Chapter 29 – Agreements
"The meeting has been called to order!" Flahari said loudly over the hum of people murmuring around the low table in the huge meeting tent that had been erected just for the purpose of the treaty. The new king was an outgoing, intelligent man named Orion. He seemed to know what he was doing, and was a good choice for king.
The table was long, but crowded with people. The king and Flahari sat on opposite sides of the table. GC-1 was seated towards Flahari, while some other noblemen—who appeared to be advisors—sat nearer the king.
"Dr. Daniel Matthewson," Flahari continued, "would you please state what your government has sent you here to talk to us about?"
Daniel, surprised that Flahari had called on him instead of John, cleared his throat nervously, glanced at John, and then honored the king with a deep nod.
"Well," the linguist began, trying to find the right words, "we oppose the Androidian gods and goddesses as much as you do—" there was a moment of dark muttering from the noble's side of the table, "—and so we would like to form an alliance with your world so that we may trade different technologies and have your help for when the huge battle will be fought."
"But we are still waiting for the Preserver to come. When he has, then we will fight; not before that time shall we take up arms and help in battle." The king had a pleasant, baritone voice that boomed when he spoke. As he said that, the linguist's heart leaped, thinking about how many people knew about the myth that he didn't. The linguist knew he needed to tell them the truth. Looking down at his ceremonial tunic and shirt, Daniel knew what he must do.
Getting up from the table and lifting his shirt and tunic to expose his jewel, he said, "Excuse me, my king but…I am the Preserver."
The entire front side of the table gasped in awe and uncertainty as they saw his red jewel flicker in the rays of the morning sun. "You have seen him now," Daniel continued. "Will you ally yourselves with us so that we may fight alongside the other and crush the Androidians?"
The king thought for a moment; a moment where Daniel took the time to get his shirt and tunic back into place. As he sat down, he looked expectantly at the king. After a moment or two of silence, Orion looked directly at Daniel with a slight smile on his face.
"It is with great honor and privilege that I accept your offer and become an ally to the greatest warrior of all time. I will sign your treaty, and you all shall have permanent places here for which you can come to any time you wish." The king took the pen Daniel offered him and signed the paper. "We will fight willingly against the Androidians with you, O Preserver."
"Thank you," the linguist replied and was distracted by something flying overhead. "What was that?" he asked.
The king nodded slightly, and gestured for everyone to remain in his or her seats. "That was a switchblade ship. When Zeus and Pollux controlled our land, they suppressed the knowledge we originally had so that we wouldn't rebel against them. They took our way of life two hundred years less advanced than we originally were and they also took some of our technology for their own use. Now that both are gone, we are free to remember what we had first made before and we are allowed to make them."
"You're capable of flight?" John asked, speaking for the first time in the whole meeting.
"Yes, but on a much smaller level—we cannot leave our planet as of yet. Zeus has suppressed our technology, you know, and so we're remembering slowly. We were almost at a level where we could build a weapon strong enough to take out one of the Androidian mother ships, but he completely erased that from our memories. You have our word that we will once again pursue that goal and will share it with you once we get it again."
"Thank you, O gracious king," Daniel said, nodding deeply. "We will keep in touch."
John then produced a small device that attached to the finger, somewhat like a ring, and gave it to Orion. It was silver in color with a round, emerald green stone in the middle. "This is a portable device we nicknamed an IOD," the Colonel said, giving the Iris Opening Device to the king. "We're giving you this device because you do not have a jewel in your chest, and if you do, our computer will not recognize it. When you dial our world, you need to push this button. We will know it is you and will withdraw our protective shield over the Spacegate, making it safe for you to enter. Remember to push it, however. If you do not push it, you will collide with the iris and die instantly. We need to get going now. We must continue our duties on our ship."
"Of course," both Flahari and Orion said with deep nods. "We look forward to seeing you again."
"Us, too," Daniel said, and the team walked outside into the light of the already setting sun. The treaty talk had lasted almost the entire day and both peoples were glad to have found an ally; and GC-1 was glad to be going back home again. With a wave and a smile, GC-1 headed towards the Spacegate, wanting to go return home.
"They accepted our treaty!" John excitedly said as he stepped out of the shield of the Spacegate. "Daniel needed to pull his shirt up and show his chest off to everyone, but they decided to accept!"
"Great!" Hoffman said, making a weird face about John's excitement of Daniel baring his chest. "Go get some rest. Daniel, before you go to bed, Dude would like to show you something in his 'lair.'"
"Of course, sir," Daniel said with a nod and trooped to Dude's lab, one of the few rooms he had not been in since he was reincarnated.
As he neared the room, Daniel was aware of different beeping noises coming from the room. Hesitating before knocking on the door, the linguist didn't know what to expect. The door opened almost instantaneously, making Daniel come face to face with the surfer-Captain.
"Dude!" Rick exclaimed, grinning like a maniac while wearing headphones that were blaring techno music. "C'mon in! I'm gonna show you The System Code! I think you're totally ready for it, man."
"Cool," Daniel said and followed Dude back into his room.
Inside was very different than what Daniel thought his 'lair' would look like. There were no walls to be seen anywhere. The four sides of the room were completely covered with machines, electronics, computer monitors and many more gadgets Daniel wasn't sure he knew. The ceiling and floor—where it was visible—was the standard gunmetal grey color as everything was on the ship, and there was a huge rogue monitor that gleamed a glittering black in the middle of the far wall, its screen turned on. Walking up to it, Daniel saw the red letters trickle down the screen.
"It's the Code," Daniel said, depositing his hat on a table piled high with other electronic stuff.
"It totally is, man," Dude replied, his earphones finally off his head. "I had a feeling that you were so ready to see it now. Can you read it?"
Squinting and concentrating a bit on the streams of letters falling down the screen, Daniel said, "Yes, but it's just gibberish. Even though they're all in different languages, they don't make any kind of coherent sense."
"Bummer." Rick looked substantially put-out. "Hoffman said that you'll be able to manipulate it sooner or later, right?" Daniel nodded. "Well then, I'll have to keep researching this. You know, we don't know everything there is to know about this Code. I mean, we know that it records down everything we're doing, somehow, and we think that it records what's going to happen, but we're still just speculating on it. I'll tell you when we actually find something that can help us. Maybe then you can totally get us out of the dark."
"Yes, maybe," Daniel said while yawning and nodding goodnight towards Rick, heading out the door to his room.
It was quiet as he passed the medical bay on his way down to his room. A little too quiet. Pausing for a moment and lightly using his gift, he could vaguely see that Dr. Fields and Colonel O'Brien were indeed in there, though very quiet. He could tell by their body signatures that the two were in a loving embrace and Daniel was content with that, knowing that they were happy with each other.
Continuing his path down the hallway, he finally entered the safety of his room and had taken off his grimy clothes when he thought of seeing where Alex was. Stepping into the shower, he let the hot water run down the length of his body, washing and soothing away all the aches and dirt he had picked up while on '080. As he stood there, Daniel focused a bit harder than he had with the Colonel and Doctor and saw that Alex was already asleep in her room, a look of happiness on her sleeping face. Keeping that image in his mind, Daniel smiled slightly and stepped out of the shower, feeling cleaner and happier than he ever had all day.
Dressing in his nightclothes, the linguist turned off the lights and got into bed, falling asleep with the image of the sleeping Major in his head.