Author's note on yesterday's chapter:
I hate leaving these things, but a vital mistake was made and pointed out to me, so here's me addressing this vial mistake. In the previous chapter, I wrote that, "In a flash of silver and a blur of blue light, 'Blue Shifting' according to Sieon, Ry slid across the ground and took the alien's feet out from under him with all the speed of blue light waves which traveled faster than red and slower than green which, in turn, is slower than white light (because keeping up with all of that isn't a headache waiting to happen)."
Okay, serious blunder there. I know light is light, but different wavelengths do travel FURTHER not FASTER! I totally messed that up. The speed of light (299,792,458 meters per second) is the speed of light IN A VACUUM (that means space). The trick to the 'levels' of a biotic Charge is the wavelength, not the speed. In real-world physics and Mass Effect (which biotics are based off of) it's clearly stated that different wavelengths retain their energy to varying levels of efficiency over greater distances. White-light travels the furthest followed by green, then blue, then red because they're the three primary colors of light (confusing, I know, because "primary colors" normally means red, blue, and yellow to most of us). Re-explained, the different wavelengths, or colors of light, travel different distances at the same speed.
THE FOLLOWING IS MY SPIN ON PHYSICS TOO COMPLICATED FOR ME TO FULLY UNDERSTAND:
When you red-shift, you travel twenty meters in a single step. When you blue-shift, you travel thirty meters in a single shift. When you green-shift, you travel forty meters in a single step. When you white-shift (a level of biotic mastery so high even Sieon can't do it), you travel sixty meters in a single step. The significance here is that the wavelengths retain more energy as you improve your level of mastery. If you can blue-shift (which every standard Vanguard in Mass Effect can do post-Mass Effect 2) you carry more energy into your attack than if you red-shift. More energy means a stronger shockwave at the end of the Charge.
So, in summary, red, blue, green, and white are the same speed, but carry more energy making for a more lethal charge. Therefore, the previous chapter has been edited, and this author's note has been added to explain why it was. A quick thanks to Kaderos who caught the mistake, and quick apology for having made it in the first place.
Author's note on today's chapter:
Simply out of fairness of warning, this chapter will skip through time without giving you an accurate measure of time passage. I did that on purpose, so don't shoot me. Also, I forewent my usual style of writing for this chapter. There's no 'location markers' or 'time stamps.' I did that on purpose as well. This is a sort of 'miniseries' devoted to disclosure. I did it this way because it wouldn't flow properly any other way.
Chapter 34
When Lies Become the Truth
Things were finally going good for the Colonial Remnant. Sure they had lost the Odyssey and the remainder of the people from her crew had taken the Baseship ahead of them to Earth and that had been some time ago, but their situation was still looking up. After losing the election to none other than Baltar-the-Madman himself, Laura had decided to just frak it all and became a teacher again. Now the only thing left to do was build a school! That was proving to be easier than she thought it would be as everyone wanted their children to be educated.
Yup, life was good. Without the stress of politics constantly crowding her schedule and keeping her up all hours of the night, Laura was able to enjoy some of life's more simple pleasures. Her favorite was something called a 'social life.' Tori Foster, her new 'presidential aid' who had been assigned to her after the regrettable loss of Billy to the Cylon missile that hit the ship he had been on at that tragic moment, Laura had found herself quickly befriending the dark-skinned woman. The two then up and quit when Baltar took office and Tori now spent her days as Laura's teacher's assistant and best friend. Laura's other favorite thing was her frequent trips back up to Galactica to visit with William Adama, the man she found herself quickly falling for. It was roughly their second month on New Caprica and Laura, once again, found herself getting ready for another trip up to orbit, this time for a… 'special occasion.'
"Ah, I see someone has another hot date tonight," Tori said as she walked into Laura's tent.
The mining ships were still gathering resources from the surrounding areas to make true buildings, and, until they were done, tents were all they had unless they chose to stay in the ships, an idea not a lot of people liked, though several of the smaller ships, including Colonial One, had been landed on the planet to provide shelter from storms until houses were built. The main problem was the presence of strange minerals on New Caprica. They had found a deposit of an iron-like material that was both stronger and lighter than anything they had found back home. It was nearly impossible to mine with their equipment being in the state it is, and repairing the equipment to a standard to be capable of mining the mineral couldn't be done until they had more iron. As such, they left the mysterious deposit unmined and went looking for iron.
"Well, no one's actually made anything official, so it's not a date," Laura said with a small giggle.
"Laura, all men are the same. They're not going to do anything until you make them," Tori said as she helped Laura pin her hair up. "If you want this to go any further than it already has, you're going to have to make him make it official."
"Tori, sweet Tori, you're so naïve," Laura laughed.
"Laura, poor Laura, you think I'm naïve? Have you looked in the mirror lately?" Tori countered as she turned Laura to see herself in the mirror. "You're glowing. If he makes you that happy… Laura, you need to do something, or I will."
In another fit of giggles, Laura said, "No, it'll happen when it happens. And besides, you can't make Adama men do anything they don't want to."
"Well then maybe you should drop bigger hints," Tori suggested as she undid a couple of Laura's shirt's buttons.
"Tori!" Laura squeaked.
Admiral William Adama was getting ready for a date… that wasn't really a date. With the Galactica in the capable hands of the now sober Colonel Saul Tigh, happily reunited with his wife who turned up in the fleet seemingly at random, Adama had decided to have this next date-that-was-not-really-a-date aboard Cloud Nine. The ship had been saved from certain destruction, barely and with no small amount of luck, when they had escaped Kobol by the skin of their teeth. The ship had taken a hit and lost a few people, the former-President's former aid included, but the ship managed to jump away before the next missile could hit. After being repaired, she now served as a sort of high-end resort for people wanting to get away from the construction sites on the planet.
As the ones responsible for getting them this far, William Adama and Laura Roslin were welcome VIP members aboard the luxury ship, and indeed any ship in the fleet. Sitting at his table waiting for his date-that-was-not-really-a-date to begin, Adama was greeted by Starbuck and her usual enthusiasm.
"So, when are you going to pop the question?" Starbuck taunted the old man.
"What are you talking about, Starbuck?" Adama asked dryly.
"When are you going to ask her to marry you?" Starbuck said very slowly.
"A bit early for that, don't you think?" Adama replied.
"Oh, come on! Don't give me that crap! You two have had a connection since you met. Granted there were rough spots, but, then again, every relationship has them. At least ask her out on a real date so that you can say y'all are dating for frak's sake! I'm tired of all this 'it's not really date' crap! Trust me, she'll say yes," Starbuck said, getting up as she saw Laura enter the room.
"To which one?" Adama asked her as Kara headed towards the bar.
With one of her characteristic laughs, Starbucks said, "Both!" as she ran off with Sam, the man who had been rescued from the Colonies with nearly two-thousand other people during a daring move by the Tau'ri to get the Arrow of Apollo.
"Kara, always the wild child," Laura said as she sat down opposite her 'date.' A moment of silence followed her words and Laura could tell that Bill was thinking about something. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"Will you marry me?" Bill asked in his gruff voice, finally looking up to meet her eyes.
Laura tipped to one side as her head spun and Bill moved to catch her. As she stabilized herself on the table, Laura asked, "What?" in an astonished tone.
Getting down on one knee, holding her hand in his, and offering her his old wedding ring, Bill asked again, "Will you marry me?" while putting the ring on her finger.
A heart's beat separated the moment between the question and the answer. "Damn, Tori was right!" Laura whispered to herself. Realizing that she still had Adama kneeling in front of her waiting for an answer, Laura quickly added, "Yes! By the Gods yes!" The blanket of silence no one was aware had fallen was pulled off and the restaurant erupted into applause. This would make the news by the end of the hour, Laura was sure of that much.
She also didn't give a frak.
Jogging over, Kara said to the old man, "I didn't mean now!" before hugging and congratulating both of them. After the proposal, both of them found their appetites to be missing, and, instead, spent the evening walking the gardens of Cloud Nine's botanical habitats and talking about everything that was good in life. Needless to say, they had many good things to say.
"For those of you just joining us, welcome. We're just getting ready to air a video sent in to us from a viewer."
The image of the newscaster was promptly replaced by a video obviously taken with a cellphone. What it showed, regardless of quality, was as obvious as the fact that a cellphone had been used to capture the images. There was something large, powerful, and hostile hovering in the skies above a desert. The small facility off to one side of the engagement led those watching to believe this was Area 51. When beams of golden light left the attacking monstrosity hanging in the sky, the people of the world could only watch on in horror and fascination as the base was protected by a bubble of energy.
The camera shifted as another ship came roaring out of the clouds. This one let loose a swarm of glowing missiles that cut through the enemy fighters and impacted another bubble of energy that protected the attacking ship. The two ships exchanged fire for only a second before the newcomer got one of its missiles past the aggressor's bubble. The aggressor exploded and the video was terminated by a flash of bright light followed by darkness and moving shadows before a sound was heard and the video cut off to nothingness.
"Let's see that last part again," the newscaster said as the video was rewound.
This time, as the resulting explosion began to spread, the video slowed to a crawl. As the explosion slammed down towards them, the immediate vicinity of Area 51, now behind the camera-person as the unknown wielder of the camera ran for their life, glowed brightly as the explosion was held back by the invisible bubble that covered it. Then the flash of light began, obviously before the camera-person could be touched by a wave of energy the likes of which would be instant death, and darkness took over the screen again. As the darkness filled the screen, however, image enhancement technology cleared up the picture and made it possible to see the camera-person standing in a room with other civilians with armed soldiers taking their phones and other electric devices.
"We'll be taking comments and questions from the viewers now," the newscaster said. Almost immediately a line of text started scrolling across the bottom of the screen as people 'Tweeted' their questions and comments in to the news network. "Kitty_gurl_722 asks, 'Why are people so against this? We all knew that aliens were real.' To answer your question, Kitty, it's the principle of the fact. The government has lied to us and that's not what America's about.
The newscast then continued with more questions, answers, and comments.
As they did, a certain man watching the screen huffed sarcastically. "'Not what America's about'? Ha! Every government lies to its people."
"And you're sure this flaming hunk of scrap metal will hold together?" Jack asked as Sam sat in the Control Chair.
"I take offense to that!" Widget shot back jokingly, but Jack ignored the AI.
"Long enough for us to make orbit, yes," Sam replied, likewise ignoring the AI.
"And then what?" Jack asked as he strapped himself down for the ride.
"Then we stop taking on water and repairing the hull becomes a thousand times easier," Widget answered, his tones back to being serious.
"Then why didn't you do it sooner?"
"The engines were damaged during the battle. We had to get the anti-proton thrusters that were still in one piece back online, and replace the ones that weren't with our own engines," Sam explained before hitting the ship-wide comms system. "All hands brace for take-off," Sam said. She then waited two minutes to be sure everyone had time to get secure then fired the mixture of freshly repaired and newly installed engines.
From his place sitting off to the side of the CIC where he could see the holographic image of the ship that encased the Control Chair during operations, Jack could easily tell which engines were which. The Human-designed engines flared to life and left a great cloud of steam in their wake as they pushed against gravity and took to the skies. The Furling-designed engines, on the other hand, left a trail of faintly sparkling destroyed matter in their wake. Sam would later describe this to him as what was left of the protons after they collided together to provide thrust. Working in tandem, the engines lifted the reduced mass of the Nex into the air before firing up to full power and pushing the massive ship into orbit with obvious strain.
This was sure to make the news by nightfall local time. They were, after all, only a few miles off the coast of Australia. That put them well within view of the cameras that lined the shore watching the ship as the Australian newscasters did a piece on what they thought was going on.
As the Nex broke out of the atmosphere and pulled free of Earth's gravity well, the holographic image changing as they moved, the shimmering field that had surrounded the ship since it landed in the oceans of Earth finally shut off. As it did, gravity in the ship shifted as the mass of the Nex became a factor in artificial gravity generation and the hull of the ship groaned in protest as its mass went back to its actual amount and natural gravity's effect on it was increased as a result. Then they pulled further out into space and only the moon's gravity was left to affect the ship as they established a stable orbit of Earth's sole natural satellite.
"The nannites held?" Jack asked.
Sam, eyes still closed, brought up a holographic reading for the General to read. "Looks like it," she replied as she opened her eyes, sat up, and rubbed her aching legs. She felt like she'd just ran a marathon without proper training. Her legs were on fire! "Now all we have to do is start shuttling up the supplies we'll need."
"And you can get it repaired in just a couple of months?" The skepticism in his tone wasn't lost on the woman.
"We'll be pulling the Nex's repair drones away from the rest of the fleet, but yes," Sam replied.
"Why?" Jack asked with a note of concern to his tone.
"Because the repairs the Daedalus needs to be operational again can only be done in a slip, the Odyssey is nearly done being repaired by the drones and that gives us a ship capable of leaving the system to hunt for supplies, the Apollo is resting in the newly upgraded slip being readied for its upgrade to an Achilles, the Cursor's repairs are being done by hand because of the sensitive nature of them and the ship is currently upgrading Area 51's other slips, the Gaia is getting readied for our attempt to land it at the Artic Weapons Platform where the Ancients' own drones can fix their own ship, Atlantis is already docked with the Artic Weapons Platform being upgraded and repaired by the systems that built her, and the Ares went back to the Alpha Site for her own series of upgrades and repairs. Right now the Nex needs the repair drones more than any of the other ships do because we don't know how to fix Furling systems and the drones do," Sam replied matter-of-factly while walking around the CIC and checking various terminals while stretching her aching muscles.
Before Jack could reply to that, Widget's eyes went wide and Sam flinched. "What broke?" she asked, her tone full of dread.
"I think I did," Widget replied, his tone serious, distant, hopeful, and shocked all at the same time. "Either that, or the universe has finally decided to stop being a cold-hearted bitch."
"What happened?" Jack asked. To answer his question, a line of text appeared in midair with the label 'Text-Only Message Forwarded from General Landry, Stargate Command.'
Jack's jaw dropped and Sam's heart stopped beating for a small eternity.
"Today we have another disturbing revelation coming through in the aftermath of the battle in orbit a few days ago," the newscaster began as they went live. "This time, we have undeniable proof that Earth's militaries were, in fact, involved in the battle. Roll tape."
The ship that flew past the camera, this one shot from the Hubble Space Telescope itself which had, unfortunately, been destroyed during the battle (the Air Force was catching flak for that one), was small and designed in a fashion very Earth-like. It had obvious hangar bays, and, far more tellingly, the name Apollo was proudly emblazoned on its hull. Then another ship, this one an exact copy of the Apollo, flew past the camera even closer to the telescope's lens and the letters 'USAF' painted on its hull served as a rather disturbing revelation to the other countries of Earth not already in on the Stargate Alliance.
The two ships then flew away from the satellite that was watching them and fired brilliant blue beams of energy at their attackers, proving that, not only did the United States Air Force have battleships that could reach orbit, but they also had obvious energy weapons and the same shields that had protected the mountain and desert complex that had also been attacked. The destruction they caused, however, paled in comparison to the awe-inspiring power of the ship they were flying with. The long vessel following in the wake of the two Earth ships outsized them by a remarkable margin and fired off more beams then Hubble's image quality would let them count.
The video was terminated by a blast as something even larger than that flying death machine was hit and hit hard! A beam of golden light bypassed what had once been a bubble of energy and hit the armor of the ship that was once protected by it, this one obviously alien and beautifully designed. A chunk of hull plating from the largest of the ships present in the system tumbled into orbit and slammed into the satellite that was floating above what had confirmed to be a shield around their planet. The Hubble Space Telescope flipped end over end, disorienting those watching its feed, before slamming into the shimmering barrier that protected Earth from orbital bombardment.
"One of our viewers asked a question on our Facebook page earlier today that sparked a rather heated debate, and now we want your opinion," the newscaster continued, seemingly undisturbed by the destruction of a piece of history. "We now know that, not only does alien life exist that's hostile to Earth, but that our own military has been developing technology to fight those aliens for what has to have been more than a few years. The question up for debate is, 'Should they have told us sooner?' We want your opinion, so logon to Facebook and look us up at Fox 4 News and let us know what you think."
The changes to the city had been drastic, but well thought-out. After the AIs got control of the automated systems and halted the repairs that the drones would automatically make, a new design for Atlantis had been drafted. The first thing they did was repair the sections of the city that had been damaged by the ten-thousand year stint on the bottom of the oceans of Lantea. After that, they moved on to the damage done during the Battle for Earth then finished the instillation of the city's weapons grid. The bulk of the beam weapons had, frustratingly enough, been offline when the Ori attacked with only three of the weapons being operational during the fight. That problem had been solved along with the matter of interfacing the weapons with both the Control Chair and the Control Room's terminals. The ship could now be flown from the Control Room without needing someone in the chair, though the chair was still the best option for the obvious reason of the neural interface.
After those projected changes, more were made. The location Gate Room was both the first and the most drastic. Instead of being a few dozen meters from the Control Room, the AI that had been created after a scan was made of Weir's mind moved the Gate Room all the way across the city to the edge of one of the piers. Once there, the building housing the Gate itself was turned into a fortress. It had a Jumper Bay, yes, but also a larger hangar for more craft for when they either started producing more Jumpers or developed their own version of the Gate Ship. Aside from that, there were automated and manned weapons nests surrounding the Gate for added security and an independent generator that was a copy of the one the Asgard installed in the SGC. With the ability to dial intergalacticly without burning-up ZPM power and a smaller, portable version of this generator, a team had been sent back through the Gate to the Pegasus Alpha Site. They had left a lot of people behind in their haste to reinforce Earth, and that oversight had to be rectified which meant that they had to send over a technician to hack the DHD and make dialing intergalacticly possible without Atlantis' control crystal.
One of the most drastic changes to the Gate Room, in Weir's opinion, was the addition of explosive charges planted at the base of the tower that now housed it. The tower had a beaming system run by a dedicated VI that would only beam out people with the subdermal implants that were standard issue for the SG teams of both galaxies. With this failsafe in place, if the Gate Room was ever taken, the defenders would be beamed out and the charges would detonate. The entire tower, Jumper Bay, Gate Room, and anything or anyone left inside, would be left to plummet into the oceans of New Lantea, if they ever went back, crash into the ice of the arctic tundra they now called home, or be left drifting in space should such an event ever occur during the ship's time in orbit of a planet.
Aside from the massive changes to the Gate Room and the weapons grid, there were several other major difference in the new design of the city. The main piers of the city were scheduled to be hollowed out to allow large caverns to be built there. Equipped with the Asgard's matter converters, these would be the city's means of maintaining any ship that was backing them in Pegasus. Thusly upgraded, the next time the Daedalus got into a fight with a star, as was their most recent battle, or a pair of Hives, like during the Battle of the Void, their repairs would be easier to make. The minor piers were also going to be hollowed out and turned into massive ecologies to help sustain the city's need for fresh food since they had yet to thoroughly explore the Main Land on New Lantea because of the limited time they spent there.
The final change to the city was then the means to sustain the others. With all those weapons, matter converters, hangar bays, ecologies, and everything else that had either been done or would be done before the city relaunched, there was a radical increase in the need for power. Since they all realized the power, value, and importance of their small number of ZPMs, the city had been given six Neutrino Ion Generators, all installed at the crook where the piers met the main section of the city. Adding to this were the three Neutrino Ion Generators that Colonel Carter, Doctor McKay, and the assembled minds of the SGC and the Atlantis Expedition managed to design with the help of the AIs. This was dubbed the Neutrino Ion Generator Mark II and had three times the power output of the standard Asgard variant. These advances were made using the Asgard's base knowledge combined with Furling power production methods and the limited information they had on how ZPMs worked.
The NIG Mark IIs were used to power the matter converters primarily, but not exclusively. The power from the six NIG Mark Is in the Main Tower and the three Mark IIs in the hangars could easily be channeled back into the shields or weapons as needed. This entirely freed them from their reliance on the ZPMs as the Neutrino Ion Generators, both newer and older models, were more than enough to power the shield and stardrive simultaneously. The main reason they kept the valuable sources of power was actually a simple one. If they needed to fly through space, repair a ship, hold off an attack, and return fire all at once, the Neutrino Ion Generators would be hard-pressed to hold off more than two Hiveships and their escorts at once under those likely-never-to-arise conditions. Still, it was a smart move and even a non-military-minded person like Weir could see the value in back-up generators more powerful than the twelve Mark II Naquadah Generators located throughout the city, though the irony of the fact that the ZPMs were now the backups was not lost on her.
All this and more ran through the politician's mind as she stood between Generals O'Neill and Landry with General Hammond beside Landry and various other people flanking her on either side. Present in force were all of the members of SG-1 past and present, excluding Jonas Quinn who was on his homeworld unaware of the changes to Earth, every General who had ever led the SGC, Weir, and her own Executive Officer. Waiting for them back in the Conference Room in the Main Tower were Richard Woolsey and the rest of the IOA delegation, and the President of the United States with a small entourage of other foreign delegates from such nations as Russia, Germany, and Great Britain who were all being briefed by McKay on several changes to occur in the past few days.
Finally, the Gate activated and the military members present not already straight-backed went even more ridged. Stepping out of the event horizon of the most advanced Stargate in this galaxy, and thusly the dominate Gate on Earth, was the man most directly responsible for their effective battle strategy during, and survival of, the first wave of the Ori assault on Earth. Accompanying him, much to the surprise of those lesser-informed amongst them, were another three Furlings.
"Then the report we got was accurate," Landry said with a nod. It was stiff, but was obviously a happy thought in his head.
"Indeed," Sieon replied with an easy smile, his head no longer bound in bandages and his steps no longer stumbling.
Behind the Furling delegation, two more aliens stepped through the Gate, their three-eyed helmets still latched securely over their heads and bodies still covered in thick armor. Weir raised an eyebrow at that. After the Battle for Earth when things were still calming down? Sure, she could understand wearing armor during a battle and not taking it off after the fact, but wearing it now? To a political summit of the leaders of the free galaxy, no less.
"They cannot breathe your atmosphere," Sieon said in way of explanation as he, as she had been informed their entire species was capable of doing, 'caught wind' of her line of thought.
"You're still talking kind of funny," Jack said as he shook the man's hand.
"'Healed' and 'healthy' are two different things, General," the woman beside and slightly behind him replied. "I'm still working on making one the other. Until then, his speech functions are still imbalanced and the machine I would've used to heal him fully was overloaded during a regrettable accident."
With a sigh, Landry turned to the Impolans and asked, "Who got zapped this time?" in their 'native language.' It was, of course, the work of the translators that the Zeta teams had reverse engineered from their Furling computers, but none present aside from that one-of-three-present Generals knew this.
"We cut the lines like you told us to," Jeramie replied in a series of clicks and other strange sounds. "That one touched the damned thing and it turned back on. We didn't know that was even possible, but Rana's been working with Oliver…"
"With Oliver?" Landry asked with a shake of his head.
"It is as it is sounds," Ry replied in that annoyingly stoic voice of his.
"He's determined to get back onto my shit-list, isn't he?"
"You can't blame him for this," Jeramie replied in a remarkably neutral tone. They had to keep up the appearance that the General wasn't on 'friendly terms' with them after all. If they spoke with tones that indicated they knew each other beyond a simple common cause and three years of working around one another, the Zeta Initiative could be exposed and that would be bad for Earth. They had done more than one thing that would warrant their allies turning on them, and that knowledge getting out could destroy Earth's lesser secure alliances. Granted those alliances were hardly worth keeping, but every friend you made out there was a planet that wasn't your enemy, and Earth has enough enemies as it is. "If you're going to blame anyone, blame the Furling that gave it power by touch."
"How bad is it this time?" Landry asked when he managed to get his temper under control.
"Not bad, actually," Jeramie replied with a casual, if awkwardly performed to help the show, shrug. "Ry's able to show emotional expressions on his face, even if they don't reach his voice, and his biotic training went quite well. Jack's been stabilized so that she's not tearing her body apart subconsciously anymore which means the only point to hunting down Nirrti's data at this point is destroying it. Gabi's mind has been forcefully evolved to the point that she can handle the information floating around in her head without the implant, but she's keeping it because, and here I quote, 'interfacing with computers is just too useful to lose,' which means she thinks it's too cool to give up."
"And Oliver?" Landry asked.
Jeramie shared a 'glance' with Ry, as much as two people wearing face-concealing helmets could, before eyeing the people present. Stepping to a side of the room where there was a low wall used to provide cover for guards, Jeramie opened his mouth, or Landry assumed he did, but Ry was the first to speak.
"He is still unconscious and under the care of three Furling medical practitioners who assure us that, at this point, his state of mind is what is preventing him from wakening. He must 'Walk the Path' to escape his dreams. I believe it is the Furling equivalent to reaffirming one's own self-worth."
Landry bit his tongue and tried not to shout. Since preventing the explosion was practically impossible, he walked away shaking his head vigorously.
"That went better than I expected," Jeramie nervously admitted to his counterpart.
"Only because there are others present," Ry said while waving his hand at the assembled delegates that were exchanging pleasantries and thanks.
The Humans thanked the Furlings for their help defending Earth, the Furlings thanked the Humans for waking up Sieon and freeing them from their self-imposed imprisonment as a result, and the group as a whole moved towards the only way to exit this tower. There were actually two ways, but one of them wasn't an option as the aliens didn't have the necessary implants to be beamed out of the tower. That meant they had to take a shuttle as the shuttles were the only other way out of the tower that was designed to be impenetrable. As such, they all walked up the stairs to the larger, and consequently higher up the tower, of the two hangar bays to find a Vulture hovering over their heads, a 'gravity lift' open at the back of the large craft. The gravity lift, as the Furlings would have called it, was actually an Asgard technology that was used so long ago the date of its creation was nearly incomprehensible to Human minds before the advent of the Ancients and their transport rings.
The Conference Room, like the Gate Room, was moved away from the Control Room, but only because the Control Room was moved away from the top of the control tower. Instead of being at the top of the tower where it was vulnerable to attack by a ship, the Control Room was at the base of the main tower placing it lower even than the ZPM room. Both the ZPM room and the Control Room had a secondary shield that covered them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks in a year… you get the picture. This made hitting the city's two most vital areas with one blow that would cripple the entire ship practically impossible to do from the outside.
Weir's office was still right off of the New Control Room, which left the Old Control Room to serve as an enlarged Jumper Bay. The reason they now had three Jumper Bays and two of them were made significantly larger than before was actually simple. They were adding more Jumpers, giving the city a small number of Vultures, and even two-dozen or so Pelicans… once they had enough of the new gunships and dropships to do so. There were plans to more than triple the city's compliment of small craft for defensive purposes that would fill the new bay, the old bay, and the one that was under the city.
Aside from the relocation of the Control Room and the enlargement of both the Jumper Bay and Conference Room, not much had changed. The Holographic Interface Room where they had found Morgan La Fey impersonating a hologram was still in the same place. Also present in the modified level of the tower was a large, open area where they could entertain formal delegates, this being the former location where the Gate once stood. To accommodate this, the 'Conference Room' was really the entirety of the Old Control Room made into one flat room with a large table at the center, a holo-tank in the middle of that table, and was only one story tall as opposed to the two stories it had been when this floor was both the Gate Room and Control Room.
When the delegates entered the new Conference Room, they saw a projection of the city sitting in the middle of the table in the massive holo-tank. Several areas of the city were glowing different colors to indicate their state of repair or upgrade and Rodney McKay was standing at the heart of that hologram explaining their changes to those present. When he noticed the others entering, he hit a button on his tac-pad and the hologram disappeared. All eyes then turned to the newly arrived party.
"That makes everyone," Jack announced to which there were several sighs of relief.
From a hallway leading deeper into the city, guards that were armed but not actually carrying their weapons, led the other delegates into the room from where they were waiting for the Furlings to arrive. Once everyone was present and seated around the table, General Hammond began the process of introducing everyone.
"Ladies and gentlemen," General Hammond announced. "Representing the Furling Galactic Empire, I present to you the Grand High Councilor, Nele Galajifae, the current Scourge, Dokal Wy'H'ofacion, the Gaajli, Rana Synipulous, and a Former-Scourge, Sieon Synipulous. Scourge is a title given to the leader of the Furling Galactic Navy. Dokal Wy'H'ofacion is the Scourge who oversaw the Second Coming and Sieon is the Scourge who oversaw the Fall of the Furlings. Gaajli is a title given to the Chief Science Officer of the Furling Galactic Navy, and the Grand High Councilor should require no explanation.
"Representing the Impolan Authority are the Mimner and H'baxon," Hammond continued and Weir had to admit she was impressed the man managed to pronounce those name with such ease. "The Mimner is the leader of the Impolan people and, from what I understand, H'baxon is the Speaker for the People which is a form of ambassador."
Then turning to a second group of seated figures, Hammond began anew. "Representing the Tok'ra, who have been effectively stranded on Earth for the time being, are the High Councilor, Per'sus, former High Councilor, Garshaw of Belote, a leading scientific mind amongst the Tok'ra, Anise, and Delek…"
As Hammond continued the introduction, O'Neill leaned closed to Weir and asked, "Why do you think he's here?"
"To give us hell," Weir replied in a frustrated tone. It was known by most present that Delek was strongly against the Tok'ra's continued relationship with the people of Earth. His presence would undoubtedly cause trouble.
"Representing the Nox are Anteaus, Lya, and Ohper," Hammond continued. "And the last group that will be joining us today is the Free Jaffa Nation represented by Master Bra'tac, Teal'c, and Cha'ra," Hammond finally finished introducing the aliens to the Humans before turning to the aliens and starting in on the last group. "Representing the interests of Earth, we have the President of the United States, one nation amongst many…"
The listing went on and Weir zoned-out as the politicians of Earth, who she already knew, were named and indicated. She hated this part of political gatherings. Sure it was usually the only part that didn't involve people yelling or insulting one another, but it was so boring and tiresome. Finally it came to an end.
"First order of business; welcome to Earth," Henry Hayes, the President of the United States, said with a warm smile.
"We can skip that part of this," the Mimner said irritably, armored arms crossed over an armored chest. "If I desired to be flattered by the masses and thanked incessantly I would have stayed seated on my throne."
In the privacy of his mind, for his mind truly was private, Landry smirked to himself. Oliver usually played the role of the Mimner and did so by being as arrogant as Goa'uld (which is to say his usual self), but with the added twist of not being insufferable… however he managed to pull that off, Landry would never be able to say. Even then, Jeramie certainly had the attitude down right. Either the act was one they all knew how to perform, or was easier than Landry thought.
"I second that," O'Neill said, earning him a glare from the two older Generals present.
"As do I," both Rana and Sieon said in unison. While a little disturbing, it made sense that a married couple capable of reading each other's minds would be in step with one another.
"You called us here for a purpose. I would know that purpose," Wy'H'ofacion agreed with a nod.
Overstepping the politicians that had just been shut down by the militaries represented by the assembled aliens, allies one and all, General Landry stood up and took the floor. "We are faced with a task that we cannot do alone without irreversible and undoubtedly negative side effects. For the past ten years, we've kept our involvement with aliens and galactic affairs a secret from the world we call home. That arrogance has finally caught up to us. When the Ori came, we were prepared to meet them in orbit, yes, but the ground assault that coincided with their bid for orbital dominance left a lot of wives and husbands widowed, children orphaned, and parents living the horrifying nightmare of outliving their progenies. A city bombarded by the Ori before our ships could intercept them succeeded in ending over two-thousand lives and left hundreds more wounded while their homes burned down around them. We failed them in more ways than one, and now we have to tell them why we did the things we did. You are here because it is our hope that you will help us in this time of despair. We stand on a precipice. On one side is mass rioting and chaos. On the other, a future worth having."
"Allies to speak on your behalf?" Delek asked. Surprisingly enough, his tone wasn't hostile. "You wish for us to stand before the cameras of your reporters and justify what you have done?" Here he paused before making his intentions clear. "And what do we stand to gain in return?"
"These people have taken you into their homes and allowed you to stay on a world not your own and you have the audacity to demand of them recompense for aid that you would be providing in return for their services rendered entirely in your favor?" Nele asked in a tone that was clearly shocked despite the somehow-still-neutral tone of his voice. This man was not only obviously a politician, he had obviously been one for a very, very, very long time! Turning to the Humans when no verbal answer was forthcoming from the Tok'ra in question, the Grand High Councilor of the remnant of the Furling race said, "You should abandon these parasites as allies and cast them from your world into a black hole."
"You speak much for one so unknown," Delek countered heatedly which earned him a death glare from Garshaw and Per'sus. Anise seemed, to be too distracted to glare at the man.
"You sit at a table that houses representatives from three of the Five Great Races and demand something that you are not entitled to," Cha'ra stated without looking at the man in question. "You have much to learn, Tok'ra. The first thing you must realize is that taking only a willing Host is inconsequential when you never allow that Host to speak. The second thing you must realize is that, on several occasions thus far, the Tau'ri have saved both my and your own species from certain destruction. We owe them more than we could ever hope to repay, yet you continue to demand more of them. We are already in debt. Do not drown yourselves in it."
"The most important thing which you must learn is that you are insubstantial before those gathered here. Your race is viewed as less of an ally than the Impolans and they have only been on the galactic scene for three years. They did what you were unwilling to. They sent what little they had to defend Earth despite the fact that it cost them everything they had. Their fleet now rests in pieces drifting in orbit of Earth or slowly being pieced back together on their homeworld. While you only came here to escape an enemy you could not beat, they came knowingly to fight an enemy they knew would destroy them," Sieon added in a neutral-yet-still-somehow-hostile tone as Nele had used. Perhaps it was a trait of the Furlings as a species to say two things at once?
Thusly put in their place, the Tok'ra remained silent and Weir silently thanked the aliens she assumed were still picking away at her thoughts. It would be a few months before someone finally told her that the Furlings had respected the wishes of those present and kept their minds within their own private Collective.
"Fortunately your people are hardier than you believe," Lya commented in that almost-neutral tone the Nox were famous for. Getting the ever-reclusive Nox to attend the summit had not been easy, but the news of the Asgard's demise, the Tau'ri's ascension to the Fifth Race, and the return of the Furlings was enough to, at the very least, peak their interests. Even if they had sent familiar faces in place of actual ambassadors, it was more than they'd gotten from the Nox in the past few years.
"They are scared, yes, but they are putting on their best brave faces," Freyja, Host to Anise and least despised of the present Tok'ra, added. She was allowed to speak if only because nobody here openly despised her. "We passed through a town in Colorado on our way here and found that a college campus had already reopened and nearly fifty percent of the students were present. I find myself being ever more impressed with Humanity the more I get to know your species."
"I thought we had agreed to skip the ass-kissing part of this meeting," the Mimner said again, his tone irritated and Landry, once again, smiling in his mind. Having his own sort-of-secret army tucked up his sleeve certainly did have its advantages. The translators that sat around the table were actively making sure everyone could understand whoever was speaking regardless of the language barriers present, even going as far as to translate the Impolan insult into something disturbingly Human. "You want help with disclosure? Explain the nature of this help and I will consider it. As it stands, I believe I stand in better a position to demand compensation for this service as you still owe me greatly for the damages my forces suffered. That is, however, a topic for another time."
"Proving that not all aliens are bad helps calm people down. Putting you in front of a camera to answer questions helps sate the morbid sense curiosity all Humans are cursed with," Weir replied and O'Neill had to agree with that assessment.
"There is much to be discussed before such an arrangement could be agreed to. You would have to first disclose to us that which is hidden from you people. Not knowing what not to say is as dangerous as saying the right thing in the wrong way," H'baxon said.
"And it goes beyond even that," the Mimner added.
"While none here, aside from one, are delusional enough to believe that technological trade is a fair and righteous thing to demand of a species in return for a political favor, there is still the matter of trade in general. With the Stargate Program disclosed, the truly awe-inspiring industrial might of the planet Earth will be free to advance to the level needed to produce many powerful weapons and ships within a comparatively short timeframe. When pit against all but the Free Jaffa Nation's, Ba'al's, and the Hebridans' industrial ship building capabilities, it is clear to us that the Humans of Earth will be capable, willing, and driven to build a very power fleet in a very short amount of time as one of the five leading industrial and military powers in the galaxy. All that we ask for is access to this industry. We will pay fair prices for services rendered, but much of our space-age industrial complex was lost when such worlds as Dakara and Chulak were destroyed or captured by the Ori. The Free Jaffa Nation stands to gain much from open trade with a Post Disclosure Earth Industry," Bra'tac added smoothly.
"Master Bra'tac makes an excellent point," the Mimner mused, "but not the one I was moving for. While I am glad you thought of something I did not, what I did have in mind thusly follows. There are questions about myself that I will answer to no authority. If your people are not made aware of such desires and persist in the wrong way, or along the wrong line of thought, what guarantee do I have that such things will be allowed to be kept secret?"
"Any question you don't want to answer, you don't have to," President Hayes replied with a placating gesture. "This wouldn't be the first press conference held on Earth, just the first one we'd be holding with aliens present after nearly losing a battle in orbit. I cannot say what questions will be asked, but I can make assumptions. I know that my own sense of curiosity leads me to ask what you look like under that mask, but we've all been made aware of the fact that our atmosphere is less than agreeable to your health. If I were to ask such a question and received such an answer, I would remain curious, yes, but I wouldn't press you to show your face and breathe air that could kill you."
"Very well," Per'sus said. "Let us discuss your actual plans for disclosure. As H'baxon has pointed out, we cannot agree to your plan unless we have heard it."
Two hours later, the assembly of delegates broke apart and dispersed, holographic balls of floating lights with their race's name 'printed' on them led each species away from the Conference Room and towards their temporary housing.
As they walked down one hall in the opposite direction of the Tok'ra, Free Jaffa Nation, and Impolan delegations, Lya leaned in closer to Sieon and asked, "Are you truly the same Sieon who led the battle against my people?"
"That I am," Sieon replied with a slight grunt at having bad memories drug through his still sore mind.
"I have heard much of you," she said with a smile.
"From who?" Sieon asked curiously. Somewhere in his head he was consciously aware of the fact that, while the Nox did live long lives, none of the currently living Nox were old enough to remember the Purge and the war that followed it.
"From me," Rana replied, her words earning her a confused look from her husband. "After your banishment and the Second Coming, we few turned to the last place we could think to. The Nox housed us just long enough for the Isai to be repaired to the state we needed her to be in and the data recorders to be hidden. We left as soon as the situation would allow as we knew that the Demons would only arrive on their world as well if we stayed too long."
"The Second Coming…" Sieon said with the taste of bile in his mouth. "I should have been there."
"So you could die along with the rest of our race?" Wy'H'ofacion asked at a deadpan. "No," he shook his head sadly. "Had you been there, you would've been a prisoner, and no one would've listened to or headed your words. You would've died when the prison was destroyed and your mind would've gone with it. Your being here gives us more hope now than we've had in a great deal of time."
"You know how to fight them better than any of us," Nele said with a look of fire in his eyes, "and on my authority I am ending your banishment, the Ancients be damned!" As if this was some cue, and indeed it did seem to be as only Sieon and the Nox were taken off-guard, a figure appeared before them glowing in the pure white light of ascendancy. "And what do you want, Ascended?" Nele demanded with an angry huff. "You have no authority here and it is against your own rules to interfere. As much as it is viewed as a bad thing, the alliance between my race and yours ended when you ascended and left us to be slaughtered without any aid. Of all the Great Races, you had the power to help us, and yet you simply watched as trillions of innocent lives ended needlessly."
The figure, masked in light as it was and shielded from mental probing by its nature, faded away into nothingness. In its place there was an ancient, in the time-sense, scroll and nothing more. Wy'H'ofacion leaned down and scooped up the brittle feeling paper that was definitely paper and drew it open, but, despite the impossibility of it, each saw something different. Through the link of their minds, the Furlings instantly saw the scroll for what it was. Each saw the message meant for another and knew what it meant. Through their lesser, but still capable, mental link, the Nox were privy to the same experience.
Anteaus saw only a blank page. Ohper saw the image of a place he knew well, the Nox homeworld in all its untouched beauty. Lya saw the disturbing sight of the Nox homeworld burning. The three images together told them a tale. If nothing was done, the Nox homeworld would be destroyed.
In that same hallway, four other figures had a similar and equally disturbing vision. For Wy'H'ofacion the scroll said, 'Give back that which was taken.' To Nele it was a warning that read, 'They hide still in darkness.' For Rana it told her, 'The taint is present here.' For Sieon but three words were present. 'He yet lives.'
Because both species were telepathic, one more strongly than the other, they all shared the information at the speed of thought. The Nox homeworld was under threat, that much was clear, but the knowledge imparted to the Furlings was far less cohesive. Two things stood out though. The Demons were still in this galaxy hiding in the darkness, and this Ascended had warned them of an Indoctrinated presence 'here,' which could mean anything from Atlantis, to Earth, or even simply the Milky Way at large. The other two messages held more questions than they did answers.
"Who yet lives?" Rana asked at the same time that Nele asked his own question.
"What did you take?"
Sieon and Wy'H'ofacion shared a confused look between the two of them before both replied in one voice. "I have not the slightest inkling."
The swirling vortex in space reached its maximum size, and from it came a city. A city! Flying in space and obviously not from Earth. It moved to protect one of the ships defending Earth and opened fire on the ships trying to destroy them all. The amount of firepower this city had, left everyone watching the video speechless. Then the ship it was protecting opened fire with a beam that cut through three of the hostile ships in one shot. This was a clip from the last part of the battle, the view shot entirely from a source, not only in space, but moving fast.
The camera was temporarily blinded by blue light as a weapon fired so close to it that the two had to be part of the same ship. When their view of the battle was restored to something other than blue-white plasma, one of the ships that had earlier been confirmed to be of Earth design took a golden beam to its hangar bay that left the ship broken and spinning slightly as its engines had to be equalized in the absence of four of her thrusters. The camera began to move much faster as the ship it was attached to moved all the quicker in response to this development.
Their view of the battle became stationary as the ship stopped in orbit, the injured Earth ship behind it. Beams impacted the shield that protected the ship, but the barrier was weak. Energy surged through the ship to reinforce its protective bubble, but it wasn't enough. The shield began to fail and the camera saw for them what had happened six days ago in orbit of their own world. The hull of the ship began to break apart, sections of it giving out under the pressure of the enemy weapons fire as it bled through that failing barrier. A beam hit the shield over the nose of the ship and an entire five-foot section of hull exploded out from the impact site as the shield buckled further and more energy made it through.
By the time the camera began to move again, the ship was ravaged, grey-white puffs of gas escaping from hull breaches, but still more intact than the one it had saved. The recording shifted to another camera that faced to the rear of the ship, bright shimmers in the skies behind them as they dove into the atmosphere a testament to the ship's near destruction and the power of the shield that covered Earth. The recording then ended when the ship gained a stable flight beneath Earth's own shield.
"We've been informed that this video was shot from the cameras aboard the USS Odyssey. During the battle in orbit, several members of its crew were lost when the hull was breached. Some of the families of those thusly lost agreed to allow us to honor the lives and sacrifice of their sons and daughters. Today I have the heavy-hearted task of informing you of the losses we suffered during what is being called 'The Battle for Earth.' The list includes, though is not limited to, Captain Salvador Ramirez, Warrant Officer Second-Class Olivia Rawlinson, Victoria Hinojosa, Hannah Larson, Matthew Argenbright, and Jennifer De Leon, all of whom were civilian specialists serving on the ship. Also lost were…"
The list included everyone lost in the battle for orbit as well as the destruction of Flight Two-Ten, and the ground invasion of Нижневартовск. It was neither short, nor composed of members of any one country.
"If we learn anything from this," the President of the Network said as he stepped into shot of the camera, "don't let it be hate. We were attacked as a planet, not a nation. Let us remember those who were hurt as badly, if not worse, than we were. Help your neighbors and give what you can to the relief effort. We've been informed that the governments of the nations most directly involved in what's being loosely called the 'Stargate Alliance' will be giving their official statement tomorrow, but now, let us pray. I know there are many denominations present in my own city, and I'm not asking everyone to pray to one God over any other, but let us join together for the first time as a people and simply pray to whichever God, Gods, or anything else you believe in. Right now, there are a lot of people hurting. Let us join our hearts and minds, as one planet amongst many in a galaxy filled with life, in prayer.
"Heavenly Father above…"
"How the hell did I get stuck with this job?" President Hayes asked to no one in particular, his words low enough that only he could hear them.
"Because your people have a great deal of faith in your ability to present this in a way that will not cause too much panic," Plato's voice replied from the earpiece he was wearing. "Don't worry, I'll keep the special effects going. That should give them an idea of what you're talking about."
With a deep breath to calm his nerves, the President stepped up to the podium and cleared his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, we're ready to begin," Hayes announced and the assembled press gathered their notepads, pens, recording devices, and their cameramen lined up in the back.
At the back of the room, the director of this potential disaster counted down. "Five… four… three…" He then broke off and used his fingers to countdown from 'two' to 'zero.'
As he reached 'one,' Plato added, "You don't have to do this alone, Mister President. Remember that your allies are here."
Then they were live.
"I find myself the recipient of a great honor," Hayes began, his words and image sent across the planet as a whole to every TV and radio in orbit or on the surface of Earth. "I stand before you, not as the President of any one country, but as the elected representative of those nations who have banded together to represent the idea of an Earth united in common cause. We all knew it would come to this," Hayes added sadly. "We're a violent, mistrusting bunch and it was obvious to most that only the existence of an extraterrestrial threat would be enough to redirect those violent tendencies away from Earth and our fellow Humans.
"Several decades ago, during the Second World War, a team of archeologists unearthed an alien artifact in the deserts of Giza. The device, which at the time was believed to be a weapon, was shipped back to the US for safe keeping so that the Nazis wouldn't be able to get their hands on it. Years of experimenting with the device finally led to the discovery of its true purpose. The ring you can see behind me," Hayes said as the holo-tank in the Conference Room showed the Milky Way model of Stargate behind him, "is one of these devices. They serve as a means of interplanetary, and even intergalactic transportation. The Stargate, as we have come to call it, creates a stable wormhole between two Gates."
As he continued, the holo-tank 'activated' the Gate and a holographic team stepped through as the entire room was covered in holographic grasses and trees swaying in a nonexistent breeze. This was an actual recording, taken by a MALP, of SG-12's first visit to the first, for there were two others before they finally built their current one, Alpha Site before the base had even been constructed. The planet was still a 'virgin world' when they arrived.
The hologram disappeared, Atlantis' interior design rematerializing around them, and Hayes continued. "For the past ten years, the United States Air Force has been routinely sending out teams in the name of peaceful exploration and technological trade. A few years after we first started our exploration of the stars, the Russians found another Gate and began their own program. Working together, we managed to do more united than we could apart. This set a new precedent. To optimize how effective our off-world operations could be, we expanded that alliance and brought in the first of the countries to be part of the Stargate Alliance. The original Gate Alliance Treaty existed between the countries of Russia, China, Great Britain, France, and the United States.
"Then, just over two years ago, we were faced with our first major interplanetary invasion. Many of you may remember that, just after I was elected into office, we lost an entire Nimitz Carrier Group with no real explanation as to how. We all know that the story of the losses being caused by a freak meteor shower were sketchy at best. No, those losses were part of our war with an alien known as Anubis who attacked Earth with a force of nearly forty Ha'tak-class Motherships." Once again the holo-tank displayed Hayes' topic, the standard Ha'tak design appearing behind him before a recording from the Prometheus' sensors and cameras showed the battle itself.
"We defeated this attack with a weapon we call 'Drones,' a form of semi-intelligent surface-to-orbit missile capable of bypassing the shields of most of our enemies' ships. The weapon system was created by another race of aliens who lived on Earth back when Humans were barely getting past the stage of being cavemen. Mythological figures such as Plato, Merlin, Morgan le Fay, and many more were members of this species. This arsenal of powerful, missile-like projectiles is capable of firing from the surface of Earth all the way to orbit and can eliminate… well," Hayes said as the Conference Room was consumed in holograms that showed the battle between fighters that had seen Mitchell crash-landed in the Artic and Hammond leading the charge against a far superior force.
The image then shifted as the Prometheus pointed its nose up and made for orbit. As it reached into the stars and faced down the guns of Anubis' flagship, the drone swarm overtook the small ship as it rushed past the Prometheus and tore through everything in its path that Jack willed them to destroy.
"Suffice to say, this is but one of many layers to Earth's defenses. First and foremost is our brave men and women," Hayes continued as several members of the SGC who had agreed to be 'poster children' for the Stargate Program appeared behind him in holographic form decked out in their standard gear as Anubis' fleet disappeared in a wave of explosions. "We started with small teams going through the Gate on missions of exploration and they have secured several powerful alliances for us through their hard work, but our enemies had weapons that our flak vests couldn't defend against. To better protect this first line of defense and offense, we developed more advanced technologies to help them succeed." The standard vest was replaced by the second iteration that had the energy absorbent material in place of the kinetic resistant plates. "Most recently, we've made even greater leaps and bounds in the field of personal protection."
Those same three Warrior Airmen then appeared again, this time in the flesh and wearing their full-body combat armor. "The advances we made during Stargate Command's operation are not, however, limited to one nation's ability to produce war on the ground. We knew that our enemies had technology that would let them attack us from orbit and that they both could, and would, eventually come for us. The first thing we did was try to duplicate their fighters."
The X-301 appeared behind him, the Death Glider with a USAF sticker slapped on the side and two missiles slung under its wings a poor comparison to the modern day 302 which paled in comparison to Sam's new fighter design. "We quickly abandoned that line of advancement when we realized that we'd have to steal from our enemies to build our forces and that would both take too long and risk too much." The F-302 then appeared in the holo-tank as the Airmen left the room, many pictures taken before they did. "So we began developing our own fighters. After that, we moved on to taking on their capital ships on an even footing." Now the Prometheus appeared, for the first time, as an external view with its dimensions written in along its three axis.
"The X-303, or USS Prometheus, was our answer to the Goa'uld Ha'tak, but our allies, the Asgard, gave us technology that quickly put the ship, her design, and her technology out of mind. The Prometheus-class was abandoned after the completion of the first ship of the Daedalus-class, but not before its unfortunate demise. During a mission to rescue a captured team and liberate a planet of our allies that was under attack, the Prometheus was destroyed by an Ori satellite weapon." The only footage able to be recovered from the ship's Black Box played, the destruction of Earth's first capital ship a sad sight for those who knew the crew who were lost. "Unfortunately, the ship was not able to be fully evacuated and many were lost including the ship's Commanding Officer, Colonel Lionel Pendergast.
"After the destruction of the Prometheus, we focused our efforts into building the Daedalus-class which proved itself the superior design," Hayes continued, the ship appearing behind him. "The first ship of this class was, immediately after its construction, sent to the Pegasus Galaxy to reinforce the members of the Atlantis Expedition." Here the city of Atlantis appeared behind him, a live feed from a camera attached to a Jumper that was flying over the city to give them a good view showing the city in its still-being-upgraded form still docked on those massive arms that jutted out of the ice beneath them, massive power conduits from the geothermal power plant below that providing more power to the city than it had ever had, the repair drones buzzing around it, and numerous smaller craft from Jumpers and Pelicans to the massive forms of Vultures carrying cargo to the city from the nearby McMurdo Air Force Base. "There we found more allies, and one enemy that still gives me nightmares. They're called the Wraith, but I digress.
"Before we discuss the life-forms we found in another galaxy, let us finish with the races present in this one. The Goa'uld Empire was the main enemy we faced in this galaxy. A parasitic race that took other life-forms for hosts, the Goa'uld used Humans as everything from hosts, to slaves, to genetically modified soldiers and even incubators for their young. As we slowly took down the Goa'uld, a new power rose into being. The Jaffa, the warrior-slaves of the Goa'uld, were liberated through the fires of combat and rose from their position of bondage to become the newly minted Free Jaffa Nation and remain one of Earth's oldest allies, but not our only ally.
"Also allied with the people of Earth are an extragalactic, and, sadly enough, now extinct race known as the Asgard, a very old and powerful race known as the Ancients, a race known as the Nox, the Furlings, who are actually from another universe all together, a collection of races united against the Goa'uld known as the Impolan Authority, an off-branch of the Goa'uld who call themselves the Tok'ra, a race known as the Tolans, the remnants of a once-powerful warrior people known as the Setedans, and a race of great farmers who call themselves the Athosians amongst several others. The histories of each of these races are as long as our own, and not able to be covered during this debriefing, but that information will be made available to the public once we've found an appropriate media for the outlet.
"However, due to my late introduction to the Stargate Program and all that it entails, I am not the one to answer the questions you're sure to have. To fill that role for me, I present to you Doctor Elizabeth Weir who has led the Atlantis Expedition successfully for the past three years despite being an entire galaxy away from home. Also present are representatives from a few of our allied races, but I'll leave Doctor Weir to give those introductions. Doctor," Hayes said, motioning her forward as he stepped down from the podium.
"First, I'd like to welcome you all to the no-longer-lost, Lost City of Atlantis," Weir said. "Joining me today are Sieon Synipulous, representing the Furling Galactic Empire, H'baxon, who is the Speaker of the People for the Impolan Authority, General Jonathan O'Neill who has the prestigious title of Head of Homeworld Security, Colonel Samantha Carter who is one of the leading scientists for the Stargate Program, and Doctor Rodney McKay who serves as my own head of sciences for the Atlantis Expedition. The floor is now open for questions," Weir said before selecting one of the reporters.
"CBS 11 News, Constance Porter, so let's get straight to the question everyone wants to know," the woman said as she stood to address the aforementioned officials, delegates, and military personnel. "What happened seven days ago in orbit? Obviously you were involved somehow."
The assembled men and women, aliens and Humans alike, shared glances amongst them until one stepped forward much to O'Neill's obvious disdain. "Seven days ago, your world came under attack by an enemy to this galaxy that calls itself the 'Ori.' While it is often said that the Ori invaded this galaxy, that is inaccurate. The Followers of the Ori or the Walkers of the Path of Origin are the ones who attacked you. The Ori themselves are God-like beings that have ascended to a higher plane of existence. Their followers have advanced technology and have been sweeping across this galaxy like a great plague.
"The Free Jaffa Nation, a sworn ally to the people of Earth, was incapable of stopping their advance and have suffered great losses at their hands. The Goa'uld, who are a sworn enemy of the people of Earth, have also been under attack. This galaxy has been actively invaded by the Ori for the past year, and only Earth has proven to possess the technology and will to stop their otherwise unchecked conquest. When this was proven beyond the Walkers of the Path of Origin's ability to ignore, they brought the full force of their fleet to Earth. The Walkers of the Path of Origin, like the Asgard, Ancients, and Wraith, are an extragalactic force not native to the Milky Way Galaxy. They are a group of religious fanatics who will kill anyone who will not submit to the will of their Gods, the Ori themselves.
"Because you could stand against them, and because you would not allow them to conquer this galaxy and slaughter uncounted trillions without putting up a fight, your people were targeted. Your planet was attacked twice within a twenty-four hour period, a 'day' on Earth if I understand your chronology correctly, by the same enemy. When their first twenty-five ships threw themselves against the defenses of your world and fell to the five warships you had standing in your defense, the Ori sent more ships to finish the job. One-hundred Ori Motherships arrived in orbit and clashed with the forces of Earth and your allies. With fifteen ships and your orbital defenses, the greatest threat to this galaxy was delivered so great a blow that their invasion, if it is to continue, will only be able to do so after a great many months of rebuilding what was lost. The small number of losses you suffered during the battle, while a tragedy in its own right, is a pittance compared to the uncountable number of lives your people have saved by defeating the Walkers of the Path of Origin."
That same reporter, still standing with her vocal recorder held towards the stage, blinked in surprise at what was, to her, a shockingly straightforward answer. Once she finally found her voice, she asked, "Judging by your armor, speech, and bearing, I'm assuming you're not Human. Which of Earth's allies do you represent?"
"I am H'baxon, Speaker of the People for the Impolan Authority and personal representative for the Mimner to the people of Earth."
"What can you tell us about the enemy we face?" another reporter, this one from Fox 4, asked.
"You face no enemy," H'baxon replied stoically. "They have been defeated."
"What about the others? You listed several that were extragalactic, but I assume we have enemies native to the Milky Way as well?"
"You assume correctly."
"I'll get this one," Sam said, giving the alien a small nod in thanks. "Our first enemy was the Goa'uld Empire and they've been largely defeated as well. The Goa'uld themselves are parasites that use Humans as Hosts. They actually look like alien snakes." Behind her, the holo-tank that Plato was using to provide the visuals needed to explain things showed a Goa'uld in both larval and fully developed form, both helpfully labeled for the sake of explanation. "After defeating all but one of the Goa'uld and shattering the hold the System Lords had on the galaxy, we sent the Atlantis Expedition to the Pegasus Galaxy where we discovered the Wraith."
Sam motioned behind her and Rodney took her place. "The Wraith are an advanced species that literally feed off of the life-force of Humans. They're like vampires, but instead of drinking blood they feed on the energy in our bodies. It gives them the ability to live extraordinarily long lives and their technology and numbers have allowed them to control the entire Pegasus Galaxy through fear, threats, and death for the past ten-thousand-plus years. When we reached Atlantis, the city was abandoned. The Lanteans, as they were known at the time they inhabited the city, lost their war with the Wraith due mostly to their arrogance. They believed their technological superiority would be all that was needed to win, but the Wraith had numbers."
A Hiveship appeared behind him with the dimensions and total Dart capacity 'helpfully' indicated. The numbers were disturbing to say the least. "During their war with the Lanteans, the Wraith had many worlds rich in life to feed off of, these were known as Cullings by the people of Pegasus. By the time the war was over, the Wraith's numbers started working against them. They now had trillions of 'mouths to feed,' but only millions of Humans to feed off of. To survive the shortage and give the Human populations of the Pegasus Galaxy time to repopulate to the numbers the Wraith need to survive, they put all of their nonessential people into hibernation. They made continuing raids on the lesser developed worlds to keep the populations full of fear and to feed those left awake. If any single planet advanced too far, the Wraith would wipe them out entirely. Those worlds would simply stop contacting their allies and anyone sent to investigate would find a world covered in rubble.
"Ten-thousand years later, we arrived. When we did, Atlantis's power core was failing and we needed to replace it. In order to do so, we left the city and investigated a world we hoped would be able to help us. This is where we met the Athosians, but we also encountered the Wraith. During the engagement that followed, the Wraith captured one of our people. During the interrogation of that man, the Wraith learned of Earth. To them, it was a world in the Pegasus Galaxy full of food because they learned the one thing they really wanted to know. Earth was a world with a population that numbered in the billions. The most recent report from the United States Census Bureau puts the population of Earth at well over seven-billion, one-hundred-eighty-two-million people. The Wraith, for obvious reasons, saw Earth as the richest feeding ground they'd heard of in thousands of years.
"Their plan would've been to feed on us while spreading those they captured to less populated worlds so we could give them more food by reproducing, but they soon discovered that Earth was not a planet amongst the stars they had access to. During the rescue operation to save our captured man, we killed one of the Wraith Queens, their leaders, and she, before dying, sent a message to the other Wraith telling them that a great new feeding ground had been found. All of the Wraith woke up and found a galaxy that couldn't sustain their numbers. The lack of food led to a civil war between the Wraith as they tried to stay alive. We capitalized on this and used their own civil war and our ships to defend our new allies and help liberate the people of the Pegasus Galaxy. Sadly enough, that war is still ongoing and we're not making much headway because the Wraith still outnumber us."
"Aside from the Wraith," Sam said as she retook the stage at the end of McKay's explanation, "we've encountered the enemies of our allies. The Asgard, one of our greatest allies, fought a race of mechanical spider-like robots that had only one thing programed into them; find new technology and replicate. Because of this, the machines were dubbed 'Replicators.' After many years of war with these machines, the Asgard defeated their enemy with some help from our own forces. There are a few other races out there that are hostile to Earth's people that I'm sure I'm leaving out because they were too minor to remember, but we're discovering new races all the time. Most of them are either friendly or at least neutral with only a small few being openly hostile."
"Why has all this been kept secret?" the CNN reporter asked.
"When we first gained the ability to go to other worlds, we did so without any knowledge of what was out there," General O'Neill replied with their unanimously agreed upon official excuse. "It was felt, at the time, that if we were to reveal the existence of aliens to the world without the ability to defend ourselves, it would lead to major civil unrest and could even spark another World War."
"Speaking of technologies, when will we begin seeing some of these alien advancements released to the public?" another reporter asked.
"You already have, actually," Sam answered smoothly. "Several breakthroughs in the past few years can be directly attributed to our study of alien technologies, especially in the areas of medicine, computing, and energy production. Aside from that…" Sam trailed off for a moment before deciding on her wording. "During the Battle for Earth, the presence of enemy ships in the atmosphere was only possible because they used a form of FTL travel to bypass the planetary defense shield. In doing so, they flooded the areas around their arrival sites with exotic radiation. The mountains of Colorado near Cheyanne and the deserts of Nevada near Area 51 have been flooded with enough exotic radiation that all naturally occurring life in those areas has been wiped out.
"In order to prevent the radiation from spreading, we trapped the clouds in atmospheric retentive barriers. Without all of the technical terms, we've trapped the radiation in a light-tight container that it can't escape from, but it's still there."
Behind her, the massive bubble of a shield that was holding the radiation, and indeed the light within the bubble, at bay, appeared. It was a massive, black ball of nothing that was slowly shrinking to take up less space and dragging the radiation with it. A perfect, circular shaped void in Human perception. With no light leaving the barrier, because radiation is electromagnetic in nature and therefore has the same properties of light, the ball was perfectly absent of all light. It was darker even than the void of space. They had collapsed the three bubbles containing the radiation to smaller sizes, each only a few dozen meters in diameter, but a lot had still escaped before they could get the bubbles in place.
"It's not the only harmful substance in the air, but it is still in our air. The industrialization of Earth has led to several million metric tons of pollutants being dumped into the oceans or pumped into the atmosphere. With the technology we have available to us, we're going to fix that problem." The holo-tank shifted behind her and the designs for the 'Scrubbers,' as they were calling them, appeared in place of the bubble of radiation. "This is a Scrubber. It's a terraforming machine created by the Asgard designed to take a nearly-habitable planet like Mars and turn it into a verdant garden-world like Earth. Using them on Mars would make colonizing the planet possible, but we don't have the industry to sustain Earth's economy and a colony-world at the same time, not now. We do, however, have another use for them. These things can make Mars habitable by removing toxins from the atmosphere and cleaning pollutants out of the water.
"On Mars, that makes a habitable planet. On Earth, that makes for air so clean a lot of allergies will disappear overnight and water so pure you could walk up to the ocean and drink the waters without fear of sucking in oil spilt by a tanker or leaked from a drill. You'd still be drinking salt-water because changing our oceans from salt-water to fresh-water would be devastating to the ecosystem of the planet as a whole. Not all sea-life can live in fresh-water and killing all the fish would leave us without one of our most abundant food sources. This Scrubber can, however, expand our farmlands. Imagine turning the Sahara Desert into a massive expanse of farmable land in a matter of weeks instead of years of terraforming and millions of dollars in irrigation pipes. That's what we have to offer the world.
"I know a lot of you are going to want a cure for cancer," Sam said, a sad look on her face. "I know I wish we had found one before I had to say goodbye to my father, but, sadly, we're not there yet. We're closer now than we were before, but now, instead of curing the cancer, we have methods to remove the afflicted organs and replace them with a lab-grown replica that the body won't be able to tell it wasn't born with. I know some of you will want flying cars, but let's face it. Everyone would have to go to pilot school, and, considering that the dropout rate for high school students in America is seven percent of the total population of most high schools…"
Sam trailed off with a disappointed shake of her head. "Dropping out from high school is associated with negative employment and life outcomes. Young people who drop out of high school are unlikely to have the minimum skills and credentials necessary to function in today's increasingly complex society, and technology-dependent workplace. The completion of high school is usually required for accessing post-secondary education, and is a minimum requirement for most jobs. A high school diploma is associated with higher incomes and occupational status, and young adults with low education and skill levels are more likely to live in poverty and to receive government assistance, that, frankly, the governments of the world can't afford to keep giving to people that aren't even trying to better themselves. High school dropouts are also more likely to become involved in crime. Furthermore, dropout status has been linked with poor physical and mental health. Such negative outcomes, along with diminished labor force participation, exact a high economic toll on society. If the dropouts from the nation's class of two-thousand-eleven had graduated, the US economy alone would benefit by about one-hundred-fifty-four billion dollars over their lifetimes. Instead, the government goes broke trying to keep food on their tables while they sit there doing nothing to better their situation.
"If people can't even be bothered to finish high school when it opens more opportunities for them in the long run, and with teen pregnancies are skyrocketing like they are…" Another pause so she could shake her head in disgust before continuing. "The odds of people being responsible with a flying car when they still speed down the highway at deathly speeds texting the whole time, not watching the road, not using their turn signals, and dodging through traffic, forgo protection because they're too 'macho' for condoms, drop out of school because they 'don't need it'…" A third pause and third shake of the head, this one a mixture of the previous two. "Instead of a three car pileup on the highway creating traffic issues, we'd have an Aircar sticking out of downtown building with a hundred people dead on impact and a collapsing building killing even more people on the ground."
The way she said it left Jack wincing at the thought. He could see it now. It wasn't pretty. The assembled reporters seemed to be of the same mind. None of them argued. Most everyone on Earth knew someone who died in a car crash, and everybody knows somebody who knew somebody.
"Then there's full-body armor, energy weapons, hand-held railguns, FTL travel, trinium alloys, superconductors…" Sam shook her head again, a common theme for this speech of hers. "Imagine bank robbers equipped with armor that small-arms fire can't punch through. Law enforcement would lose every engagement they ever got into because no one city on Earth can afford the materials needed to build a suit of armor like that and equip an entire police force with it, but we all know that drug lords make more money than government officials let on. We'd enter the age of Marvel and DC Comics where the villains are too powerful for anything short of a genetically altered super-Human to effectively fight them and that's just the armor we have access to.
"Then you have terrorist organizations that forgo using nuclear weapons and instead start using plasma bombs. Hand-held railguns in the hands of hunters? There's no kick to a railgun and they have greater range than you could imagine. A perfect kill shot on a deer could travel for miles and still have enough energy to kill something else. FTL drives emit deadly radiation and that's another thing we'd have to regulate. Another agency like the Air Traffic Control Towers, but for FTL travel in the entire system. Trinium can only be mined off-world, and the superconductors we use to build our ships can amplify the power of nuclear explosions by disturbing magnitudes."
"What do you mean?" another reporters asked.
Sam turned to Jack who frowned in reply to the unasked question. Hitting her ear piece, Sam said, "Roll the clip from Kallana." As the holo-tank shifted to show the world in question, pre-collapse, the large blue bubble clearly visible from orbit as the Prometheus's recordings were played, Sam explained the scene. "We've encountered two forms of superconductors on other worlds that far surpass anything else on Earth. The first is naquadah, a stable superconductor that we use to produce power for our warships. The second is naquadria. Naquadria is, by a significant margin, the more powerful of the two superconductors, but, unlike naquadah, naquadria is highly unstable which makes it prone to explosions. The world you see here was captured by the Ori in a bid to reach our galaxy from their own."
The arrival of the Jaffa and the bombardment of the shield played out as Sam explained their reason for being there.
"During this stage in our time in space, we didn't have energy weapons, so we just kept making stronger nuclear bombs. This one we refer to as the Mark IX, or the Gate Buster. When detonated, the naquadria enhances the thermonuclear explosion by order of several magnitudes. When detonated next to an active Stargate, as this one was, the explosion is…" and her words were cut off by the explosion itself. "The energy of that one explosion rendered seventy percent of the planet's surface inhabitable. That's the threat, the power, that misused naquadria possess. Naquadah isn't quite as powerful in a single blast, but we developed the Mark IIIs, VIIs and VIIIs to be used against enemy capital ships that can withstand high powered energy weapons. Those weapons being used on Earth would destroy us all."
"And the Americans control all of this?" Judging by his accent, the man was from Germany, but Sam never got a chance to answer the accusation.
"I ought to have you killed for uttering such a statement," the last of the 'delegates' to have not spoken said darkly. All eyes in the room turned to Sieon as his face twisted into a mask of utter outrage. "There is no 'America'," he said with such a tone of finality that none dared to breath let along argue against him. "There is only Earth. When the Ori came, they cared not for your self-imposed, purely imaginary political borders. They cared not for your nations. They cared only for your world. You would be wise to do the same, for the Ori are not the only ones who will act as such. The people of Earth are the only ones who care for your nations, countries, and such petty ideas of political separation and individual independence. When your planet is invaded again, for there will always be another time until you are defeated, the enemy will attack you all with impunity because you are of Earth. National boarders mean nothing once you leave the world they are applied to. Tell me, Simpleton. When my people come to destroy yours, should I target only the people of one nation when all of your nations will fight against me? Perhaps not all at once, but each of you, in turn, will fight for your continued idea of freedom, so should I attack you one by one? Or should I simply destroy you all from the safety of orbit once it's captured and be done with you?"
When no answer was forthcoming, Sieon continued. "You are blessed to live here, but not because of the nation you call your own. Earth is a free world protected by powerful technologies and allied with powerful races. Every world in the Pegasus Galaxy lives under the fear of the next Culling at the hands of the Wraith. Their people question the morality of having a child, for bringing another life into the world just for it to be fed upon by the Wraith. In your own galaxy, there are worlds where men, women, and children are turned into slaves to work in radioactive mines where their death is only a question of time. That is the fate you avoided by simple luck of birth upon this world. Your very life is owed to chance, nothing more, and you wail against that good future by saying that others are better off than even you are? You disgust me.
"Yours is a world largely untouched by the whims of aliens hostile to the mere thought of your existence. Alien who would kill or enslave you all to prevent any measurable amount of freedom from existing. The Asgard have defended you, the Ancients have defended you, your own people have defended you, but you would deny them their righteous victory by accusing them of being power-hungry war mongers hell-bent on world domination? Long have the members of the IOA nations had the power to take over this planet and rule it with an iron fist, but they have done no such thing. They now have the power to conquer this galaxy as a whole and do the same on a larger scale, but they refrain from doing so. Why? Because they are more honorable in their lies than you are in your truths!
"Regardless of nationality, you are all Humans of the planet Earth. I strongly suggest you begin to think with a single mind, as a single species, because dividing yourselves between nations will only lead to your ultimate defeat. United, Earth has the power to free this and other galaxies from tyrannical elements that would sooner crush freedom than allow it to flourish. Divided, that mentality will have you broken, weak, and easily defeated by a greater force, and there is always a greater force. You need to remove the idea of nations and embrace the idea of a united people. If you do not, then Earth will fall before you can do anything of worth and your people will be erased from the galactic history books. The victor writes history, and if any of your enemies win their wars against you, then the people of Earth will be erased entirely."