Chapter 07
After getting Jake Stone settled, Xander and Joyce continued their recruiting, traveling all over the world, and drawing hundreds of people to the Academy. They also contacted high schools and colleges, and brought an edited version of the Starfleet entry exam to them, to be given to the students. That way they were able to recruit from a wide range of sources. The months passed quickly, and the school was soon teeming, classes in full swing.
Xander, Buffy, Cordelia, Willow, and Oz graduated from High school. With Mayor Richard Wilkins dead, the ceremony was simple and no one died. After much debate, most of them decided to only take a few college classes, as they felt that they would not get much out of a full curriculum, because of their advanced knowledge. It would be like living in the stone age. Still, they needed to be on campus to deal with the Initiative.
Xander was taking mostly leadership classes, while Cordelia decided to spend the four years that they were waiting for the first graduating class from the Academy, to get her bachelors degree in Psychology. She especially needed this if she was going to be the ship's councilor. Oz and Buffy felt they could get the most out of learning from the holodeck, so they took minimum classes to be able to access the college campus. Willow, meanwhile had finished her training with the holographic Geordi Laforge, and was ready to be the chief engineer of the ship. Everyone who had stayed aboard after Halloween had trained on the holodecks, to get them up to date on twenty-fifth century technology. For the most part, their training was at an end. The only one still training was the woman who had dressed as Uhura, who was re-training as an operations officer, as there was no dedicated communications officer on the Phoenix.
In other news, Joyce Summers had her monthly brain scan, and they found a small tumor in her brain. It was easy for the EMH to remove it and heal her up, so she wouldn't die of a clot like she did in the holo-drama.
Another thing they did was to revisit the discussion of dispersing technologies. Oz pointed out that he had a head, and an AI full of tech that wasn't as advanced as the Phoenix. They decided to release the technology for ultra-thin cell phones to start with, under the name ESAA Technologies. It was just a few months later when the first millions rolled in. In the mean time, Oz was working on a new armor suit. He decided that the red and gold were too recognizable, so he made the new suit white and black. He had converted a corner of cargo bay 2 into his workshop. Then he began to invent a filtration system that could be installed on automobiles to minimize exhaust fumes.
The next big debate was what to do about Adam. One perspective was to beam out the parts before it ever woke up. Maybe even beam out Director Walsh, and contain her in the brig. The worry was that the government would just send someone to replace her. The only way to assure that the Initiative was shut down was to allow the demon revolt to happen, then go down and clean up the mess afterward.
Buffy didn't like the idea of letting people die, but she wasn't attached to Riley this time, so it wasn't as hard as it could be. Along those lines, Buffy and Xander shared their first kiss. Xander suspected that after watching the holodrama of their lives, and seeing what a mess Buffy's personal life was, she finally saw him for the loyal friend and romantic possibility that he was.
Another romantic moment was that Giles and Jenny announced their intention to wed. They were married in England and had Buffy, Willow, Cordelia, Oz, and Xander stand with them. It was a beautiful ceremony, and even Buffy had tears in her eyes.
There was one other event of note in this time, something that Xander finally worked up the nerve to do. He stood in the empty holodeck.
"Computer, load the character from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer holodrama, Jesse McNally."
In front of him the hologram of Jesse appeared.
"Computer, install an awareness subroutine that explains our current temporal and physical location, and the fact he's a hologram." Xander said, barely keeping his voice from hitching at the sight of his best male friend.
"Modification complete." Toned the computer.
"Activate."
Jesse blinked, then looked to Xander. "Hey, Xand-man."
"Jesse." The captain said, his voice definitely hitching this time.
"Hey." Jesse said, pulling Xander into a hug. "Hey, it's okay. I may only be a hologram, but you have to know I'll always be with you."
Xander began to cry, finally getting the closure he'd missed for years.
"I'm so sorry for killing you."
"None of that, now. You stopped a monster, that was it. And I for one am glad you stopped the monster from using my body to kill people."
"Really?"
"Hell yeah, man. I'm good. I'm probably on a cloud somewhere hitting on the angelic choir."
Xander snorted. It was the kind of thing that Jesse would do.
"You gotta stop blaming yourself. You did the right thing. Now go on. Go live your life, and stop holding yourself back. You've got a ship to run."
"Alright," Xander said, rubbing the tears from his eyes. "Alright, I'll go. I'm going to get Willow to come in here and speak with you."
"Good. I imagine she needs a talking to as well."
Xander exited the holodeck, leaving the Jesse program running. He tapped his com-badge and spoke. "Captain Harris to Commander Rosenberg."
"Willow here."
"Can you please come to Holodeck three?"
"Sure thing, Xander. Be right there." It took a few minutes, but she arrived looking serene, as usual.
"Inside." Xander said, pointing.
"Inside what?" She asked.
"Just go inside."
"Oh... kay." She approached the doors, which swished open. She entered the holodeck, and as the doors were closing, Xander could hear her shocked voice. "Jesse?"
He waited outside the holodeck for nearly ten minutes, before Willow exited, her eyes red and tears staining her face. She threw herself into Xander's arms, and hugged him tightly.
Months past, and they kept a close scan of the Initiative base. Based on the holodrama, and the layout of the scans, they were able to extrapolate the most likely place that Adam was being built. It was a bit risky, but Xander, Buffy, and Jenny Calendar wearing ski masks beamed into the room where the parts of the Frankenstein monster known as Adam was, to get some scans with a medical tricorder. The results were astounding. It seemed that the monster was powered by a liquid metallic core the likes of which they had never seen before. It wasn't Star Trek level of technology, but it definitely was beyond earth tech. Curiouser and curiouser.
More months passed, as they continued to watch the initiative for signs of Adam's awakening. Finally, they saw movement. They were watching the scanners in shifts, when Willow glanced at the screen, then did a double take.
"Oh my gosh!" She tapped her com-badge. "Willow to Xander!"
"Xander here." Came his voice.
"Adam's on the move!"
"Alright, I'll be right there. Call the others, Xander out."
Willow proceeded to call Buffy and Giles. Soon all four were standing in front of the scanner screen.
"He's no longer in the room where he was built. I've been keeping a transporter lock on him, in case we decided to get him out quickly, but as soon as he powered up, I lost the lock, and am having trouble reacquiring it. If we want to beam that... thing out, we're going to have to hit it with a isolinear tag."
"You mean we have to get close to him." Buffy realized.
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Well, we were planning to go in there, anyway, so this isn't too far outside our plans." Xander said, "We just have to hit him with the beacon, to beam him out."
Days past, as they watched the Initiatives cells become crowded to the point of bursting.
Suddenly, there was a call that went out to all of them. Oz ran to get his suit, Xander and Willow armed themselves with type-2 phasers and type 3-b compression phasers, while Buffy had a type-2 phaser, and a pair of Klingon Mek'leth. They were wearing matching Star Trek white and black dress uniforms.
They met up in transporter room two. "This is as real as it gets, people."
They stood in their positions on the pad. "Energize."
They appeared in an empty office in the Initiative base, and quickly threw open the door. It was mayhem outside, there was blood everywhere, and bodies littered the ground, both human and demon. The sound of gunfire and screams echoed off the walls, and smoke filled the air.
A demon ran out of the smoke at them, roaring loudly. Willow and Xander opened fire with their phaser rifles, hitting the demon in the face and chest respectively, killing it instantly.
"Let's move." Oz demanded, as he led the way into the smoke, occasionally firing his repulsors at passing creatures. Willow and Xander continued shooting at monsters as they ran at them, killing demons and dusting vampires. As they got closer to the sound of gunfire, the numbers started to increase, and Buffy moved forward, swinging her pair of mek'leth with deadly accuracy. They were soon close enough to make out a group of soldiers with guns through the smoke, protecting a pair of scientists. Xander fired one more time, killing a vampire that was rushing the group, before moving forward.
"Who's in charge here?" Xander called over the noise of gunfire.
"I am. Who... who are you?" The soldier, who Xander identified as Graham Miller, asked.
"Your back up. Now back to work soldier!" Xander exclaimed, opening fire on a demon that rushed at the group. "We need to clear out this facility and find the leader, Adam."
"How do you know about Adam?"
"I know a lot of what's going on here. Consider us the oversight committee."
Xander fired again, hitting a polgara demon on the shoulder, leaving a large hole. Graham fired his sidearm at the demon hitting it in the head, and killing it.
"Can you move?" Xander asked the lab rats they were protecting, one of whom appeared to be injured.
"Uh... yes," The injured man said, getting to his feet, and holding his bleeding arm, "Yeah, I'm alright."
"Good, let's move." He and Oz led the way, firing upon creatures that charged them, attempting to get a kill. They soon entered the main part of the base, a large open area with a catwalk looking down on it. Upon entering, the smoke cleared out, and they could see a group of soldiers huddled behind some silver crates, taking shots at the demons that were charging them, or feeding on the bodies of the dead.
Standing on the catwalk was Adam, an abomination of a being. "We need to get him down here." Willow commented, looking up.
"Allow me." Xander said, before raising the rifle and firing, hitting Adam on the left shoulder, causing sparks to shoot out of the hole left behind. The creature looked confused at the attack, before leaping over the railing, and landing in the middle of the room.
"Interesting." Adam said. "You are someone new."
Buffy stepped forward. "I'm the slayer, maybe you've heard of me."
"Ah, I've been looking forward to killing you." Adam said.
"Not going to happen. Oz, now."
Oz raised his right arm, a small hatch opening on the top of his hand, and a tiny dart fired out of the hatch, hitting Adam in the chest. He looked down at the dart.
"This is your big move?"
"No," Buffy said. "This is."
She hit her com-badge. "Energize."
The was a wash of sparkling motes of purple light, and Adam vanished.
"Well, that's Adam dead." Xander said, "Gotta love the transporter code fourteen."
With the disappearance of Adam the demons and vampires started to look extremely panicky, and ran for the door that Xander assumed led to the exit. He and Willow opened fire on the fleeing monsters, killing most. Buffy danced around their fire, swinging her mek'leth with abandon.
"What did you do?" Graham asked.
"That's classified."
"Are you from the NID?"
"The who?" Willow asked.
"You said you were the oversight committee. That means you must be with the NID. After all, they run this base."
"Do yourself a favor," Xander said, "And don't tell anyone you told me that."
"What? Why?"
"Just trust me on this." Xander said.
"You're not with the NID, are you?" Graham asked.
"I never said we were, Lieutenant Miller. Now you best get on with the clean up."
With that, Xander led Buffy, Willow and Oz away. The soldiers stared at the metal armor that walked by, but no one followed as they headed into an empty area. Willow pulled out her tricorder, and manipulated the buttons for a moment.
"Security is looped. We're clear to leave."
Xander tapped his com-badge. "Phoenix, four to beam up."
Upon return to the Phoenix, Xander, Buffy, and Willow went to speak to Data, who was currently manning the bridge, while Oz returned to his lab to drop off his armor. "Mister Data, I need you to run a check on a military organization called the NID."
"Aye sir." Data moved to the sensor station, and began manipulating the controls.
"NID. The Nation Intelligence Department. It appears to be a civilian oversight committee for top secret projects."
"No wonder Graham thought we were from the NID." Willow commented, "I wonder how a civilian committee got control of a military project."
"Data," Xander said, "Access their files and find out everything you can about them."
Data tapped on the console for a moment. "It appears the Initiative project was run by a Colonel Harry Maybourne, a member of the NID." He continued tapping the controls. "Interesting. Sir, it appears that they have access to off-world technology through a project called the 'Stargate' program. I'm accessing the files on the Stargate program now."
Now that peaked their interest. Data typed for a moment longer. "It appears the Stargate is an alien device that creates a stable wormhole which connects to other such devices on alien planets. According to this, a team went through the device to a planet they called 'Abydos' one year, three months, and twelve days ago."
"Thank you, Mister Data, that is intriguing." Xander admitted.
"Where is this Stargate located?" Willow asked.
"According to the NID records, the Stargate is located in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, Colorado."