Chapter three.
Confused blinking was what I received, that and silence, although if you listened hard enough I could probably hear the sounds of several hundred Asgard blinkin- "Forgive me James Felger, We do not understand, half of what?" Ah they were confused, well I suppose its only normal I did just say "half" and left it like that, like some kind of crazy cliff hanger for a show or story, I was being a bit over dramatic so I decided to elaborate for them.
"Half, High chancellor. It means half of all the material wealth on the now replicator world of Hala -mutterings were heard- according to Sg-1's report on the former Asgard planet, the world was covered with replicator blocks, most likely several kilometers deep and on a world as large as Earth or perhaps larger? That is trillions upon trillions of tons of resources, I am asking for half that material wealth, an equal share of naquadah, trinium, neutronium, gold, pladium, platinum all of it," I could see i kind of blew their minds a little, I wonder who will speak first.
A long pause filled the large room, then finally Odin spoke. "Half? I must admit to finding myself perplexed, I had believed you would have demanded our most cutting edge technologies and weapons, not materials such as these, may I ask what you need such vast quantities for?"
"That is simple, we are a growing society, mining currently is a difficult prospect in a hostile galaxy, securing resources is key to any victory against any foe, and we currently have far to little, if the Asgard could agree to this deal, it would supply my world with a vast abundance of mineral wealth, allowing us to focus our efforts on construction and training personnel rather then procurement of materials." I was confident they would accept but I still had a few steps left, I just needed one of them to ask the right question.
"And what of the neutronium? That mineral is the corner stone of our technology base and has no use to you at the current time, why would you need such great quantities of it?" Yahtzee!
"An interesting question chancellor – I pretended to think upon the question - I suppose I was simply thinking equitably between both our parties, my first thoughts on the neutronium were perhaps using the alloy as extra armor for our new design of ships, but I can see your position on this issue, we would not need such incredible amounts unlike yourselves." I left the conversation open for another to continue, it needed to be their idea, not mine otherwise it would look to obvious.
"Perhaps we could trade for a portion of the neutronium, in technology instead?" Good old Thor, I could kiss you buddy, keep it together Felger hold it together for just a little bit longer!
"An interesting proposition Supreme commander -bringing the rooms attention back to me- if the High council is in agreement, I am willing to offer lets say 70 percent of my share in neutronium, for only three technological concessions, all of which I guarantee would be of an older technological level and I believe the Asgard would have no issue in giving me, as well as a favor that I would ask the High Council to grant at a later date, of course all of this would be contingent on the success of the Anti-Replicator weapon."
The Asgard began their deliberations, they sounded like a swarm of angry whispering bees, I couldn't really tell, but I would assume some very heated arguments were going on, I amused myself with imagining a couple of bitch slaps where being given out among the crowd, maybe a duel for honor, ten paces then fire sort of thing, silly silly brain of course such an enlightened people wouldn't do such a thing - there was a very distant zing noise, then a thud - huh must be hearing things. It would seem the deliberations were over, the Asgard had turned back to address me.
Odin once again took center stage in the talks as was his due. "We have come to an agreement, provisionally we accept your proposal."
Phew I really wanted to wipe my forehead right now but I was to busy projecting confidence and a professional facade "My thanks to you and your people, may I ask the provisions?" I asked.
"The provisions are thus. One that the device actually functions as you have stated and completely eradicates the Replicators from our galaxy and two, that the technology that you ask for is of an appropriate age to be determined by this council and that this favor you are to ask of us does not endanger the Asgard or conflicts with the already mentioned provisions, these are our terms James Fleger, and we find them fair" Odin decreed, he was taking a leap of faith here I suppose it was a fair deal.
"I agree to your terms Odin, and I thank you all for this opportunity, if you are willing I will transfer the data now -a nod of confirmation- transfer complete, Vizeer should be sending the data to you now." Man I was going to have a long nap after this then get blind drunk, all this formal speak was a killer, imagine O'niell trying to do this shit, no way in hell.
"We have received the data, I am transferring it to you now Supreme commander, disseminate it to all ships in your fleet, and begin the operation immediately." Wow ok this was going a mile a minute.
"Understood, I have received the data, and have shared it among the other vessels, construction of the weapon is underway. We will have to take up geostationary orbit around the planet at specific points for maximum coverage" said Thor.
I kind of wanted to see what was going to happen, and I voiced my thoughts aloud. "Supreme Commander, may I ask permission to view the operation in real time telemetry?"
Thor looked to Odin who confirmed my request and our visual on Thor changed to an exterior view of the ship from beneath one of the wings of his ship, the planet in the background, as ominous as the episode it was shown on suggested it looked, i could still hears Thor's voice however giving us all a play by play of events.
"Construction of the weapon is complete on all vessels, we are now moving into position", we could see multiple Asgard vessels moving away and into high orbit of the planet. "All ships are in position, I am slaving the firing controls for the weapon from all vessels to my console, the weapon is charging now, ten seconds to full power."
I could almost imagine Asgard everywhere on the edge of their seat wondering, hoping that this would be the final nail in the coffin of their greatest foe, this relentless predator of technology, I on the other hand kinda need a pee.
"The weapon is charged and ready, firing in three, two, one, now." The discharge from all vessels was a beautiful thing visually speaking, a blanket of energetic subatomic particles gliding across space on an energy wave matrix. Impacting the surface of the planet at multiple points, the energy moved swiftly across the planet as if the time dilation device had no effect upon the wave itself.
"Energy wave dissipation projected and .2 au, we have detected an instability in the time dilation field, the field has collapsed, it would appear the energy wave damaged the device in some way, but my sensors are indicating that all replicator signals have disappeared completely."
We all looked upon the screen with slight trepidation, I didn't calculate the time dilation device into my simulations I didn't know the device would be damaged by the energy wave, but it looks like I got lucky this time, gonna have to be on top of all the variables next time.
As we continued to watch the telemetry we began to see a fine mist lift from the planet at one point, then another then another the replicators were dead and could no longer hold themselves together, it was done.
The realization of this was not lost upon the Asgard, excited chittering could be heard from all over, I could almost imagine some breaking into song and dance, like that was going to happen, my musing was interrupted by Odin once more addressing myself and the excited horde.
"I did not hope to believe it could be possible, thank you James Felger, I promise you the Asgard will always remember you for what you have done here today, consider our agreement in full effect, with our eternal gratitude." The poor guy has had a really long day, and a really difficult time of it with this whole war, now they can focus on their medical condition with a greater fervor then in the original timeline, I'll get on that when I can as well but in the meantime.
"No thanks necessary Odin, i am just as happy as you that all went well, If I may address the Supreme Commander for a moment?"
"Of course" Odin said.
"Supreme Commander? If you could create a device which could generate a dense gravity field, you should be able to collect all those free floating replicator cells far more easily then just trying to catch them."
Thor returned to the screen, he blinked his eyes a few times, startled perhaps. "A supremely good idea Doctor, we will construct the apparatus momentarily."
"Excellent, and call me Jay" Thor looked up and I was happy to see his nod of respect
"Then you may call me Thor, you have more then earned it my friend."
Well holy shit, "You honor me Thor, thank you."
Thor conversed with Odin for a moment before saying goodbye and that he would see me again, that's nice, can't wait to see O'niells face when he realizes I'm on a first name basis with his "Little Buddy" should be one for the ages. Odin also said his goodbyes and wished me well, it would appear the Asgard were all about to get shit faced and I was very tempted to ask to join, I mean to see that happen would be legendary however the holographic conference ended and I found my legs in a strangle hold by Vizeer who was thanking me profusely for what I had done, I was a little uncomfortable to be honest so I just patted his head and said I was happy to help, he told me the Asgard will get in contact with me soon, most likely through him to ask me about the technologies I wanted, I said that was fine and we beamed back to construction lab three.
Vizeer asked me what I was going to do for the rest of the day and I said I was about to get blind drunk, after explaining that meant copious amounts of libations I bid Vizeer good day, not before asking him to not tell anyone about what had happened I wanted it to be a surprise and left for a pee then went home for a nap, and yes I got totally shitfaced that night too, although had I known what would come the next day I definitely wouldn't have drunk so much.