Chapter 9
By Jace
Beta: andrewjameswilliams
Elizabeth Weir stood in the observation lounge of the CCS Rust Bucket. Around the room was a small gathering consisting of the Prime Ministers of the UK, Canada and the other Commonwealth countries. The leaders of the EU nations and the President of the United States. There was also the President Of Iceland along with a few guests including some rock band from CCP Games named Permaband who were there to provide some music native to New Eden on this historic day. There was also General Hammond and the rest of the former SG-1.
With the program temporarily shut down due to the international outcry of the permanent members of the security council. The odds of it being restarted any time soon were minimal though when it did it would be housed aboard the space station Xander had decided to give the planet. Once the Astrahus-class citadel was assembled it would become the Headquarters of the New SGC the Goa'uld Al'kesh bombers which Samatha Carter USAF(Ret.) And some of the other capsuleer candidates with help from a team from Area 51 with assistance from the Jaffa who had joined the Capsuleer Confederacy They had disarmed them and gifted them to the new internationally run SGC.
The speed in which this had all taken place was amazing just four weeks after the introduction of Xander and his crew of stranded residents of what she once thought of as a video game to the world. And three weeks since the day he had addressed the entire General Assembly of the United Nations. Then there was the conversation she had with Tony Blair just this mourning before they'd been shuttled up here.
SOTL: Titan-UN Building three weeks ago-SOTL: Titan
Elizabeth stood there trying to wrap her head around what was being said in front of her. The young man standing at the podium of the UN General Assembly had laid out a plan to bring to their world the science and technology of his civilization, a civilization twenty thousand years more advanced than their own.. Though the roll out would be slow he had asked permission to begin recruiting potential capsuleers; explaining that not everyone had either the correct mindset or the genetics to become one. He planned to set up a new Concord, using the members of his corporation as the core, with the first class to join then after that select other capsuleers being invited to join, while leaving the rest alone as long as they followed the charter, he was proposing would be given more and more freedom to explore while acting as the space defences of this planet until such time as he was able to get jump gates established to allow them to spread out. How he would be able to control any capsuleer that decided to go rogue by simply cutting off their access to new ships and clones thereby rendering him or her mortal once again.
He had also informed the UN that he had previously deployed several space stations in orbit above Jupiter, unaware that there were international treaties governing the ownership of structures in space and asked approval for those structures that would become the headquarters of this Neo-Concord. He had offered an Astrahus to be placed in orbit along with some form of shuttle to get back and forth for the use of the UN as was deemed appropriate he could place it anywhere in Earth orbit for them. The speech had went on for another twenty minutes outlining the New Concord Charter, then as soon as he was finished speaking Secretary-General Kofi Annan had called for several votes the first was approval for the station in Jupiter orbit that one had passed with only five no votes of those no's only one stood out and that was the USA.
The vote after that had been whether to accept the Concord Charter and allow open recruitment of new capsuleers from the population of the world that vote had barely passed with most of the first world countries voting no with the exception of the Commonwealth nations. The last had been to establish a UN Embassy onboard the Keepstar to liaison with Concord when it was finished constructing in just three weeks. And to allow a Concord Embassy to be built on Earth. That one had once again passed with a narrow margin. That vote had also passed narrowly. With again America voting no but being outvoted by even normally staunch allies.
SOTL: Titan-Rust Bucket-SOTL: Titan
As the gathering was getting into full swing Xander and the gang entered turning heads. Xander was wearing the same outfit he had worn during the press conference. Giles was wearing something similar to him but behind him came the girls who were wearing matching dresses in red and black. They split up Mrs. Summers and the girls headed towards Elizibeth Weir and Samatha Carter. While Giles and Xander made their way over towards where Prime Minister Blair and President Grímsson were talking.
"Gentleman welcome aboard again. I hope you are ready for the final phase. The Keepstar will come online in about fifteen minutes as soon as it does the Rust Bucket will immediately dock up. I will then take everyone on a tour of the station after that the first of the modified Al'kesh will be used to return you guys planet side. Enjoy, I'm going to go greet some other people." said Xander
"Before you go, Captain I wanted to invite you to visit Iceland. There are many of my citizens that would very much like to meet you" said President Grímsson with a slight smile, he was constantly being pestered by the senior executives and game designers at CCP to arrange a meeting between themselves and Xander. He guessed they wanted to know more about what life was really like in New Eden so they could make EVE Online even more realistic when they did their next major expansion.
"I will think about it but I have a busy few weeks ahead of me. We will see afterwards if I can find the time." Xander responded.
As he was looking around he saw Sam off to the side with the rest of her former teammates.
"Sam are you sure about this? Are you really leaving the Air Force to join this Concord organization?" Jack asked, still deeply unhappy about his now former second in command's choice.
"I'm sure Jack the chance to work with the technology here and to get in on the ground floor of what will probably become the most influential organization in the history of our planet was too good to pass up the invitation to join from Xander. And the president and joint chiefs must have agreed to accept my resignation in the first place. Do you realize I was the only member of the American military who was invited to join the rest of the class, besides his friends, are all European or from the Commonwealth," responded Sam slightly upset on the way Jack had approached the conversation. Though when she thought about it she supposed she shouldn't be surprised as Jack was still sulking about the shutdown of the SGC pending its reorganisation as a multinational force, plus he was still smarting from the very thorough dressing down he'd been given by President Bartlett himself for screwing up their relationship with Xander and driving him right into the arms of the British.
Daniel and Teal'c both had sad expressions on their faces as they realized their team was truly broken.
"Sam I wish you the best of luck in your new path." Daniel said, holding out his hand to shake hers which she did with a smile.
"Indeed cap...Samantha Carter. I hope we meet again." Teal'c added, giving her a slight bow.
"Guys I won't be gone forever. It's just a few months then I will be able to come back to the planet whenever I want. We can meet up for dinner. What do you say?" Sam replied.
They all agreed once Sam had graduated they would meet back up for a supper.
It was finally time. Xander walked to the center of the room and raised his glass taping it with a spoon.
"Everyone I would like to welcome you to this small ceremony celebrating the onlineing of the Keepstar. Witch thanks to a suggestion by Rupert Giles will be named Imladris. Which Is better than my choice was for the station." As Xander finished speaking the outside lights of the giant station came on and several marker buoys were deployed marking the outer edge of it's tethering and docking tractor beam range. "Now if everyone will excuse me I will be right back in just going to get this beast docked up and I will lead you on a tour of the station."
Xander hurried out of the room to his pod to maneuver the Rust Bucket into the Imladris's topside docking bay.
SOTL: Titan-Imladris-SOTL: Titan
After docking, which had to be done manually due to the automated systems not engaging for some reason, a large catwalk seemed to expand and unfold coming to rest and attaching to the main cargo bays airlock. Then a clear plastic-like material seemed to shoot along tracks connecting to the hull around the airlock. It took a few minutes but when the airlock door opened it was a parade of people with Xander in the lead. As the group was walking along everyone was amazed by the size of the cavernous hangar bay.
"Oh for crying out loud don't they do anything small," Jack O'Neill muttered as he gazed around the immense, almost vertigo inducing space.
They made it down the connector and into the station proper. Xander quickly ushered them into a lift which was barely big enough to fit everyone.
"First stop will be the promenade level which is the social hub of the station if it was fully staffed but for now it will be where the UN embassy will be located. Then we will head for the command deck. The med deck where I will be more than happy to show off some of our medical technology. And finally the VIP residential decks. We will end the tour in one of the smaller docking bays where your transports back to earth will be waiting." Xander finished just as the lift doors opened.
The promenade was filled with trees, even patches of grass though it was purple. and empty shops with names like Lai Dai, Isokore and Quafe. The largest building in the center had a large sign proclaiming it was a Sisters of Eve outreach enter. There were also numerous buildings with no label at all. It was almost like a ghost town with all the empty shops but everyone imagined what this place would be like when it was bustling with life..
"The unnamed buildings are normally rented out to corporations as office space. Ambassador Weir you can pick any of them you like for your embassy once you've chosen you will find that there is a computer terminal inside that will allow you to put the name and logo on the building. As to the prenamed buildings, those ones are prepaid to the Upwell Consortium or, in the case of the Sisters of EVE, as part of their charity outreach programs."
"Captain, how are there trees inside here? I thought the station had just finished building less than a hour ago," asked one of the new capsuleer recruits from Britain.
"Good question, the simple answer is that they are not trees at all; they are hyper efficient nanite constructs that act as oxygen generators and carbon dioxide scrubbers. But touch them they will feel just like a tree the same is true of the grass."
As Xander led them on a short walk around the area they arrived back at the lift area he pointed towards the end of the bank of lifts where there were blue lines on the wall.
"Those are express lifts designed to get you to any residential floor within the station. The ones on the other end with the red stripes are station crew lifts; those are the ones we will be taking to get to the command center." When he finished speaking the doors to all four of the lifts opened these one where much smaller than the one they had rode up in.
"Everyone please choose a lift they will all take you to the command center." With that the group split into four groups and piled into the cars as soon as the cars were full the doors closed and they rapidly made their way to the command center.
At some point before arriving the four cars had all joined onto the same rail. The one Xander was in was the first to arrive at the deck as soon as his group were out of the car the door swooshed shut and then reopened to reveal the next group this repeated each time till everyone was assembled in the hallway leading to the c and c.
"Ok everyone do me a favor and keep your hands off the consoles. I wouldn't want you to accidently vent us into space or something." Xander said with a dead serious face
The look on everyone faces went stark white at the thought of explosive decompression
"Just kidding can you guys not take a joke." Xander says with a laugh
If looks were lasers Xander would have been vaporized. Though Xander didn't notice it as he had already turned around leading the way down the hallway to the single door at the end.
Though to every person there who had ever had military training they realized this was a kill zone and that there very well could be numerous hidden weapons in the ceiling, walls and floor. When they reached the end of the hallway the blast door quickly opened showing there were multiple doors each close to a foot thick with only small gaps between each one.
The final one opened to a room that could only be described as a sunken bowl shape they were standing on the rim and there was row apron row of empty desk with holographic screen projected in front of each one going down the bowl till you got to the bottom where a large table set with twenty or so chairs around it. Xander lead the way down the steps pointing out the different consoles
As Willow was walking down the steps she missed her step and started to fall grabbing on the to edge of the console in front of her she takes and sits down rubbing her ankle witch she had twisted badley in the fall when she goes to stand up a shock of pain runs up her leg causing her to put her hands on the console in front of her, to stop herself falling again, accidentally hitting the execute button on the prompt that was on the screen in the process; the moment she did a loud mechanical voice came over the speakers in the room.
"AI core restart initialized."
"Oh no not again." Willow as every single person in the room looked at her in surprise and in some cases alarm. She quickly sunk down into the chair she was in. praying she could go invisible as Marcie Ross had, bad memories of Malcolm/Moloch the Corruptor starting to replay themselves in her head.
"AI core restart completed. Aura online how may I help you capsuleer," came a very feminie voice though the same speakers.
"Yes! Good job Willow, I was afraid that Aura was gone for good." Said Xander while doing a happy dance in his head before initializing a direct connection to Aura via his neural implants. And giving here a quick update on what has been going on and orders to run a full systems diagnostic while he finished the tour.
"Well then any questions so far?" Xander asked as he finished his quick conversation with Aura.
"Yeah what just happened?" Asked Elizabeth from the very back of the pack of people.
"Normally in New Eden when a structure comes online the quantum communications suite connects with the galaxy wide communications network and it downloads a local copy of Aura which is then brought online before the station comes fully online. Aura normal handles a lot of the mundane things. For example the auto docking procedures, traffic control on the lift systems and power management. Along with automated building and research labs. I had feared she didn't make the journey across the dimensional barrier when she wasn't active on the Rust Bucket. And when I had to manually dock to the Keepstar." Xander answered back unable to keep a slight smile off his face. "Now it just appears that for some reason her core matrix wasn't online so everything is or was running on manual."
"So wait are you telling me you have a fully functional AI on board this station," asked one of the Canadian candidates.
"Yes there is a fully functional AI on board. Please talk about me by name or as a she," came Aura's voice though the speakers.
"She is not going to go all terminator on us is she?" Came a heavy German accent from another candidate.
"Whatever do you mean I love meat puppets….. I'm kidding. I am programmed to help all capsuleers with anything within my sphere of influence." Said Aura with an awkward silence following her words.
"Alrighty then now that we have established that she has a sense of humor I think it's time to continue the tour and since Willow has graciously volunteered to demonstrate the med-tech let be on our way." Said Xander walking over and picking up Willow and carrying her towards the lift.
SOTL: Titan-Between the milky way and Ida galaxy 4 weeks ago-SOTL: Titan
A hyperspace window opened and a Ha'tak came tumbling out of it. There was debris breaking off and an entire section of the vessel seemed to be open to space. Inside the ship was not much better; the hallways that retained atmosphere - mostly those areas where internal bulkhead doors had been able to close after the emergency force fields failed were filled with smoke and fire and screams of the injured.
On the peltac somehow Klorel had managed to stay on the command throne while the Jaffa around him were dead except for a single injured one who carefully picked himself off the deck. And made his way to the console in the center of the room
"Jaffa status report." Klorel all but screamed as he barely kept a handle on his rage and fear. To say he was incensed and terrified by what had just taken place was an understatement, that vessel/station/whatever near the Tau'ri homeworld had been bigger by far than anything ever encountered by the Goa'uld in their long dominion over the galaxy - not even the Hazara station where the High Council of the System Lords met was so massive. Not only that but it had taken all their firepower and sustained no notable damage to its shields while its own return fire had massacred their udajeets and Al'kesh before it had proceeded to wipe his father's ship from existence with a single blast from an impossibly huge beam weapon. A weapon that would have claimed his life as well if they hadn't executed an emergency hyperspace jump, as it was it must have hit the window as they transited it.
"My lord we managed to escape the path of the weapon for the most part. But it did damage many systems main engines are offline, so are weapons and shields. The hyperspace generator has fused that is what finally ended the jump. Navigation is still working but can't tell where we are, the computer cannot recognise any of the star configurations around us. And we are tumbling through space. Many decks are exposed to space including the hallway outside the pel'tac I am sorry my lord but we are trapped here." Said the Jaffa.
"Then you have all failed me." said Klorel before raising his kara'kesh encased hand and firing a repulsor blast that sent the Jaffa, screaming the whole while, flying across the smouldering remains of the pel'tac to slam into a bulkhead with enough force that his neck snapped killing him instantly.
Outside another hyperspace window opens and a single ship - this one an Asgard Bilskirnir-class mothership - dropped back into normal space. Immediately it began to send out its transport beams steadily dematerializing the still tumbling, clearly seriously damaged, Goa'uld vessel until only its computer core remained tumbling through space but only for a moment before disappearing in another transport beam. With it's task completed, the Asgard warship immediately turned around and jumped back into hyperspace heading for Hala with the captive Goa'uld, the few Jaffa and slaves who'd survived their sudden unexpected journey into the great void between galaxies and their computer core to investigate both how they had arrived so close to Ida and done so in such a damaged condition.
SOTL: Titan-Hala 4 days ago-SOTL: Titan
"We should investigate the weapon on board that station is even stronger than those recorded from an Ancient defense satellite. It might even be powerful enough to destroy the Replicators. It is larger than even our largest shipyard" Tyr said to the assembled members of the Asgard High Council.
"While I agree that investigation is warranted I would also advise that we exercise caution. While the data mined from the remains of the Goa'uld computer core is incomplete there are none of the hallmarks of Ancient technology in the station's design and construction," Thor commented, "nor do the readings of the beam that destroyed Apophis's ship conform to any known Ancient weapon type. This station, whatever it is, is possibly the product of something other than Ancient technology."
"If it is not Ancient then what is it?" Freyr asked as the Asgard knew of no other race capable of building on such a massive scale, certainly they couldn't nor could the Furlings. The Nox came close, since they built/grew entire cities that floated through Gaia's atmosphere to avoid damaging the biosphere but something on this scale was beyond even them..
"I do not know," Thor admitted, "which is why we should be very careful in this matter."
"All the more reason we should send someone to investigate it," Tyr suggested, "we were going to travel to Earth to reunite Klorel's host, Skaara, with this O'Neill and Danial Jackson."
"More information on the station would be useful," Odin agreed, "very well Freyr, Sif and Tyr take your ships to the station. Try and establish contact with whoever is there and see if they would be amenable to helping deal with our Replicator problem."
The Asgard around the table nodded then disappeared in flashes of silver-white light accompanied by the ethereal musical tones that was such a unique characteristic of Asgard transporter beam technology.
In space two Beliskner-class warships and a science vessel moved out of orbit of Hala and entered hyperspace on course for the Sol system. The plan was to drop out of hyperspace some distance from the planet to do some initial scans before proceeding to approach the inhabited third planet..
SOTL: Titan-Deep space-SOTL: Titan
Arriving outside the Sol system after four days - due to the older model hyperdrive on Freyr's science vessel. The four Asgard vessels started scans aimed towards the third planet in the system. When they couldn't detect the station they began to get worried so they expanded the scan upon getting to the fifth planet all three Asgard practically fell out of there seats in shock.
The structures that their sensors were detecting were massive, even larger than the one they had been originally sent to investigate; orders of magnitude larger in fact. After a quick conversation between them it was decided that Sif would wait here in deep space in case they were hostile. While Freyr and Tyr would approach and attempt to establish contact with the unknown but obviously very technologically advanced builders of the alien stations..
SOTL: Titan-Imladris-SOTL: Titan
Xander was calm as he demonstrated the med bays advanced nanobots on Willows broken ankle "As you can see on the projection above after being injected the nanobots immediately make there way to the injured area once there they gather any parts of the bone that may have broken off and use it to fuse the bone back together once that is done they take and form around the broken area and make a internal cast they will remain like that until they run out of power in a few days and are removed from the body as…" as Xander was speaking alarms started to go off and the light switched to red emergency lights.
"Proximity alert. Two unknown alien vessels have appeared on the outer edge of the shield periminter." Came Aura's voice throughout the station
"Everyone please head back to the promenade. I will go see what is happening." With that Xander took off at a run heading for the lift. Arriving at the command deck he doesn't pause, he runs down the hallway trusting the IFF system as, due to the alert, dozens of automated gun turrets and nano disruptor sprays were deployed ready to deal with any intruders. Reaching the bowl. He hopes into the nearest chair,interfacing with the station's computers. He let out a slight breath soon getting a visual that these were not Goa'uld.
"Talk to me Aura what do we have?"
"The two unknown vessels exited some form of wormhole just outside our shield perimeter. One of them is roughly the size of a battleship the other is closer to a battlecruiser in size, both ships are putting out power readings above what a dreadnought or carrier would be at and there shields are up and I estimate they are as strong as those onboard a Nyx-class supercarrier," the artificial intelligence responded promptly.
"Ok what's our defence status?." Xander asked, concerned by the fact that these new aliens seemed to be far more powerful than the Goa'uld ships had been.
"Vorton projector is still charging, missile launchers are online but out of ammo, we have no fighters, point defence weapons are on line, as are the secondary energy turrets, the energy neutralizer and ECM systems are operational. The shields are up and holding at full power," Aura replied.
"Ok Aura, let's talk to our guests, keep weapons at standby power though." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, settling his sudden nerves, before opening a communications channel with the alien ships.
"Attention unknown vessels this is Captain Xander of the Capsuleer Confederation on board the station Imladris you have entered space under our protection. Please identify yourselves and state your reason for being here," he said with as much authority as he could muster.
"This is Freyr of the Asgard High Council, we mean you no harm and only wish to open up a dialog between our races." responded Freyr as she was amazed at the projected strength of the shields around this station - if these readings were correct then she could fire her ships weapons at the station until the capacitors ran dry and only knock a handful of percentage points off their strength - not to mention the other two stations in the system where putting off similar readings. Though it was a good sign that their weapons systems seemed to be, if not fully powered down, were only at a standby level. A stance that spoke well for them considering the last time alien warships had entered the system they'd been a pair of Goa'uld motherships intent on conquest.
"Please stand by," Xander replied before muting the channel, letting out a breath he hadn't even realized that he was holding, before activating the station's public address system. "Ambassador Weir please come to the command deck immediately."
It did not take Elizabeth very long to reach the command centre, though she did eye the deployed weapons systems rather nervously as she passed them. There she found Xander sitting at the main console gazing at the hologram of two strange hammer shaped ships floating there. Smaller side screens showing all manner of information about them such as protected shield strength, weapons locations and status and so on.
"How can I help you Xander?" she asked as she looked over the data herself. While many of the readings were gobbledegook to her, the terms beyond her current understanding, she could tell that they were very formidable warships though no real threat to this station's defences.
"We are in a first contact situation with an alien race called the Asgard. From what I can tell they are peaceful though I am curious on how they found out about the stations," Xander said.
"I wonder if the SGC ever had contact with them?" As Weir
"I don't know but SG1 is still aboard and so is General Hammond so let's ask." As Xander finished speaking he opened a channel to Sam. "Hey Sam, have you ever heard of a race called the Asgard?"
"Yes we found a device on the planet Cimmeria that targeted Goa'uld and transported them to a prison on the planet. They are also one of the Great Races of the Galaxy." Responded Sam her voice coming through the speakers
"Cool well we are having first contact with them. Why don't you gather up the other recruits and grab some of the Jaffa and head for one of the secondary landing bays. I am going to invite them in for a face to face." As Xander finished speaking Elizabeth gave him a head nod in muting the channel
"Freyr of the Asgard we would welcome good relations with the Asgard I would like to welcome you aboard the station. I am opening a landing bay that should be large enough for your vessel to dock and I will meet you with an honor guard to negotiate in person." Xander spoke in his most diplomatic voice the one he had been getting plenty of practice in with this past month.
"A landing bay is unnecessary. All I require is coordinates of the room you wish to meet in and For you to lower your shields and I will transport myself there." Freyr replied.
"Understood Freyr coordinates are incoming." Xander carefully gave a set of coordinates for one of the smaller, more comfortable conference rooms on the station's administration levels.
"Coordinates received and understood. I will be ready to transport aboard when you lower your shields."
"Very well I will lower the shields as soon as we are ready," Xander replied before closing down the communications link before standing up. "Madam Ambassador if you will accompany me to the conference room." He then holds out his elbow for her to take. The whole time his shoulders are shaking in barely contained laughter.
"Why thank you, good sir." She reaches out as though to take his elbow. Then slapping it down. "Get serious Xander this is a real alien culture and like it or not you have to act like an adult. I know it's not right but you are the leader of the Confed Navy and its overall leader." She was beyond grateful that Prime Minister Blair had seen fit to brief her on the true origins of all this - as incredible, and somewhat terrifying, as it was to learn magic and the supernatural were real - it helped with dealing with Xander, not to mention understanding him and how he could so quickly shift for being very serious to being irrelevant and sometimes quite funny, a great deal easier.
Laughing Xander put his arm down then turned towards the exit for the quick ride to the designated conference room. As they arrived and the door opened they could see Sam and Giles waiting by the door. Aura having notified her of the change in venue. The four of them entered into the room and Xander gave the mental equivalent of a nod to Aura, a silent instruction to lower the shields.
"Shields down," Aura confirmed inside his head. A moment later there came an ethereal musical sound and a line of silver-white light appeared in the air. In an instant it grew bigger as something seemed to shoot down into it before with a crescendo vanishing leaving behind an alien being sitting in a strange sweeping, throne-like chair. The alien was whitish-grey in colour, was about the size of your average human ten year old and had a large head with large, pure black eyes.
"They look exactly like Roswell Grey's." Whispers Sam
"Greetings Captain Xander I am Freyr. I thank you for meeting face to face and hope our negotiations will be fruitful." Said Freyr looking at Giles as the oldest one in the room she assumed he was in charge as that was normally the case with human societies.
"I also hope they will be fruitful. Allow me to introduce my associates. Beside me is Ambassador Weir of the United Nations of Earth." Xander said, pointing to Weir. "This is Rupert Giles, my advisor." Pointing at Giles. " And last but not least Samantha Carter, my lead engineer and Capsuleer Candidate." Pointing at Sam "with that let us get down to business."
Freyr was slightly surprised that it was the young male that was in charge and not one of the older humans in the room. Then she guessed that Xander was probably older than he appeared as long lived human races were not unheard of. She watched as they took seats around the end of the table closest to them with Xander at the head Giles to his right Weir to his left and Sam next to Giles. As they sat down a holographic screen appeared in front of them.
"As I said in our initial communication I am Freyr and I represent the Asgard High Council. We came here on a two fold mission first was to open contact with your people and find out what your intentions toward the humans on the planet, in this system. We were surprised to see such a powerful space station over there planet when we retrieved the computer core of a Goa'uld mothership that escaped your beam. That beam had supercharged the hyperspace window and sent it almost a million light years away, well beyond the normal range of a Goa'uld hyperspace drive.. Though by the lack of said station over the third planet I must now assume that it is cloaked."
"It's not cloaked, it's docked here at this station. What you assumed to be a space station is not, she's a ship, specifically a Ragnarok-class Titan called Rust Bucket. The beam that I fired was a Boson Doomsday Weapon. And I am personally glad that Goa'uld did not escape their just deserves. I have, from the retrieved Jaffa that they abandoned when the mothership ran away, learned that they planned to blast the planet back into the stone age from orbit before capturing and enslaving any survivors of their assault."
When Xander told Freyr that it was a ship and not a station it took all her mental fortitude not to fall out of her throne."Yes, your summary of Apophis's plan matches with what we got from Korel after we recovered him from the wreck of his ship." responded Freyr but upon mentioning that name Sam internjected.
"You were able to interrogate Klorel? Does the host still live? For the young man was a dear friend to two of my friends." Sam asked.
"Yes we interrogated him before removing the symbiote from the host and terminating it. The host, an Abydonian called Skaara, is alive and is currently staying in guest quarters aboard my vessel. I was hoping you could put me in touch with a O'Neill and Danial Jackson who are apparently a dear friend and the brother in law of Skaara."
"They're here on the station," Xander replied before giving a mental command to Aura to bring Jack and Daniel to the conference room. "I just summoned them. They will be here shortly.".
"May I enquire when you introduced Samatha Carter you called her a Capsuleer Candidate. What is a Capsuleer?" asked Freyr as the term capsuleer was an alien one to her.
"We're a kind of infomorph. We're cybernetically enhanced human clones with the ability to physically interface with a starship allowing us to control and pilot the vessel with a minimal or non-existent crew. When we're plugged in we literally become the ship, for example when I destroyed the Goa'uld ship I literally was the Rust Bucket.
"The term capsuleer derives from exactly how we become one with our ships," as he spoke a hologram of the vaguely egg-shaped capsuleer pod-ship appeared over the table. "This is a hydrostatic capsule within which is a suspension chamber in which the capsuleer - like myself - is immersed in a hydrostatic fluid that supports all bodily functions. While in the suspension chamber a series of connections are made to data ports running down our spines, these connect to nano-neural relays that connect to implants inside our brains. It is these implants that allow us to become one with a ship so in a very real sense it becomes our body.
"In an emergency the hydrostatic capsule can serve as the capsuleers personal escape craft. It has shields and a warp engine which allow it to escape. Though if the pod is destroyed - either by enemy fire or by the deliberate activation of its self-destruct sequence - it is not the end for the capsuleer as a trans-neural burning scanner is activated. In an instant of planck time it copies the entire neural architecture, converting them into quantum entangled data which is then transmitted and downloaded into a new clone. Due to this we are functionally immortal."
"You should be careful with the use of cloning to prolong life; it is subject to replicative fading in each new generation." Replied Freyr with concern in her voice as she suddenly worried that these capsuleers would make the same mistake her people had so long ago. A mistake that was now in danger of destroying her people, well assuming the mechanised menace called the Replicators didn't get them first. Though at the same time the description of this capsuleer technology was most intriguing, it was certainly a unique approach to neural interfacing, a technology that was not unknown to her people though they had never been able to make it work themselves.
"While the first few generations of cloning technology did have issues with replicative discovered a solution. Whenever a new clone is created some of the DNA of the original body is added at a critical point in the creation process which, when coupled with some genetic regenerative techniques that I personally don't understand that well, prevents replicative fading from happening as well as repairing any gene code errors that might have crept it.."
"An interesting approach to the issue and I would love to discuss it more with you at a later date. Though I am curious, where do your people come from? We have scouted the entire galaxy and have yet to find a human civilization as advanced as yours." Freyr asked, still amazed by the fact that a human civilization, albeit one with a level of scientific and technological development not seen since the reign of the Ancients, had found a solution to a problem her own people didn't even realize was there until it was too late. She made a mental note to speak to Heimdall about it later, no doubt her fellow scientist would petition the High Council to be allowed to petition the capsuleers for information on the methods they used in their own cloning, to see if it could be adapted to help the Asgard.
Xander before responding put one of his hands behind his neck. "Well that is a complicated answer to a very simple question. We are from a time over twenty thousand years in the future and a completely different reality to this one," Xander then proceeded to expand on what he had said. As Xander finished speaking Freyr was left stunned as while the Asgard were not unaware of the existence of the multiverse, no race at their level of technological and scientific development couldn't not be, and other quantum realities they had never before encountered a situation like the one Xander had described.
Before she could speak to ask questions a new voice spoke up.
"Colonel O'Neill and Doctor Jackson are outside the door should I let them in?" Aura asked through the room's speakers.
"Please do Aura. Freyr, would you go ahead and transport over there friend." Xander asked.
"Certitently." Freyr responded, she moved a stone on her chair and with a flash of bright light and a burst of ethereal music Skaara appeared at the same time. At the same moment the door slid open and O'Neill and Jackson came face to face with him.
"O'Neill, Daniel I am free of the demon Klorel thanks to the Asgard," Skaara said, moving quickly over to the startled men. Seeing the shock on the two men's faces Xander came to their rescue.
"How about I show you to a room nearby where you can all get reacquainted," he suggested, mentally instructing Aura to unlock the lounge down the hall from here. After a moment Aura confirmed the lounge was unlocked and ready to be used. "The lounge down the hall has been unlocked for you."
"Thank you," Jack replied. "But you don't need to show us just tell us where to go."
"Alright when you leave this room, turn left and it's the third door on the port side." Jack nodded his thanks and led Daniel and Skaara out of the room.
"Freyr as for our conversation would you be willing to continue it in an hour or so. I have other guests that I must attend to them and get on their way back to Earth.?" asked Xander
"Certainly I must discuss all that I have learned with my colleagues, and so as not to startle you, I will have my traveling companions join us for the next conversation and I will recall my other escort." Freyr responded before adjusting the position of the stone on her throne, remotely triggering the transporter beam which immediately enveloped her and teleported her back to her ship.
Xander raised an eyebrow. "Not good manners do they have," he said in his best Yoda voice, prompting both Elizabeth and Samantha to burst into laughter. After a few moments they got themselves back under control. "Okay ladies how about we rejoin the rest of our guests and get this party finished?"
Rather than reply outloud Samantha and Elizabeth just nodded and stood up. Moments later the three of them were exiting the room, heading for the nearest lift which would take them back to the rest of the party that had gathered here for the commissioning of the Imladris.