Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Atlantis
Part 22
Atlantis. Pegasus Galaxy.
The cool sea breeze was helping to sooth my headache, which for once wasn't being cause by my treatments that were 'evolving' me. This time it was due to sheer amount of studying I'd been doing. In order to both write my version of the Book of Origin, and to better understand my own advancement, I'd been spending a lot of time reading the Ancient database.
Just sorting through that vast amount of information enough to find what you were looking for was a staggering task, and then I'd actually needed to read up everything the Ancients had using near-ascended being, and it was a lot harder than it looked on TV. I had no how Mckay had managed to handle it all when he'd been sent rushing towards ascension or death.
To add to my headache Atlantis was now home to more than a thousand people, and while this did mean that the Lanteans could rebuild their civilisation, with the help of the more advanced humans who were native to this galaxy, the Ancients needed my help just feeding and clothing their new population. Which I'd been happy to do, it had just been time consuming and logistics were a nightmare to organise.
Plus that Vala had quickly gone from amusing to annoying, but I could leave her in Atlantis, as I'd not promised anything about taking her back to the Milky Way, and frankly if anyone could hitchhike their way to another galaxy it would be Vala. Besides the Asgard would give her a ride, like they had done for Nora the scientist I'd brought on board my ship after helping her people avoid death by super volcano.
With that stress, and my concerns for the people of the Milky Way galaxy, it was good to be out here on this balcony, which gave me a great view of Atlantis in her glory. It was dark so the city was lit up, and while this place was always a sight to behold at night it seemed extra lovely.
As she so often was my Terminator was at my side, sitting in a deck chair next to me mind. Today she wore a floral print sundress that made her look undeniably feminine. She normally covered up more as while she enjoyed me looking at her body I had explained that other people might not want to, so only when we were alone did she show off a little skin.
I found myself amazed about how pale her skin actually despite how much time we'd spent under so many different suns, I guessed that SkyNet hadn't thought to program its terminators to tan. When she noticed me looking I said something about admiring her dress.
She simply said she liked the way it looked on her. I'd expected some technical explanation about how she only wore clothes because they were social camouflage or something equally preposterous. Still I had to admit, she was right, it did look good on her, but then again almost anything she wore did.
The moon floated above us, this world like Earth had the one, it bright and almost full in a clear dark sky with its glittering field of stars. However as stunning as the view was I couldn't help looking at Cameron. I found a little odd that an 'evolved' human such as myself cared at all about women's bodies, but I also found it encouraging as it meant I hadn't changed that much.
"Do you want to have sex?" she asked.
Her voice carried a hint of eagerness, she was more expressive when we were alone, but it took some effort from me to notice.
"I was thinking we could just start off with you giving me a blowjob and see where things go from there" I suggested as nonchalantly as I could.
"Felatio is enjoyable for men" she needlessly informed me
I watched as she gracefully and without hesitation grabbed the hem of her dress and pulled it off over her head, revealing the body that she had told me more than once that it was my property to do with as a I wished.
She wasn't wearing anything under her dress so I let gaze roam over her nudity, I'd seen her naked a lot over the years, but I never grew tired of checking out her tits, or admiring her curves, or checking out her butt, which was small yet somehow always seemed to nicely fill out her jeans.
Her eyes never wavered or left his as she reached over and undid my belt, unbuttoned my jeans and pulled down my zipper all without looking. She then shifted onto her knees, still facing me, only now looking up at me, but still keeping my contact even as she got to work.
I groaned heavily as she sucked, she'd had many years to perfect her blowjob techniques, and she'd had many chances to demonstrate the improvements she'd made to those techniques.
Opening my eyes, I'd not even realised that I'd shut them, I note of how hot Cameron looked with her lips stretched around my cock. I decided then that I was just going to have her suck me off tonight, and that I might have her do it a few times if the mood struck me.
(Line Break)
Delta Flyer. Pegasus Galaxy.
The ship my crew and I had built to replace the crashed runabout, which I'd been forced to abandon after it had been shot down by the hostile aliens we still knew nothing about. This knew version of the Delta Flyer was similar to the one flown by Tom Paris in terms of looks, but it was different once you got under the hood.
It was armed with twin pulse plasma cannons as well as naquadah enhanced torpedoes, it had Ancient style shields, Asgard/Ancient/Starfleet sensors, improved life support systems, an interstellar hyperdrive (an intergalactic one would have required too much power) and an Asgard style naquadah reactor as a power source which was superior to an antimatter reactor because it was more stable.
Another thing that was different about this Delta Flyer was that its test flight involved having a member of the Asgard race on board. He was here because the Asgard had assisted in the creation of the new Delta Flyer as part of our program for exchanging technology.
The Asgard had even gone as far as to share the specifications for a new type of armour, which was vastly superior to anything even Seven could have come up with.
Tyr was a member of the Asgard race and was a highly distinguished member of their military, having served as commander of the Valkyries. He was involved in operations against the Goa'uld in the Milky Way galaxy and was present when the Protected Planets Treaty was struck.
Following the creation of the Treaty, Tyr took a number of Humans under his protection and settled them on a world devoid of a Stargate called Vanaheim. The planet was in the grips of an ice age and many of the settlers died as a result of the cold winter but managed to prosper during the other climates.
Tyr was also known to have transported a Stargate from another world to Vanaheim and warned the Human inhabitants of the world of the threat of the Goa'uld. He also differed on the opinion of deploying Thor's Hammer on Vanaheim; instead, Tyr provided its inhabitants with shock spears as well as allowed them to develop into an advanced people.
This was because Tyr felt that the only way the Human inhabitants of Vanaheim could defend against the Goa'uld was by defending themselves.
His actions, well noble, proved to be quite unpopular amongst the Asgard who felt that Tyr had interfered in the natural development of a species. It was Thor who stripped Tyr of his rank and demoted him to being the commander of a single ship. Despite this being the case, the inhabitants of Vanaheim prospered and held Tyr in high esteem as a god.
Tyr was the commander of small Asgard warship which was currently guarding Atlantis, and upon discovering that I was building a new kind of ship, at least it was new to this universe, he'd joined the project and had gotten permission from his superiors to aid the project by adding Asgard technology in exchange for getting some Star Trek technology.
"I am detecting the time dilation field" reported Seven of Nine.
Unlike when we'd lost the runabout we hadn't left hyperspace unprepared, we had our shields up and our weapons online, only as it turned out the hostile aliens weren't here. Which meant our last encounter may have in fact simply been bad luck.
Still it would be best to remain on guard just in case the aliens had cloaking tech. It was unlikely that they'd been able to back engineer it form the crashed runabout, but for all we knew they'd had cloaking technology for a very long time. It may have aided them in hiding from the Wraith.
"I would like to take this chance to scan the time dilation field" Tyr declared "While the Asgard do have this technology our scientists may benefit from being able to compared readings from a time dilation field that was created by the Ancients".
No doubt Seven would also like to study the field, and she would ample chance to.
"Well you should have a few hours to do that" I told everyone "If I recall correctly about six months in field should equal a few hours out of it".
Which should give me ample time to study the spiritual path to ascension so that I could add the information to my book, and time to learn what the people within the time dilation field knew about the powers of those near-ascension, which was the main reason why I was going.
"I should go with you" said Cameron.
As my bodyguard she didn't like the idea of me going off for what could be half a year and not having her with me. However I had no idea if someone who wasn't human could even enter the time dilation field. Given the existence of the Asurans their might even be security features in place that could damage or even destroy an artificial person.
"The only danger in that field is something you can't protect me from" I said to the cyborg.
She didn't argue the point, and since everyone else knew what do I was soon beaming down to the planet.
(Line Break)
The Cloister. Pegasus Galaxy.
I stepped through the portal to the time dilation field that encompassing the Ascension Sanctuary aka the Cloister, which was a place where the people of the Pegasus Galaxy could come to meditate towards ascension without fear of getting fed on by the Wraith
Due to time running much faster within the field I could be away from Atlantis for months inside the field while only hours will have passed on the city-ship, meaning that I wouldn't be cut off from the rest of the galaxy. In fact only the people on the new Delta Flyer, which was currently in orbit of this planet, would even notice that I was gone.
After walking out of a network of caves I found myself in a forest. Then after walking for five or so miles, the Cloister was not a small place, I came to a large grassy field. I was crossing the field when a I heard a roar in the distance but I didn't let it slow me down.
"Help…help me please," shouted a man as he came running out of the woods towards me.
Events seemed to going much how they did for Shepard, which made me wonder if the ascended beings were playing a part here, but it was too early to tell.
"It's there…in the trees," said the man as he pointed towards where the noises of a beast were coming from. "It is the Beast and the village is too far".
Unlike this human I was not worried about the Beast because I knew exactly what it was. Mostly it was psychic manifestation that came from the minds of the humans that lived here. Its power depended on how scared the people living in the field were, so normally the Beast was just a test that the people attempting ascension had to overcome to reach enlightenment.
However should hostiles, such as the Wraith somehow enter the time dilation field, which they would have to do so on foot since any craft trying to enter the time dilation field would be ripped apart, the people of the Cloister would feel great amounts of fear and the Beast would destroy the invaders. Which made it both a test and a means of defence, clearly one of the better ideas the Ancients had come up with.
"It's upon us but you can't fight it" the man said.
He was wrong about the Beast could be thought, but it would take a powerful mind to drive it away. Thankfully I had one of those.
(Line Break)
The Cloister. Pegasus Galaxy.
After driving away the Beast, I ended up carrying the man back to his village, as he'd fainted in fright. Apparently reaching a state of near-ascension did not require much in the way of bravy. Now I was sitting with the three siblings who made up one of the families which lived with the the Cloister.
"I am Teer" said the beautiful near ascended woman as she gestured to her siblings "This is Avrid and Hedda".
Hedda was a little girl who had healing powers if I remembered correctly. Hopefully she understood how to use them fully and could explain the process to me as that was a power I wished for greatly.
"What happened," Avrid asked.
No doubt he expected to be dead by now.
"I made the beast go away" I told the guy.
A blast of mental energy had been enough to drive it off for a time. Thankfully I'd learned that trick, it was much like how in the show Daniel Jackson was able to blast the Orici, bypassing her personal shield.
"Thank you for saving me from the beast. Only the ascended know how you did that," Avrid said.
I could detect a bit of awe in voice, and this pleased me as if I had the gradiute of this family then it should be easier for me to learn from them.
(Line Break)
The Cloister. Pegasus Galaxy.
Later after I changed into some of the local village style clothes, Teer showed me around the village, and then onto the areas around the small settlement. As it turned out there was a lot more here than what I'd seen in the show. There were farms, orchids, and a river all close by, which provided the people here with ample food and water. The wooded areas also helped as aside from providing firewood it was also full of nuts, and berries, which seemed to grow all the time. I quickly learned that seasons didn't exist here and that the weather remained pleasant. Clearly when setting things up the Ancients had arranged things so the humans who came here didn't have to struggle to make ends meet.
"How do you like it here," Teer asked me as we walked through the field I'd found her brother in.
While it was primitive, the place had a certain charm to it, and it was peaceful
"I like it a lot. The company is very enjoyable," I answered with a warm smile.
A smile which she returned, and soon we began talking. I quickly gathered some of the information I desired, letting my omni-tool record everything so that later on I could go through it and decide what to add to my book.
"I'm from a race of people who revered those who came before us, those who created this place" Teer told me "To follow in their footsteps, to ascend, was the greatest goal among our forefathers. Many centuries ago some of our people sensed it was within them to do so. It took them many years to discover the location of this world and once they found it they came to this world as a pilgrimage. We are their descendants".
All good stuff to know.
"So your people have been trying to ascend for a long time" I realised "Do you know what is holding you back…are you afraid it might not happen?".
While ascension held no appeal for me I understood that for others it was worthy goal, and I didn't mind helping others achieve this goal.
"We are not afraid of anything," Teer told me with a smile.
She was less than convincing.
"What about the beast?" I asked "Avrid seemed pretty afraid of that".
Not that I could blame him, the Beast was suppose to scare people, if it didn't then standing up to it wouldn't be much of a test.
"We are safe as long as we stay close to the village" replied Teer.
Given that we weren't that close now she was in danger, or so she might think, the Beast wouldn't actually kill humans, there were failsafes to prevent that according to the Ancient database. Of course that didn't mean that the Beast was incapable of injuring people.
"And you find that an enjoyable life," I asked.
Still around mediating was not much of a life in my opinion. But I was a Jumper, my life was moving from reality to reality, gather technology, experiencing new things, and gaining power.
"Well life here is not entirely without its pleasures," said Teer as she stepped closer to me.
I figured that I knew what she meant.
(Line Break)
The Cloister. Pegasus Galaxy.
Weeks quickly became months within the field and I took this time as an opportunity to learn, not just about the spiritual path to ascension, but also how to use my own near-ascended powers, which weren't just limited to stimulating nerve endings. I could now move things with my mind, which wasn't so impressive given that I still had biotic abilities, and I could heal people. I'd even managed to alter the weather enough for a good wind, however the Ancients had put in place measures to prevent storms within the field as of yet I hadn't been able to test the extent of that ability.
Once I had my final treatment I might develop even more powers, but for now I was content with what I had, and I spent my time perfecting control over my new abilities. However I was laying the ground work for control of future powers by learning everything I could.
Still I knew that my time here would be over soon. The people here were very close to ascension, they just needed to stand up the Beast as their final test, once they had I would leave this place. Perhaps in time others would come here.
Because I knew the end of what had mostly been a vacation for me, and a pleasant one since I still had access to the Cosmic Warehouse, somehow, I went for a final walk with Teer to the field that seemed to be her favourite part of the Cloister.
"I can see events currently happening most anywhere I want and possible futures to some extent. I saw that you would come some day and lead my people to ascension" said Teer as she lay back on the ground and held her arms out invitingly for me. "I also saw that we would do this".
As I began to undress her I realised that I had totally taken Shepard's place in this adventure.
"And I saved myself for you Gothic" she said.
Well who could refuse virgin?
(Line Break)
Delta Flyer. Pegasus Galaxy.
"It's good to see you all again!" I called out once I had beamed back on board the new Delta Flyer.
No one seemed happy to see me.
"You were only gone for two hours" stated Cameron.
From her perspective this was true.
"Actually I haven't seen any of you for months" I told my Terminator.
For some reason Cameron didn't quite get the whole 'time runs faster in the field' thing. I wondered if it had something to do with the way she viewed time. As an android with an organic covering she would not see the world as I did or feel the passage of time like a human,
"Never mind" I then said "Let's just go back to the ship".
Seven and Tyr both let me know that they had finished their scans, as such there was no reason to stick around, so moments later the small ship jumped into hyperspace.
(Line Break)
Laros. Pegasus Galaxy.
While in the show this planet was never named, being called Harmony's world if anything, I discovered soon after finding it that the world was in fact called Laros. It was a human world with a medieval style civilization, only it much nicer than medieval Europe must have been.
I was interested in this planet because long ago the Lanteans formed an outpost at a location that the current people dubbed the "Ruins of Larris". The Lanteans built the outpost on this world in order to develop a miniature version of their infamous Drone weapons.
Mini-drones, as the name implies, are a miniaturized version of the drone weapon technology developed by the Ancients. They function in much the same way as the larger version, but were designed as an anti-personnel weapon. Mini-drones operates on the same basic principle as larger drones do. They are enveloped in a powerful energy shield which allows them to burrow through virtually anything, then perforate the target to destroy it.
The power requirements of mini-drones are unknown; however given that the testing site has been active and continuously powering groups of mini-drones for over 10,000 years with no mention of a power drain they must not require much energy.
This version of the technology has the ability to detect the Ancient Technology Activation gene, and will register any who have it as friendly. Though mini-drones behave in much the same manner as regular drones, they have unique behaviors due to their anti-personnel design. Unlike regular drones, which remain inactive until needed, mini-drones fly in a constant search pattern unless otherwise instructed, protecting their designated territory from intruders.
The testing planet is the only observed usage of mini-drones by the Lanteans, so it is unclear how they intended to implement them on a wide-scale. Their design and behavior suggests that they are meant for defense rather than offense, presumably to safeguard their ships and facilities from Wraith troops.
The people of Harmony's planet had incorporated the ruins into their mythology. Before a woman can become queen, she must go on a rite of passage in which the destination is the Ruins of Larris. The soon-to-be queen must return a pendant to the ruins and place her hand on a pedestal. If the pendant then glows, she is the true queen of her people.
I needed that pendant, or at least a decent scan of it, and since it would be years before Harmony went on her rite of passage, I would have to settle for a scan and hope I could duplicate the key so that what remained of the Ancient outpost could be studied.
For the moment I had no use for mini-drones, since I had no bases to defend, and plenty of powerful hand held weapons, I knew that this could change in the future.
As it turned out the pendant was current in the possession of Princess Flora. In the far, distant past, at least one Ancient became an ancestor in Flora's family line, passing down the Ancient Technology Activation gene to her and too her younger sister Harmony.
Thankfully getting a meeting with her wasn't hard. I had near-ascended powers and as such the humans of this galaxy saw me as one of the Ancestors, and as such while they didn't worship me, I did get much in the way of respect.
"So seduce the princess, scan the pendant" I said to myself as I waited for my audience "Shouldn't take too long".
It would be better to go to bed with her and wait for her to fall asleep rather than stun her as while the people of this world were no threat to me there was no reason to antagonize them.
"Go get em champ" Cameron said.
I assumed that was some attempt to encourage me.
"Yeah thanks" I told her just as a page arrived to announce that it was time for my audience.
