Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 7

Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.

"So these are Ancients" said Tali as she gestured at the human looking people who were already at work try to restore their city. "And you found them".

Tali and didn't spend much time off the ship so when the Ancients that the Asgard had recovered from the void between galaxies, invited my group down to Atlantis in order to be thanked for our part in saving them, I'd decided to bring her down along with Cameron, leaving Miranda in charge of the ship.

Miranda wanted to come along too, but while it had involved some risk, she'd taken the gene therapy, and it worked, meaning she could control Ancient technology, as such she needed to stay on the ship when I wasn't on it. Sadly for Seven the treatment hadn't worked. No one knew why, but some people just couldn't have the gene.

Perhaps that would change if we found someone with enough information on biology to perfect the process which gave people the gene, but that project was at the bottom of a very long list.

"During a battle with Wraith Cruisers, their ship, which is called the Tria, was damaged, and they received word that the Lanteans had left Atlantis via Stargate for Earth" I explained to Tali "Since they unable to use the Stargate to get back to Earth, only the one here in Atlantis can do that and the city was under seige at the time, the crew modified their hyperdrive to make the intergalactic trip, and the Tria began the long trek to the Milky Way galaxy".

Not an ideal plan, but they hadn't really had much of a choice.

"However halfway through the trip, their hyperdrive broke down, and since they had nowhere to go, the crew used their sublight drive powered by a ZPM to travel at 99.9% the speed of light" I said next "Traveling at this speed, the idea was that would only experience a few years due to relativity".

Although it would still have taken millions of years to make the journey, at least for the rest of the universe, so by the time the Tria had actually reached the Milky Way everyone they knew would have dead for millions of years. Still what else could they have done.

"The Asgard actually found them" was what I said next "I just told them where to look".

Granted I'd been able to supply them with much in the way of details, other than between Pegasus and the Milky Way, but the Asgard were pretty smart, they'd been able to predict the course an Ancient warship would take if trying to reach Earth, and with their powerful sensors they'd been able to find the Aurora-class ship.

I then pointed down at a women who was standing with the few members of the expedition that were still within the city. There was also an Asgard here called Freyr, who was a member of the High Council, from what I could hear the High Council was strongly supporting the idea of having at least some of expedition remaining here.

However the Captain of the remaining Ancients was insisting that everyone leave, soon a compromise of sorts was reach that allowed a small amount of humans and Asgard to stay in Atlantis as liaisons as long as they didn't get in the way.

This pleased me as Atlantis team did harm than good in the long, at least in my view, and it was mine that mattered. Sure they had the best of intentions, but in the show they did things that could be considered to be evil.

Take Micheal for example, which is probably the worst thing they ever did. They kidnapped a Wraith, who while vile from the human perspective are a sentient species, experimented on him, lied to him, kept him prisoner, then later betrayed him, by doing the same experiment on him again.

I would not, and could not, defend Michaels actions, for he was a monster who made men like Hitler and Stalin seemed tame, but nobody should have to be put through what Michael had to go through twice, Wraith or otherwise.

Plus they experimented on a Wraith POW, and Shepard executed one of their Wraith prisoners. Which while not illegal, since the Wraith don't have human rights, it was still immoral to kill POWs. I hadn't even been willing to torture the Wraith I'd had captive.

Aside from waking up the Wraith, which hadn't been totally their fault, in the show it was Shepard's team that activated the bit of code that makes the Asurans attack the Wraith, and as a tactic in that war the Asurans began wiping out human populations.

Heck the leaders of some of the people in this galaxy actually put Shepard's team on trail. At that point they really should have stopped and taken stock of their actions.

However calling them evil was wrong, they had no evil intent, and I wasn't exactly qualified to judge. I had more than my fair share of people I'd turned into corpses, and I'd stolen, lied and all sorts of naughty things. Right now I was even thinking up ways to commit genocide on the Wraith.

Still while I had no right to judge them I also couldn't stand by and allow all those terrible things to happen. I wasn't exactly the kind of person who placed a lot of value on the lives of strangers, but even I had my limits. Millions of humans would have died over the next few years had I done nothing.

"Captain Helia" I greeted as a female Ancient came to me.

Like all the military types here she wore a uniform of some kind. The style was odd to, but it clearly worked for the Ancients.

"Captain Gothic" she said with a nod.

Captain Helia was a Lantean military officer, and the captain of the warship Tria. During the war with the Wraith, the Tria was damaged. When the Ancient Council gave the order to evacuate to Earth, they attempt to proceeded to Lantea, the planet Atlantis was on, but then they learned that the rest of the Lanteans had already left for Earth by Stargate.

Helia decided to return to Earth with the Tria, knowing that it would be a long trip, but the hyperdrive cut out in the void between the Milky Way and Pegasus. Unwilling to return to Pegasus, they decided to continue by traveling at 0.999 light speed, using a Zero Point Module to power the engines, while placing themselves in stasis pods. Due to relativity, they only experienced a handful of years. However for everyone else thousands of years passed by.

Now as the highest ranking member of the Lantean military, she'd taken control of Atlantis. As I'd both known and hoped she would. That had been part of my plan all along, I just hadn't thought it would happen so soon.

"I'm surprised to find yet another human with our gene" she said.

While I didn't know for sure how the Ancients viewed the humans they created, they did see themselves as superior, and so perhaps the idea of making babies with a human was distasteful to them.

"Well if you didn't want your people to interbreed with humans then why make it even possible?" I wondered "I'm sure you could have fixed our DNA so that it wasn't compatible with ours".

Of course this didn't apply to me as I'd gotten the gene due to actions of a higher power, but it was still a good point. And the Ancients had seeded human life in both this galaxy and the Milky Way, although given that they'd left the Milky Way millions of years the gene wouldn't have existed back then.

"We could have, but the decision was taken early on that we wanted humans to see us more like parents creating children than scientists working on a lab experiment, and that choice was made long before I was born" she replied "When it became clear that the humans of this galaxy had become developed enough to start using our technology, which is in part mentally controlled, the gene was created to act as a sort of key. Only then was interbreeding with humans made a crime".

That actually made sense. Which struck me as odd as a lot of what the Ancients had done never really seemed logical. Take that exploding tumor making machine for example, no sane person could have come up with that.

"Not all of our technology requires the gene in any case" the captain was now saying "And some technology only required one of my people to activate it. We never intended to deprive humans of all our technology".

Again this made sense.

"So you just didn't trust the children to play with your best toys" Tali observed.

While this might seem condescending it was a wise policy.

"The people from Earth are not exactly cavemen anymore" I pointed out "but I do agree with not letting the Tau'ri mess about with Atlantis".

The captain seemed surprised by my words. Pleasantly so in fact.

"I just wished your fellow humans understood this" the Ancient leader lamented "A misused potentia, what you call a ZPM, could destroy an entire solar system if overloaded, and when we attempted to make an even more powerful energy source for our weapons we almost did destroy an entire inhabited solar system. We are smarter than you, more cautious, and yet we can still make the most terrible of mistakes".

This seemed like a good a time as any to pitch my idea. I'd considered it a while back, but it had just hadn't seemed practical until some Ancients had come along.

"Are you aware of the Attero Device?" I asked.

The Attero Device was a powerful weapon created by the rogue Lantean scientist Janus as a means of ending the Lantean-Wraith war by destroying the Wraith's ability to travel faster than light with their hyperdrives. I'd hoped that the captain would know of it, and judging by the look on her face she did.

The Attero device was first activated 10,000 years ago, when its creator Janus tested it. He deactivated it after only three days, due to "devastating and unforeseen side effects", which were later discovered to be the cause of Stargates across the galaxy each exploding with the force of a dozen Nuclear warheads.

"Yes" she said "If I remember correctly the device sent a interference signal into subspace that would make Wraith Hyperdrives explode when they tried to open a hyperspace window. Since our ships engines run on a different frequency of subspace, they would still work and we could have just hunted down any remaining Wraith Hives which stayed put. As soon as it was turned on we started getting reports of Wraith Hives and Cruisers blowing up, and then we got reports that the astrea porta were exploding too".

Astrea porta was the proper name for a Stargate.

"Well I mentioned it because the device is under the control of the Vanir, who the Asgard plan to lure to Atlantis" I said "And it struck me that the Milky Way stargates can all be turned off, so if we can capture the device, and disable the Stargate network, the device could be used safely".

Captain Helia gave the matter some thought.

"How did you manage to disable the entire Stargate network?" she asked.

She made it sound like an impressive achievement.

"I didn't" I explained "and if I recall correctly it was done by a scientist on Earth. The Asgard should be able to get the details"

"Such a virus must have spread via the correlative update system" Captain Helia mused.

The correlative update system is a program within DHDs that tells when a Stargate has changed its position. Because of stellar drift, the update system will cause a Stargate to randomly dial the other Stargates to update its location to inform them of where they are.

"If we can seize the device, capture the Vanir, shut down the gate network and then activate the device, we could remove two threats in short order" I said "The Wraith Hives will be easy pickings, and without the gates they can't use their darts for culling. The only downside is that human civilizations won't be able to trade with each other, but we can turn the Stargates back on once the Wraith have been dealt with".

Which could take a while as there were many Hives ships left in the galaxy, more than fifty perhaps, and I doubted even any one Wraith knew exactly how many cruisers there were out there.

Captain Helia was understably impressed. I was less pleased as I didn't want to help wipe out a whole species, but I still had that Judgment Day perk which meant I knew exactly how many human civilizations would be destroyed over the next few years if something wasn't done. I had to at least try to prevent them.

"Are you sure you aren't one of us?" she asked.

I smiled as she was trying to compliment me. She knew very well that I wasn't an Ancient I'd explained that an ascended being of great power had modified me, and had given me advanced technology before sending me to other universes. I'd been surprised that anyone believed me, but this was Stargate, some weird shit had happened in the verse.

"Talk to the Asgard about how we dumb humans can sometimes come with simple solutions to complex problems" I suggested.

Captain Helia frowned.

"By that I assume you think I should let the people from Earth stay" she said.

Actually I didn't, but perhaps throwing them out completely was wrong. If nothing else the Ancients could use some support in their efforts to restore at least some of what they'd lost.

"You should let a small group stay" I advised "then over time allow more to come work in the city. Your people don't have the numbers to rebuild your civilizations, even if the Asgard find the Aurora and recover its crew, you just won't have the people you need to finish off the Wraith. So you should educate humans to help you run the city and recover the technology scattered around the galaxy, and offer them aid with their development in exchange".

Captain Helia gripped a nearby railing and sighed. I could tell that this was all taking a toil on her, and that wasn't surprising, she was ten thousand years out of her time and now had the responsibility of trying to rebuild her people's entire civilization. No wonder she was a bit cranky.

"I'll consider it" she said.

And with that she just left. I hadn't gotten my thank you after all.

"She's a bit rude" commented Tali.

Indeed she was.

(Line Break)

Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.

The trap was set, we'd found Janus's lab without much trouble thanks to a combination of my memories, and the Ancient database. In short order the lab was cleared out, leaving only the device the Vanir sought, which acted as bait.

Since I know how they would attack it was a simple matter to prepared. Ancients with stun weapons were at the top of the tower while Cameron, Miranda, Tali and I were in the actual lab, having taken cover behind some consules.

The idea was to stun them as soon as they came the hologram door, this room was shielded against scans, so there was no way the Vanir should be able to detect that there was anyone inside the lab. So we should be able to surprise the Vanir.

Thor didn't know exactly how the armour worn by the Vanir worked, but he was fairly certain that it was based on similar suits the Asgard made great use when they needed to enter hostile environments. As such they provided a potent defence against physical attack, as well as stuff like extreme cold and heat, but they should be vulnerable to energy weapons.

Which made sense as I could recall how Daniel Jackson and Rodney Mckay used the Vanir's own weapons against them. This was why my team had phasers and Ancient energy weapons of the hand held variety. I'd have to see if they had a pistol version similar to that used by the Asurans and the Ancient stunners didn't seem like real guns.

The Ancients had also asked for aid from Stargate Command, who were doing this for the sake of the Asgard. I suspected that Captain Helia was being pressured by the Asgard to build better relations with the people from Earth. Still I was glad that there teams of heavily armed marines here in the city.

"Two Vanir are approaching your position" we were warned.

As soon as the armoured figures appeared my group opened fire, it took quite a few shots, but we were able to take them down.

"Not much of a firefight" I commented.

I was actually missing my days with Commander Shepard when people always seemed to be shooting at me. I had to be crazy.

"We don't see much action these days do we" Miranda stated.

Even Voyager's away missing involved more shooting than this.

"I for one do not miss being shot at" said Tali.

(Line Break)

Aurora-class Battleship. Pegasus Galaxy.

As I often found myself doing these days I entered one of the many science labs which Seven of Nine had set up. This was a new one, she seemed to have created different labs for different departments of research.

It became clear to me very quickly that this lab, which had been one of the many empty rooms on board the ship until recently, had become a lab dedicated to study of body armour and other means of protection.

"Well they'll be switching on the Attero Device soon" I informed the former Borg drone "Once its up a running the days of Wraith dominance in the galaxy will be over".

Seven turned to face me. She wasn't one for expressing much in the way of feeling, so when she did it paid to pay attention.

"I am unsure if this course of action is correct" Seven told me "While peaceful co-existence with the Wraith is impossible, bringing about their extermation still seems morally wrong".

Well she wasn't wrong. The Wraith weren't soulless demonic creatures their motivation wasn't to cause suffering, they just wanted to remain top of the food chain so they could keep themselves fed.

Still they were a threat to all human life out there, and since they didn't tolerate advanced technologies other than their own they were a threat to all sentient races, human or otherwise.

"Even if we could remove the Wraith's need to feed they might just wipe out all human life to eliminate a potential threat" I said "Or enslave humanity, and we can't exactly exile to them a planet and take away all their tech, because they'd either starve to death or turn on each other and then starve".

Seven didn't argue the point, but I could tell that she was uncomfortable, so I decided to change the subject.

"Tell me about the armour" I requested.

Seven turned to the one suit of Vanir armour we'd be able to get for study. There had been four suits, one had been kept by the Asgard, who'd found a way to disarm the self destruct, the Ancients had another, and the last suit was being given to the Tau'ri as a way of saying thanks for the help.

"This suit of armour" Seven started by saying "Which is actually a suit designed for harsh environments not for fighting, encompasses the entire body of whoever wears it. While it is durable its protection against weapon's fire is limited. However should we acquire more of these suits I should be able to install kinetic barrier and life support belts, which project a force field around the wearer, in order to increase the protection offered".

More defences would be good. This verse was a dangerous one and I didn't know about everything out there, best to be as prepared as possible.

"Inside the suit's helmet, which is detachable from the rest of the suit, is a Heads up display. This display shows various sensors and can differentiate between friend or foe, outlining a friend in green and a foe in red.

She had more to tell me.

"This set of protective gear is resistant to significant impacts, such as the force of landing after jumping from a great height" Seven explained to me "There are thrusters in the feet to slow descent speed, but only marginally. I don't recommend jumping out of any spacecraft".

Which wasn't something I was in the habit of doing. I'd never totally shaken my fear of heights despite everything that had happened to me.

"The wearer would have the ability to resist incredibly high levels of otherwise fatal radiation" was what she said next "As well as extreme hot and cold, toxic atmospheres, as well as other hazards, but without more testing I do not know the limits of this technology".

So maybe not a good idea to wear it and go swimming in lava then.

"There is a magnetic holster attached to the suit where an energy weapon can be carried" the former borg drone let me know "A circular shield in the left arm that can withstand sustained fire from high-caliber projectile weapons for a short period. A self-destruct that activates if the suit is tampered with. When powered up an electromagnetic field emitted from the suit that disrupts scanners".

Despite its many strengths and advantages, the suits could be penetrated by weapon fire, energy weapons were more effective than projectile weapons from what I knew.

"Well I've asked for enough suit for all of us" I told Seven of Nine "We should get them once the other rouge Asgard have been hunted down".

Which hopefully wouldn't take long. We had good armour, and other defences, but we could always do with better protection.

"Now what can you tell me about their weapons?" I asked.

While Seven had a lab for the study of weapons, the Vanir guns were located in this lab, she must not yet have begun a detailed study of the technology.

"These are handheld weapons, shaped like a pistol" she informed me "They attach to the leg of a Vanir armored suit when not in use. They are capable of firing energy bolts of some kind that stun a Human in one shot, similar to a Wraith hand blaster. My scans are incomplete, but I suspect that the technology behind these weapons are based on Ancient pulse weapons, like the ones that defend this ship".

The Vanir must have salvaged and back engineered some Ancient technology.

"Good work" I let Seven know "Now if you'll excuse me I need to talk to somebody about removing the Stargate from the Genii homeworld. We don't them nuking people".

(Line Break)

Aurora-class Battleship. Milky Way Galaxy.

"Are you sure about this" Miranda asked as I prepared to beam down.

I'd been invited by the IOA (The International Oversight Advisory (IOA) an United Nations authority that manages Earth's off world affairs) to attend a meeting to discuss the terms of an alliance. I suspected that the IOA were concerned about a still mostly unknown element flying around the galaxy in a powerful ship. I doubted the American military was pleased about it either. I knew this because if I was leader of this world, I'd be worried about the mostly unknown flying around in a ZPM powered warship.

"Might be a trap" she reminded.

One of my concerns was that the Tau'ri would try to seize my ship using some sort of justification, and that I'd spend the rest of this Jump in some kind of intellectual servitude. This I didn't want, and while I was sure that the Asgard would be very upset if this happened, well the Tau'ri could claim that I attacked them or something.

"I'm going down there to tell the IOA to back off and leave us alone" I informed Miranda Lawson "I just need to do in a way that makes them think they've somehow won something. The SGC isn't so bad. I might be willing to at least exchange some information with them".

While I had little experience dealing with the likes of the IOA. I wasn't totally naive about this sort of thing. I had seen Commander Shepard deal with the Illusive Man and the Citadel Council, and I'd handled a few bureaucrats in my time.

"Good thing you're taking your sexbot with you" the former Cerberus Operative commented.

I sighed upon hearing that. Cameron had become so much more than just a robot with an organic outer shell, and of course Miranda knew that. Still she liked to bring up that my Terminator had once been little more than a sexbot.

"And I'll be wearing our new armour" I let Miranda know

Once Seven had come to understand how the Vanir suits worked it hadn't been long before she and Tali started adapting the tech for our use. Now if we could only get some samples of Kull warrior armour, and incorporate that into our existing defences, then we'd have something really cool.

"Complete with kinetic barriers and a life support belt. I've also got an emergency beacon so you'll know if I get into trouble".

I was sure that Cameron had some surprises too.

"Listen if that worried you can raise the shields once we're gone, or cloak the ship" I offered

"Just be careful" Miranda urged.

Before I could reply my cybernetic bodyguard came into the room. Once I was sure she was ready we stepped onto the transporter platform, and signalled her to beam Cameron and I down.

(Line Break)

Stargate Command. Earth.

"Why do you want met with the Jaffa?" asked General O'Neil.

I'd walked out on the meeting with the morons that made up the IOA. They been a bunch of arrogant assholes who'd dared to make demands of me. I was super tempted to transport them into my brig in order to teach them a lesson, but I didn't want to antagonise the people of this planet.

After the IOA I'd been escorted to O'Neil's office so that we could discuss my group's alliance with the SGC, which was technically under the jurisdiction of the IOA, but it was part of the US military so they weren't actually answerable to the IOA. This meant they could cut a separate deal with me.

So far our agreement was for mutual support, I would come to the aid of ship or team from Earth if they needed help, and they would do the same. Which if nothing else was a good start to a solid alliance.

"Part of my mission is to gather and study advanced technology" I explained to the air force officer "Now I could flying around the galaxy looking for Goa'uld technology, but it makes more sense to buy it from the Jaffa. I can trade them Naquadah.

Naquadah was a somewhat rare, super-dense mineral used by a wide number of different races. Its most basic use was that of a weapon. This was because Naquadah greatly amplifies energy, making it extremely potent if paired with explosives.

Due to its unique properties, Naquadah forms the basis for many advanced technologies; the Stargates themselves are composed almost entirely of Naquadah. Naquadah is also present in the bloodstream of the Goa'uld, which allows them to control their technologies and sense the presence of other symbiotes.

The Goa'uld have Naquadah mining operations on many planets; its refined form, weapons-grade Naquadah, is extremely valuable and could used as currency. Like some metals it couldn't be replicated, however the Elemental Furnace could produce the element, although it took a lot of matter to make even a small amount of Naquadah.

Weapons-grade Naquadah was so dense that two Jaffa are required to lift a quantity the size of a couple of common housing bricks, making it at least as dense as gold. Alternate forms of Naquadah include Liquid Naquadah, which was used to power the Goa'uld Staff weapons most often used by the Jaffa.

"If you've Naquadah we could do with some" the General mentioned "What kind of technology are you looking for".

Given that they needed to build more ships I could understand their need for the mineral.

"And any Trinium you have lying around would be nice" O'Neil added.

I gave this some thought.

"If you can get me some samples of Goa'uld technology then I'll trade a fair amount of Naquadah and Trinium"

While I couldn't be sure I was fairly certain that Tau'ri used a trinium-titanium alloy for the hull of their ships. Using the Elemental Furnace I could create these desired metals, but I would require large amounts of raw materials, but that was easily done. I could harvest raw materials from anywhere, like say the asteroid belts of this system.

"I'd still like to met with some of the leaders of the Jaffa" I said to O'Neil

With the Goa'uld empire collapsing because of the Replicators there's going to be a power vacuum, and while I didn't think any Jaffa nation was going to last, it would be to try to aid it, rather than let chaos rule.