Chapter Two
NEL'AR'S CHOICE
BY
DOUGLAS L HEMMINGWAY
Author's Notes: Some may notice I have edited the story some since introduction a few weeks ago. Some edits were correction of grammar, but others are modification of the story.
DISCLAIMER IS IN THE FIRST CHAPTER, BUT AGAIN ALL STARGATE, STAR TREK AND BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER COMPONENTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS AND PRODUCTION COMPANIES.
CHAPTER TWO
BRIDGE R.R.W. MANDUKAR
Subcommander Nel'ar aka Joyce Summers thought it over and said, "Respond to the hail, Tirina." Lieutenant Tirina replied, "Yes Subcommander," and complied with her Commander's orders. "I have them online, audio only," she said after fine tuning and adjusting the communicator to match the frequency the signal was coming in on. Nel'ar cleared her throat then said, "This is Subcommander Nel'ar of the Romulan Republic Mandukar responding to the hail coming from the organization calling itself Stargate Command, come in please."
A few minutes passed the after her third attempt to respond Nel'ar heard a male voice come over the speakers on the Bridge in a Texas accent that said, "Subcommander Nel'ar this is Major General George Hammond, Stargate Command, commanding. We noticed your ship before it faded from radar, lidar, optical and video orbital surveillance. We assume you are now under stealth. Our concern is what are your intentions Subcommander?"
"General Hammond, my, our intentions are peaceful. Through some situation I am not at liberty to discuss currently we found ourselves here. Because of those circumstances we are in effect refugees in your universe. We are separated by time, space and dimension from our people. Last night we found ourselves stranded on your planet and we made it to our ship which was landed in a wild grassy area outside the town we found ourselves in. I ordered an evacuation of all Romulan personnel in my vicinity. We thought we avoided detection," said Nel'ar.
"Roger Subcommander what can we do to assist you?" General Hammond asked knowing he could gain much needed help for Earth and the U.S. Nel'ar thought things over and then said, "I would ask you the same thing, but we could use a safe place to land or dock our ship."
STARGATE COMMAND GATE CONTROL ROOM
Maj G Hammond listened to the person calling herself Subcommander Nel'ar while looking at the imagery of a dark brown and black spacecraft that closely resembled the Warbird from the game of Star Trek Online which his nieces play.
Hammond was thinking that the ship could be stationed behind the moon or perhaps docked or hangared in one of the larger hangars at Groom Lake, otherwise known as Area 51. However the stationing of it behind Luna may be the better option. There it would be hidden better. After looking at the imagery further he knew behind Luna was the far greater choice.
"As to how you could assist us Subcommander, we don't have a deep space capability beyond unmanned probes currently. Most of our manned missions are limited to our orbital space station. I am thinking you have the means of scanning beyond our star system, yes?" Hammond said, while silently thanking God that the SGC used secure communications out of habit. He still thought over how the SGC could help the R.R.W. Mandukar.
Thinking about the ship's name Hammond knew from reading Diane Duane's novel on the Romulans back several years ago that Mandukar meant watchful or vigilant in Rihan or the Romulan language. However from his nieces playing Star Trek Online he knew that the Romulan Republic was a democratic republic working on rebuilding the Romulan civilization after the destruction of the planets Romulus and Remus.
Hammond thought about the crew compliment of a Mogai-Class Heavy Warbird. He knew from looking at Memory Beta, Memory Alpha and the official Star Trek Online website with his nieces that the Mogai-Class had 900 crew more or less. It was one of the largest of the Romulan Republic's warships and of the Romulan Star Empire's too.
"Subcommander Nel'ar, about what we can do for you, honestly we don't have a large enough berthing space for you on the planet as yet. My best suggestion is parking the Mandukar behind our moon and using what small craft you have to shuttle down to the surface once we find you a safe haven and harbor," Hammond said.
SUNNYDALE HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY 1 NOVEMBER
Giles had let himself into the school library using his key to the back door. Several of the school's children, faculty and staff were unaccounted for after last night. He learned from one of Cordelia Chase's friends who dressed as a ghost that everyone affected by the spell that gripped the town had got their costumes from a place called Ethan's in the Business District near Joyce Summers' art gallery. He also learned that this Ethan was Ethan Rayne. Rayne was a former associate of his from his college days. Back then the two of them and a few others practiced chaos magic as a way of getting thrills.
When Giles had gone to Ethan's shop he forced his way in. After searching the place he found Ethan's altar to Janus, only instead of the usual man's face in front and woman's on the obverse side this one had two men's faces. The front one had a congenital expression, but back was angry and baleful. The bust was glowing from the eyes and mouth. Ethan himself was nowhere to be found.
Logically thinking the bust was the spell's focus Giles knew deep within his soul that he had to destroy it. With a roundhouse kick reminiscent of his Ripper days he kicked the bust off its pedestal. It went crashing to the fool where it shattered into several pieces.
It was after searching the entire town that Giles returned to the library. He had been trying to find his Slayer, her mother, Xander, Willow and yes Ethan. They as well as many others were now missing.
From Ethan's ledger which Giles took on his way out of the store, he learned everyone missing had purchased, rented or in Ethan's case just wore Klingon, Romulan or Reman and other Star Trek based costumes from Ethan's store. Giles couldn't help busting out in laughter. There in Ethan's own scrall was what he found funny; Ethan dressed as D'Tan.
D'Tan according to his recent research on the web, was an honorable man. That was something as Giles was aware Ethan was not. "So Ethan's comeuppance is to become the kind of man he was not, oh... that's good..." Giles said to himself as he continued to laugh about Ethan being hoisted by his own petard.