Reviews
john777
Nice idea, however it might be too late at this point. The Asgard in the main universe have had plenty of time to work on a cure, and to implement it, but most of the Asgard in other universes will be preparing to commit suicide at this point.
Plus he doesn't actually have the cure. So he'd have to get the Asgard of the prime universe involved and even they don't know that Jumper Gothic has a reality drive.
doug89
She finds out about Destiny in this chapter.
Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Confederation
Part 6
Cosmic Warehouse. Outside of Reality.
I'd never seen Ayiana looking so emotional about anything, but something in my files had her seeming very intense, which I'd decided to share with her since she'd decided to share one of her big secrets with me, although at that point I'd nearly had it all figured out anyway. As soon as Jackson had pointed that the key to infinite treasure was a gate address in Ancient I would have found a way to central hub.
"There are more of my people out there and they are alive" she said.
Well if counted the Lanteans there were in fact thousands of Ancients who were still alive.
"On the Destiny" she clarified.
Now I understood.
"Yes" I said "I can't be one hundred percent certain, but there should be a few of your people on that ship in stasis. They may have been on board when it launched, or they could have gated on later, but my source for that information is very dependable".
She didn't seem to care about that, but I did since it had come from a comic book, which weren't always cannon. Hence why I'd not mentioned the ship to her.
"I need to go to Destiny" she insisted.
Well I could imagine that she was lonely, and would naturally want to seek out more of her own kind. Assuming of course that these Anicents weren't Lanteans. They could have figured out how to dial the ship from Atlantis, and used their ZPMs to power the gate. But given that the Lanteans had purposely isolate themselves with the Pegasus galaxy it was far more likely that the people in stasis on board Destiny were in actually Alterrans.
Although given the limits of Ancient stasis tech there shouldn't be any Alterrans on the Destiny, so either the stasis chambers on that ship had been designed for long term use, as in for millions of years, or Alterrans could handle stasis better than Lanteans.
"I plan to" I told Ayiana "But not for a few years. It would be a one trip, and we'd need a team who could repair and fly the ship. Its millions of years old so it will need some work".
While it was possible to use the Cosmic Warehouse to access the Space Dock, which was in the Pegasus Galaxy not that far from Atlantis, it wouldn't work in reverse. But that didn't matter so much as when I went to Destiny I wasn't planning on coming back unless I really had to.
I wanted to use the remaining time of this Jump trying to discover the message the Destiny had been sent out to find. This would be doable if you the stasis chambers on board the ship as time spent in stasis didn't count as part of the ten years I had to spend in this universe.
Plus the Destiny had technology worth studying, even if it was out of date, and no doubt there were many worlds out there worth seeing. Also there could be alien races in far reaches of the universe who would be willing to trade with me.
Of course I'd need the right team. Not just my current companions, but others as well, experts in Ancient tech, a doctor, people like that. All female of course.
"So one day we can go there?" Ayiana asked.
I nodded, and she gave me a very big smile.
(Line Break)
Annwn. Milky Way Galaxy.
"What is Ayiana doing?" Miranda Lawson asked as she entered the office Gothic used.
The clone of the Alterran was sitting on the couch in the office while wearing headphones and going through a large pile of datapads.
"She's catching up with the last few million years worth of history and exploring different kinds of music" Gothic explained "She reads at incredible rate".
Miranda took a seat on the other side of the desk and tried to put Ayiana out of her mind. Gothic had been spending way too much time with the clone, but the former Cerberus operative refused to feel jealousy or envy. If couldn't control those feelings she'd never have lasted long as one of Gothic's companions.
"We need an army" Miss Lawson said, getting down to business.
While she loathed her father she had learned a lot from him about running things, and that had helped Miranda when it came to running Cerberus projects, serving as XO on the Normandy and quartermaster on Voyager. Now she was handling logistical matter for a rapidly growing alliance, and it was not easy.
"What about the robots?" Gothic wondered "They've worked fine so far".
The bots were fine for simple things, like guard duty, but unlike a proper soldier they couldn't think on their feet, they couldn't act outside of their programming in other words, which became a problem when situations rapidly changed. When Cortana could control them this wasn't an issue, but Cortana went where Gothic went and he tended to get around.
Miranda was sure that her lover had considered this already, but so far he'd made no real efforts to recruit a military. Most likely this was because while he liked having advanced technology he didn't trust it in the hands of others. At least not if it was going to used by people who weren't use to having that kind of power.
"We need a proper army" Miranda said "And now that we have a couple of member worlds we can recruit from them, and from other worlds we have contact with. Not all of them are primitive".
While the Jumper considered this the human woman pressed on.
"The whole point of the creating this Confederation was to raise the quality of humans in this galaxy" she was now saying "With that in mind I think the world called Tegalus would make a good recruiting ground".
Tegalus was a world in the Milky Way Galaxy, which was occupied by two human factions: the Rand Protectorate (existing in the Northwest) and the Caledonian Federation (to the Southeast). The two factions had a long-standing "cold war" of hostility between them, and had developed into industrialised nations at a similar level to Langara or Vyus.
Due to the actions of a fringe group called the People of Avidan, both the Rand Protectorate and the Caledonian Federation were almost entirely destroyed when the "cold war" erupted into conflict. Groups of each society survived the holocaust and were now attempting to rebuild on the ashes.
"I was thinking that we could recruit a few hundred survivors" Miranda went on to say "We offer them a much better life here, and in exchange they work for us. We can educate them with the memory transfer tech and by having the people from more advanced worlds teach them as they work. We can open a school for any kids we bring here as well".
She more to say.
"Any soldiers we recruit can form part of... let's say a Confederation Defence Force, and while they will have their national identities over time they'll start to see themselves as Confederation soldiers" she then added "As you planned we can hire some extra people from our allies and pay them with naquadah. We'll need more support staff and people who can pass on skills to our defence force. Once our new soldiers are ready for action we'll have give you an oath so we can take advantage of that Perk you got will helps to ensure loyalty".
Gothic gave this some thought as well.
"Okay we'll give it a go" he said "I'll let you handle it, but if you need some help let me know".
With that Miranda got up and headed to her own office, she had a lot of work to do.
(Line Break)
Annwn. Milky Way Galaxy.
As part of my deal with Master Bra'tac, and by extension the Progressive Party of the Jaffa Nation, which was a powerful faction within that government, I needed to provide a lot in the way of weapons, materials and even small ships.
Of course I'd not agree to any sort of time table when making this deal, and this allowed me to start off slow, meaning for now I could provide hand held weapons, and then the ships much later on when I had more help to create such things. If the progressive Jaffa didn't like that, well there wasn't actually anything they could about it as attacking my city-ship with a few Ha'tak would be suicide.
I might outsource the creation of Al'kesh, cargo ships, and Death Gliders to the Herbians, who already had the industry in place for buildings ships of that size. I could easily pay them in naquadah, or some advanced tech, and then just transport the completed products to Dakara. That way I'd still be keeping my side of the deal without draining my own resources too much.
But that would have to wait until that advanced society had been given the chance to get to know us better. Miranda could handle the foreplay with their big corporations and government, while Tali hopefully won their annual race. Then I could go to that world and sort a proper deal out.
In the meantime I was using a Molecular Construction Device. The device appeared to work in a manner similar to the upgraded Asgard transporters on the Odyssey, which was able to create simple objects such as musical instruments, oxygen, and food, whose compositions were stored in the Asgard database.
The Asgard also had a version of the Molecular Construction Device and while I did not know if the Asgard version of this technology was as advanced as its Ancient counterpart, I hoped for their sake that their version was a lot easier to use. I found it mentally taxing to virtually create the most simple of objects, and even now after much practice I was having trouble creating something that much less complex that the sangraal.
It was important for me to master this technology as I had plans to create a type of robot run factory which combined molecular construction and beaming technology to quickly produce war materials. With the right Matter Replication technology and enough energy raw materials could quickly become vehicles, weapons, armour and robot soldiers.
Raw materials could very quickly be gathered via beaming tech built into these factories and that would save time with resource gathering. Then the factory would process the material and arrange into what was needed. Then any assembly work would be handled with ease by the robots.
I would need this technology once I got to Warhammer 40k universe as I was going to need to compete with empires that had massive infrastructure already in place as well as lots of manpower.
The one flaw with my idea was energy production. I'd need a source of energy which provide the levels of power require to run these factories, and the reactors would themselves need to easy to create. Naquadah reactors would do the job fine, but naquadah couldn't be replicated so I'd have to stockpile the stuff on my ship.
Which was more practical than it sounded as I had a lot of room on board my ship, and I could replenish my supplies with the Matter Furnace. There was even an Asgard tech which prevented dangerous explosions on board a ship, if I could trade for that then I would haven't have to worry about my naquadah stockpiles going off in a massive explosion.
Plus if my war factories were powered by naquadah reactors, and I had the only supply of naquadah in that universe then once the naquadah was used up the war factory would become useless. Sure another kind of reactor could be plugged in, but I might be able to set up failsafes to prevent that.
As for the manpower, well I had some ideas about that. Most of my future armies would be made up of robots. Ways of making them better soldiers while still keeping them under control were being worked upon. I remembered the Geth and I didn't want to end up becoming dependant on a machine race that could rise up against me.
Creating clones who got their memories via some of the tech I'd gathered in this universe was also an option. These clones would develop personalities over time as they gained experiences that were their own, but the technology Anubis used to create his kull warriors might come in handy in creating very loyal clone troopers.
Also I intended to create Kull warriors of my own, but not in this universe as doing so would cause the other powers in this galaxy to come after me. However there were many dimensions out there that contained things even Kull warriors would have trouble handling so I would need them.
With my advanced technology I didn't think I'd require a Goa'uld queen to spawn mindless things that were used only to regulate the bodies of Kull warriors. I should be able to come up with a cybernetic device that performed the same function.
These were matters to think about more so in the future. My current plans didn't require such a massive military force, and for my next Jump I was planning to take some time off and to focus on other things. Maybe I'd just find a Jump that my advanced technology would make me god like in and just have some fun. However the Jump after that one I would need a proper military.
What I was trying to make right now, that would a Ma'Tok staff, the type of staff weapon used mostly by the Jaffa, which when fired unleashed a powerful plasma blast which can kill most humans with a single shot. While they weren't the most practical weapons around staff blasts have been shown to be capable of leaving holes in a wall the size of a man's head, blow apart trees, and even damage blast doors. So they weren't lacking in raw power at least.
Due to the shortcomings of this weapon, such as its clunklyness, low rate of fire, and poor aim, the Jaffa usually utilize tactics including firing lines, reminiscent to old colonial firing lines for mass volleys and human waves, where they rely on overwhelming numbers rather than the skill of their soldiers.
I had tried to replicate the weapon, however the power source could be not created using Star Trek tech, like certain other materials simply couldn't be. The staffs were powered by a substance called Liquid Naquadah, which as the name suggested was a liquified form of the mineral Naquadah. A measure of this green-yellow coloured fluid contained in small, single vials serve as the power source for Goa'uld Staff weapons.
While the Matter Furnace could create liquid naquadah, just as it could create normal naquadah, it was a liquid not a solid metal, when at room temperature. much like mercury, so when it came out of the Matter Furnace, it made a terrible mess. Which was a same because Liquid Naquadah was an amazing power source for a weapon. A single vial of the stuff could power a staff weapon for a long time, giving the weapon an endurance that other weapons lacked.
However molecular construction devices while complex to use didn't have the limit of not being able to create certain materials, as such all I had to do was to fully visualise what I wanted to create and one would appear. A mentally taxing process, the easy part of which had been finding a staff weapon to take apart.
Still it was now done. Thanks to my advanced mind I'd been able to fully visualize all the separate parts of the staff weapon and how all those parts fit together.
Since the first one was done I'd have Cameron put the weapon through its paces down in the firing range. Then when she confirmed that I had made a working staff weapon I'd create more this way, if only to practice using the machine, and it should get easy to use over time not just because I was experienced with the machine, but because the design of the staff weapon would become more familiar to me.
Since I was creating more staff weapons it would make sense if I replicated some ceramic polymer vests like those used by SG teams. Those were flexible, ceramic-based shield plate developed by a man called Dr. Bill Lee and his team of scientists at Stargate Command as an improved defense for SG. personnel in dangerous territory. The polymer was an improvement over Kevlar, which does not protect fully against Jaffa staff weapon like my armour did .
Of course I didn't need that material for myself, it was just that if Miranda was going to put together some kind of army for the Confederation I would need to give them decent weapons and armour, the polymer vests could be part of their equipment.
Giving them the best I had simply wouldn't be wise or at all practical. Not that needed that sort of stuff. SG teams had been handling what this galaxy had to throw at them with 1990's Earth tech. I could at least give my troops gauss weapons and better armour than that others had. Mass Effect tech was full of examples of fairly decent body armour the could easily be replicated.
For years I'd been well served by a set of Colossus Armor, which had been manufactured by Kassa Fabrication, perhaps I could use that suit, which I still owned, as the bases for the armour that would be worn by Confederate troops in the near future.
Staff weapons weren't the only thing I was going to make on bulk for the Progressive Party of the Free Jaffa Nation. I was also going to make a fair number of Zats for them, which were better weapons than staffs even if they did look a bit silly.
The Zat gun was a rather unique in the way it worked. One shot was shown to incapacitate a victim and causes immense pain, while a second shot kills them. The shots do not have to be right after the other, as some people have been killed several minutes after the first Zat blast however, an extended period of time between shots will cause the effect to wear off and two new shots are necessary to kill (as evidenced by O'Neill being shot a variety of times throughout SG-1's various exploits). A third shot would disintegrate the victim and their clothing, leaving no visible trace of their existence.
Which of course made no sense to me, so I'd test the weapon and had discovered that it didn't in fact vaporise anything and it wasn't simply a complex taser, it was in fact a coherent electron-beam weapon.
When fired the beam of coherent electrons, which were guided by a harmless laser beam, that was so small it couldn't be seen, somehow polarizes the air and allows the electrons to travel to the target. This allows for massive number of charged particles to reach the target.
Compared to some of the weapons I'd seen in the Trek verse the zat gun was actually rather primitive, both in the science behind it and in construction. Of course it helped to have the mind of near-ascended being, and to have a understanding of science well beyond that of a 21st century human.
However this wasn't the time to be thinking of such things, I had to work to do, and the sooner I was done manufacturing these weapons the sooner I can take my ship out for a trip across dimensions. Which would be a lot more fun than building crappy Goa'uld weapons.
(Line Break)
Odyssey. Alternate Reality.
General Jack O'Neill stood on the bridge of the Odyssey, watching the alien starship get bigger and bigger in the window. The ship was massive and it was making no effect to hide itself, it was in orbit of the Earth and giving off all sorts of readings that people could pick with radio-telescopes. Also it could be seen with normal telescopes, not the kind that kids had in their bedrooms, but it was detectable by actually scientists.
"Boy am I glad I'm not the one who has to run around convincing hundreds of people that all they saw was a weather balloon," Jack commented, before turning to Colonel Carter "How big did you say this thing was?".
Carter hadn't actually given that information out just yet.
"It's more than three kilometers in length, Sir," Samantha Carter replied. "To put that in perspective this ship is only 200 meters in length".
If size actually mattered here, and it often did, then the Odyssey, was like a minnow going up against a killer whale.
"I have never before seen a vessel with an appearance such as this," Teal'c told everyone.
Which meant that it was unlikely to be Goa'uld, and it wasn't Ori either, if it was they'd have fired by now, or they'd have tried to convert the crew.
"Its an Ancient ship" Carter soon reported "I compared our scans to the information sent back by the Atlantis expedition, and its an almost perfect match for an Aurora-class warship that the Ancients used during their war with the Wraith".
She had more to say.
"And given its power levels I think it might be powered by a ZPM" she said.
Now that interested people.
"I want to know why they're not responding to our hails," Colonel Paul Emerson commented "We don't know if they're hostile or just lost".
The lack of communication was frustrating.
"Maybe they can't hear us, or maybe they've been trying to hail us and we can't detect it" Doctor Jackson offered.
One of the crew suggested using morse code on the radio as a joke, and ended up having to do it.
"Carter, are our engines powerful enough to tow that thing if we can't get them to move by asking nicely?" Jack asked.
Carter blew out a slow breath.
"Maybe, Sir. But it'll be a tall order" she replied before turning a member of the crew who wasn't busy trying to send a message via morse code "Are we getting any sensor readings yet?"
The female member of the crew shook her head.
"None of our scans are penetrating their shield," the tech said.
"Let me take a look," Carter said, while leaning over the console. "Huh"
"Carter," Jack prodded.
The brilliant scientist and air force officer did not look happy.
"Sir, that shield, it must be ZPM powered or have something close, our weapons won't penetrate it" she said.
Now other people were unhappy.
"Carter, get started on figuring out if we can tow...
This was when a hologram appeared. It display a man of average height, who had dark hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and he wore what was clearly some sort of uniform.
"Hi I'm Gothic" he greeted.
Everyone on the bridge of the ship couldn't help exchanging looks.
(Line Break)
Odyssey. Alternate Reality.
I wasn't physically on the Tauri vessel, yet it did seem to me that I was. While sitting in the control chair (which made controlling the ship must easier when you didn't have a proper crew) I'd transmitted a hologram onto the Odyssey's bridge.
The hologram was amazing. I could see and hear everything going on, it was if I'd astral projected onto the Tauri vessel, bringing my mind while leaving my body behind. And I had to wonder if I'd actually done that through the power of technology by some means even I couldn't understand.
"I'm General Jack O'Neill, this is..." the highest ranking officer started by saying.
Before he could make introductions I interrupted him.
"I know who you all are, we've met in another reality" I said.
They all exchange looks again.
"I'll make this quick" I was now saying "I've come for a quick trade of technology. I need...
This time it was O'Neill who interrupted me.
"Before we get to that can you move?" he asked "Your ship is a lot bigger than ours and you're putting out a lot of readings the people down below can detect".
Since things would go smoother if I complied I cloaked the ship, an act that didn't make my hologram do anything more than flicker. Ancient tech really was super awesome.
"They've cloaked" someone reported.
This had caused a minor commotion, but I attempted to get on with things.
"I need a technology that you call an Anti-Prior device" I told the humans.
The device was developed by Stargate Command to counter the Priors of the Ori. It was based on readings and information they were able to acquire from studying Khalek, a genetically engineered human created by Anubis who possessed abilities similar to the Priors.
I couldn't do the same because Cameron, my eager bodyguard, had vaporised Khalek before he could harm anyone. Which was good, but it did mean the the only people I could test this technology on was myself or Ayiana, and I didn't want to develop such a tech using myself a guinea pig in case something went wrong, and I needed Ayiana to trust me, and she was unlikely to do that if used her a test subject.
From what I knew the device released sonic frequencies in omnidirectional paths, though the range is unknown. The frequencies somehow hinder the use of the specific portions of the Priors brain, which allow them to use their special abilities such a telekinesis and telepathy, as well as activating their staffs. The Priors are, however, able to overcome the device after some time. The device also works on the Orici, who was far more powerful than the Priors.
In theory the tech should work on me to, but I wanted to find that out using the SGC's finished devices because if the Tauri of my universe ever developed such a device, they would do so that could use it on me, so it would be good if I could counter the device.
Doing so should be simple enough. Once I understood how the device worked I should be able to modify my environmental shield to block the soundwaves, or perhaps some alternation to my omni-tool was the solution. I'd find out later.
Plus if the Priors ever did invade the version of the Milky Way I currently called home then it would be good to have some way of countering them.
"Having some Prior trouble?" asked O'Neill.
He sounded casual about it, but I knew that really he probing for information.
"Not yet, but I'd like to be prepared" I said, truthfully.
The General clearly understood that he wasn't going to get anything else out of me on the matter.
"What are you offering in return?" enquired this reality's version of Daniel Jackson.
I could offer so much.
"How about a straight swap" I suggested "A ZPM for everything you have on the Priors, not just the anti-prior device, but all the research you have on them. I'll give you an hour to decide then I'm leaving. I can try my luck in the next universe over".
I didn't want to give them to get the IOA involved, or to end up with any of them on my ship, so they had an hour, and before anyone could argue I cut the connection.
(Line Break)
Aurora-class Warship. Alternate Reality.
Well that had been easy, mostly. My ship's first jump without Seven hadn't gone totally smoothly. Something had overloaded, which really wasn't surprising given how this vessel was a mish mash of different technologies, some of which hadn't even been from the same universe.
Thankfully I'd been able to fix the problem and bypass the affected system. When I got back home I'd ask the Asgard to take a look, and then I'd look into getting more people from my crew, I really needed someone like Samantha Carter who had handle tech stuff as Tali and Seven couldn't always drop that they were doing in order to come with me on missions.
At least Cameron had been able to beam into the cloaked city-ship, which in this reality remained undiscovered, so that she collect a couple of ZPMs. I could have had her take more, but Earth might need them someday and she could only carry a couple at a time. Sure she had gone back down with a backpack, but there really was no need since I could just take a few in the next reality.
I'd gotten what I'd come for, which was the anti-prior device that the SGC had created in the main timeline, which this reality wasn't since here Jack O'Neil was still running the SGC. Or at least I assumed he wasn't given how quickly he'd arranged the exchange.
"Right then we'll pop home just to check on things" I said to Cameron "The we'll check out a few of the alternate realities Seven put in her report".
My bodyguards total lack of a reply made me realise that I needed to bring someone made of flesh and blood along with on these trips if only so I had someone to talk to.