Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 19
Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.
It took me a few moments to fully process what Daniel Jackson had just said to me. Not because I had a hard imagining a city-ship being on Earth as I'd seen Atlantis land on Earth during the show, and I knew that Atlantis had left Earth millions of years ago, the city-ship had most likely been built on that planet.
The trouble I had was trying to guess what the results would be from the Tauri finding and claiming their own city-ship. Sure they might just study it, and use it to defend their planet, however they might also use its technology to 'protect their interests' which was a nice way of saying that they would want to enforce their will upon others. However that last part really wasn't my concern, as I wouldn't be here in the long run, and should the Ori, or another hostile power turn their sights on the Milky Way galaxy, then Earth might need its very own Atlantis.
"So why you think there's a city-ship on Earth?" I asked Doctor Jackson.
There was no hint of there being one on that planet in the show, as such I was rather curious about this, as well as a little concerned.
"Yes, well it's not mentioned in the database" Jackson told me as he took out a battered notebook "One of the Captains mentioned it. He said it was part of a special project meant to preserve their society should this galaxy fall the Wraith, which it did. Even the ruling council weren't aware of all the details".
This explained why Merlin had never spoke of it. He and I had taken the time to discuss a few things, and I felt sure that he would have taken a few moments to mention that there was a city-ship parked somewhere on Earth.
"Since there's no real record of the city-ship, they have been deleted" Jackson said next "I had to look for all the information I could get on city-ships, and fill in the gaps with other sources of information. And I think I found it".
He showed me a picture, a crude hand drawn one, that showed the main spire of a city ship poking above some tree tops. Most likely in a jungle.
"This drawing was made by my grandfather I'm not sure if he copied it or if it was just described to him, but he claims it's a drawing of El Dorado" Jackson told me.
If it wasn't a city-ship then at the very least this drawing had been made by someone who had seen an Ancient tower done in the Lantean style.
"Originally El Hombre Dorado ("The Golden Man") or El Rey Dorado ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish" Jackson was now saying "That's another story, and over time it became mixed with a legend about a golden city, that is supposedly somewhere in the jungles of South America".
Even I'd heard of the golden city that was suppose to be somewhere in the jungles of South America.
"I think El Dorado might be real because I found a mention of city-ships that were built before the war with the Wraith, and one is golden" Jackson told me "Like most other things Ancient in this galaxy the records show that the Wraith destroyed it, but what if it was sent to Earth when the Ancients realised they couldn't win the war?".
A nice idea, but I could see some flaws with it.
"Wouldn't the remaining Ancients who fled to Earth at the end of the war have gone to this city-ship?" I wondered.
Sure the leaders hadn't possessed all the information about this golden coloured city-ship, but if the point of it was preserve their society then those feeling to Earth should have gone to it rather than having to rough it out on a savage Earth.
"Only if could find it" said Jackson "I think the idea was to gate to El Dorado from Atlantis, but that something went wrong".
Perhaps the Ancients has sent this city-ship on Earth on some sort of auto-pilot, but then something went wrong. Would hardly be the first time the Ancients screwed up one of their plans. Of course that could mean that it was floating in the void between galaxies.
"I think the city might be cloaked" Jackson said "I've read some accounts about explorers, some of whom knew my Grandfather, who claim to have found El Dorado, or knew someone who did, and since they've never been able to take anyone else to the city no one was ever able to prove its existence".
That made some sense to me.
"If this golden city-ship was cloaked, then people could have wandered into the cloaking field, explored a golden city, when they left it vanished from their sight" I mused "and they couldn't find it again because it was deep in the jungle".
Well that answered one of my many questions.
"If this city-ship had three ZPMs it could maintain a cloaking field for that long" I said, thinking out loud "Atlantis held back the ocean for thousands of years compared to that a cloaking field would be nothing".
So it was possible.
"Didn't you ever scan the planet with your Asgard sensors?" I wondered.
Jackson nodded.
"Asgard scanners can't pick up ships hidden by Ancient cloaking devices" he said.
That was a good point, and it made me realise that Jackson must want my help because I had an Ancient ship with Ancient sensors.
"Okay so assuming that their is a city-ship somewhere in the jungles of South America. Then why tell me?" I asked.
I'd guessed that it had to with the scanners and Jackson confirmed it. However that wasn't the only issue.
"Assuming that there is a city-ship somewhere in the jungles of South America then who would claim it?" I asked "Sure it belongs to the Ancients, but what about the South American nations?".
I had a feeling that the American airforce would try to take the city-ship for themselves.
"Well it is cloaked" Jackson reminded "So there's no reason why anyone outside of the teams who will be sent to explore the city and a few leaders, should even know its there".
That was one of the possible outcomes of the discovery that worried me. It wouldn't be as bad as people going to war over it, but if the knowledge was just going to be horded then what was the point of exploring such a wonder?.
Sure I didn't share information so freely, however that was because my knowledge in the wrong hands could be very dangerous. Still I shared such priceless information when it was required of me, as the Asgard well understood.
Then again they already had access to the Ancient outpost on Earth, and that hadn't caused WWIII, so maybe the nations of Earth could share a city-ship.
"Okay so what's in it for me?" was my next question "Scanning the jungles won't be too much trouble, but it will take weeks to reach Earth, and the city-ship is worth... well a lot".
The ZPMs alone were worth more than anything I owned, well other than the ZPM I already had.
"Well that's the other reason why I came to yo" Jackson told me "The SGC has been downsized somewhat since the discovery of Atlantis, but recent events have caused the IOA to transfer a lot of money to ship building".
Yeah I was pretty sure that in the show, Earth had less ships at this point in the timeline, than it did in this reality. Clearly more resources had been spent on ship building in this version of Stargate.
"What does that have to do with me?" I asked.
Daniel took a seat next to me.
"That's why I want you to claim the city, or at the very least find it before anyone else" Jackson said "You can talk to the IOA, to the Pentagon, to the President, and make them share the discovery with the other nations of Earth".
There was no way the American leaders would tolerate any other faction having a base like that on Earth, and that went double for something like a city-ship. The only reason the team going to Atlantis had been international was because they'd been going so far away. And even then the team had mostly been American, or at least its leaders had been.
"But since you'd find the city first you have first grabs on anything you find there" Jackson told me "Maybe they'll have some extra ZPMs".
That would be nice.
"Very well" I decided "My ship will head to Earth as soon as we get the chance".
I still had guard duty here, but that wouldn't last forever, and I still things that I wanted to do in the Milky Way Galaxy.
"Yeah about that" said Jackson "Can I get a lift? I'd like to be there when you find the place. Prove it really does exist".
If Jackson wanted to spend a couple of weeks on my ship travelling between galaxies I had no problem with that.
(Line Break)
Aurora-class Warship. Between Galaxies.
I opened my eyes and looked up to see Cameron looking down at me. Once this would have freaked me out, but I'd quickly adapted to having my sexy cyborg bodyguard around.
"So no wake up blowjob, no breakfast in bed?" I asked.
Cameron tilted her head in the way she sometimes did when thinking.
"You instructed me not to wake you up unless it was important" she said.
Well I'd not phrased it that way, and now that I got to wake up my own every single day I did miss the many ways Cameron employed to help me get up. Back then I'd had duties on Voyager, but these days I was much more free to do as I pleased. There was enough Alliance Marine left me in to find this unsettling.
"Anything on the agenda for today?" I asked.
No doubt someone wanted my attention, and while I ran things informally on this ship, sometimes I did have appointments.
"Tali'Zorah wishes to see you" Cam told me "She's finished layering your armour with that special material".
Oh that was good to hear. Seven must have figured out the cloth material of the Kull armour, and Tali must have added a layer of it to the armour we used which was based on what the Vanir once used. I was pleased by this as there was little point going around this universe gathering all that tech if we didn't find ways to profit from it.
"I'll pop by her workshop later on" I said to the cyborg.
While Tali could often be found in the engine room, we were currently on long distance trip in hyperspace, which didn't require much in the way of oversight. As such at times like these Tali liked to tinker in her workshop.
"Anything else?" I asked.
Cameron didn't need to consult a data padd or anything like that as she was a portable computer.
"You need to talk to Daniel Jackson about his experience with ascension for your book" she said next.
I was still writing that book, and I had some stuff I needed to find out about the more spiritual way to ascend since most humans weren't advanced enough in terms of biology to attempt to ascend to a higher plane. I didn't care much for ascension itself, however others would and this was the kind of knowledge all people should have access to. It was a shame that no one on Earth would ever read it, but there were millions if not billions of other humans scattered across the galaxies who could.
"After that is your next treatment in the ascension machine" Cameron told me "Which will take a few days, not counting the tests".
I was being very careful with pushing myself to a state of near-ascension as I didn't want to warp my mind, or end up looking like Prior of the Ori. I was white enough as it was. Plus the Asgard wanted to study the process, and I was happy to help those little grey guys since they did a lot for other people, myself included. At this rate they'd give me one of their Asgard Cores I felt sure of it.
"Good" I said my bodyguard as I began to get dressed "As soon as its safe I want to use Merlin's knowledge downloader".
I'd asked him about that device, and between the warnings, all of which I paid attention, he'd told me that contained information on the Sangraal, and all the steps that led him to the technology, including his work involving accessing other dimensions, in the sense of going out of phase of this one, not the travelling to other versions of this universe. Although perhaps one could led to the other.
While I had this entire universe to explore, I was looking forward to finding out if I could visit alternate dimensions like in the show, if only so I could see how they differed. I imagined that many of alternate versions of the Milky Way were being visited by the Priors of the Ori, but others wouldn't be. Some might still even be under the rule of the Goa'uld.
"Doctor Keller has more information about the hostile aliens" Cameron let me know as I finished dressing "And Seven of Nine wants to tell about some ideas she has".
I'd best spend a little time with my women before going to stasis for the next treatment. Once I'd completed that treatment I would need to spend some time learning to control the mental powers that I should gain.
"Remind me talk to Miranda sometime today" I said to my attractive looking Terminator "I'm going to have deal with the IOA, maybe she'll have more luck than me".
I'd made better deals with the people in Pegasus. I'd gotten the people who'd been living in and around an Ancient outpost, which was in a massive volcano, to give me the bodies and tech of three dead aliens for next to nothing. But for some reason the IOA just kept making demands and delaying.
(Line Break)
SGC. Earth.
The last time I'd been on Earth it had been Jack O'Neill who'd been in charge of this base. Now it was General Landry who command here, and SG1 had disbanded. Teal'c was off running the Free Jaffa Nation. Samantha Carter was working on the Tauri ships, most likely trying to turn the blueprints for phase cannons I'd given them into something workable. As for Daniel Jackson he was working with me.
We'd found the Ancient City ship as planned and now he was going as part of an international team to study it. I'd let Miranda handle arranging that with IOA, they seemed to agree with her a lot more easily than me. Which could have something to do with the fact that the IOA was mostly made up of middle aged men, and that Miranda wore a very tight outfit.
Of course I'd beamed out three ZPMs, and while I could have taken more, as my ship had detected 12 in storage. I decided not to as one day, long after I was gone, Atlantis might need a few ZPMs and the Tauri might provide. Besides Seven of Nine was already working on a way to build more of the devices.
"I thought you might like to be here for this" said the new commanding officer of the his base "SG-12 sent word five minutes ago, so they should be arriving momentarily".
As for me I'd been spending some time at the SGC. I'd been exchanging information with some of their experts on different matters, and I'd learned quite a lot about this galaxy. Later I would catch up with Doctor Jackson who was currently preparing to transfer a lot of information on the different cultures of this galaxy on to a hard drive for me.
This information would be added to the data base on my ship, and also uploaded on Prothean data discs, which I kept stored in the Cosmic Warehouse. I didn't think the information would be of any use, but I hadn't foreseen that the Asgard would be so interested in all the information on the biology of so many races that I'd collected during my other Jumps.
Besides that wasn't all I was getting. Knowledge of technology such as the anti-replicator weapons was going to be exchanged for my groups help on building the next Tauri warship. I wouldn't give them phase cannons, rather they were going to get laser cannons. It would give them more fire power without making their ships much of threat to me.
One of the people who worked in the control room announced the reception of the iris deactivation code over the loudspeaker, and the shield ground open, soon admitting a dark-haired woman walking backwards and two members of SG-12.
The tall woman turned around with a grin when she saw all the guys with guns who had their weapons pointed at her. The Goa'uld might have been defeated, at least for the most part, but that didn't mean the SGC was letting its guard down.
"Well, you all have me surrounded!" the woman shouted in what seemed like glee.
I knew who she was, however I went along with the introductions.
"Welcome to the SGC. I'm General Landry" the air force officer greated.
O'Neill hadn't retired he was just moving on so that he could take charge of the military at the golden city-ship.
"Vala," she replied. "Vala Mal Doran"
This woman was a former host to the a Goa'uld, and a criminal, she'd once tried to steal one of the Tauri vessels. She was also very attractive in person. Her leather outfit was really doing it for me.
"Thank you all so much for the lovely greeting party," Vala continued by saying "We all had a wonderful time searching each other, didn't we boys?".
She then turned to me.
"I know we haven't met" she said "I'm sure I would remember".
While I suspected that having been 'evolved' made more attractive to women, possible they sensed my superior genes in some subtle manner, or I could be influencing their minds in some way even I didn't know about, I didn't think this had anything to do with why Vala was looking at me the way she was. Although I couldn't help thinking that she was checking me out.
"Nice outfit," I said "Leather suits you".
"Thanks!" she replied.
She was then brushing past everyone as though she owned the place, she surveyed the 'Gate Room' while totally ignoring the weapons trained on her.
"While I'd normally be thrilled to have so much testosterone at my disposal" she said next "Where's my Daniel?".
I half expected her to call for him like the man was a lost puppy.
"Why don't you follow me" suggested the general.
We all headed out of the Gate room and up the stairs past the control room. Upon reaching the briefing room, one of the guys from SG12 placed a large metal case on the table before he and his friend beat a hasty retreat.
Within moments, Doctor Jackson arrived. The former host grinned widely when he entered the room, and I wondered if she had any real feelings for him, or this was still just part of her act. I couldn't find out for sure as if I was going to gain telepathy as power I hadn't gotten it yet.
"Okay, where is it?" Daniel asked without preamble.
Vala was clearly unflappable.
"Nice to see you, too. How've you been?" she asked.
I didn't blame Jackson for being in a rush to get to this over with. He'd left Atlantis to find the golden city-ship, and now that we had found it he'd had to wait for load of diplomatic mess to be dealt with before he could start studying the place.
"The tablet. The one that leads to the incredible buried Ancient treasure?" Jackson asked.
At least this time it wouldn't led to them alerting the Ori to the presence of humans in this galaxy. Also that this was happening now meant that I'd been in this universe for over a year. Where had the time gone?
"There is no tablet" Vala "I lied... I had to tell you in person. I'm pregnant".
Supposedly 'evolved' or not I had to snigger. This was all so much funner when you saw it in person.
"Pretty sure it's yours anyway, there's at least a one in ... ten chance?"
Apparently, Daniel had had enough, turning to leave the room before being ordered by the departing Landry to take a look at the tablet. Daniel surveyed the alien text quickly.
"Uh... Yep... Don't know where you got this but, uh... you got ripped off. It's complete gibberish" he soon said.
I leaned in for a closer look, before remembering that the Perk that allowed to read stuff like this didn't work if it was in code. And this either was in code or someone had carved some total rubbish in Ancient on tablet.
"It's written in code," Vala claimed "and I have the cipher"
"Then why do you need me?" Jackson asked.
"Well, reading it is one thing, understanding it is another," Vala pointed out. "The individual I got this from assured me that the treasure it describes is here on Earth. Now, I could have come by ship and looked for it myself, but I know nothing about your fair planet, other than it seems to have a rather interesting if somewhat limited gene pool".
I didn't any mind reading powers to know that she lying. She knew enough to know exactly the kind of information that would catch the right kind of attention, and exactly which linguist to pick to translate it. She was here for a reason, and it wasn't just treasure, perhaps she needed to lie low for a while
"Limited gene pool, right," Daniel said testily. "While I'm sure there are plenty of men on this planet with similar colouring and build, there are millions more who look entirely different".
Vala ignored that.
"I tried to make contact before, but they told me you were away" Vala said to Jackson "Where have you been?".
Something on the tablet had the man's attention. Maybe it wasn't all gibberish.
"In a galaxy far, far away" he said.
Hearing that made me smile.
"Really? I've never travelled outside the galaxy before. Can I go with you?" she asked.
"No!" Jackson shouted.
"Yes" I offered.
Everyone turned to me.
"I have to go back to Atlantis in a few weeks, and I have a big ship. I don't mind taking people along for the ride".
Thanks to replicators, the Star Trek kind, I had no issues with supplies and my life support system could support hundreds.
"I'd rethink that offer if I were you" Jackson advised.
Vala fisted her hands on her hips.
"Just because I stole the tablet from the blathering idiot who found it, doesn't mean-"
"You stole it?" the General asked.
Now Vala's was trying to look innocent. Which was impossible given the outfit she was wearing.
"Did I say 'stole'?" she asked.
Why was anyone shocked by this?
"Yes, you did," the General replied.
At this point I wondered what had happened to that Mitchell guy. Wasn't he suppose to be leading SG1 at this point? I'd inquire about that later. Assuming I could be bothered too.
"Well I remember the words used when the Tok'ra were describing you" Jackson said "They were not flattering".
"Those back-stabbing, self-serving, hypocritical worms!" Vala said.
She sounded as if she didn't like the Tok'ra, but they'd freed her from the Goa'uld she'd been forced to carry as a host. Perhaps they'd not taken very good care of her afterwards.
"They are, aren't they?" Daniel replied.
Well this was all so amusing, but I had things to do, and I should warn the good doctor about the bracelets. Thor and I had dealt with the vault a while back so the treasure hunt would go nowhere, and once it became clear that Vala was outstaying her welcome I could make my offer.
Before that I should return to my ship and make sure everything was safely secured away. Vala was fun, but she did have sticky fingers, and I didn't want her blowing herself up. I'd also have to box up some naquadah so that I could pay her.
She'd be worth the money, she had a lot of connections and could no doubt help me get my hands on some of the rarer bits of Goa'uld technology that was out there.
