Important Authors Note: For those of you who read the chapter I uploaded before this was within the first 30 minutes of its upload or so. That chapter, which you may see was a slightly unfinished version of this chapter as I accidentally updated the wrong one. You can just go back and read the proper chapter 16 as it does have some bits and pieces that lead onto this chapter. Unfortunately, when I tried to fix the incorrect upload it takes about 30 minutes to change for some weird reason. However, to every one else reading this mow, the chapter mistake has been fixed and is now up to date, so enjoy this new chapter now, as I figured since I accidentally uploaded it I would finish it, and upload it earlier than I originally intended. Thanks for reading, and have a good day.
EVoNet Forward
Chapter 17
Nergal Transportation
EvansCorp carried other companies in its name at first, many of them people had no clue were owned by EvansCorp; some were even bought into the EvansCorp family to save them from termination, which could mean so much lost work, but normally just because EvansCorp wanted an IP or a popular brand name to hide behind when designing something new.
The company had taken over three different airliners within a couple months as the economy wasn't as steady as it could be, especially in certain areas, they almost went completely under. However, EvansCorp was smart buying them out or the receivers would have sold off all of the planes that went into building the new airline EvansAir, and yes, some arsehat somewhere slipped in before Harry, with logos and everything to name the airline, but it was saving jobs and whatnot, and Harry had people making sure that didn't stick and all and any advertising merchandise disappeared quickly as he was getting sick of seeing his name everywhere.
Harry never really wanted his own airline, but he settled with one as he couldn't stand the thought of how many people would suffer because of it, but then, having his own airline was pretty cool. He could start running cheaper flights because he could use ZPE as a fuel source with some experimentation on retrofitting his new planes, which meant the competition wanted to do the same, which meant fees to the EVoNet too, so he had plenty of workers and engineers dealing with that.
Harry had to move on some fronts as he had had a few terrorist attacks against his company, on some research boats, and an issue with some pirates poaching (and they were the magical kind, so that was a serious issue as they had to disappear), and EvansTech took the brunt with one of his ships sinking and another seriously damaged, but Harry half-suspected one of the incidents was a foreign government who still thought they made weapons; they did, but the ship was unarmed, and it was lucky no one died during any of these incidents.
Therefore, Harry had to make some changes and deeply powered that facet, and EvansTech became a smaller tech improvement company and started working out in the open working on home computing systems and working on security for those systems and updating. That was while a new company took over their deeper research facilities and companies so that if certain events happened that had security dealing with some weirdos, then it would keep the Evans name out further from the limelight as it was if they were to have weapons to defend themselves as main facilities that housed the more sensitive projects did.
That was how Nergal Heavy Industries: Research and Development came to be. Nergal was the name of a Babylonian god (or if he ever existed extremely powerful alien(?), or sorcerer, either could be true at this point). But Harry liked it while searching for a new brand to hide his name behind. It kind of fit – a God of Death perhaps, of the high summers and summer solstice, of the most intense suns to scorch the Earth, as fire was a sign of human advancement, and death was an important part of humanity – of life in general, and a God of War? War was sometimes inevitable, and Harry knew he wasn't making rainbow machines and figuring out how to make cats and dogs cuter – he knew that the galaxy – when they looked out to the stars, up there – from what he knew – the possibility was battle and war to fight for their own place in the universe.
However, none of that was what cemented the name Nergal. It was one amusing quote on a research page on the net that fitted Harry so much he needed that name - well, it was really the first line that made Harry think of himself and what some people, especially made must think of him. He needed to claim Nergal as his own. He changed the quote in a few delicious places after the first line, especially the end, to fit the modern world, but it worked.
'Nergal serves as the reason behind the seemingly unreasonable. It shall provide a way for the people to maintain their faith in advancement and evolution. To put an end to suffering. To improve life. To reach beyond the stars.'
Harry especially thought the first line was all him. That described him to a tee. The last three lines – a thought and hope for the future. This became the motto of Nergal.
The new Nergal logo was something different too. It was a large curved blue moon curling around to just below the upper left corner leaving an eighth of a gap. Then it had a smaller blue coloured in circle in the centre touching the inside of the moon. Then in the lower edge of the circle was a bold red N with the E, R, G, A, and L in white towards the other end of the blue moon.
However, the main reason for Nergal. Evans was a brand that needed to stay clean, and with some of the things they were doing, EvansCorp couldn't hope to stay clean enough once certain projects came to light, and Harry knew they would. EvansCorp hadn't actually make anything for general sale anyway, as it licenced out to already known brands or brands it owned, as long as they didn't try to cheat on quality, he was fine with different models and competition, because that was good as technicians working for those companies could potentially improve on the product, and competition was healthy. Though, with Nergal, Harry would have to make products, as there was one product that had EvansCorp branding, which was the EVoWand, as they were difficult and expensive to mass produce and most companies were fine developing EVoNet apps for phones, which meant since Nergal would have the new monopoly on wands that they didn't have to be too expensive.
Though, Evans as a name brand was too strongly associated with Harry and sure; that could potentially be fine and dandy, after all Harry invented a lot of amazing things, but if something went wrong or he was caught making space aged weapons to fight aliens, it could be problematic to his cause, so luckily, he got his wish, and before the new planes were panted EvansAir, the paperwork was changed and Nergal 'bought' the airline off EvansCorp and Nergal Airlines was a thing.
Harry was also made aware by help of his think tank that smaller, more humbleness could be better, so any EvansCorp building had smaller, more modest signs above main entrances while Nergal could show off its power, and all of his EvansCorp buildings had to have non-branded tech and understate his name modestly – it was made by Nergal, but unlike the Nergal buildings and facilities wouldn't have any Evans or Nergal branding all over the place, and EvansCorp was pretty much just the admin and business centre of Nergal. However, Nergal would brand everything and be as flashy as they wanted, and that was expected of mega corporations,
Everyone would know Harry owned Nergal, but it was all about image. Harry's name would be used for charity events and being a great humanitarian – the side people wanted to see. That made a great deal of sense in the long run, but Harry had wanted to see the look on his dads and Dumbledore's faces when they saw EVANS in fifty-foot letters on the side of a building. It was lucky Harry didn't actually label anything EvansCorp, even most wands weren't labeled EvansCorp and only had the name on the boxes they came in, but most things just had the EVoNet logo so-many people were becoming familiar with, as Harry out-sourced to recognised brands as it made financial sense in the long run.
Nergal was slowly becoming the greatest, and most advanced technology company on the planet, and had the greatest security systems on the face of the Earth, and then if aliens came; he doubted half of them could have more advanced systems unless they had discovered how to manipulated Zero Point Energy, which he doubted most would have or could have, and he hoped he was right. The only reason he had was because his ancestors were likely an ancient and highly advanced alien race who somehow bound this power to their genes and eventually it became natural in their descendants. They must have moved to Earth from wherever they came from, and Research only knew that from a lot of lost books, and some tech here and there from ancient dig sites the Goblins dug up but couldn't figure out until Harry came along and they discovered amazing things together. However, some tech they found specifically in Egypt was mostly broken rubbish and of a completely different race, so that was concerning, but everything had been running smoothly as a lot of that business had been taking place during the few years and some years, and everything was going well, if you discount the attempted break in.
Harry was feeling bemused as his systems had been breached and someone was trying to rob Nergal's main research centre that was mainly underground and under the Themes, under what used to be EvansCorp HQ before that was moved to a more office orientated mundane building to keep admin safe and out of the way. Plus, it was easier to build huge underground facilities without the public thinking about anything like it when pretending to be shoring up the Themes and performing heavy construction in the underground that went under the river because of 'dangerous structural' damage, and only conspiracy theory nuts would even give something like that a thought, and nobody paid them much attention.
London wasn't Nergal's only facility as they had some facilities all over the world, some of which were huge compared to London with above ground facilities stretching miles, and then going underground too. It all helped a lot when the Goblin race knew how to dig and build and liked working for you as long as they were paid equal pay for equal work, and Harry paid all his staff well so they were loyal and did their best work for him. Harry cared about making sure all his staff were well paid compared with other companies, from janitors to office workers, Harry looked out for his staff, no matter the species.
The security breach was a young man – late twenties. The man was captured pretty quick by security after a little bit of a scuffle, but it was odd. The intruder had used a teleporter to breach the building's shields, but the shields had damaged the non-terrestrial device, which was the intruders downfall. He – or they as he had companions at one time probably thought Nergal headquarters in London was a softer target than a facility in the middle of nowhere with thousands of armed and highly trained guards. Unfortunately, it seemed they didn't have perfect intel as they did have armed and trained guards in their nest-facility hidden under their feet.
The 'soldier' was kept in a warded room, which was so thick with lead it would be near impossible to teleport in and most certainly not out even without wards, but with the added shield it seemed a bit overkill. The man was cuffed to a steel table, and had his weapons confiscated as he was a few hundred feet underground in an area of the base he couldn't – or shouldn't have known existed.
Harry sat opposite the man while he looked straight at him, unblinking in military greens. The trespasser was a soldier, and an American from his accent, and then computer records once they were found buried deeper than they should have for a standard marine. The man had fought, and hurt some people, but the shields around the building went into full power mode (under the building where no one would detect them they were always on full), as soon as he entered, and it was obvious from the stains on the walls outside the main building where people would just do their business oblivious to the potential wonders under foot, his partners had tried to follow him, but whatever technology they were using was faulty and didn't have safety protocols, or the safeties were switched off, or most likely they didn't know much about the device, so the devices tried to force their way in, but they only ended up atomising their travellers into a stains when the illegal teleportation was detected by the shields.
"You tripped the buildings defenses!" Harry spoke after several intense minutes staring at each other, but the soldier didn't even blink, let alone flinch at the nicely dressed man. "Now, most – attempts like yours would have failed," he said talking about teleportation methods by a mage wouldn't have gotten through the shield at its standby setting, but the young marine looked confused, so Harry continued. "Your friends tried to follow you a moment later, but the shields went to full power once you tripped the alert!" he said and that was the first time the man showed any emotion. It was brief and it was in the dark-skinned man's dark eyes; fear as he certainly realised, they never got passed the shields, and they weren't in other cells somewhere. The young marine knew what these shields would have done with more power in them.
"Yes!" Harry agreed with the look before it vanished, but the marine did look determined. It were times like this that Harry missed his magic most, but he had lived without it for over three years now, and he was heading towards his twenty-first birthday, and had gotten kind of used to it even if he was still trying to find a way out of it without some ridiculous magical lore nonsense. The hardest thing was missing his full connection to his wand; the artificial facsimile was not even comparable, and she kind of whined sometimes.
"Most of their molecules were scattered to nothing," Harry continued as he let the man stew for a few moments before continuing. "But we do have to clean the small splattering of blood! You are in a lot of trouble my friend, but I'm sure you were ordered, or hired at the least, so give me a little intel, and I am certain we can go easy on you. I could convince the US government to be lenient; a few years maximum for betraying your country!"
"I didn't betray my country!" the man spat out in rage, as Harry hid the smile he wanted to form as he found the angle he was looking for – this man wasn't marine material, which was likely why he was here being used like this, as a marine would have kept quiet and continued with his ID, name and rank crap, but this one had given that up ages ago for mostly silence. "I did my duty to protect my country from everything and anything, terrestrial, or not! Nergal and this technology are a threat to the United States of America, so it is our duty to secure it for our use in our defence-!"
"However," Harry interrupted with a smile. "My technology is worldwide; I share everything, eventually, if I can… I want the world to evolve, to move further, faster… but you...?" he asked as he placed down a smooth oval shaped device on the table after pulling it from his suit jacket pocket. It was burnt with black soot and when Harry touched a certain part a white blank holographic screen lit up, flickering. "This isn't human technology that I have ever seen before, but it is certainly a teleportation device; quite clever too from our initial scans, since we have had quite a few hours to look it over," he said with a shrug as they had in fact held him prisoner for just over a week while studying the device.
The man kept quiet as he looked at it, so Harry went on. "I have spoken to some of your officials within the past couple of days, and they have denied your existence, so you'll be staying with me for as long as I want until you end up wherever the hell I want you too; no trial, and no phone call to tell your wife Anita where you are, what you did, or that you are even alive. Your children will never see their father again; he will become the man who never existed, but to your family… they'll find out through sheer rumour from the generals and admirals and the other higher ups that are choosing to deny your existence... they will let slip little whispers that you were a traitor to your country and went AWOL!"
"I would NEVER!" he roared straining at his cuffs, but Harry waited and watched before the man slumped back into his seat, and Harry felt sorry for him.
"I have a dream, Oman!" Harry said as he stood up and walked around the table whimsically. "I want peace and happiness… or at least something close enough because we are extremely flawed. There's so much greed and fear in the world it makes me sick. That was why I shared this technology with the world. I hope that if we advance beyond material things being anything more than something you could get with a few words; the wave of a stick; the press of a button; that we could reach for the stars and explore beyond the known and find so much more, and that everyone, anyone could be anything they wanted – within probability and reason of course! The Earth – Terra – this planet could be something, build something amazing, and be better, be hopeful."
"What if you didn't like what you found out there!" the man asked, having calmed down. "What if it was scary; what if other races existed that would want to conquer us; enslave us – take our hope?"
"Then we bitch slap them until they understand, we bow before no man, god, or beast!" he replied, startling the man, he looked around as Harry was behind him. "We hope after that they'll stop being dickheads, or we can choose to stay out of each other's space – though, I don't think I would want to if they enslaved other races," he said, and Oman could see the honesty and worry. "Anyway, I'll tell you a story... you know about 'mage' right?"
"Yeah," he agreed slowly not understanding what was going on. "Likely the genetic remnants of an ancient alien race bred with humans."
Harry chuckled as he nodded his head. "Yes, close enough I suppose. We don't know the full truth of this, but – essentially yes, but what you may not know is ALL of Earths humans have this genetic code dormant within their blood – mage just have it awake."
Oman looked at Harry in shock. "T-that means – we're not fully human?" he asked in surprise.
Harry chuckled and shook his head. "Don't be ridiculous. That genetic code is a part of humanity here on Earth. It just means that some of our ancestors were probably aliens. In fact, goblins, merpeople, centaurs, most likely of alien decent, but kept their blood purity. Legends of actual fairy-tale creatures were extremely scares before a certain time period, so likely why they haven't been bred out of existence by humans… well that and prejudice on both sides of course. You do know that many of those… beings, cryptids as humans could call them exist and live here on Earth, right?"
"I – I was informed," he agreed still not knowing what Harry was trying to pull but had a question and quickly asked before he lost his nerve. "Do… leprechauns, and that rainbow thing and gold?" he said as his great grandmother was Irish and told him stories about that sort of thing when he was small before she died.
Harry laughed joyfully. "Yes, but the gold is more like fools gold and disappears after a few hours," he said chuckling. "Little prankster they are, and before you ask, no; they do not use ZPE… not the same as us, but some creatures watching us have garnered talents and abilities, and others likely had them from the beginning," he said with a up-turn of his hands. "Anyway, on to my point. I was once a sorcerer who had a vision of giving magic to every human, to take away what made the others 'special' by making everyone special, since we all share this gene, I could do it, couldn't I? Wake this mana gene up. I hoped that then we could all get along, but I failed that method, I didn't have the power, and my natural powers were sealed away by fools who feared that I would succeed if given a second chance, and I almost did that first time in truth, but I suppose I gave them the reason they were looking for to take my power, but still, it's there waiting until I can break it free.
"But I had a backup plan that was already running behind their ignorant backs. I was always smart, and I suppose the 'good' guys were the reason for my dream, because they were hypocrites. My backup plan was the Evolution Network, and I have begun revolutionising the world. You scream about your country as if that is more important than your planet, like they screamed about their magical world, keeping it the same forever. You refer to Americans as your people, yet the world is vast of people and cultures who are also your people… why not find some faith in that this world holds all your people and you need to keep them all safe?"
"B-because..." he trailed off, uncertain.
"Because you covert your flag like mage covert their magic, selfishly keeping it for themselves, letting people die so they don't know there are so many cures. You look at that flag and you see the greatest nation on Earth, and you jealously hold it to such high standards you'll take from others, thinking it is your American right, like the mage with their magic!" Harry informed him with a smile as he walked around and retook his seat to see the marine looking sick. "You believe that your commanders are always right because of this, just like my people, looking up to people they shouldn't, dark and light, good and evil… that's what they say to get you to ask how high they want to to jump with admiration in your eyes, all the while when the going gets tough, the tough don't know who you are."
The marine whimpered, biting his lower lip, his mind whirling as he tried not to let Harry get to him, but it was so difficult as Harry knew what he was going through. He knew what he had gone through. That was how he came to be trapped here in a Nergal cell, trapped, and the only person right now who could make sure he saw his wife and children again, was Harry Evans.
"Sometimes," Harry continued, startling him. "Sometimes you should question your superiors. If your superiors are worth your trust they will listen and give you explanation if it is within their power to do so, and if not they will offer you reason, as a good commanding offer knows they need to give their soldiers their trust to have that returned. If they expect your unwavering resolve without giving you anything in return… then maybe you should be speaking to someone else of equal or higher rank who has nothing to do with them? You believe you have the right to take from other people, other beings, in the name of protecting your empire, but Oman; all great empires fall, not because other empires want to rise and kill them, just because, but because they get too big; too full of themselves, and they do shit like this. They forget about the rest of the world, thinking they can do whatever they want when they cannot! But most importantly they forget their people are individuals with individual hopes and dreams.
"So… tell us the truth and betray your country or tell us the truth and be loyal to your planet!" he continued while Oman looked away. "Be loyal to yourself, your friends, your family… the people you swore to protect, not a stupid flag – what is a flag without its people, but a piece of meaningless patterned fabric? When you swore your allegiance to the flag… that was just a metaphor… the flag is a stand in for the people, Oman. You swear to them... to defend them… when you swore to protect the United States, you weren't swearing to protect rock and dirt, sand, and trees, but the people who call it home-."
"I-I was working for a shadow operations unit!" he interrupted suddenly, still not looking at Harry, and Harry wished his people could see reason with a little emotional chat like that. "We were to steal advanced technology from anywhere we could for the defence of the United States. Even from other worlds, and because we couldn't gain access to the SGC's Stargate, as they wouldn't have let us take what we wanted, we had to use the spare at Area Fifty-One, but we managed to get hold of some Asgard teleporters. That's all I really know of importance. I don't understand what the SGC even is, or much about the Stargate, only that it's a doorway between planets."
"So you've been stealing technology?" Harry asked while the man nodded. "So your plan to protect your planet is to potentially start a war between the Earth and some potentially deep space capable aliens?"
"We're already at war with... I don't know what they're called," he hissed out in fear and concern. "I only heard that that was part of what the SGC dealt with! Exploring other planets with the Stargate and getting involved in things that shouldn't concern us."
"So…" Harry let out a breathe. "We're at war and you potentially start another, or maybe piss off allies, or potential new allies… that's clever of you!" Harry said as he stood up and the doors slid open at his gesture to reveal a chubby man in a smart blue US Air Force uniform flanked by four US MP's (Military Police) wearing green uniforms. "I kind of misled you Oman, you see, General Hammond of the SGC was the only guy who figured you needed claiming!" he said while greeting the man with a gesture while the bald older man nodded in greeting as Harry gave him his attention. "I'm sure you'll know how best to deal with him from here," Harry said to the general. "I can only hope he tells you everything he knows for weeding the garden."
"Yes, and so do I!" the General agreed readily with a no-nonsense tone before he looked to Oman with narrowed eyes while the man gulped and showed more worry than before. "Sergeant, you are in a lot of trouble, but cooperate with me, and I can make your life a lot easier, and maybe we can even make sure that your children do not have the stigma of growing up with their father in prison for betraying their country, and even more that they do not find out you betrayed the planet!"
Hammond turned to one of his MP. "Release him for transport back to base!" he commanded before turning to Harry. "Again, my deepest apologies, Mr. Evans for this act of aggression against you and your fine company. I will see to it that the organisation behind this is stopped immediately, and hopefully those involved will find a place in jail!"
"Thank you very much, General!" Harry agreed with a nod, shaking the man's hand while the MP took Oman out of the cell and left Harry and the General alone.
"You will stick to our agreement, Mr. Evans?" The General asked coolly.
Harry grinned as he reached across the table and picked up the damaged alien device before turning to the General. "You forget about this…" Harry said whimsically, "… what did you call it – an Asgardian transporter module, and I forget about your little unauthorised black ops arseholes and the Stargate – until you come to me and Nergal, and maybe someday we'll get to enjoy working together."
The General saw fit to chuckle as he nodded. "If I'm still a part of the SGC then, I'll be pleased to work with you," he nodded as they shook hands, and the General left the cell, leaving Harry to stare at his prize in wonder. He had the means to teleportation using 'magical' methods, or tech to simulate it, but this transporter tech was much more advanced, so Harry wondered how far he could potentially push it, and he knew that was Hammond's end goal; the guy wanted highly advanced and stable, safe teleportation tech and figured Nergal could get it done.
To Be Continued…
"Happy Birthday Harry...!" Hannah chimed out as she greeted him while the blonde girls' naked body was in his bed one side, in his arms while he woke up slowly to see her bright smiling face while Susan startled awake the other side, half-glaring at her best friend and female lover. "Happy Birthday, Susie!" she added as she saw her friend wake up. They were in the comfortable and large bed snuggled in Harry's arms contently under the soft covers.
"Do you have to be so chipper this early in the morning?" Harry complained with bloodshot eyes while Susan was nodding her head in agreement. "I don't have a freaking clue how we managed to get home from that stupid restaurant, dance club... place?!" he said as his brain hadn't completely woken up yet.
"This isn't our apartment Harry, it's your house... I mean mansion - or pantheon!" Susan mumbled with a soft giggle as she looked around the massive room tiredly. "I think you said, screw it into your 'holster' and had us teleported here!" she said while he nodded slightly while he felt her caressing his holster under the covers and felt the purr from his wand. Harry remembered; they tricked him into taking them out to celebrate his twenty-first birthday – three months late, but it was a reason they needed, not a good reason. The girls chose to make it all of their birthdays combined since they all worked a bit too much sometimes, and none of them celebrated beyond some – well, probably a little too much delicious birthday cake.
"Well, good to know it was working!" he mumbled sleepily as he had been working on it almost non-stop for months. "But this is only the beginning, soon, cars could become a thing of legend, or just recreational," he said thoughtfully before frowning. "Umm, talking about cars... I think someone will have to go and get my car because I sure as hell can't be-bothered."
"Don't even think about asking me!" Susan said with a large yawn. "That driving test was hard and I don't like the idea of trying to drive a manual car full stop now I have my licence, let alone that custom built Nergal muscle car of yours."
"So not fair...!" Hannah whined while she startled nibbling Harry's neck and he could feel her delightfully soft body wriggling against him. "I haven't passed my driving test yet, and I can't fly everywhere, or apparate into the middle of the street all the time, more so with shields being placed in places I want to go, and without teleportation pads for safety reasons we can't use the teleporters even when they are ready to market! It means I have to walk so far to get into buildings, or get the bus, and that's kind of crazy and stuff and, I'm lazy, and the bus sucks!" she sulked while Harry and Susan laughed, and each took turns kissing her lips lovingly.
"Melodramatic much...?" Susan said laughing more. "Just hurry up and finish your driving lessons and then pass your test and we can buy you any car you want... well a sensible car at a price we can afford because we can't just ask Harry to pay our way with stupid things we don't need!"
"Nergal has plenty of company cars!" Harry suggested. "You know you're both working positions where you get a free company car each, so why bother wasting your wages on buying something?"
"Yes, but it's more fun to have earned enough to buy our own!" Hannah agreed with Susan while Harry internally shrugged while Susan had reached down his body and grabbing 'him' while it inflated within her soft hand.
"Yeah, but right now, it is probably still our birthdays, so let's have some of your gooey present!" Susan said, giggling while Hannah and Harry laughed as she started wiggling down his body and disappearing under the covers while Hannah's lips quickly took Harry's and he chose to let the matter of his car drop – he had other people for that sort of thing anyway – he probably had a car fetching team on staff and they would appreciate the work – his car was nice too, so they would enjoy getting a short 'joyride'.
