Pentavus

Chapter 5

"Who are they, exactly?" Jordan was both curious and alarmed, but it made sense that a city like Pentavus would have many enemies.

"Yes, Shawn Jordan. We do have many enemies," Mottè was again reading Jordan's mind, "Because of our great Stargate capabilities."

Jordan looked around the conference table. There sat five people besides him and Mottè: George Totus, a fifty-or so man with energy and lots and lots of caffeine; Hallie Colbert, his close friend and colleague, and three of Mottè's people. "Such as?"

Mottè grinned to himself. "Shawn Jordan, you were absolutely correct in your hypothesis that this city acts as a point of origin to the universe. However, because of the programming of the Stargate, we can dial 7 chevrons without a point of origin because the gate knows which point of origin to use. Thus, we can go to any Stargate in this entire universe."

Jordan heard Totus whisper, "Holy Shit!" That was also exactly what Jordan himself was thinking. "I don't get it."

Hallie turned to him. "Okay, Major, think of it like this. The earth Stargate is a 256 computer. Every time you go onto the internet on a 256, you have to input the IP you are going to use. Now, the Pentavus Stargate is like a Pentium 4. Each time you load up the computer, it automatically dials the IP address that you will use. The Pentavus Stargate knows the Point of Origin by the address itself. They must assign, instead of constellations, numbers or values to the symbols. Then, they use the seventh chevron to tell which Stargate to use, because all Stargates are different."

Jordan took all of this in. "Okay," he said, turning to Mottè, "What else?"

"As you have seen, there are many symbols on the walls. There are, in fact, symbols covering every inch of every wall in this great city—these were our ancestors' addresses. They used the city itself as an address book. Now, we have a computer that holds all of our addresses. Since we can dial any Stargate anywhere, we have many enemies that want the technology. They want to use Pentavus to be their instrument of destruction. But I fear..." he swallowed quite audibly, "that the end may be near."

Jordan was startled by this. "What do you mean?"

Mottè looked very frightened and leaned in to Jordan. "I fear," he said in a grave whisper, "That they may attack soon. I have seen the future and it looks...bad." He looked up. "Well, we'd better get on to bed, everyone. Sleep well."

As everyone left, Mottè pulled Jordan aside. "Shawn Jordan, I must ask you something."

"Of course."

"If something should happen to Pentavus, I beg you to take over...keep the Gate safe. Will you do this for me?"

There was a long and deadly silence. "Yes, Mottè. I will."