Chocky's Dawn
by Chaoseternus
Thank you to greyangle and rankukonalpha1 for reviewing
Note that italics indicates telepathy.
Four
I left them alone then, did not really have much choice. They certainly behaved a lot better on the few visits I had to make to them, mainly to check on Thomas, Admiral Winters son.
Of course, I had Murielle making occasional reports, she and Albertine, whilst not being close friends always remained more then just acquaintances. I could never prove anything and to be honest, never looked very hard, but I got the distinct impression that Murielle was looking out for the kids too and had removed a few individuals who tried to take advantage permanently.
That was '89; it wasn't until '95 that they came seriously into my life again and at that point, I had just come off a stint as Captain of the frigate Lancaster F229 and was on the lists, awaiting confirmation of a promotion to Admiral. Winters was long gone, the official investigation into his misuse of resources had ended after Winters took voluntary' early retirement.
It started with a simple phone call.
"Boss? Its Murielle, you free for the afternoon?2
Technically I wasn't, but all I had booked was paperwork, which it was easy enough to push to one side for the afternoon. It was after all, extremely rare that Murielle wanted me to go anywhere, usually it was the other way around, so when she asked I paid attention. Not that I had been doing much work anyway, I was too busy puzzling over the two bright flashes that had been reported in the sky and the Americans bullshit explanation for them.
Of course, I wasn't expecting to be led to the old Institute for Gifted Children, and welcomed in by a very anxious Albertine, the oldest member of the group and officially the institutes head Mentor. The children, they were all on edge too, a few even had The Stare, something I had never seen on a child, and never wanted to again. I knew, just knew, that I was going to have a really shitty day.
Of course, if I had known aliens were going to come seriously into the conversation, I might have brought a shrink with me
Chocky herself had me searching around warily for either laser projectors or illegal substances, but unfortunately I was forced to conclude she was real. Which placed her as my first alien, or so I thought then anyway, but the story she told had me once again wishing to wring the necks of the often arrogant Americans well, their policy makers anyway, the people them selves were nice, I had worked with them enough, but as soon as you hit government, it was like you were issued an America is God and can do no wrong' complex.
Idiots.
Still, I suppose that was a large part of the reason I chose the path I did, I wanted Britain to have some touch of greatness again and if we seized this with both hands, we could at last have another shot at leading the way for the world. Only this time, it would not be Empire Building or sheer power-mongering; it would be the defence of all I held dear and true.
Peace, freedom, and Liberty.
Of course, first I had to get my head around the fact that aliens were real.
"Okay, you're an alien?" I glanced around, gazing sharply into each and every corner of the room, looking for the hidden device which had to be projecting this. Unfortunately, I could see none but these were geniuses, that didn't mean anything. Though, I would love to know whether it was there idea or Murielles.
"You do not believe me. There is no need to look for hidden projectors or devices, you will find none for there are none, I am as real as you are"
"Chocky your incorporeal when you're here" Albertine commented, shaking her head, "I think its safe to argue that we're more real here then you are"
"Perhaps, though I do have a body you know"
"Yes," I replied sardonically, "you just left it behind in your other coat"
Murielle burst out laughing, if somewhat hysterically at that, and as I thought back on what I had said, I had to stifle a grin too, but still
"Okay, as a thought exercise then..." I asked, "If you really were an alien, why would you be revealing yourself to me and why now?"
"Fair question," Mr Meyer commented, "unfortunately, we have a specific reason for this"
"Do you remember the explosions in the sky last night?" Albertine asked.
I shrugged, "I did not see them myself, but I have certainly heard them and the rather laughable explanation the Americans came up for them"
I had been about to say bullshit, not laughable, but was conscious of the fact that there were children in the room, and unlike most children these were rather sheltered in this institute, though Murielle was seeing to it that they were less sheltered then they had been, and so it was entirely possible that these were the only children in England who actually knew fewer swear words then me. The joy of modern society, when even infant's school children knew as many swear words as your average sailor
"They were alien warships, Goa'uld ships sent to enslave this world, all because the Americans opened something that was best left closed for now"
I blinked, and then shook my head. It was so human to open boxes when you really shouldn't, just think of Pandora after all.
"Alright," I commented, somewhat resigned, "what did they open?"
"The chaap'ai, the stargate, the gate of the gods... it goes by a thousand names on thousands of different worlds but on all it is the same. A device that allows near instantaneous transfer between planets across the length of breadth of the galaxy, even further too, but that takes far more work"
I blinked, then blinked again, desperately trying to reorganise my thoughts, "are you talking a galactic transporter network here?"
"In a way yes, the practical physics are far different but that will give you the picture needed to understand the power, potential and danger represented here" Chocky dimmed for a moment, and I wondered if, in her own way, she was shrugging, "take a transporter that can shift you between worlds and needs a ground station at either end and you have the stargate network. Of course, you do need to know the address of your destination but the network itself compensates for the slow movements of the stars"
"Let me guess, a hornets nest was stirred up?"
"The bulk of the galaxy is enslaved by a race called the Goa'uld. The sheer majority of them are inherently megalomaniacs; they have genetic memory which means they are born knowing all the knowledge of their race including the simple fact that they are gods"
I had to blink, then sigh in disgust at that, my mind already slowly building up a threat profile despite the fact that I didn't quite believe, not yet. Of course, I had to build the profile, my job required me to assess any possible threat to the security of the United Kingdom and then the Earth despite how far fetched it might be.
"They are also parasites who need a host in order to survive; they used to use a race called the Unas but humans have since become their favoured hosts. At the time of the Great Pyramids they ruled this world but a slave rebellion forced them off. The Goa'uld have raided since, but until the gate was reopened they lost interest"
"And the Americans, being Americans, had to piss them off enough to bring their wraith down upon us" Murielle commented wryly.
"Essentially," Chocky seemed to shrug again, "that at least is what I have gathered from my reconnaissance of Stargate Command under Norad"
"Okay," I slowly commented, "assuming I believe you, why tell me?"
"We know you," Albertine shrugged, "well, not as well as we might have liked before revealing Chocky, but we do know you and we have an idea you are a pretty good person"
"My plans had been to slowly introduce new technologies, and leave a legacy of good people to control them but this places all that in doubt. This world is threatened and the technologies I have already granted the Goa'uld do not have and would want"
"This," I slowly said, "is not the time of peaceful efforts then. This is the time for war"
"As much as I hate to say it, yes" Chocky dimmed, staying that way, I guessed that meant she was unhappy, "unfortunately the laws of my people mean I am required to assist you here, required to complete my project and that means keeping you safe. I am a student, a teacher, I am not of the warrior caste, I do not understand the ways and means of war"
"I do," I shrugged, "as a race, we do too. Perhaps it is the influence of these Goa'uld all those years in the past, the damage caused by having the existence of Gods apparently proved to use and then to have them shown as monsters"
"Perhaps, unfortunately it is impossible to determine the effects of such an event on a collective psyche but I understand the concept of which you speak"
"What are the Americans working on, defence wise?" Murielle asked.
"Primarily what you would call Special Forces' teams, which deploy through the gate to carry out their missions. They did try refitting ICBM launchers to hit orbital targets but whilst they hit, the Goa'uld shields prevented them doing any damage the glowing ball pulsed, then seemed to hesitate; there is also a project, merely whispered at this time, called Prometheus , a warship. But they know that they don't have the technologies for it yet. Still, they plan"
"What are their chances of getting the technologies they need?"
"Guaranteed, its just an issue of time and that is not on your side"
I nodded, planning already, "okay, I assume you know of a few worlds where they might be able to acquire such technologies and be taught the science behind them?"
"I do not, but I can search, then it would be a simple enough matter to insert the address into their systems and ensure that they visit without noticing the manipulation"
I laughed, lightly, "Score one for the alien, point taken"
"Powerplants suitable for warship usage would be a good start" Murielle added, and I nodded, agreeing.
"Resources and trained personnel will always be the issue of course. Training is always slow at first and often bottlenecks new ventures" I sighed," resources too"
"Asteroid mining would help acquire the resources," I glanced sharply at Chocky at that, her words said one thing but her tone . She was hinting at something, but what? "Those at least are not depleted"
"And if we build a shipyards in orbit, we have the increased security and if we add refinerys to the asteroid mines, we don't need so much material shipped from planetside" Murielle suggested.
I nodded, "plus we will save on a lot of the expense of buying such materials covertly. But that is getting ahead of ourselves; we do not have the technology for that"
"We have some of it," Albertine shrugged, "Zero Point Generators require no fuel and are good for in-system work but utterly useless for any kind of interstellar ship"
"So, we need to work on technologies, which is more your end, and infrastructure which I suppose would be mine" I nodded, "I am going to have to acquire some independent verification of what you have said of course, but then, I think I know how we can start work"
When I finally left their house eight hours later, I made one short phone call then headed home, falling straight into a troubled sleep.