A/N: Sorry for the little late update. This part was a bitch to write. May have used well-known stories in this one. I hope you like it! I'm thinking about skipping the rest of the conference, or at least end it quickly, to come to the storyline I had in mind when I started writing this.
Reviews are welcome!
Chapter 29 – The conference part 3
Has everyone finished conferring with their governments?" Minos asked to the people in the lobby that had just finished talking through the subspace transmitters.
"We have." Sounded from everybody.
"All-right. Let's share the results then." Minos said as he returned to the conference table. Everyone followed him and sat down in their respective chairs.
"Let's start to my left. Anteaur and Lya, how many planets can you defend?"
"We have conferred with our government, and after an argument with several very high-placed friends of you, we have conceded to open up travel to our home planet Gaia, and our long-time colony Ouranos." Anteaur said.
"Thank you." Minos said with a small grin after hearing the comment about his high-place friends. "now, High Councillor Garshaw, which planets can the Tok'ra defend from outside attacks?"
"The Tok'ra can defend the planets of Terosh, Kerak and Oranna. That last one is our new base, and the other two planets are our colonies. Infrastructure should not be a problem."
"Thank you." Minos said. "Ambassador Gren, which planet in you territory is suitable for handling large amounts of refugees?"
"We have decided that these times require Oannes to open up. The refugees can stay on the continents, but goods will be sent from the cities under the ocean."
"Thank you." Minos said with a short nod. "Ambassador Varta, which planet have to Galarans selected?"
"We decided that there is enough space on Galara to handle a large amount of refugees. Infrastructure should not pose any problem at all if we start preparing in time."
"Thank you." Minos repeated himself. "Now Dr. Weir, which planets have the Tau'ri decided that are suitable for handling large amounts of refugees?"
"We have conferred with our government and decided that the situation demands us to open up the Alpha, Beta and Gamma sites. We have bases on each one of those planets, but very little infrastructure yet."
"Thank you. I'm certain we can help each other with building infrastructure and assembling supplies." Minos said. "And now, High Councillor Odin, what planets have the Asgard decided are capable of handling refugees?"
"There are many planets under the protection of the Asgard already, but only a are few suitable for handling the many refugees while they are at the same time defendable from outside attacks. Those planets are Cimmeria, the double planets of Skinfaxi and Hrimfaxi, Vanaheim and the double planets of Elfheim and Jotunheim."
"Thank you." Minos said.
"We now have a total of twenty planets to receive all the refugees. Let's see what their positions are in space now, shall we?" Minos spoke as he raised both his hands in the air.
Suddenly, a small though persistent and loud tremble started. A medium-sized object looking like a small table with an orb on top rose from the floor.
"This," Minos spoke as the orb lit up, "Is a map from the galaxy. The red dots are the planets I know the locations of. Can you please point the locations of the Alpha, beta and gamma sites, Terosh, Kerak and Ouranos for me?"
"I can." Anteaur spoke as an additional dot, very close to another dot that was probably Gaia, turned red.
"I will point them." Selmak spoke as they rose and pointed to two locations in space, relatively close to each other.
"I don't know the exact location of them. Carter?" O'Neill said.
"No, sir, sorry. But I know the addresses."
"That's good enough for me." Minos said as a small hologram appeared before Carter, consisting of all the constellations.
She dialled them in and Minos calculated their locations in the map of the galaxy.
"Hmm. This is quite easily defendable by ship." Minos commented. "Most of the planets are relatively close together in twosomes or threesomes, so we won't have to distribute all the ships throughout the galaxy. I reckon there are fourteen separate parts, so we probably have to split the fleet into that many parts. Uhm..." Minos had a short pause as he asked himself what was next.
"Oh, yeah. How many ships capable of hyperspace-travel can you send out to defend the planets?"
"The Nox do not and will not build ships of war. We have relied on the Astria Porta for our travels and we will continue to do so. Satellites for defence may be a necessary evil, but ships of war are not." Lya spoke.
"I understand." Minos spoke. "High Councillor Garshaw, how many space-worthy ships can you send to aid the planets?"
"It is not the way of the Tok'ra to use many ships of war. We have relied on stealth and coercion rather than brute force. Because of that, we have only little to offer in ships. Only a few Al'Kesh bombers and several scout ships. I do not know any exact numbers."
"Hm-hm." Minos said in approval. "Ambassador Varta, how many ships can Galara offer?"
"I fear not much. We have only recently learned that such things were possible, so we cannot offer any ships as of yet. Should the technology be available to us, I think we can produce several of them in relatively short time."
"Okay." Minos said. "Ambassador Gren, have you any ships available for defence?"
"We have not. It is not the way of the Oannes to build spaceships suited for war." Gren said shortly.
"Uh-huh. I understand." Minos said. "Doctor Weir, have the Tau'ri got any space-worthy ships?"
"I'm afraid we only have the one Ha'tak you helped us steal from Anubis. We are learning how it works as we speak and we can construct a fair amount of ships given the right time and resources." Dr. Weir spoke.
"OK. High-councillor Odin, can you offer any help in ship-related business?"
"I can, though not as much as I had liked. The war with the Replicators is now over, but they still have destroyed most of our fleet. Only the ships we had in the final battle are left. We have currently eight O'Neill class warships, ten Bilskirnir class warships, eight chariots and five cruisers left, along with several smaller science-vessels and civilian vessels."
"Thank you." Minos said, pleased that he finally had some numbers. "OK, I can add a lot to that. I have thirty Ha'taks prepared, as well as a small sixty Al'kesh and of course the fighters that came with them when I robbed them from the Goa'uld. And, of course, I have my own battleship, the Ruin."
"Has the Horseman risen again?" Thor exclaimed in fear.
"Not yet. But the time may be there soon." Minos said with an amused grin as he saw the Asgard and Nox move away from him in fear.
"Who's the rider?" Dr. Weir asked.
"He is one of the horsemen that sign the coming of the apocalypse. I believe I planted those myths on every planet I've been to. Have you any such tales, Ambassador Varta?"
"I believe we have. One of the older texts describes a number of horseman that ride through the lands and cause death and destruction. I take it that legend is based on you?"
"Loosely."
"What do you mean 'loosely'?" Daniel asked.
"Well, it was true that me and a few others rode through the lands, but causing death and destruction goes a bit far... Ok, we occasionally had some pranks on some people that weren't really nice, but not really death and destruction."
"If I remember correctly, you burned a whole planet in that time." As mysterious voice said, coming from the other end of the table. A white light appeared and then a woman was sitting in the chair opposing Minos. Black hair, black eyes but a pale skin.
"Hello, Gannos." Minos said. "How nice of you to finally join us."
"Gannos Lal. It has been a long time." Odin spoke.
"A long time indeed." Anteaur added.
"For the ones that do not know me, I am Gannos Lal. I am often known as Morgan le Fay in this galaxy. I came here to tell dear Minos that the time is not right for the Horseman to ride again."
"It's always work and never fun with you, isn't it?" Minos asked.
"You burned down a whole planet the last time the Horseman rode in this galaxy. I'd say that your definition of fun is a bit disturbing, to say the least."
"That was not my definition of fun either. That was a prank gone bad, then it went to worse and it ended in the worst. But you do remember that most of us almost died saving every living creature on the whole planet from the fire. And we paid dearly for it afterwards."
"What exactly happened?" O'Neill asked.
"My friends, the other three riders, and me held a prank involving a small fire demon. But something went wrong in the machine we used, so the whole fire hell came crashing through. Even with the four of us we couldn't stop the fiery demons from flowing through. We saved every thing we could find, sending it through the Stargate to another planet. Then we sealed the planet off from the Stargate network. We'd built a machine capable of making a gate to another dimension or universe, which you could actually dial. We learned swiftly that there was a dimension filled almost exclusively with fire, fiery creatures and monsters of your worst nightmares. We had captured several of the smaller monsters before without any trouble.
Several weeks after we had only barely escaped the disaster, we arrived at the very same planet by ship. It had turned into a molten ball of lava and fire, heat so intense it could melt metal. We prepared ourselves for the final battle, taking each and every precaution we could think off. We flew down to the planet, and we battled. The battle raged for many days, each one of us taking turns in slaughtering the oncoming armies of fiery monsters that poured through the hole we had created from another universe.
After multiple days of fighting, we encountered a massive demon. We had almost managed to break the connection linking our two universes, but it was too late. Three of the horsemen fell because of the demon. I was the only one who survived, though barely.
"Could the other Ancients not help?" Odin asked.
"They certainly could, but they didn't want to interfere with our business. Besides, their powers were not really effective against the powers of that demon."
"What happened with the demon?" O'Neill asked.
"Well, he was defeated, but his armies still reigned over the planet. After I had healed, I was sent back to the planet to defeat each and every one of the demons and destroy the machine that had caused it."
"Were you punished because of it?" Daniel asked.
"Yes. Though not as cruel or painful as the Goa'uld usually punish their subjects, I was punished too. They locked me in this body forever, stopping my aging process. I can't ascend, they blocked that option and I am limited in my actions. Plus I'm in their service until, like, infinity."
"So you bettered your life and became a servant of the Others." Gannos spoke.
"No, I just became a servant of the Others. And I didn't do any pranks or tricks for a long time."
"Except for a few times when you disliked people." Gannos added.
"Ok, maybe a few times, but none as serious or big, or dangerous for that matter, as the one with the fire demons."
"What happened to the planet after you defeated all the demons there?" Selmak asked.
"It was still hot, so I had to cool it faster, as another part of my punishment. The landscape was kind of destroyed, so I had to replant forests and all, take animals through the gate once the planet had an atmosphere again, and eventually humans started living there again."
"Why horsemen?" Daniel asked.
"Think of it as the Ancient equivalent of a child taking a stick and saying it's a horse. But then an touchable, though not real, horse. The humans saw 'real' horses and we could ride them just as well. Even better, because they didn't get tired or needed to eat."
"So the four horsemen were four Ancient children?" Daniel asked.
"Yes, we were." Minos said.