Jump Chain Gothic 4 - Confederation
Part 12
Abydos. Alternate Universe.
For the Samantha Carter of this dimension life had been very strange over the last decade, ever since Ra had invaded her world, and it had been many other things as well, such as horrifying. She'd watched people she cared about die and her whole planet be exploited by ruthless aliens.
For all there weirdness those ten year of occupation hadn't at all prepare for what was happening now. It was one thing to know that space ships capable of FTL travel existed, it was another to actually be on such a vessel as it sailed the stars. She'd been on a spaceship before, back when she'd met a very odd woman called Seven of Nine, but that hadn't helped her prepare much either.
Another rather impressive thing had been watching two Goa'uld Ha'tak, who'd been guarding this planet, which was the world many humans from Earth had been sent to to help work in the mines, get blasted into spare parts and space debris by what Gothic had called Ion Cannons. The enemy ship had no warning of the attack and hadn't been able to raise their shields or fire a single shot before they were destroyed.
Now she was walking on the surface of another world, one that was many light years from Earth, a journey that should have taken thousands of years had ended in less than half and hour. It had only taken that long because the guy flying the ship didn't want to tax his engines, and had chosen to travel that slowly.
Gothic, the man she'd agreed to work for in exchange for the liberation of her home planet, which while not a typical bargain, it was one that greatly benefited the people of her world. He was commander of that amazing ship, and he was also odd.
Samantha Carter had been prepared to do whatever was required of her in order to drive off the Goa'uld, but she'd not given much thought to what would happen to her once the liberation was over. Mostly this was because she'd expected it to take some time, if it ever happened at all.
She not thought that this Gothic person would simply swoop into the Sol System and destroy or drive off the Goa'uld so quickly. Now she had to decide what she was going to do with herself. Of course she wouldn't go back on the deal she'd made, not only would that make her a bad person she might upset a person who was quite capable of laying waste to entire fleets of space ships, which was never wise.
As she moved around what she'd been told was one of Ra's treasure troves she started to realise that she'd been offered an amazing future. Seven of Nine had informed her that as one of Gothic's companions she'd have ample chances for exploration and discovery, and now Samantha was just starting to understand what that meant.
"Most of it is junk" she heard Gothic say.
The pyramid the two of them were currently in possessed a secret chamber that stored Ra's treasures, and while most of it was worthless to Gothic and his companions, among the unless stuff was a tablet that contained information on the Lost City and the Eye of Ra. Both of which Gothic soon had stored in his backpack.
While he didn't actually need the tablet, since he already knew a lot about the Lost City, and it wasn't lost to him, it was still priceless simply because of how old it was. Not that Carter knew this, but it would end up as part of some room's decorations back on the city-ship called Annwn.
"What's this" Samantha asked.
She'd notice something stored in a box, it was a faintly glowing cylinder, pretty to look, and clearly it hadn't been manufactured by whomever had made the rest of the so called treasures in this place.
"That Carter is a ZPM" said Gothic "And it's priceless, as in I couldn't even guess at how much one of these would go for it if anyone was willing to sell one. Ra was suppose to have one, but it was lost, I guess in this universe..
For some reason he just stopped talking for a few moments. Clearly he was thinking over something important.
"We need to leave" he suddenly said as he packed up the ZPM "There's somewhere else we need to go before return to the Annwn".
Before Carter could say or do anything they both vanished in flash of white light.
(Line Break)
Aurora-Class Warship. Milky way Galaxy.
The Time Jumper was as the name might suggest, was a Puddle Jumper capable of time travel. It was built, or at least heavily modified, by a Lantean scientist named Janus, in order to make use of a device he'd invented and installed in the Jumper's passenger compartment.
In the main timeline, this experimental, although entirely successful, technology was banned by the Lantean Council because of the dangers associated with time travel. As an advanced human, I was more Ancient than Terran these days, I too understood how dangerous time travel could be.
In an alternate timeline, members of the Atlantis expedition discovered a special Puddle Jumper in Atlantis's Jumper bay, one which was capable of time travel. In that reality, the expedition had suffered tragedy immediately upon arriving at the Ancient city, because the shield had begun to fail from lack of power, causing the city to flood.
Desperate and with no other method of escape available to them, the alternate versions of Major John Sheppard, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, and Dr. Radek Zelenka sealed themselves in this Jumper as the Jumper bay flooded. They subsequently activated the time device by accident, which saved their lives, but all but one of them their lives weren't saved for very long.
They traveled 10,000 years into the past, arriving at the final days of the Ancients' war with the Wraith. Orbiting Wraith ships that sieging Atlantis understandably mistook the newly arrived Time Jumper for a contemporary Lantean craft, and opened fire, causing the Jumper to crash land on Lantea.
At this point the alternate Sheppard and Zelenka were both killed in the crash, but the alternate Weir and the Jumper itself were rescued by the Ancients inhabiting Atlantis, including Janus, who hadn't as of yet actually invented the very time machine that had just been shot down.
Meeting a woman from 10,000 years in the future prompted the Lantean Council to make a decision to ban further time travel research, thus changing the timeline in such a way that Janus's prototype would no longer be left behind for the expedition to later find. Also Janus ensured that the expedition would also be saved from drowning, in the new timeline.
An identically-equipped Puddle Jumper, no doubt built by Janus after he and the last Lantean's felt the Pegasus galaxy, and equally capable of time travel, was later discovered by SG-1 abandoned on a planet in the Milky Way galaxy. Why it had been abandoned I didn't know.
This Jumper was later used by SG-1 as a means of traveling back in time to ancient Egypt, in order to steal a Zero Point Module from Ra. Which hadn't happened in this universe I knew because the Time Jumper was here, and in my universe Janus built a Reality Jumper, a Puddle Jumper that could reach other universes. Which had ended up in one of Merlin's vaults.
This was odd that I'd found the Time Jumper on this planet. But I'd figured it would be here when the alternate Samantha Carter had spotted a ZPM in Ra's treasure trove. In this time line there had been no one to go back in time and steal it from Ra.
However given that no one had rediscovered Atlantis in this timeline, it didn't make much sense that the time ship was here. I had a perk that allowed me to better understand time travel, but it didn't help me make sense of this. Most likely because I simply didn't have enough information to work with.
Also it didn't really matter how or why I'd been able to find it on the planet, it was mine now, and while time travel was very dangerous a Puddle Jumper could be used to observe the past or the future without interacting with it. Still it might be for the best if it was never used, at the very least I should lock it away.
(Line Break)
Annwn. Milky Way Galaxy
"Can I help you Master Bra'tac?" asked Miranda Lawson as she looked up from her desk.
The old Jaffa nodded.
"I wish to speak with Lord Gothic" he said.
Miranda frowned.
"I'm sorry Master Bra'tac" told the ambassador "Gothic is away on business".
He wasn't even in this reality right now. The Jumper was off in somewhere, possibly in other versions of this universe, collecting some bit of technology that one of his companions had requested. Which while a good use of his time it did mean that he was away from the city-ship for unknown amounts of time and couldn't be reached. At times like this Miranda wished the Confederation had a leader who actually liked spending time in the office.
"Then I must inform you of what has happened, and hope that the message reaches his lordship soon" said the Jaffa Master.
From his words, Miranda knew that this would be important.
"The Hak'tyl have quit the council" Bra'tac informed "And while their motivations for doing so are not unreasonable it means that the Jaffa are not longer a unified force. I fear that we will divide further, and that civil war could break out soon".
Miranda sighed, this was not a good time for Gothic to be away.
"As soon as he gets back I'll let him know that you need to talk to him" Miranda said to the Jaffa Master "I'm sure he'll want to help your party prepare".
It was very unlikely that any Confederation forces would fight in the war to come, Gothic would want to supply the Progressive Party with much in the way of weapons and other materials in order to increase that factions chances of winning.
"I must go now" Bra'tac let Miss Lawson know "I need to rally support for the Progressive Party. I will venture to Chulak without delay".
With that the old warrior marched out of Miranda's office as he did she wished him luck.
(Line Break)
Vault. Camelot.
I'd meant to find Merlin's remaining vaults for a while, only I'd gotten distracted, and while I had the Ancient's research notes downloaded into my mind, Merlin hadn't been much of record keeper. A lot of what he knew was in his head, and while a lot had been kept in his library here in Camelot there was still much missing.
Alas Merlin wasn't inclined to help me find the rest of his stuff. He'd not hindered me in anyway, say by trying to led me astray, and he hadn't discouraged me either. He seemed content to let me figure it all out of myself, perhaps me finding this treasure was some sort of test in his eyes.
I'd already found much of his treasure, such as Arthur's Mantle, Dyrnwyn, the Sword of Rhydderch Hael, which I often carried on my person, The Coat of Padarn Beisrudd, which was a suit of armour and like the sword I sometimes wore it. I'd even recovered the Chessboard of Gwenddoleu ap Ceidio, as well as The Chariot of Morgan Mwynfawr, which turned out to be a Puddle Jumper with a reality drive which had been built by the Lantean inventor known as Janus.
Last night, after Miranda had informed me about the worsening situation with the Jaffa, it had struck me rather randomly that there might be a vault on the world called Camelot, it made sense as Merlin had lived there for some time, and it was an important place in the stories about Merlin. In fact it had been an important stop on my quest to recover the Sangraal, or at least the knowledge of how to create the weapon.
I didn't know if it was because the knowledge I'd had downloaded into my mind had led me to this conclusion, or I'd come to this conclusion on my own when I'd been relaxing in the bath and not thinking about stuff. Perhaps the two things combined was what allowed the realisation. Which suggested that mediation might be the key to helping me better utilize the knowledge I'd had crammed into my head.
No that it really mattered right now. What had mattered was that I'd come to this world on my ship, and I had scanned it to find a vault, that like the one under Glastonbury Tor, only it was out of phase rather then defended by a holographic knight.
Now I'd found what seemed three of the treasures that had once belonged to Myrddin. The first was the Crock and Dish of Rhygenydd Ysgolhaig, which in legend was suppose to make appear any food a person wanted. In reality, at least in this part of the multiverse it was an Ancient version of replicator, as in the device that was used a food dispenser on Starfleet ships.
Once I'd seen the device, knowledge that was deep within my mind, told me that it even worked much like a Federation replicator using energy to matter conversion to make food. Merlin had also built it to be portable, perhaps to provide food for questing knights.
"I find it interesting that Merlin would devise this technology" Seven of Nine stated "It is similar to a Federation replicator, only it had been miniaturized and made lightweight".
While Seven spent most of her time scouting out other version of the Stargate verse, she'd returned to spend sometime with me, while reporting her findings, and I'd dragged her along on this mission.
"It has a rechargeable power source" I informed Seven.
She was now scanning the device with her tricorder.
"I would like to disassemble it and compared it to our replicators to see if it is superior in any way other than being more portable" she said.
While taking apart one of Merlin's treasures seemed wrong, not just because of how unique they were but because of all the trouble I'd gone through to claim the, having better replicators would be a boon.
"Go ahead" I told her "But wait till we get back to the ship, you'll need your lab equipment".
Most of the room was filled with what most people would call treasure, and a few rolls of parchment that might contain more information for me to over at some point in the future. For now I wanted to focus on the only other piece of technology that was here.
"This must be The Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd" I said to Seven "Now I know what it does".
The knowledge was within me and it was stirred when I studied the technology.
"It looks like a chest" I told the cyborg "But its actually a device for repairing and sharpening swords".
Which didn't sound like much, but to a medieval people it would be nothing more than a magical miracle. It certainly would have saved Arthur and his knights a lot of time. Also the machine would do a much better job of maintaining swords than any blacksmith.
"It is of minimal value" stated Seven "But it is not a large device, and should be stored in the Cosmic Warehouse".
Thankfully I had the room these days as Seven had been able to map out the warehouse and figure out to most effectively use its storage space.
I looked around some more, wondering if there was anything else of value, aside from enough treasure to draw the attention of Smaug, and I spotted a staff. It was the same staff I'd seen Merlin carrying in the hologram that appeared in his library at Camelot. With my mind I reached out and brought the staff flying towards my open hand.
"This staff can amplify the powers of near-ascended being" I told Seven, who had been a little startled by the display "Much like the staffs used by the Priors".
The former drone was already scanning.
"It is made from sort of wood that I can't identify, and I detecting a faint signs of life, which should not be possible" she said.
I understood this.
"Bio-technology" I said "Similar to Wraith technology in some respects, this staff was created from artificial biological material, fashioned to work as a machine, and it was to an extent programmed like one. The staff isn't really alive, it's not actually wood that's somehow survived the tree it came from getting cut down, but the staff could repair minor damage to itself and it was grown rather than carved".
Seven was still scanning.
"Unlike a Priors staff there is no single large crystal, instead small fragments of crystal are in every part of the staff" she told me "When it was grown it somehow fused with the fragments of the crystal. I have no idea how this was achieved".
Merlin's science was beyond her understanding, and while I had some idea of how this staff had been made, and I did know how to use it, I to lacked a proper understanding. I suspected that even with medication and further study it would take me years to fully understand it all if I ever did. My mind was dealing with Ancient knowledge in ways different than other humans, I assumed because of the perks and body modifications I'd undergone.
I waved the staff and used it to amplify the effects of a small amount of telekinetic effort. With the staff a few odd and ends would have been knocked over, with it I sent the treasure on the far side of the vault flying all around. It was like some giant's hands had come along and knocked it all over.
"Effective" commented Seven of Nine, before she turned back to face me "Will you give all this to the people of Camelot".
That was a good guess based on past actions.
"Actually no" I told her "This vault isn't on land claimed by anyone so I think we'll keep all of it and use it for trade or as gifts to our allies. Plus we do have a whole city-ship to decorate".
Which most likely why Merlin had collected it all in the first place. He would no more care for gold and jewels than I would. However this much wealth could buy allies, and pay for armies, which Merlin would have needed to prepare for an Ori invasion.
"Come on let's return to Annwn" I was now saying "I want to try out the Quantum Mirror before the Jaffa start shooting at other".
While I didn't intend to become directly involved in the coming civil war, if the fighting grew to involve human worlds I might have to do something as the Confederation existed to help the humans of this galaxy. We just have to wait and see I had to take action.
(Line Break)
Annwn. Milky Way Galaxy.
I'd attempted to use the Quantum Mirror while within the Cosmic Warehouse, however nothing had happened, I'd not been able to connect to any other Jumper who had a Quantum Mirror in their Cosmic Warehouse, so either it didn't work in that place or the Cosmic Warehouses of other Jumpers weren't in alternate realities of mine. Or it was possible every Jumper who had Quantum Mirror just their version switched off.
In any case that plan had failed so I'd taken my Quantum Mirror out of my Cosmic Warehouse and I'd secured within an unpopulated part of my city-ship. I didn't want anyone stumbling across the device and getting themselves stuck in another reality, or worse to end up letting some nasty into this universe.
With that in mind I'd wielded the entrances and I'd isolated the life support system in this part of the city-ship before sucking out all the air. There was also a force field around the mirror, which anyone wearing one my group's suits of armour could bypass, but no one else should be able to.
Which meant the only way into the room that contained the mirror was to beam in, or to phase through the walls. This was something a few people could do, however the Asgard had a reality drive of their own so they could acquire a Quantum Mirror of their own, if they so wished, and anyone who could moved undetected through my city-ship while phased could do much worse that mess with a mirror.
Since there was no air in the room so anyone using their mirror to enter my city-ship would be unable to breathe. These measures, along with the alarm system, should prevent most threats that could come through the mirror from doing any harm.
The room was monitored at all times so if anyone non-hostile did use the mirror, the alarm would alert one of the Ancients in the control centre and they could beam the unexpected visitor to the brig. The scanners should detect hidden weapons or anything like a bomb and only our weapons would work in this room thanks to some Tollan tech, and no explosives would work at all.
Anyone know to be hostile wouldn't be beamed out while still alive, and once they were dead they'd be beamed into another part of the city-ship which had been sealed off, or into outer space depending on how the intruder needed to be dealt with.
Once all that was in place I felt reasonable secure in using the mirror and decided to take a trip through.
(Line Break)
Stargate Command. Alternate Earth.
One of the first realites I'd found while using the Quantum Mirror was a version of Stargate Command that was occupied by Ori soldiers. Since I badly wanted Ori tech I'd come through the mirror, bringing Cameron with me for protection.
I'd activated the Prior dispurtor, which I could somewhat overcome, it still left me feeling a bit clumsy and it make my ears ache after a while, but I was able to focus and and to my delight I'd discovered that my near-ascended powers allowed to me interact with the world around me while I was out of phase.
Thanks to this I was able to kill many Ori soldiers while they were helpless to do anything to stop me. In fact they didn't even know what was going on. I was able to slay warriors while they ran about screaming that were ghosts, and when I killed the Prior, who tried to rally his troops despite having lost his powers, they all panicked. Once they were totally disorganised I spared the rest as I wasn't here to wage war.
"Think you can download their recent log entries?" I asked Cortana.
I came back to reality for a few moment while my AI downloaded the info, and then re-cloaked before any of the Ori warriors, some of which had gotten their acts together enough to start searching this place, saw me. I was a little worried about them finding the mirror, despite it being stored away so I wasn't going to stay here for long.
If I somehow got trapped in this reality the chances of anyone finding me with even dimension hopping tech were millions to one. However I should be able to access the Cosmic Warehouse and then use that the enter the space dock that was in the Pegasus galaxy of the prime universe. From there I could send out a distress call and one of my allies would pick it up. At least in theory. I was loathe to test the idea.
"According the logs the Ori ships that came through the Supergate came straight to Earth and started bombing whole cities before landing troops" my AI let me know "I don't know how well the war is going, but the reports mentioned that the Ori lost a ship because of the drones fired from the Ancient base at the South Pole".
Had I the time I might mention the city-ship on this planet to the locals which they could use the drive off the Ori, assuming the Ori hadn't already blasted it apart from orbit. But I didn't have kind of time to spend here.
"Let's grab some of their tech and go" I said to Cameron.
We would make our way to the mirror, coming out of phase only long enough to do a little looting, and then we would leave.