Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis - Part 20
Aurora-class Ship. Milky Way Galaxy.
Holograms which displayed strands of DNA danced before my eyes as I worked the controls of the machine that was playing such a big role in me becoming a more advanced being. Not to long ago I would have found a device like this to be complex to use, now it seemed so simple, as did the altering of DNA.
Normally I was the one being altered by this machine, and the latest treatment had resulted in me gaining some funky powers, including the ability to move things with my mind and stimulate the nerve endings of humans, inflicting both pleasure and pain.
No doubt I would gain more abilities if I went for another treatment, however since I was taking my advancement slowly there was no rush to put me back in the machine. For a change it was someone else in the stasis chamber, waiting to have their DNA messed with.
I found it odd to be on the other side of this process. I was only now realising just how much trust someone would have to give us others in order to have this machine used on them. I hadn't considered that as carefully as I should have.
Heimdall, an Asgard geneticist, was allowing me to assist her as she used the equipment we'd taken from Anubis's hidden lab, as well as some Asgard tech, to alter the genetics of Tali'Zorah's quarian form, it was a minor adjustment meant to give an immune system so that in her natural form she wouldn't have to wear the suit. Of course for her it would hardly be a minor change.
Compared to making me a near-ascended being this should have been simple, and it would have been over already if not for the fact that Heimdall was taking the time to teach me to use the machines. She wouldn't be here forever, and wasn't going to come with us on the next Jump that was for sure, so I had to learn to use this technology.
Seven of Nine was much better than myself at using technology of all kinds, and understanding it, but her tastes ran more towards physics, and she had little love for biological sciences. Although actually altering DNA could be considered chemistry rather than biology.
The process could be reversed as long as a person who'd undergone treatment was strong enough and as long as we had samples of their untreated DNA. Which was why samples of my DNA were taken from me very often, so that if I went too far and advancement got out of control, I could be regressed to an earlier state without having to go back to being a normal human.
"The treatment is prepared" declared Heimdall.
Much like Thor this member of the Asgard race was rather found of humans, and had been long before I'd aided in her efforts to save her people. As for those efforts, I wondered how things were going.
"Any progress in your efforts to create a more stable clone?" I asked.
The Asgard couldn't just use human DNA to help make new bodies because our physical form couldn't support the powerful and advanced Asgard mind. However the Ancients were another matter, by mixing the DNA of advanced humans with that of their own they could create new clone bodies. Ones they might be able to use to reproduce sexually and perhaps even ascend.
"Very well thank you" replied the small alien "The Asgard race will not forget your efforts on our behalf to create our new clone bodies. The knowledge I have gained by studying your advancement may even aid us as we attempt to put our back on a path towards ascension".
This was good news. The Asgard were a kind and moral people who should be allowed to endure. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside to know I was playing a role in saving them.
"Glad to hear it" I said "Now let's start Tali's treatment, and then we can try to find out if its possible to slice Seven's DNA so we can give Miranda's superior genes".
It might even be possible to give other humans biotic powers as well as superior genes. This wouldn't help them if they wanted to ascend, but not everyone cared about that.
"Then let us begin our work" said the Asgard.
I imagined that this would take a while.
(Line Break)
Aurora-class Battleship. Milky Way Galaxy.
Not for the first time I was glad of all the room I had on board for my ship as it meant that when one of my crew, mostly Seven of Nine, needed to set up a new lab for the study of something new, they could easily do so, and for a change it was I who need the lab as I had some science to do.
Well really it wasn't so much science as it was sorting out some materials and labelling them correctly. Which did sound like some sort of geology.
I'd just spent hours using the Elemental Furnace to create samples of what could be called fictional metals. I'd done this before back on Voyager, but the Asgard stone which enhanced memory was allowing me to recall both the names and properties of metals not found in this universe. Some of which had mystical properties.
Using the Matter Furnace, or as I called it the Elemental Furnace, which had come with the bay I'd been given as a bonus for finishing the Mass Effect Jump. I didn't think that the Matter Furnace was meant to be used the way I used it, rather its purpose was to supply raw materials for the repairing of small craft. However I used to acquire rare metals for study and trade.
Once the samples were correctly sorted I intended to gift them to the Asgard, as not all of their smart people could be working on the clone problem, they must have people who studied metals, and so would other advanced civilizations.
These gifts should generate me some good will, and in the case of the naquadah, be used to trade for things I wanted. There was still a lot of tech out there that Seven of Nine would want to study and could have some use to us.
"Adamantite" I said into the recording device "A metal ore that appears in a number of fictional universes. In Final Fantasy it is a material used to create armour, its source being from another world and its properties including being able to contain great amounts of energy. In World of Warcraft, it is an uncommon ore used to produce weapons and armour of uncommon, rare and epic grade. In the Dark Elf book series by Salvatore set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe it is used to create drow weaponry. It is also used for armour in The Elder Scrolls III, and in the game Terraria it is a red ore used to produce armour and other items".
I realised that this could take a while and decided to get some coffee before really getting down to work. Only I couldn't do that as this was Tali walked into the lab while stark naked and in her quarian form.
"Good the treatment worked" I was able to say after finding my voice.
Tali just smiled at me and got closer. I had a feeling that I knew what was going to happen next.
(Line Break)
City-Ship. Earth.
After beaming into the city, using the transporters on my vessel, I discovered that the golden city-ship was everything I had imagined. Until now I'd only been able to imagine as while I'd beamed a few ZPMs out of this city I'd not beamed down until now.
Daniel Jackson, who was here with me, had discovered that there was a city-ship on Earth and using the advanced sensors of my vessel we'd been able to find it. As expect it was deep in the jungle. Which put in Brazil, which was why some of the people here with us, were from that South American country.
It pretty much looked like a gold coloured version of Atlantis, only there was no Stargate, and it more lavishly decorated. As I moved around I realised that it was decorated with artwork that must be from the Pegasus galaxy, made by people who'd died thousands of years ago.
Given that the Ancients were not the kind of people to be concerned with material wealth I figured that the objects must be cultural treasures, objects which had been brought here to perverse what was left of cultures that may have been totally destroyed by the Wraith.
Already a second group was beaming down, having been beamed up from Stargate Command before coming here, and this time it was a group of folks who'd gone to Atlantis. Some of them had been at that city-ship had been sent back to Earth for this mission, which now had international approval.
As for the city-ship itself, thanks a few scans with my omni-tool (I was collecting data for Seven of Nine to go over later) I discovered that it was not made of gold. It was made of the same material as Atlantis, it was just a different colour. However I could see why an explorer of centuries past could wander into the cloaking field see this city and think it was a massive store house of treasure. The relics alone must make this most wealthy city in the galaxy.
"Everything's lighting up but none of the computer are coming online" I heard Samantha Carter saying.
I spent a moment thinking about how attractive the Colonel was before I began to refocus on the current mission.
"Everything in Atlantis came to life when we arrived" Doctor Weir said.
The city should be responding to those of us with the gene, and to an extent it was, hence why the lights were coming on, and also why the AC was working. Which was a very good thing, as the rainforest is a hot place. No cool ocean breeze for the people inside this city-ship.
"Hold on" I said to everyone "The city might be lockdown".
As I had done once before I summoned forth a command console of sorts, which came out of the ground near where the Stargate should be, I could only assume the Ancients hadn't set the gate up for some reason. I interacted with the device, and thanks to improvements made to my mind I was able to take control of the city very easily. Which made sense as I much like an Ancient now, only I lacked their crippling pacifism.
While this machine was sometimes called a Lantean lockout device, and it could be used to lockout alien devices and users from the city-ship's system, its main purpose was actually to give a high ranking Ancient the ability to take control of the city, should it be required. Say at times like when the city was being invaded.
I was able to use it to take the city out of lockdown, and to also bring its systems online, and act which had people dashing for the computers like they were kids in a candy store.
"Oh I can use this for so much more than last time" I said to whomever was listening.
Either this device was more user friendly than the one on Atlantis or I was getting much better with this sort of thing.
"I can see the lay out of the city in my mind" I was now saying "Its feeding me reports as well".
Now I was realising that it wasn't just me. This machine was more advanced than one on Atlantis. Which was odd because for the most part the Lantenas never tried to surpass the Alterrans, which why they still used drone weapons millions of years after they were invented.
Although the war with the Wraith had changed that to some extent. And I was getting the impression that this city-ship was to the Lantean's what Atlantis had been to the Alterrans, it was a testament to their brilliance. Something meant to survive the ages as Atlantis had.
"Doctor Mckay!" I called out "This City-ship contains an Auxiliary control center similar to that on an Aurora-class battleship. It's capable of accessing the city's internal communication system and you can use it to determine the status of the Zero Point Modules. Take the transporter on this level and go to it".
Mostly I'd told him that just to get him out of the way. He was even more annoying in person. Although I might need him to confirm something that I had just discovered.
"General O'Neill" I said next "If you put your hand on this device the city will accept you as its commanding officer".
This was a joint USA Air Force/IOA nations mission so Weir was in charge while the American air force provided protection. I didn't know much about the international agreements, and nor did I care to. I had Miranda, who was currently chatting with some diplomats, handling the talks for me and since WWIII hadn't started it was fair to think that she was doing a good job.
General O'Neill had the gene naturally which meant that he was much better suited to taking control of the lockout device than someone who'd been given the gene artificially. He also had experience using Ancient technology and as such was unlikely to blow us all up.
"Just put your hand on it" I instructed O'Neill.
Given the way he acted as he gingerly touched the device you'd think I'd just told him to pet a snake, or to stick his fingers into a fire.
"Okay that's odd" he commented "The city is telling me stuff".
The city had uploaded some information into my mind as well. It was hard for me to understand, so it must be really confusing for someone more limited like him. Of course O'Neill was somewhat used to having loads of information crammed into his skull, as such he should do fine.
"I'll be down in the chair room" I told anyone who was listening "There's something I need to check out".
(Line Break)
City-Ship. Earth.
This control chair had all normal functions of a typical control chair, including weapons control, power distribution, and flight control, but it also had more. From this chair I could control every single door, not counting the ones that opened into private quarters, trigger the fire alarm, mess about with life support, and even turn the lights off.
However while closing doors on people while messing with the lights could be loads of fun, I had something important to focus on. Compared to my battleship this city-ship was much more complex, and while I already had control over most systems there were parts of this that were slowly draining power from the ZPMs, more so than was norma,. and I had no idea what function they had.
"The Stardrive is intergalactic, no surprises there" I said to myself.
I didn't expect anyone to reply.
"Are you alright?" someone asked.
I opened an eye to see Daniel Jackson looking at with a concern expression on his face.
"There's nothing is wrong with me" I assured him.
I'd spent some time with the doctor, but I was only now realising that he actually cared about me. At point I think we'd become friends. Which I found pleasing.
"What has me concerned is that there are two major drains of energy" I explained to Jackson "One is the cloaking field generator, but the other is leading to several very large rooms, and I don't know the purpose of them. Which is worrying because people are going to want to explore every inch of this city, and it might not be safe for them to do so".
Jackson tapped the end of his pen on his chin.
"Well at least we're not underwater" he said.
No doubt he was trying to look on the brightside.
"We are on a lake" I said.
I used my control chair to display a hologram for Doctor Jackson.
"This must be Lake Parime or Lake Parima, as its sometimes known" said Daniel "Its a legendary lake that was supposedly located somewhere in South America. It was reputedly the location of the fabled city of El Dorado, also known as Manoa, much sought-after by European explorers. Repeated attempts to find the lake failed to confirm its existence, and it was dismissed as a myth along with the city. The search for Lake Parime led explorers to map the rivers and other parts of southern Venezuela, northern Brazil, and southwestern Guyana before the lake's existence was suppose to have been disproved in the early 19th century".
I extended the hologram so that it showed more of the area.
"The entire lake is within the cloaking field as is a little of the jungle around it" I explained "That's why no one ever found it from the air, or on foot, at least not twice. You could walk right past the lake and never see it".
Jackson had a question.
"Why is it in South America?" he wondered "I mean it could have landed anywhere. Ten thousand years ago humans were at the hunter-gather stage, so they didn't need to hide from us".
That was good question, and I soon had an answer for him.
"This city-ship should have landed at the South Pole where the Ancient outpost is, but by then it was covered in ice" I said "That wasn't the case when the Ancients left, but they had no way of knowing how much the Earth had changed in millions of years. As such when the city arrived its computer selected this area as an alternate landing site. City-ships aren't easy to land so the computer chose a decent sized lake in an area that wasn't populated at the the time. The dense jungle helps to hide the city since it reduces the chance of anyone wandering into the cloaking field".
As cool as all that was. I did need to focus on something else right now. I brought up a new hologram, which showed where all the power was going.
"The stardrive is inactive" I told Jackson "As are the internal sensors, short range sensors, and the long range sensors. Plus some systems I don't even know the purpose of are also offline".
This city had improved solar power generators, lightening rods, and even wind turbines, meant to provide power for the less important systems. However they were mostly redundant since this had three ZPMs to draw power from and more in storage.
"Amazing" I was now saying "This city is even bigger than Atlantis and if I'm right it has an industrial sector. I don't know what it can produce, but if I'm understanding this correctly its capable of producing Puddle Jumpers, and maybe other small craft".
At least they wouldn't need any of mine then. I'd been intending to offer up a few to the SGC if only so I could make some room in my ship's hanger bay for other craft. Perhaps I would gift them anyway since the Jumpers here would be under IOA control not SGC. Although they'd have to offer me something worth while in exchange.
Either than or I'd have to find out if the Asgard would let me use one of their shipyards in order to install another docking bay, they might do that for some Puddle Jumpers.
As for the industrial part of this city-ship it was possible that Atlantis had one as well, only without three ZPMs it could have remained dormant during the time it was seen in the show.
I also suspected that this city-ship had long range comms that could contact Atlantis, despite the 3 and a half million lightyears distance, but I wouldn't call them yet. No one here on Earth wanted to the Ancients to know that we'd found this place until we'd staked a claim so to speak. Besides it wasn't as if the Ancients had the people needed to occupy the city.
"The cloaking field has been up and running for ten thousand years" I said next "But its only drawing upon a small fraction of the power the shield that protected Atlantis, so where is all that energy going?".
As it turned out the shield to cloak trick had been discovered by the Ancients long before the anyone from Earth found Atlantis. The Lanteans just hadn't used to try to hide from the Wraith because they had placed the city deep underwater before they'd figured out the cloak idea, and by then hiding the city was pointless.
"There are systems here I've never seen before" I told Jackson "A city-ship needs three ZPMs in order to bring everything online and this city has them. But there aren't many labs when compared to Atlantis, so what needs all that power?".
As soon as I asked the city told me, and I was so startled I lost focus, which disconnected me from the city-ship.
"There are thousands of stasis pods in this city" I told Jackson, and Cameron who following me around as normal "And they are all occupied and working".
Which meant there were Ancients here. Hundreds of them.
(Line Break)
City-Ship. Earth.
I relaxed somewhat when I realised that no one was in any danger. The power levels were steady despite a lot of other systems coming online, and thanks the three still mostly full ZPMs there was no rush to get anyone out of stasis.
"According to the ship's log all the children of the Ancients were sent to Earth on this city-ship, along with the elderly, and those that cared for them" I explained the Tauri who was also looking into this matter "I assume the Ancients who returned to Earth via the Stargate were meant to revive them, but for some reason they never did. Possibly because they expected the city-ship to be at the South Pole, not in South America".
Wouldn't be the first time they'd fudged something important up.
"They don't much look like kids" commented John Shepard, who was only here because he had the right gene of that I was sure "This one could be nearly middle aged".
Indeed they did.
"Ancient stasis technology used by the Lanteans doesn't stop you from aging it just slows it down" I explained "So they were kids when they went in, now they are adults. In fact they should look even older than they do. These pods must be a superior model to the ones in Atlantis".
Not all of people in the pods were so young looking. The elders had died in their pods centuries ago, and the parents wouldn't last long out of stasis without aid from the Asgard, but the kids could be up and about in a few hours if we woke them up. Of course they'd be children in adult bodies with no adults of their own race to supervise them so best not to wake up them.
"If there is enough people here for a viable gene pool, at least when added to the hundreds of Ancients in Atlantis, then we could be saving their entire species by recovering these people" I mused.
No one else had planned it all out yet. I did. I was thinking a few steps ahead.
"And how do we get them to Atlantis?" Weir wondered.
While there might be as many as a thousand pods here that wasn't as much trouble as it might seem.
"My ship can carry them" I said "If we tag each pod I can beam them onto my ship and hook them up. I have a ZPM so I can power all these pods. Will take a while, but it can be done. Assuming the Asgard don't take care of it for us, but that will mean telling them about this place".
Weir looked worried.
"The IOA doesn't want the Asgard finding out about this place" she told me "Or the Ancients for that matter. They're worried about losing more technology that Earth could use for defence".
I understood that, and I didn't think they had any reason to be worried.
"You've already studied Atlantis" I pointed out "And this city-ship is on Earth not in some distant galaxy".
I'd been the one to suggest to the Asgard that they should prevent the Tauri from having access to certain technology, but this was their planet. Just as the Tauri didn't have the right to go around deciding the fates of other galaxies, the people of other galaxies shouldn't come here and alter Earth's future.
"You're other option is to leave them in stasis and not give the Ancients a chance to rebuild their species and society" I said to Weir "Are you prepared to do that?".
Somehow I didn't think she was.
"I'll talk the IOA" she said "if they approve then we'll contact the Asgard".
Which wouldn't be too much work as there were several members of that race hanging out on board my ship.
