EVoNet Forward

Chapter 24

Lightning Gateway

"Kal, come on in," Éclair called from the side of the pool with a brilliantly bright smile.

Kalam was in his swim shorts and looked around to see they were alone and the sky illusion had darkened with stars twinkling in the sky and the breeze was heavier and it really felt like it was night, but the water was lit and clear and he could see all of Éclair and he had to control himself or embarrass himself in front of his girlfriend. Well, he hoped she was his girlfriend as they cuddled a lot and kissed and did boyfriend, girlfriend things, but they hadn't talked about whether they were officially a couple yet, and they had only known each other for nearly a month, and it had been only the past week that they started doing more date like and boyfriend girlfriend activities.

Smiling sheepishly, Kalam slid down and sat on the edge with his feet in the water.

"I said, in the water, Kal," Éclair said but she grinned as she surprised him and slid between his legs and wrapped her arms around his waist. "I am totally going to miss you!" she said with a cute pout.

Kalam groaned. "We'll only be gone the week," he said with a sheepish smile. "I would rather stay here with you than go on a silly trip, but Harry says I need to go with them."

"He wants to spend time with you," Éclair said gently reaching up and stroking his cheek. "Harry is a good man; he took us in when no one else would, and if they would it would only be to use us or hurt us. He took you from those crazies, and is looking out for you, and wants to get to know you some. Not everybody has family like that, unfortunately. You are – I mean, we are really lucky to have Harry in our lives, looking out for us."

Pouting, Kalam ran his fingers gently through her hair and sighed. "I… I suppose he's better at being a brother than Terry."

"Augh!"

They both jumped apart as Mary was a little way from them with a tiny four-year old miniature version of herself only a little pinker in places with her hair to her neck tied back, and a cartoon top. Mary was covering the tiny girls' eyes while she squirmed.

"No, Klips!" Mary said to her little sister, her actual blood sister. "You can't see these things. Shame on you two. This is a public beach. Go and get in his bathtub if you want to do naughty things. What if the twins caught you? I wouldn't be able to cover their delicate little eyes in time."

"What's going on?" Rose asked as she was wearing a red one-piece suit and hopped into the pool next to her best friend and her little sister, eagerly accepting the cuddling little Klips into her arms once Mary let her go where she snuggled into Rose's chest, and then Rose turned to see her brother and Éclair were beat red.

"Oh, nothing," Mary replied as she gestured Éclair and Kalam and had a grin plastered across her face. "I just caught them being all smoochy shmoo and was just teasing them."

"What about my smoochy shmoos?" Rose asked in mock sadness.

"Here, I totes got your back!" Mary said eagerly attacking Rose's lips, cheeks, nose, and forehead with butterfly kisses while giggling as Rose couldn't escape as she couldn't stop laughing and she had Klips in her arms. Mary pulled back with a grin while laughing. "See, plenty of smoochy shmoos from your delightfully awesome best friend," she said smugly.

"Smoochy shmoo!" Klips suddenly giggled out as she gave Rose several little kisses all over her face while giggling.

Rose could only laugh as she returned the little cuties kisses. "Klips… you adorable little thing!"

"I love you!" Klips said as she snuggled.

Rose smiled and kissed Klips's forehead. "I love you too, darling."

"She wanted to see you before you go on your trip," Mary said as she cuddled with her friend and sister.

"Bloody… soppy gits!" Harry interrupted as he stood on the beach looking down at them. He was dressed in an expensive looking suit, but he pulled Klips up into his arms when she raised hers to him and held her gently in his arms and kissing her forehead before lowering her back into the water where she zipped around crazily in happiness. "We're going away for a week, and you can phone each other any time you like. You have till nine to play, so you have about two hours, and then Kal, Rose, I expect you to get to bed and try to get some sleep so I'm not dragging you both out to the plane tomorrow. Mary and Éclair can do whatever, but what is our adorable Klips doing out this late? Isn't it her bedtime?"

"She wanted to see, Rose before you all left," Mary said while pouting as Klips was already climbing all over Rose for attention, and Rose gave in every time.

"Big Sister!" little Klips chirped happily as she cuddled Rose.

Mary pouted. "Klips always seems to like playing with Rose more than me," she said with a shake of her head.

"You can have her back if you like?" Rose said offering the giggly little girl to her sister.

Mary folded her arms and shook her head. "Nope, I'm good," she said while even Éclair and Kalam chose to laugh while Harry shook his head and left back into the main house.

It had been a busy flight, and thankfully only Rose was being a sleepy head that morning, and she had Daphne in her room practically stripping her before they showered together as they both knew how irritatingly slow Rose could be in the morning. Harry found amusement in Rose's blushing pouty cheeks when they arrived for breakfast washed up and dressed ready for their trip, as it was the second time Daphne had to deal with Rose's tardiness. It wasn't even because of 'girl reasons' such as not being able to 'find' the right outfit. It was because she could be lazy, but she did work hard on her studies, so Harry couldn't be too harsh on her, and it was a bonding experience for her and Daphne.

However, Harry had a meeting at a secret military base that afternoon, and he was in a military vehicle soon after settling his family at the hotel. Harry had a great time teasing the military private who drove him. She was so fun as she tried her hardest not to respond. Though now, Harry grinned as two US military officers wearing green uniforms led him into an elevator after he was taken into the side of a mountain. These one's were extremely disciplined, and trying to piss them off was funny, but they wouldn't jump to the bait, though, amusingly he was sure he got a tiny lip quirk from one of them, so some of these guys still had their sense of fun remaining.

Harry was wearing a full black suit looking every bit the businessman he was supposed to be. He had left his sister and fiancé in the hotel with his little brother with the promise of tracking down an American theme park later, or at least some place fun to go once Harry finished with his business.

Though, really that was to keep his little brother Kalam happy. His brother still was somewhat unhappy and uncertain to find out that Harry had gained custody from their parents. He still didn't understand what their dad and Dumbledore had done wrong. He didn't want to understand, but he had been better since making friends with Éclair, and he wasn't trying to run away or anything, but Kalam was still a little disappointed that he couldn't at least bring Éclair with them. She could have come if she wanted, but she didn't like it out of the water, and had a phobia of being dragged out of the water from her ordeal where she lost her family. It didn't help that the devices to give them legs was uncomfortable, and wasn't as perfect as it could be, but Harry had people working on better functioning devices.

Harry smiled thinking of his brother and Éclair. They were so amusing with their little 'love affair'. Harry was glad Kalam and Éclair were getting comfortable together. She could help him with being a better person, and maybe Kalam could help Éclair with her fears.

The elevator came to a stop after having gone down underground for a short while and opened up. The army guys led Harry out through some military grey corridors until they reached a larger open plan area with windows that lead out into another chamber, but it had shutters down blocking out his view of what he couldn't say, but he knew it would be fun finding out.

Harry's escorts opened a conference room door and he entered while they closed the door and left. Harry looked around the room. It wasn't full but it had a few people in sitting at a long conference table. Doctor Jackson was the only person he knew, but by the other uniforms realised they were soldiers.

"Mr. Evans…" a greying man stood wearing the pips of a general. "I'm glad you can make it, I'm Jack O'Neill, this is Cam Mitchell, Samantha Carter, and you know Daniel Jackson, and this is Teal'c," he introduced himself and the others.

"What's with the gold thing on your forehead?" Harry couldn't help but ask as he leaned in for a closer look of Teal'c. "It seems to have the whole Egyptian thing going on. You're not from this planet, are you?"

"That doesn't matter, you can ask again later," Jack interrupted nervously while looking around at his confused team while Harry slumped in a seat like he already owned the place and was thinking about where to put the juice bar. "You've been given special permission to see what we do here. The president himself suggested bringing you in at General Hammond's assurance… on our… project…"

"So, this is the SGC," Harry interrupted shocking them as he shrugged. "Hey, I've seen that odd little sci-fi series and gathering information, conspiracy theories and stuff. You would be surprised how accurate some of these conspiracy theorists can be! It's crazy, but people think they're crazy, which is crazy, and crazily the reason only crazy people give them the time of day, but have a chat with them; they know their crazy stuff."

"He kind of has a point," Daniel couldn't help but admit sheepishly. "We believe, Mr. Evans that you could offer us an alternative power source… one that uses ZPE. The off-world Stargate's use Zero Point Energy for power, but our planet is lacking the original DHD… umm… Dial Home Device, which is also like a huge never-ending battery…"

"Hmm…" Harry muttered thoughtfully. "It seems you're actually under financial pressure, and you're trying to stop this project from being shut down by no longer using crap loads of expensive power from the main grids."

"Yeah, pretty much," Jack agreed sighing. "We can't let that happen. It would leave the Earth defenceless, and it would cut us off from allied worlds."

"Well, you could have been screwed…" Harry began.

"That is not to mention the possibility of another shadow agency getting a hold of the Stargate and steeling off world technology… again…" Teal'c interrupted nonchalant.

Harry chuckled while nodding. "Yeah, several tech thieves splattered on my buildings shields a few years back. What ever happened to that guy… had a weird name. Omen… I think?"

O'Neil turned to Samantha in question. "Yes," she said looking through a tablet. "He was the one who survived an attempt at entering Nergal in London via stolen Asgardian teleporter. Its classified unfortunately, but from what I remember, he talked and talked, and he was likely paid and he and his family are probably in a protection program somewhere. A lot of important people went down for that, as General Hammond could have a mean streak when he needed too."

"That's good," Harry said with a smile. "Seemed like a nice guy. But when you train your soldiers to be obedient to their superiors… most of the time they seem to take that a little too far. Sometimes, thinking for yourselves is more important than following orders."

"Right. About that, DHD?" O'Neil quickly interrupted, as he didn't want to be around for some boring conversation about soldier training as Samantha was about to continue and looked like she also had an opinion on the matter.

"Okay, I'll build you a power plant," Harry said with a thoughtful grin.

"Powerplant?" O'Neil asked in confusion. "I don't think we have the space for a powerplant. We just need a new DHD… or would it be DOD; like Dial Out Device?"

Harry just chuckled. "When I say powerplant, I mean one about the size of…" Harry turned to Samantha. "How much power does this base need constantly, and then how much energy does the Stargate use?"

"Oh, right," she said as she pressed on her screen a couple of times and turned it to him and his eyes widened. "Yes. When the Stargate is running, we need the equivalent to the power a small city would use in a month for having it open for just three minutes. We've actually shorted out a few nearby towns on more than one occasion," she said pulling her tablet back. "Is it possible to build a-."

"Oh, yes, not too troubling," Harry interrupted thoughtfully. "Probably about ten by ten by ten feet to be on the safe side, and it should be able to run the whole base and the Stargate. To be on the safer, safe side we should probably build three of them, and install them away from each other."

"How much is ten feet?" the General asked.

"About three metres," Jackson answered and he looked impressed. "It's bigger than a DHD though," he said while turning to Harry in confusion.

Harry shrugged. "I could build them smaller, but they will be in constant use whereas the DHD is not, correct?"

Doctor Jackson nodded. "Yes, I see."

"So, I sort you guys out," Harry said with a grin while they looked nervous. "All I want in exchange is full access to the Stargate, and all gathered information on the gates, and I would like information on all the people you have met beyond the gate."

"That seems… reasonable," Jack nodded in agreement as he let out a sigh of relief, and Harry knew he likely had authorisation to give him more, but all in good time. "Sam and Daniel will sort that for you and take you to see the Stargate, now if you would like."

"Sweet," Harry said grinning as he followed the two from the room closing the door behind them.

"General O'Neill, do you really think that is a wise choice?" Teal'c asked as he looked to where he sat. "You would be handing over information about allied worlds."

"General Hammond says he can be trusted," Jack shrugged. "And I think in the long run it could be helpful if we bring him into the SGC as a consultant! Plus, I'm kind of hoping he'll give us some free stuff, like some Sky Sleds."

"Making sure they're specially designed with some blasters would be cool," Cam couldn't help but give his opinion while Teal'c sighed while they were both grinning like spoilt children waiting to unwrap a new game for Christmas. "Maybe we could get his help with our ships if we gave him some of the blueprints, and with EVoNet tech actually made by Nergal, just imagine."

"Ohhh, cool idea," O'Neil said with a wicked grin widening. "I mean… we already want human teleporters, but just think of what else we could get retrofitted to our ships!? That guy knows how to please with the things he makes!" he said with a thoughtful look.

Meanwhile Harry was drooling over the Stargate as he was shown into the Gate Room as it was a huge circular device with many different key words written in what seemed to be Egyptian glyphs.

"I'll need to bring in some equipment," Harry said in amazement as he walked up the ramp and looked over what they called an Iris, which was a gate shield to protect from uninvited guests. "I also have a younger brother who has never flown in a fighter jet before taken for a ride, if someone could wrangle that."

Sam and Daniel just gave him a look.

"Oh, right," Harry said laughing sheepishly. "He's kind of feeling down because of me arresting our dad and putting our mum on lockdown in my medical facility. He's been groomed… half-arsedly to believe that Albus Dumbledore can NEVER be wrong, and he's confused and worried, and needs to do something fun, to show him how awesome the world can be."

"That's the old man you arrested while playing that… 'new' sport," Sam said as Daniel had told them all about it. "What happened to him? Is he still…?"

"No," Harry answered while shaking his head. "We only had the evidence to charge him with assault and he got off with a fine. So, about that jet ride…?"

Sam rolled her blue eyes. "I think I can sort something for tomorrow morning. We can just get Cam to take him."

"Cool," Harry said as he drew his wand from up his sleeve as she clicked open from the holster. They gave him a look of surprise. He shrugged sheepishly. "I knew you guys would want to take my wand, and she wouldn't like that, so I came prepared," he said laughingly as he set his wand to scan the ancient alien technology. "This is quite incredible," he said as he was reading the scan reports. "It's mana technology of the highest standard. It works on a similar bases as… hmm… floo network travel… that is surprising… and quite intriguing. I've already been working on plans to update the floo system… amazing-."

"What's a floo network?" Sam asked in curiosity as she peeked at his holographic screen and her eyes widened. "That… how is your scanner picking up all of that information while ours don't pick up near that much information."

Harry smirked as the screen blinked away. "Use medical scanners," he replied while she looked surprised. "Not as good as mine, but better. As for the Floo Network. It is an interconnected series of crisscrossing wormholes that use ZPE and are linked via a warding field that activates to a recently discovered, to the non-magical's, though wizards don't know what they have… well, it's an artificial element we've just been calling floo, and it's pretty easy and cheap to make. Once it reacts with heat within the connected ward field; it can create a gateway, or portal by bending gravity and rotating space. It's not instantaneous, but close enough that it doesn't matter, and it can only be used within the gravitational pull of a planet, but it's cheaper and more efficient than teleporting. We've been working on making it easier, reforming or reusing floo. Also, if you are wondering how the network knows where to take you; that's simple. Mage don't understand it themselves, but they create a programming map reference and name within higher dimensions, like a simple program within the ward field, similar I suppose to GPS, but cleaner."

"Harry!" Sam said while looking pale and wide eyed. "You're going to put huge corporations out of business. Busses, aeroplanes, ships… heck, cars… whole industries would have to change overnight… but the possibility to walk through a door and straight into a supermarket or your family's house for Thanksgiving…"

"And getting to spend the night in your own bed," Harry agreed while shrugging and turning to the Stargate. "However, that is nothing compared to this, Sam. This… it reaches through the stars! Whoever invented the Stargates have my praise unless they turn out to be arseholes?" he asked turning to Sam and Daniel and they gave small shrugs so he paid that no further thought as he made another scan as he moved closer and looked thoughtful. "I wonder whether I could build more…?" he muttered under his breath and he re-holstered his wand and a screen popped up in front of him that he swiped through while frowning.

"It wouldn't matter if you could," Sam spoke to gain his attention as she heard him. "I mean we can only open one gate at a time… we do actually have a second in storage in Area Fifty-One. It has to do with the address. It's like a telephone, and the Earth is one person, so can't use multiple at the same time."

"It can only go one way at a time too, except for radio transmissions can travel both ways," Daniel added helpfully. "Although, the prospect of being able to open multiple Stargates at the same time… it seems impossible, it would give us a huge advantage as we do have two gates, and it is possible we could potentially secure another one or two if we had to."

"Nothing is impossible Danny-boy," Harry replied with a smirk as he looked through more data. "I could build one – I think… but for more than one gate… It's just a matter of adding a new code allowing us to assign a… planetary area code to each gate rather than for a single planet."

"T-that could potentially work," Sam said looking excited. "It would be just like with telephones if we could rewrite our Stargates code we could alter the dial in address to be unique to each gate rather than planet. It would mean our gate wouldn't work on any other planet the same way they all just know where they are now… it would be more like a cell phone rather than a landline."

"Could we do that?" Daniel asked looking at them both. "Where does it keep its computer?"

Harry chuckled while Sam looked at him in confusion too. "The same place the Floo Network keeps their 'computer'," he answered to their surprise. "In higher dimensional space – where else would you keep a programming system of this magnitude that you would need a computer the size of this mountain to run the Stargate, and before you say it, all your computers are doing is operating the dials on the device, and they're here, and they call into the systems firmware or OS or whatever this thing would be called to tell the gates systems where to send you by what is likely an address book… well; that's what we would call it. The Floo Network is nothing like this, I mean, damn," he chuckled looking over his readouts. "I don't know how powerful this programming is, but we need to invent a word for it."

"How much storage space," Sam asked while frowning as she looked at the latest screen Harry was reading with a frown. "This… isn't really a computer… it doesn't work like that – it shouldn't - this… I don't understand… how could this possibly exist – how could it work?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know yet, but I can't wait to find out," he said thoughtfully as he swiped the screen and it disappeared.

"So, could we really alter code we don't understand?" Sam asked while biting her lower lip.

"I don't see why not…" Harry suggested while shrugging. "We just need to find the right code, not reprogram the whole thing… we just need to find out what small pieces do, and once we have the right pieces… bingo, and with your help, Sam, I'm sure we could come up with something, but I think we should probably unpack the spare for experimentation. We don't want to break this one."

Sam nodded her head in agreement. "Yes, you're right. I'll speak to the General about getting the spare Stargate out…"

"Send it to my research lab in Texas!" Harry quickly interrupted, hoping they would agree, and using his Texas facility because he doubted, they would let him take it out of the country. "It's secure and has much bigger research facilitation than here. You'll of course be welcome to have soldiers protecting it, and on guard, and you'll be welcome to security check staff I choose to let in on our project, and NDA them to high heavens if it makes you feel better."

"I'll speak to O'Neill about it," Sam replied nodding while trying not to look too excited. "But what about a power source for this gate…?"

"Oh, that's easy business," Harry replied shrugging it off. "I can get you some powerplants, but I don't know the facility, but I'm sure you'll have technicians capable of assisting my own engineers in installing them. So… Area Fifty-One… is the real bloody deal? So, do you have any alien space ships stashed away in there… or up there?" he asked while gesturing up while grinning widely.

"A few at Area Fifty-One as they have the space," Daniel said sheepishly. "It's mostly just a warehouse for space junk, so most of the alien things are broken," he added with a smile. "We actually have a couple of our own ships built from some reverse engineered tech, but we are only loaning our teleporter tech from the Asgard… but I understand you have teleportation technology?"

Harry grinned smugly. "I see, so the aliens won't just hand over the knowledge?" he asked impishly. "I believe we can work something out, but I believe that might mean taking my brother into space! Every boy has a dream of being an astronaut, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose," Daniel said nervously. "Until they've been in a battle with their first alien race bent on universal conquest pretending to be gods."

"I… I'll take my chances," Harry replied sheepishly. "But I cannot wait to read up on all the races you've come across. They're not all douches, right?"

Sam laughed while rolling her eyes. "I'm sure with this, and after his jet flight you'll have your younger brother realising you're the coolest big brother in the universe."

To Be Continued…