A/N: Another talking chapter. I'm currently busy writing chapter 24, but homework takes a lot of my writing time.
Reviews are welcome!
Chapter 19 – An Interesting Debriefing
The roof of the grand hall opened, exposing the skies over Othala. It was night-time but the many lights of the Asgard city lightened the sky. Suddenly, Minos' voice sounded from everywhere.
"Are you ready?" he said.
"We are." Answered Odin.
Then all of a sudden all the lights in the entire city went dark, except for a few smaller lights here and there. Then, a piece of music started. It started slowly, with low basses and high-pitched voices and it had a steady rhythm.
Minos had taken place on one of the highest towers of the entire Asgard capitol. He was standing on a small, flat rooftop several hundred metres above the ground level. He could see the large hall where most of the Asgard and humans were seated. He waited for a specific moment in the song he had chosen, and then started.
He had chosen one of the oldest songs in the entire Asgard database. He'd loved it a long time ago, when it was still being played by various Asgard musicians. It started as a slow, almost threatening song about Ragnarok, the end of days in the Asgard mythology, but soon it took the listener on an epic journey throughout various stories and legends.
From inside the grand hall of Valhalla, everyone watched in awe as Minos fired up the first row of fireworks. He followed the exact rhythm of the music, bigger explosions when the music was louder, and smaller, more elegant ones when the music was softer.
For every 'theme' in the song, Minos had another colour. He started off with a normal yellow-like colour, but he switched to white, then to blue, and then to red for the grand finale. Every living being In the Asgard capitol watched in amazement as the Ancient pyromaster unfolded his grand show.
He hadn't picked this song for nothing. It was one of the few Asgard pieces of music he could remember in its entirety from the start to the end. He knew exactly when the next sound was coming, and what it would sound like. He was concentrating a lot on the fireworks because he had to make sure that the explosions didn't hit anything. The fireworks themselves were easy enough to make once you knew enough tricks, but controlling them was a bit harder.
Near the end of the song, which told about the end of the Asgard in Ragnarok, Minos' fireworks suddenly increased in volume and power. In the grand finale, all the fire concentrated itself on one space, and it formed an almost touchable object. A dragon.
The dragon, red in colour, moved its fiery wings and flew towards the grand hall of Valhalla. Every Asgard and Human in the room sat in fear of the dragon, unable to move or do a thing at all. The dragon, completely made out of fire, closed in fast on the large hall. But when he had almost reached it, he changed.
The dragon started to swell up, and he suddenly stopped his course straight towards Valhalla. He flew upwards, higher and faster than any Asgard building, until he almost reached ten kilometres and was near impossible to see. Then a huge explosion rocked the skies.
The dragon had exploded in thousands of smaller pieces, each one of them flying very fast away from the explosion. Then all the smaller pieces exploded too, lighting the whole sky above Othala for miles on end. It was like a sun had suddenly decided to appear in the atmosphere of Othala itself.
Once the lights of the explosion faded, and everyone's eyesight returned to normal, they noticed that the piece of music had ended. Minos had times the explosion of his dragon exactly with the final of the song.
All the lights in the city returned slowly to normal, and Odin closed the roof of Valhalla.
"And, did you like my show?" a voice said from behind the middle table.
Minos appeared from the shadows that still filled parts of the room as the lighting returned to normal.
"It was truly epic." Said Odin.
"I loved it." Said Thor.
"It was amazing." Said Carter.
"Thanks" said Minos as the rest of the Asgard High Council and SG-1 voiced their opinions on how to best describe what they had just seen.
"I loved the music. I am unfamiliar with that specific piece, I did not know we had such kind of music in our databases." Said Thor.
"Well, it is a really old piece. I first heard it when I was still a young boy. It took me a while to figure out which piece exactly it was, because it had no title. That makes it a little harder to find in a database."
"A piece of music from that magnitude had no name?" asked Daniel.
"Exactly. The creator wouldn't have wanted to spoil his masterpiece by giving it a name."
"Spoil the fun, eh?" said O'Neill.
"No, spoil the best piece of Asgard music ever created."
"How did you create all those explosions and the light effects, especially the one with the dragon?" asked Carter.
"Explosions were created by using catalysts for the fire. And the light effects were just a bonus. But the dragon involved moving those catalysts around a bit."
"So there were no rockets involved?" asked Carter.
"Nope. I've learned that you on Earth use rockets to bring a small explosive charge into the air, but I want to actually control exactly where and when it explodes."
"It was a really good show, though." Said O'Neill.
"Thank you." Said Minos. "But I'm afraid we must go now. General Hammond is being 'assaulted' by several men over the fact that he had an ancient on his base, and he let him go on a very dangerous mission he knows almost nothing about."
"Assaulted?" said Thor in horror.
"Well, the way they're talking to him, assaulted would be the best word to describe it."
"You know that we cannot be back quick enough to be there before those people leave?" asked Daniel to Minos.
"That is where you're a bit wrong, Daniel. I'm fairly sure I can give a small boost to the Asgard hyperdrive."
"How small is that boost?" asked Thor.
"Small enough to not break subspace."
"Then I suggest we leave when the celebration is over, and that will not take long."
"Wow. I didn't know Asgard celebrations were so short." Said O'Neill.
"They are not, but the important parts are almost coming to an end."
"Then we wait a little while."
The celebrations of the Asgard came to a stop when all the 'food' was eaten, and all the Asgard were done talking. SG-1, Minos and Thor left after they greeted the High Council-members. They transported to the O'Neill class-ship Thor was using now.
"Thor, can you set a course towards Earth. I will boost the speed a little bit once we get into hyperspace."
"Very well."
Thor set a course for Earth and a second later they entered hyperspace.
"Let's give this thing a boost." Said Minos as he sat down in front of the control console Thor was standing behind. "You might feel a little shock."
Minos placed his hands in front of him on the floor of the O'Neill class ship. He closed his eyes, and concentrated.
The hyperspace conduit they were travelling in suddenly turned bright-red. The shock from the sudden acceleration caught O'Neill and Daniel by surprise, while Sam held on to the control console as she caught Thor from falling. Teal'c only needed to step back a bit from the shock.
"Sorry 'bout that" said Minos. "We'll reach Earth in several seconds."
"Seconds?" Thor exclaimed. "That is impossible! The energy required to bring this ship to such a speed is incredible. Only the ancients were capable of reaching such speeds."
"Well, I ate the sugar, and defeating the replicators didn't drain all the energy reserves. So instead of literally burning it off in a giant explosion of flames, I thought that it would be put to better use here."
"It didn't drain all your energy?" asked O'Neill in amazement.
"Nope. Ten tonnes of sugar was perhaps a little too much..." said Minos.
"Obviously." Said Carter.
"Were there." Said Minos, as he dropped the ship out of hyperspace.
"Can you beam us down directly to the conference room of the SGC?" Minos asked Thor.
"I will. The Asgard will not forget your help in this in a very long time. We are in your debt." Said Thor. "Goodbye."
"Bye Thor." Said everyone.
General Hammond sat in his office. He didn't like being told what there was wrong with his base, SG-1, his methods and his rules. And especially not by the grey-haired old senator that was now in front of him in his office, senator Kinsey.
"General Hammond, the rule-breaking actions of SG-1 have gone too far this time. We had an Ancient here on Earth, and you just agreed with sending him away on a dangerous mission! That is unacceptable."
"Senator Kinsey, I gave them permission to go on this mission. It was of great urgency, so there was no time to follow the normal routes. Especially not with the NID stalling almost all my requests."
"This will be taken to the president! This is unacceptable!" said Kinsey.
"Hi general, we're back!" Minos said happily while smiling broadly. "Wow who's the red guy?"
"This is Senator Kinsey, Minos." Said Hammond.
"General! Who is this kid and why is he on this US military base?" Kinsey, who had gone red from anger screamed to Hammond.
"Senator Kinsey, " Hammond began on a calm and slow tone, "This is the ancient you've yelled about to me."
"Ancient?" Kinsey stuttered. "You mean the ancient is a kid? You actually want me to believe that?"
"Hi, I'm Minos. Nice to meet you." Minos said as he shook the senators hand, who was a bit stunned by the casualness with which Minos acted.
"Senator Kinsey." Kinsey managed to stutter.
"Pleased to meet you. Now if you would be so nice as to leave, the General and I have a lot to discuss. Thank you and goodbye!" Minos said as he pushed Kinsey out of Hammonds office.
"Minos! It is good to have you back. You arrived sooner than I expected. Did the mission go as desired?"
"Yep. It was a huge success, even better than the Asgard could have hoped. Plus no one got injured, except the Replicators."
"The Replicators? You mean you fought against the replicators with the Asgard?"
"Exactly. The only casualties were on the replicator side, only a few Asgard ships have been destroyed."
"That is really good news. And I could use some of that, after listening to Kinsey's ranting for an hour."
"We came back as fast as we could, general." Said O'Neill, who came walking in the door.
"Colonel! It's great to have you back. I take it that you've been civil with senator Kinsey?"
"Yes sir. He may be a bit angry, but I think he's not permanently damaged. Well, I hope that. Oh no, I don't."
"Colonel, serious please?"
"Sorry, sir. Kinsey's on his way out. He's unharmed." "Yet." O'Neill added softly.
"Oh, general, there is someone who needs to speak with you." Minos said.
"Who?" Hammond asked.
"Thor." Minos said.
Thor beamed in directly into the office of General Hammond.
"Thor. It is always a pleasure to see you again."
"General Hammond, your team and Minos played a vital role in defeating the Replicators permanently. They have saved the Asgard race. We owe you one, as Colonel O'Neill would say it. Multiple ones, in this case."
"I heard that there were no casualties."
"That is correct. Minos here scared us a bit after he had destroyed the replicator mothership, but we healed him."
"That sounds like an interesting debriefing. I'm looking forward to your reports." Hammond said.