The sensors focused in on it and the viewscreen changed to show the distortion. The thing fluctuated and slowly faded leaving a snowflake-like structure in orbit of said star. The arms were covered in panels and some form of collectors. The central part, a ball like object from which the arms extended from was around 800 meters in diameter and mostly a silvery blue in colour with oranges and browns along the arms and the collectors. "Wow, that's some engineering. To keep it in orbit, for this long and this undamaged. That must have tremendous amount of engineering and power" Sam said in awe. Daniel looked at her turning from the picture on the screen.
"Well remember these are the gatebuilders, they did everything big. Atlantis is suppose to be a city ship or a ship the size of a city, this must be peanuts for them" Daniel commented and Sam could only nod in agreement as she looked over the scan the Achilles was making.
"My lord, the facility appears to be powering up. I'm reading life support and other functions activating" Honeric reported.
"Well, lets not keep it waiting. Are there any ring transport connections or docking ports?"
"One ring room my lord, I have locked on to, you should be able to ring across safely" James' prime answered after a moment checking.
"So we going across then?" Jack asked from the rear of the bridge. Teal'c had taken up standing to one side giving him a view of the entire room. The group of five headed along the corridor to a ring room and activated them. A whirring sound followed by a flash of white and then some more whirring and they were in a small, mostly brown or cream room with one door. The architecture was different than the outpost in Antarctica. This seemed more refined and utilitarian. Perhaps slightly older too. Still it sent him back to when they had found the outpost and the body nearby…
- Flashback - June 2002
'God it's cold down here, duh of course it was this is the south pole' James thought bitterly. He didn't really know why he was here but felt he needed to be here. It had taken the better part of a year of searching based on the information the Repository had given them and the location of the Beta gate. When earlier that year he found a Potentia on an abandoned world of Ra's, a device Ra had not known the truth of and had simply called the Heart of Light, James had recovered it and knew it was only truly useful for Ancient facilities like the outpost. An outpost that would likely be in dire need of one given its age. Since they had no clue on the factory's location yet this was the best use of the Potentia for now. The surprise for the team down here in Antarctica was they had discovered a human body frozen at a depth and location that indicated it was millions of years old. The doctor in charge, one Francine Michaels, was astonished at the find and thanks to a larger team and base they shortly afterwards found the Ancient outpost buried deep under a nearby glacier. Using a cargo ship they had retained from Cronus' ship, an SGC team with Dr Bill Lee located a set of rings deep below and then began drilling down on that spot. As this went on SG1 and the medical doctors analysed the woman they'd recovered. And that was why he was here. The woman was an Ancient and he was the foremost expert and speaker of the language and their people, along with Carol, thanks to their Repository. They had found out that somehow the woman had gone into a form of cryo sleep. Her ageing completely frozen and body perfectly preserved. And so he was sat in the observation room watching Dr Michaels, Dr Fraiser and Major Carter attempt to revive her. When he had been informed of the find and its condition, he had returned home in his private shuttle while bringing his sarcophagus along too. He had made some improvements to it over the years and it now had a smaller impact on the 'soul' thus reducing the madness and evilness that traditionally occurred. A one off use though was harmless, it was repeated uses that did the damage. Thus he stood watching carefully, his hand device attached to his hand and a number of Goa'uld sensors set up prior to this current revival attempt to monitor how it went. It was when they had her warmed up and were getting EEG and hear rate readings they noticed a small wound bleeding. Barely seconds later James' sensors started blaring. Jack and Teal'c along with Jonas turned to him looking startled. "I don't know. The scans must have picked up something." He ran through the scans on a Goa'uld data terminal linked to the sensors. It took him a moment or two to bring up the alert. He paled upon reading it. A second later he was up and rushing to the door into the operating room, sealing it and locking it firmly.
"Hey! What you doing? They're still in there" Jack yelled coming over and grabbing him.
"I'm sorry Colonel I can not allow anyone in or out of there. A virus was detected on the sensors. A highly virulent and dangerous ones if they are to be believed. I had no choice" James replied firmly, standing strong thanks to his symbiote enhanced body. "Keep them in there, hopefully in a few hours the virus will no longer be airborne so we can bring them out and cure them in the sarcophagus I brought with me." James left to retrieve the sarcophagus from his shuttle which was parked nearby since everyone on site was read in to the Stargate Programme. Meanwhile the frozen woman was now awake and the doctors and Carter had been told of the illness. They agreed to the lock down and eventual use of the sarcophagus. James returned an hour later with a couple of men pushing the device on a sled and tracked wheels. The frozen woman was eventually placed in the device first having been deemed more in need after a few more hours of waiting until the sensors no longer detected it airborne. When she came out she seemed a healthier colour and looked more attentive. "Salve, tibi gratias ago pro subsidium quod mihi praebebatis" The group mostly looked blankly at her though James cocked his head thinking it over before replying.
"Tu grata, quid sentis? She said thanks for healing her. I asked her how she was" James explained.
The pair exchanged a few more words while he helped her stand and then sit down near by while the Sam was brought in to sit in the sarcophagus. "Quod nomen tibi est?" James asked. There was a pause as the woman seemed to think for a few moments before replying. "Lyrena" she said softly. "Her name is Lyrena" James said to everyone else. The two spoke a bit more before she tried to place her hands on James' head. He jerked back and she spoke a bit more before he eventually allowed the placement. Once her hands had touched his temples and she brought her forehead to his she closed her eyes and faintly glowed for a split second before she pulled back, dropping her hands from his head.
"Thank you for trusting me. I felt it was best I tried to gain knowledge of your language" she said in perfect English with a slight accent. The group was stunned and almost forgot Carter as she got up from the sarcophagus. The two doctors were quickly put through the device and healed of the virus. Over the next few hours Jonas and James spoke with Lyrena about herself and her people.
Two days later SG1, James and Lyrena were at the top of a very deep hole that had been bored all the way down to the outpost. James carried a case about the size of a small TV, inside of which was the Potentia he had found. A small lift, barely big enough for the group had been built into the hole and it took just over five minutes to descend to the outpost. Upon arriving they found General Hammond had already come down before them and was waiting for them considering the importance of the find. They made their way through the outpost, with Lyrena leading them slightly, until they came across the control chair in the dead centre of the outpost, a chair which only someone with the Ancient gene could use. James put the case down and unlocked it, pulling the Potentia out and presenting it to Lyrena who carried to the left side of the chair and opened a small compartment on the base of the chair's platform. She pulled out a dull, dark crystal like object similar to the one she held. She then placed the glowing crystal into the aforementioned slot and pushed it down. Once in, the outpost began to hum with power as systems long dormant began to wake. She then sat down in the chair causing it to light up and tilt back making it appear she was lying down. Holographic diagrams appeared above her showing the Solar system, showing ship designs, showing a city like structure that had the shape of a snowflake until finally a picture of a squid like object appeared with a progress bar underneath showing over 98%. She then began to rise up, the hologram shut off and the light went out on the chair. "This outpost is at full strength. It has just under the full amount of drones, the Potentia is at 89% and the solar system is clear of all ships. Colonel O'Neill, James, I believe you both should sit in the chair as well. You both have...potential." James shrugged and went first as Jack looked uncertain. He sat down on the chair which came to life and glowed blue. - Detecting unknown form in body. Security Lockdown activated. Running full body scan – Outside, a beam of light began running the full length of his body.
"Interesting, it seems the security protocol is attempting to identify who or what James is" said Lyrena in curiosity.
"It's scanning him then?" Carter asked in amazement.
"Indeed. Once it is done it will likely imprint a security permit into his genes to grant access in the future, both here and at any other Ancient facility."
- Parasite identified, brain scans minimal, explain -
'The creature is effectively brain dead, its personality gone. I can access its memories and knowledge but it can do nothing to me.'
- Scans confirmed. Lockdown ended, placing security permit into DNA for future access. Access granted, welcome user – With that over James then pictured scans of the solar system and felt the knowledge in his head as the scan was carried out. Above him a holographic image of the same was shown. He then asked for the status of Atlantis and the outpost sent out a wide beam subspace pulse requesting the information. A few seconds later a reply pulse was returned. The information contained surprised him. It was at the bottom of the ocean, its shield were at minimal power and its Potentia were nearing depletion, two already dead and the third was down to 3%. He ended his link to the outpost and sat up, the chair falling silent and dark. "Well I have access now, it gave me some genetic security code for future use apparently. Also Atlantis," he paused seeing everyone's attention rise. "It's abandoned. It sits at the bottom of an ocean with its Potnetia almost gone. I suspect at its current rate it can last for maybe another three or four years before it is flooded. If anyone arrives they will have hours or days to replace the Potentia before the shield completely collapses. Regretfully though it didn't mention a gate address, it seemed blocked out somehow." Silence fell at the grim news. Lyrena seemed particularly upset at the fate of her city.
"Then it seems we must find this factory you are searching for. Miss, do you know where it might be?" Hammond said turning to Lyrena.
"I'm sorry General that information was not widely known. I was a biological scientist, I studied planets and various species. Potentia construction was guarded heavily to prevent misuse. Despite our generally good behaviour, there was always a fear they could be misused and so were restricted and monitored closely. All I know is that it may be in this star system but likely locked down in some way. You will need some sort of code to allow access and for it to reveal itself" she explained. The group looked sad at that.
"I will find it don't worry. Now I know what to look for and maybe where it should narrow it down in the Repository. Me and Carol will find it." James said firmly lifting everyone's spirits slightly. "As for Atlantis, you'll have to crack the code protecting it."
-Flashback Ends- November 2003
As they walked around the factory they saw various light fixtures activate as they went. Lyrena had remained in the outpost helping scientists understand it better as well as helping a Dr Carson Beckett look for the so called ATA gene to help identify possible users. The group of five eventually came to a central room the size of the gateroom back at the SGC. All around them were a number of consoles and chairs along with a control chair, like in the outpost, off to one side. There were also two other heavy duty blast doors that led into the room. "Ok team; Carter, Jackson, get on the computers. James go help them. Teal'c and I will search the facility and see what we can find. Questions?" No one answered and Sam and Daniel were already walking over to consoles.
"I'll try and sit in the chair, hopefully it might give us some shortcuts to powering up this place and getting maps" James said.
"Good call, Carter watch him and make sure it doesn't blow up in his face. Teal'c, lets have a wander."
"Indeed" came the deep voice of the Jaffa and the pair walked out through one of the other door. Daniel and Sam started looking over the consoles while James sat in the control chair. He activated it and monitored the start up of life support on other decks while checking sensors and the factory's power supply. It seemed that it was powered by the star itself, much like the ship called Destiny. When low on power it would sweep down low into the star and collect the plasma and energy it needed before returning to its orbit. The last time it had done so was twenty years ago and under normal conditions it would repeat every 80 to 100 years. Thus the reason it had not been spotted was due to no one being able to witness it. With all the systems checking out as working or only subtly damaged he pulled up from the chair and went over to Carter and Jackson. "What you got so far?" he asked as he approached them. Sam looked up from the laptop she had plugged in using a crystal adaptor.
"As I'm sure you guessed, main power is back online and the factory section seems to have begun its start up sequence for the factory. I was just thinking of whether or not to shut it down before you came over."
"Perhaps see if we have any Potentia ready made first. We barely have a use for them as it is, though perhaps as a super battery as it were for our ships they might have use? Anyway there's no point making more except maybe one or two to prove this place can do as designed." Carter hummed in agreement, looking back at her laptop before then typing in a few commands. Deep in the bowls of the space station the slow build up of power petered out before slowly falling silent once again.
"I think that did it" she said while chewing her bottom lip nervously.
"Certainly sounds like it Sam" Daniel said having walked over to them from another station in the room. "By the way I've gone over a few of the last logs recorded in the database. It seems that a plague in the Alteran domain, or empire they call it, forced them to abandon the station and shut it down, placing it into long term suspension. They then left on Atlantis to escape the plague, leaving this place behind."
"Well that matches up with what was in the Repository in regards to abandoning the Milky Way and leaving for Pegasus."
"Yeah we just need to work on a gate address. You're sure the Repository didn't have one?" Daniel asked hopefully.
"I doubt they knew exactly where they were going at the time they updated them and so didn't leave one. That said perhaps the outpost will have something. We've been looking at it for how long now?"
"Bit over a year, Lyrena has been quite helpful in understanding the language and some of the technology there. That said we might be close to finding some co-ordinates soon. She was saying in her last message that she's come across an encoded segment that is large enough to be a short message. It was dated around ten thousand years ago, give or take. Which would match up with some returning to Earth. We just need to decode it and we might have something" Daniel explained, pushing his glasses up.
"Lets hope so. All I know is that they said Pegasus in the Repository" James replied.
"Helpful but not entirely. It would take weeks if not months to get there and we'd still have to search it" Daniel said with a sigh.
"Weren't the Asgard planning to upgrade your hyperdrives?" This caught Sam's attention from her laptop.
"Actually they said we had good ones already. They were, however, going to tweak them. Something about efficiency and intergalactic travel they said."
"Sounds good, enjoy the improved drives." James returned with a small smirk. It was then their radio's buzzed.
"O'Neill to Carter and Jackson, you there?"
"Reading you five by five Colonel. What's up?"
"Me and Teal'c have just finished a walkabout and, well...we just found something you might wanna see." The group exchanged curious looks and made for the door. They followed Jack's instructions down a series of well lit greyish brown corridors which had a few screens dotted about showing maps or other information on them. They eventually entered a large, warehouse size room with a number of shelves and aisles in it, running along each wall and half a dozen in between. Lying upon each shelf, and held within individual slots, were a number of glowing orangey red crystals, each just over half a meter long. The group stared at the room in awe. The number of Potentia held here was extraordinary. "There must be hundreds of them" Sam eventually gasped out.
"I think we can say we hit the jackpot" Jack said smugly. The others nodded dumbly. Teal'c just gave an awed "Indeed". Yes, Earth certainly would have no trouble powering the outpost or Atlantis if they ever got there. They could also be useful in boosting their ship's power to rival Ha'taks more easily. Things just might be looking up James thought hopefully.
AN Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. For the station sort of picture the defence satellite near Atlantis but with thin long arms and a bigger core section. Also a more smoother hull compared to the satellite as well. It's never said how they got the gate address for Atlantis in the show so I'm just playing with the idea that Janus or someone left a note with the address and that last time they only found address and not the message.