Stargate Genesis

Episode 11

"Remnants and Reminders"

On his balcony overlooking the ocean, Major Miles Romanoff sat in a folding chair and sipped his morning coffee. His shift would start soon so the high strung military man was readying himself for another stress filled day on Atlantis with a private pleasure he had so far managed to keep hidden from the rest of the world. It was called Lenin, and it was a small white rabbit.

He scratched its nose and fed it another carrot while he memorized the recipe for something called "Blasted Bran Bars" from a discarded edition of The Morning Herald.

Just as he was getting to the part about how to caramelize the edges of the bars a dark shadow fell across the balcony obscuring his view. Miles removed his sunglasses and looked up to see a hive ship decloaking over the city.

~~00~~

Elsewhere

The planet hovering below the Thor was the color of ice. It was appropriate given what was happening on the surface.

Maya Sol sat on one half of her command chair and attempted to project an air of authority. This was made difficult by her brother Tom Sol who was currently occupying the other half.

"You know, you could monitor the mission from tactical," she said.

"Me? The captain?" he said, shocked.

"Co-captain," Maya corrected him. "Temporary co-captain."

"Well as co-captain I think I ought to be here in case I'm needed," he said. "Don't you think so, mèimei?"

"I wish you wouldn't call me that in front of my crew."

"They are my crew as well," he said. "I bet it does them good to see their captains getting along so-"

"Colonel," said Major Shen.

The Sol siblings looked up in unison and saw the fireball erupt from the planet's surface. Maya looked to Major Shen and there was an unspoken conversation between them. The team had not called for beam out.

"We've got a message coming in from the Jotunn," said Tom. "I'm bringing it up now."

The Thor's viewscreen flashed and Teyla Emmagan appeared standing on the bridge of the Vanir starship with the rest of her team standing behind her. Kalel, the Vanir they had rescued two weeks prior on the site of an Ancient shipyard turned slave camp, sat beside her, his battered useless legs hidden beneath a bank of controls. Maya heaved a sigh of relief.

"We did not mean to frighten you colonel," said Teyla. "The situation on the planet got a little out of hand so we took the first exit we could find."

"They had light sabers," said McKay panting. "Actual light sabers."

"And how did the mission go?" asked Maya.

"It went extremely well, Colonel Sol," said Kalel. "Your team returned seventeen of my brethren to the ship before they were forced to detonate the Mark IX and retreat. My readings suggest that the compound has been completely destroyed."

"We can see that," said the other Sol. "And how many Vanir were still on the planet when the bomb went off?"

"Two hundred and fifty-seven," said Kalel. "Their consciousnesses have been uploaded to the Jotunn's computer. It is fortunate the Wraith do not know enough about our physiological history to remove our neurotropic implants."

"Then... that's it," said Maya. "If our intel is correct we've destroyed every one of the Wraith's hybrid laboratories so... what will you do now?"

"There is nothing left for us here. Our outposts and cloning facilities have all been either abandoned for millennia or destroyed by the Wraith. This vessel and those aboard it are all that remains of our civilization. My people will use it to find a new galaxy to inhabit and begin again; we discovered many with habitable planets before parting with the Asgard and coming here so many years ago. This ship was not built for intergalactic travel, but it will suffice. It has some cloning capabilities and I am sure my brothers will endeavor to revive as many of us as they can during the long voyage," he said.

"Aren't you going with them?" asked Maya.

"I would," said Kalel. "Only there is a problem."

He reached a hand up to the implant on his forehead.

"During my captivity I was struck a blow to the temple which destroyed the inner workings of my own implant," he said. "The damage, I'm afraid, is irreparable. I have lost the luxury of the timeless existence my brothers enjoy and can be of only limited use to them as they attempt to rebuild over the centuries to come," he said. "I hoped instead to join you in defending Atlantis and the humans of this galaxy from the Wraith."

This he addressed to Teyla who was suitably stunned.

"But wouldn't you rather spend what time you have left with your own people?" she asked. "Maybe they could find a way to help."

"The thought has occurred to me," said Kalel. "But in these past weeks the specter of my mortality has imbued my thoughts with a clearness of focus I have no desire to relinquish. Death has made me aware of those things I would see done, debts I would see paid, before my time is ended."

~~00~~

Kalel beamed aboard the Thor from the Jotunn and watched his brothers leave on their long journey before turning in his wheelchair and proffering an orb slightly larger than his head to Daniel.

"The Asgard trusted you with a great deal of power," he said. "And so I will trust you with this."

"What is it?" asked Daniel.

"It is an Attero device," said the Vanir.

There was silence on the bridge.

"I'm sorry," said Daniel. "I think I must have heard you wrong."

"Our best chance of eliminating the Wraith lies in reactivating the Attero device. The Wraith are a menace to the other forms of sentient life in this galaxy and they must be expunged."

"Oh well so say we all," said Rodney. "It's just that you keep using that word."

"Two words actually," said Daniel. "Attero device? Maybe you don't remember, but the last time it was activated a lot of humans ended up dying. You can't possibly expect us to use it again."

"Yeah and if I recall correctly we destroyed it," said Rodney.

"Well Sheppard was the one who destroyed it," said Daniel. "But we helped at least."

"Well I did anyway," said Rodney.

"You destroyed it, yes," said Kalel, "And we had nearly finished rebuilding it when we were discovered by the Wraith."

"Wait you built another one?" asked Daniel.

"Yes of course," said Kalel sounding surprised. "The Attero device was the only weapon ever created with the potential to annihilate the Wraith, and our people were facing extinction at their hands. Did you believe we would stop pursuing the technology merely because the original was destroyed?"

"Er… when you put it like that–"

"Are you perhaps shocked at our audacity? That we would dare to make enemies of you by engaging in a strategy that endangered the lives of your people much the way that your actions endangered our own."

"I mean… that's not–"

Did you think it was impossible to reach beyond what the Ancients were capable of in the prime of their power? That such heights were unattainable?

"Oh sure if you say it like that–"

"Or perhaps you believed the Vanir in particular were incapable of replicating the technology of the Ancients? That humanity was the sole sentient race with the faculties necessary to comprehend them?"

"Ok I get it," said Daniel. "The Ancients aren't gods and neither are we. The things they built and did were remarkable, but obviously not impossible to build and do. I'm sorry I doubted you, but well for one thing it seems a little convenient that you just have this lying around."

"Convenient?" probed the Vanir. "You would not believe that were true if you knew how many of us were killed or fed upon while defending it."

Daniel sighed.

"Listen Kalel there's no question that the Attero device is a powerful weapon, but there's a reason we were so against you using it the first time. There are a lot of inhabited worlds in this galaxy that regularly use the Stargate network. If even one of those gates is activated while this thing is online the death toll could be enormous."

"I believe there is a way we can mitigate that risk," said Kalel. "With proper shielding the subspace disruptions this machine produces can be focused on specific areas of space slightly less than two hundred thousand kilometers across. Combining that functionality with the long range sensors on Atlantis as an aiming mechanism would provide us with a potent weapon."

"I think I should stop you right there Kalel," said Rodney. "Now not to play the blame game or anything, but ever since the Wraith got a hold of your cloaking technology we haven't been able to use the long range sensors to locate them."

"I see," said Kalel. "Perhaps if you had permitted us to use the original Attero device we would not be in this situation."

"Why you little–"

"Okay," said Teyla. "This has been an emotional day, and I think we are all very tired. For now I believe we should return to Atlantis, and speak no more about this until we have all had a chance to rest."

~~00~~

The battle was over before it began. When the Thor came out of hyperspace over Atlantis it did so into a hail of energy weapons fire from not less than two dozen Wraith hive ships. The Shields buckled and the blasts sent power surges up the ship's armor plating. After that the ship's weapons were lost, followed quickly by navigation. Colonel Maya Sol weaved desperately in and out of the enemy ships, but there was nowhere to hide.

Major Shen redirected what power the ship had left to the transporters and evacuated as many of her crew members to Atlantis as she could before Colonel Tom Sol turned the transporters on her, and suddenly a small Scottish doctor was pressing a wad of gauze to her forehead. What she had thought was sweat pouring over her eyes was actually blood pouring out around a chunk of shrapnel.

Back on the Thor only two people remained. Weapons were still offline, but the Sol siblings made do with what they had. Maya moved deliberately between hives, forcing them to direct their fire at one another then Tom used maneuvering thrusters to violently jerk them away. Together they took out two, four, six ships with no shields or weapons of their own to speak of, but it couldn't last forever.

"It's time you got out of here Tom," said Maya dreamily as a lucky shot from a dart took out their starboard thruster. "You're not doing me any good anymore."

"And what about you mèimei?" Tom asked.

"I'm the captain of this ship brother," she said.

"Co-captain," said Tom.

~~00~~

100 years later

It took a century for the last remnants of the Vanir to complete their trek from Pegasus back to their ancestral home world in the Coranan Galaxy. Before cutting ties completely with their brothers in the Ida galaxy only one hundred and fifty thousand light years off, the wayward tribe of the Asgard had settled here and presided over one of the greatest expansions of a sentient power the universe had ever known.

Now they returned to the place of their former glory a little over four hundred strong and only half of them with bodies, an endangered species if ever there was one. However, they had spent their time in hibernation aboard the Jotunn well. Taking turns inhabiting the relatively few bodies their frail vessel could support they had planned the rise of their new civilization well, and devised new ways of recombining what DNA was left in their vanishing genetic pool to bring new Vanir into the universe. Their long hibernation had supplied them with all the tools they would need to effect the rebirth of their species.

The blue-green orb of Vanheim sparkled beneath the solar wind-scarred bow of the Jotunn.

"It is much as we had hoped," said Freyja. "My readings indicate that the planet remains habitable. The atmosphere is saturated with moisture and well within breathable tolerances."

"Are there any life signs?" asked Njoror.

The ability to convey much in the way of meaning with facial expressions was one of many things the Vanir and the Asgard lost after adopting the cloning process that granted them their longevity, but Freyja narrowed his eyes and allowed a slight purse to form on his lips in imitation of surprise.

"The high percentage of methane and oxygen gas does suggest the presence of flora at least," he said. "Is that what you are referring to?"

Njoror did not respond. Like all the Vanir left on the ship his consciousness stretched back to a time when his people had been able to reproduce sexually. At times he even believed he could recall the ancient features of his parents and the lithe yet powerful form of his original body, but there was a limit to what a sentient creature could hope to remember over a lifetime of ten thousand years. What was it he was forgetting?

"Why did we leave this galaxy?" he asked.

Freyja closed his eyes and looked away. The movement was quick for a Vanir, and Njoror thought he could detect a hint of worry in his voice.

"I do not know," he said. "This ship does not carry with it a full history of our people."

"Then you have already attempted to find the answer," said Njoror. "Why?"

Freyja closed his eyes again as if trying to remember.

"Our departure was… sudden," he said. "I do not recall discussing where we would go until after we had abandoned our cities. It was as if–"

"As if we were forced to leave," finished Njoror.

The two of them turned to stare at the planet in silence. On its surface the ruins of an abandoned civilization towered over the landscape. The cities of the Vanir were built to last, and had weathered everything the planet had thrown at them, but here and there a few of the golden spires had been crushed into the dirt by enormous gray monoliths that seemed to have fallen from the sky.

Written by Andrew Marron

Story by Andrew Marron and Caleb Palmquist