Chapter Thirty-Nine: Proving Ground


Friday, 7th July 2000.

Winky looked around the spotless room and smiled at her handiwork. Not that it had been untidy, to begin with, but after spending the night here again, she had felt the need to ensure the room was as clean as possible before departing.

She stepped out into the main area of the flat and noticed the other few visiting elves were already mulling about talking as they enjoyed their meal. It was a far cry from her days as Mr Crouch's personal elf, rushing about making sure her master had his meal and everything he would need for the coming day before heading downstairs to watch the young Master Crouch.

It had taken her some time, and a lot of talking with Hermione and Dobby to come to terms with the fact that the Crouches had indeed mistreated her. While they never hit her, like the Malfoys had taken great delight in doing to Dobby, she was still poorly treated in her own way.

She was very glad she had eventually caved in and allowed them to help her. Now she was standing here amongst friends on another world. In the rooms built especially for the elves to call their own. No one would harry them out and push them into work. She still adored the work she did, but it was always of her own volition now. And she enjoyed reading the books that the others provided even more than Dobby had come to.

Shifty shouted her name and waved her over to where the others were eating at the elf-sized breakfast bar. An assortment of their favourite foods were laid out on the benchtop free for lazy grazing. There was not much for an elf to do around Aedis for the moment, having only just been built.

Though it was far more welcoming now that the others had tamed the ley line. She'd felt incredibly sick upon her first overnight visit. It had turned her stomach and she had left the next day. It was only Dobby's assurance that things were back to normal that had convinced her to return.

The elves visiting had free reign to choose any room they so desired. All of them were enormous by elf standards. But they tended to prefer this one with the multiple bedrooms and large common area. It had been built so that they could use it all comfortably. All except the freakishly tall Shifty, who occasionally had to bend right down to use things with his towering five feet of height.

Their group had stayed up quite late the night before as Dobby had shown them all over the city now that they could walk freely without feeling ill. Winky was incredibly impressed at the scale of it. Nowhere she had lived quite matched it for sheer spectacle. Not even the incredible cities she had visited while assisting Dobby and Mr Xeno in looking into their past. And while she did love visiting her friends, she was rather eager to get back to it.

She had a feeling they were close to discovering something truly incredible. Something they had not matched since finding the writings in the cave in Africa. And she wanted to be there when they found it.

ϟ

Monday, 10th July 2000.

The council gathered together once more for the first full official meeting of their number since the completion of their new home. They had meant to hold a proper meeting in June, but things had gotten away from them after moving in, once they realized what was happening with Dobby and the other elves.

While not an official member of the council with voting privileges, Parvati enjoyed attending regardless. The others still encouraged her to voice her opinion on matters, and it was nice to just gather together every now and then as well.

Having arrived with her sister, she took her seat by Cyla, who gave her a warm smile. The ancient woman was fast melding in amongst the group, though she still spent most of her time talking with Aurora and Carson, who both sat on the woman's other side.

"Hello, deary," Carson said, noticing her arrival.

Parvati responded with a polite wave that Aurora echoed and she turned to face the actual council members as Harry noted everyone was present and called them all to attention.

"Hello, all. Nice to just stop and sit for a bit. We've had quite the month." He said and the others smiled, and some laughed at the statement. "I suppose that comes with the territory. But I digress. To matters at hand." He said, gesturing to Hermione at his right hand who leaned forward and took over.

"Flitwick and Vector were by again last week, and have confirmed that the ley line is indeed properly tamed. Mum has been keeping an eye on it and it would appear that corralling it into the mountain as we did has allowed its power to flow into the circuitry of the beam engines. We can now integrate magically charged matter directly without prior preparation being necessary. Which should be a big help going forwards. We've set up a roster for the smaller engines in the primary lab in the west tower for anyone wanting to request anything, so feel free to put your name down on there."

She nodded to Harry who turned to Neville and gestured for him to speak. "Planting is now complete all over the mountain. With the abundant water and sunshine we're getting, they should grow to full size within the next few months and then we can assess if we want to change or add anything else. I've also been taking some more samples of the surrounding vegetation and have found a few varieties that look promising as food. Even more as potion ingredients."

The others murmured their approval as attention flowed back to Harry once again and the black-haired man checked his notes before he continued.

"As I'm sure everyone has noticed, Richard completed the construction of Vir. Especially given Saturday night's back-and-forth against Aedis's own defences. That was quite the light show." Harry said, pausing to glance at the grinning man-child. "After pretty thorough testing, we think it's ready for field deployment if necessary. Unless there are any objections, current plans are to have the long-range sensors watch for any small, isolated Goa'uld activity in nearby systems and intercept if one is detected alone."

"Should we really be so eager to attack them?" Carson asked, drawing attention. "I know that I am new amongst you, but these are sapient beings we're talking about, in control of innocent host bodies. Not to mention their slave army."

"Luna, Padma?" Harry asked, leaving the floor open to either one to take up the question.

"The sooner they're all gone, the better," Padma said simply, not afraid to be open in her blatant hatred of the parasites and Parvati thought it might be time for another sit down with her sister.

Luna, however, smiled at her companion before she spoke. "Things with Isis have been illuminating. She continues to resist and try to find a way to take control of me, but her spirit for conquering me is clearly waning, even if only slightly. Especially after the magical surge from the ritual. She was exhausted for almost a week after. I've been able to learn quite a bit from our time together already. Presently, if the Goa'uld now are anything like they were in her time, there is no negotiating with them. Not from the position we currently hold."

"Can you explain that further?" Carson asked.

"Of course. The Goa'uld aren't so much a cohesive species as a constantly warring set of independent states working together for mutual benefit. If an opportunity to weaken or conquer an 'ally' were to arise, a Goa'uld would not hesitate to take it. Likewise, if an external threat should appear, they will band together when necessary to defeat it. The bluff of the Protected Planets Treaty works because not even the collective forces of the System Lords could defeat the Asgard if they came in full force. So it is on the System Lords to enforce the terms of that treaty lest they all suffer the wrath of the Asgard."

"And right now we possess only a single ship that may be capable of fighting them." Richard summed up. "And it took a full month to build it."

"Not to mention we lack the manpower needed to properly take the fight to them," Luna said, nodding to Richard. "For the moment, if one of their ships were to disappear while out in the galactic sticks, they would not be bothered to investigate. We can remain under the radar to them and find out just how effective we might be able to be against more of them."

"And the slaves?" Carson repeated.

"Ideally, we don't want to hurt any of them," Hermione said. "However, they have been raised since birth to believe these figures are their gods. They fight and die in their name with absolute religious fervour. We will need a compelling argument in order to break that faith before we can treat them as anything other than hostile."

"We have only met two physical Goa'uld to date," Harry said, "Klorel and Isis. And while Klorel gave the order, it was a Jaffa that actually tortured Luna with that device. They did not hesitate to carry out the orders of their god. And that was one that had been repeatedly shamed. Not even his continuous failures were enough to break their faith in his 'divinity'."

"Alright, I'll concede the point for now. But I request that thought be given to how to break the Goa'uld's hold over their slaves." Carson said.

"We will." Natalie chimed in. "But keep in mind, we are not out here looking to take over, or even to free the galaxy from the yoke of the Goa'uld. Our primary goal remains the establishment and nurture of our own society. We have built our capital, but it feels somewhat empty with only us. The elves come and go as they please," she said, with a nod to Dobby who smiled at her, "but we need to expand our own ranks if we're going to consider ourselves a civilization."

"Agreed," Harry said, moving to the next item on his notes. "On that note, I would like people to consider friends and acquaintances from back home who might be open to joining us here. We will need people from all walks of life, but I don't think we can just take out an ad in the Daily Prophet. And we most assuredly need to get ourselves an intelligent and confident ambassador, because I am not going to be High Councilor and ambassador."

The group around the table all chuckled at Harry's continuing resistance to being in charge. A trait that only made most of them believe he was even more suited for his current role. Parvati could recall his leadership during her time in the DA. And his performance during the final battle held at Hogwarts. While Harry hated the responsibility of it, he was ever so good at leading.

Seeing an opening, Parvati decided to offer her own contribution. "We also need to decide for good how we plan to interact with the SGC. Once we start exploring the galaxy properly, it's very likely that we will run into them from time to time. We don't want another repeat of Vor Anguu."

Hermione immediately looked to Harry who smiled at her and took her hand. "Right. But I think we are best finding ourselves a proper ambassador and letting them figure out the best way to approach that subject. Obviously, my method didn't work brilliantly."

"We will make that a priority then. It's high time we introduced ourselves now that we're based away from Earth." Hermione said. "Keeping on that topic, with a little concerted effort, Merlin has managed to penetrate deeper into their computer system. He now has access to their scheduling calendar so should be able to keep track of where the teams are supposed to be going in advance. Which should help to keep us from accidentally crossing paths like that again."

Padma leant forward again, and Parvati watched her sister closely. "Have there been any developments regarding the replacement stargate?"

"They recently did a complete overhaul of their diagnostic system and seem to have determined that any variance is due to their belief that the stargate they installed was the original prototype model for this generation," Harry confirmed. "Apparently the consensus is that the warnings are more blatant and easily interpreted because it is the 'prototype' model. And they had been paying a lot more attention to the alerts the stargate is sending back to the system. Personally, I consider the replacement to be a roaring success."

"Yet more proof of your fantastic leadership skills," Aurora said, smirking at Harry as he spun to glare at her, while clearly trying to suppress a smirk of his own.

"Moving on," Hermione said, pulling attention away from the staring contest. "We've identified that the best combination of materials for the new suits will be Antipodean dragonhide for the underlay with Ironbelly scale for additional protection. Thanks to the ley line, I currently have the main engine producing large enough quantities to get started with, so we should hopefully have a full set ready within the next two weeks without any need to buy it or source more from the reserve. And we have tested the converted materials to confirm they retain the important traits."

"That's excellent news," Carson said, his eyes flicking over Harry, giving a silent voice to what they were all thinking after the incident. "With Aurora's assistance, I've finished analyzing the data from the event as well. It would seem that Hermione's response to the approaching SGC team was not simply a case of accidental magic."

Most eyes at the table looked at Carson as though he was crazy. Those that had been present had all assumed it to be nothing more than an emotional outburst.

"No, he's right," Aurora said, leaning forwards. "Thanks to the… minis?"

Hermione flushed slightly as she replied. "Yes. It is short for Minerva, the goddess of wisdom." She added, looking at Harry as her cheeks darkened further. Parvati had a very good idea just what Harry might have suggested the name referred to instead.

"Right, your mini recorded the activity in your mind as you cast that magic. While proper records of brain activity during accidental magic surges are obviously limited, the results looked far more like what we've seen in Cyla's scans. The emission was most definitely magical, but the scan shows definite intent."

"You're saying she intended to knock them back?" Natalie asked.

Hermione sighed and closed her eyes, Parvati watched her closely for a moment. While they were not the closest of friends during their Hogwarts years, her proximity to the other girl had allowed her some measure of ability to judge her mood. She was clearly analyzing the event in her own memory.

"They're right. I didn't notice it at the time, I had other concerns, but I wanted them to go away so I could help Harry. I definitely didn't have control over it, but that surge was what I needed to occur at that moment."

"So," her father said, "another thing for us to keep an eye on. Perhaps if you lot can further develop that, you can do away with the wands altogether."

"Perhaps," Carson said. "We'll begin running regular scans to track any progress as part of our checkups. Should we fold this into the research regarding Cyla's abilities?" He asked, glancing at the curious woman beside him who looked perfectly at ease with the conversation.

"If that is alright with her," Harry said, looking at the woman in question.

She nodded. "Of course. I wish to help."

Parvati smiled at the oldest member of their group and Cyla caught her eye and smiled in return. She'd not spent much time with the woman, but what little she had was illuminating, despite Cyla's memory issues.

"Speaking of, how do you feel you are progressing, Cyla?" Harry asked, looking at the ancient woman.

Cyla glanced at Aurora who gestured that it was her choice to respond. "My lessons are going well. Some words are still hard. Learning multiple languages at once is somewhat taxing."

"We can cut back if you feel the need, dear," Carson said from beside her.

"No. I am handling it. I want to learn so that I might one day remember."

"Just remember to take it easy from time to time. Rest is just as important." Natalie said, looking at the woman as though she wanted to hug her.

"I will. And Aurora believes that my newest…" Cyla paused for a moment as she searched for the word she wanted. Aurora moved to provide it, but Cyla waved her back. "draught?" Aurora nodded. "My new draught is helping to balance the situation in my mind."

"It definitely seems promising," Aurora added. "I am hoping that once it does, either the growths themselves might shrink slightly or that your nutrient intake will increase accordingly to account for the increased energy requirements. Or that we will find some other sort of equilibrium."

Cyla smiled and turned back to the others who were watching the trio hopefully.

"It's good to hear," Harry noted. "Let us know if anything changes, good or bad. We want to make sure you are both happy and healthy. Even if we never learn a thing about your people from you, your presence alone is a boon to us as a whole."

"Charmer," Hermione muttered from his side and Harry flushed slightly.

"I didn't mean it like that." He replied. "So, everyone's work is progressing nicely. Are there any other matters that anyone wants to discuss?" His eyes drifted across the table and Parvati noticed that the others seemed to be looking amongst themselves as well. "Any objections to any of the topics discussed?" When he was greeted with the same silence, he smiled and continued. "I guess that is a no. I say we call this one here and meet again next month."

The others nodded their agreement and Harry tapped the keypad in front of him, closing down the recorder that they now needed to use to file their meetings without Merlin doing it all automatically for them. The AI had been busy running a complex diagnostic and was unable to join them for this meeting. Parvati thought she might find the time this week to return to Aether for a while and converse with the odd hologram.

As short as her time with the team had been, she had developed a soft spot for the odd personality.

ϟ

Wednesday, 12th July 2000.

Harry looked up as he heard a repeated beeping coming from his remote. He stood and activated the small holographic emitter and a small section of their local region appeared above his wrist.

"Hello there." He said, curiously watching the red dot moving through the area. "Where do you think that you are going?"

"Who?" Hermione asked, looking over from her work on her mother's suit to stare at him.

"Long-range sensors are detecting a single goa'uld ship passing through the area. I'm just calculating their trajectory now."

Hermione sighed. "You want to go and test Vir, don't you?"

Harry glanced up at her. "It's not so much that I want to. We need to know how well it performs. And I'm fully recovered from Anguu."

"Still…"

Harry walked over to where she was sitting and wrapped his arms gently around her, pulling her into a seated sideways hug. "I know. I will be extremely careful. We'll arrive cloaked and assess the situation before we fire a shot. And I'll take two navi in separate hangars as emergency escape vessels, just to be sure."

"Take dad and Parvati as well. They're both free at the moment." Hermione said, looking up into his eyes.

"Really? That's all the fight I'm going to get?" He asked, curious at her lack of resistance.

"I trust you not to put the others in undue danger. And I don't want to be the type of girlfriend who always nags you, Harry. That way, when I do, it will have more oomph." She replied with a cheeky smile. "Be careful."

"I will," Harry replied, softly kissing her forehead as his remote beeped again.

Lifting it up he noted that a planet was now highlighted in green, indicating it as the probable destination of the ship he was tracking. But a small message beside it left him curious.

"That's interesting."

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"That's Lazaria. There is an SGC team scheduled to be on the planet around now according to the computer."

Harry swiped the hologram to the side, compressing it down to show only the red dot, the green planet and the small hovering message. He typed two new commands into the remote and waited for the voice.

"Hello, Harry," Merlin said, appearing above his wrist beside the other images. "How can I help you?"

"Your check-in report from this morning indicates that the SGC has a team on Lazaria. Can you elaborate?"

Merlin was quiet for a moment, clearly accessing the detailed reports he now had filed in Aether's system. "Confirmed. SG-14 are on site undergoing discussions with the native populace, with SG-15 providing backup. Two teams were sent as the planet receives periodic visits from Heru'ur's forces as it is on the border of his territory. SG-1 is scheduled to depart shortly to assist in the initial talks given a set of ruins found the day before last."

Harry glanced at Hermione, who shared his concern. Three teams were on this world and it was about to have a dangerous uninvited guest.

"I've changed my mind. I'm coming with you." Hermione said.

Harry knew better than to bother trying to change her mind now and he too headed for the transport cabinet.

ϟ

Hermione turned around as she heard the other three figures entering the bridge. Despite having made the outfits that they were now wearing, she was surprised at how they all looked in them.

Harry in particular drew her eyes as she noted how the suit fitted him well now he had secured it properly. It highlighted his physique in a way she very much enjoyed. She found her eyes sliding up his body, starting at the dark crimson boots made of horntail skin covered in the thin and flexible vipertooth scales that rose about a third of the way up his calves.

The pale grey-cream antipodean dragon skin outer layer they had chosen extended up his legs, and she knew that it would shimmer with colour if exposed to a sufficiently powerful enough magical surge. While the dragons on which the skin was found were naturally magical enough to trigger the effect during their usual day-to-day activities, it made for an interesting effect when the user cast particularly potent magic, as it had when Harry had conjured his patronus for her during the tests.

Around the knees and other joints, she had reinforced the outfits with overlapping scales from the much darker ironbelly breeds. These thick scales were still small enough that they allowed unrestricted movement, but they provided a great deal of protection. As she drank in the rest of Harry's look, eyes drifting up over the additional scaling around his belt and over his chest to better protect the more vital organs, she found the other three looking at her curiously once she finally broke free of the spell she was caught under.

"Sorry." She mumbled.

Harry quickly walked over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "You look amazing too." He said with a crooked smile. "So, ready to go?"

"Yes. Who is flying?"

"That would be the captain here." Her father said, stepping past the two with a wry smile, clapping Harry on the shoulder as he passed.

"What? Why me?" Harry moaned.

"Because we voted, and you were the chosen one."

Harry looked to her for support but Hermione couldn't help but feel a little chuckle escape at the poor lost look on his face. "Sorry, Harry. But you are the best at leading during a stressful situation."

"Oh sure." He replied, sighing as he realized he was outnumbered on this matter. "Alright then."

He turned and walked over to the big chair, taking a seat once more, though this time without the pain in his chest. His eyes flicked back to Hermione and he smiled in a way she knew never to underestimate.

"If you will man navigation for us, Miss Granger." He said, gesturing towards the console that primarily operated the engines when multiple users were controlling the ship together. While a single person could control the ship alone from the central command chair, it was easier with multiple people and allowed each terminal to provide greater quantities of more specific data in response. She eyed him for a moment before she smiled and followed his orders, settling into the comfortable chair that was identical to the ones they had in the navis.

"I'll take weapons, sir," Parvati said cheekily, dancing quickly over to the other nearest console, leaving Richard standing beside Hermione.

The man glanced at the three teens before shrugging. "I'm just going to stand. I'll assist in damage control if needed. And I have the navi on standby ready for us to beam aboard at any moment.

Hermione watched Harry stare at her father and she suppressed another laugh as her boyfriend broke eye contact, checking the status of the vessel on the panel on his chair.

"Looks like we're as ready as we'll ever be. Take us out, please. We'll raise shields and cloak the ship before we jump to hyperspace, once we fully exit the atmosphere."

Hermione and Parvati nodded, glancing at one another and sharing a knowing smile. As potentially dangerous as what they were about to attempt was, they were both extremely excited. They were about to fly their first interstellar spacecraft to another star system. It was a totally different feeling from simply stepping through the stargate.

The ship quickly broke free of the atmosphere and headed out into the vast open space above their new home, and Hermione saw the outer shield rising around the vessel once they had cleared the atmosphere before it settled into an almost completely transparent film around the ship. She focused on the course that the navigational computer was plotting to their destination, a mere thirteen hundred light-years away.

A trip that, if the simulations were accurate, would be so brief that they would barely even be able to appreciate it.

Hermione turned to face Harry and he gave her an encouraging nod. With a few deft taps of her controls, they heard the currently untested hyperdrive at the rear of the ship wind up and a large pale green cloudy crack in space appeared directly in front of them. With a burst of speed, the sublight engines fired in conjunction with the hyperdrive, shooting them into the window and the pulsing tunnel of subspace that was the hyperspace dimension within.

Looking out on the streaking energy that closely matched the tint of the hyperspace window they had entered through was intoxicating when viewed through the massive dome. Even after all they had seen over the past year, this was an experience entirely new to them all.

Barely more than a minute and a half after entering, the ship smoothly passed back from hyperspace into real space through a similar pale green window. Harry gave a laugh of relief and Hermione realized she had been holding her breath the entire trip.

"That was awesome," Richard said, walking forwards to stare out the huge dome.

In front of them now was an entirely different star system. A huge purple gas giant with dozens of coloured bands wrapped around its surface hung there, dominating the view. On the near side of the giant planet was a green moon, dwarfed by the size of the planet around which it orbited.

"There it is, Lazaria. Must look incredible gazing up at that gas giant every day. Seeing something so enormous constantly hanging there in the sky." Harry said, clearly in awe of what they were seeing.

The group sat there in silent contemplation for several minutes as they observed the natural beauty of a sight that so many never had the opportunity to see in person. A truly humbling experience to see the majesty of the universe that continued on its course no matter what you did in your life.

"So, that's distracting. But we're here for a reason. Can we scan the moon, and find out where exactly the stargate and the village are located?" Harry asked, directing them all back to work.

Hermione and Parvati worked their control consoles, scanning the system as a whole and the moon in particular. "It looks like we're currently on the wrong side. The stargate is presently facing the planet." Hermione said, preparing a course that would take them between the two enormous spheres.

"Alright. Do we have an idea of when our guests will be arriving?" Harry asked Parvati as she checked over the results of her own scans.

"Momentarily, although, they're already on the surface. I guess they must have sent an advance team through the stargate." She replied and Richard moved over to a panel on the rear wall, though Hermione could not see what he was doing there. "Fifty seconds to arrival."

Hermione stared out into space, the giant planet even bigger than before as they moved closer, piloting between the moon and planet where they could possibly provide support for the teams now trapped below, assuming of course that they weren't blasted to pieces themselves before they could react.

"How's the gravity well? Can we jump back to hyperspace if necessary?" Harry asked.

Hermione checked the readings on her screen, noting that while the planet and moon were quite large, they weren't so massive as to overlap in a way that might prevent their engines from properly engaging. While the database showed the engines could activate under gravitational stress, they weren't overly keen to test such abilities on the maiden voyage. One set of unknowns was enough for this trip.

"No. Based on our simulations, we ought to be alright so long as we don't settle into too close an orbit around either mass."

As she finished speaking a purple-tinted hyperspace window opened a small way out from the two spheres hovering above them, almost below the centre plane of Vir and a large pyramid shot into real space nearby. Hermione was shocked into silence at the oddity of seeing such a huge shape that she associated with Ancient Egypt hovering amongst the stars. Around its midsection, there was a broad black ring covered in lights. It made for quite the sight.

Before any of them could speak, several far smaller vessels spilled out of the bowels of the massive pyramid.

"They have deployed attack craft," Richard said from behind them. "I count three dozen small single-occupant craft and about nine of the larger ones. Seems like overkill for three teams and a primitive populace."

"Big time. Alright then, this is the last chance to turn around. Anyone?" Harry asked, leaning forwards in his chair and locking eyes with all three of them, one by one.

When they all remained silent, he sighed and leant back. "So be it. Hermione, bring us in closer but prepare a course to jump away if required. Richard, make sure that both navi are ready to beam us immediately if the shield should fail. Do not wait for my order, just get us out of here. Parvati, prepare the plasma cannons. Target the smaller craft with the dorsal turrets, the big ship with the ventral ones."

They all followed Harry's instructions as Hermione's previous course brought them within a hundred kilometres of the goa'uld craft.

Harry took several deep breaths, and Hermione found herself mirroring him. This was the moment of truth for them all. A sink or swim situation.

"Lowering the cloak," Harry said as he tweaked the controls on his chair and they felt the energy shift across the ship.

Moments after the cloak shut off, the pyramid ship began to fire on them. Dozens of emplacements all over the dark curved hull came to life, peppering them with bright orange lances of energy, and illuminating the fact that the ring was not actually solid. It was jagged and hollow in places and the light from the cannons allowed them to see the angular shape that had been hidden in the darkness of space. Hermione felt her heart skip as the first blasts washed across the shield, most of them not visible as they assaulted the underside of the ship, but nothing penetrated.

"Shield holding steady. No surges or anomalies in power delivery or field strength." Parvati said, her voice full of obvious relief. "Emitters are all still well in the green."

Hermione watched out the wide dome as half of the descending force of ships broke off their entry into the atmosphere of the moon, altering course for Vir.

"Power delivery?" Harry asked, directing the question at Richard, turning to see the man at the wall behind him.

"Picture perfect. No changes in energy output, and all systems are running at optimum efficiency. It's like the enemy isn't even there." He too wore a look of immense relief and Hermione could see just how tense everyone else had been at the unknown nature of the encounter to this point.

Parvati turned back to her console and with a few strikes of the keys, the plasma cannons along the forward hull sprang to life. Dozens of cannons in view and even more below the ship sprayed an array of dense yellowing-lime-coloured plasma blasts outwards, the shields around the pyramid ship flared into view as they were pummeled by the intense heat and energy of the plasma. Each small lime bolt seemed to sap energy from the domed orange shape.

The smaller craft, however, did not fare nearly as well. Any of the one-manned ships that caught even a glancing blow erupted into pieces, shattered by the power of their weapons. The larger vessels could take a couple of hits before their shields failed completely and they too exploded, completely destroyed by the continuous stream of fire that Parvati was laying down.

Hermione noted that her father had designed the Vir well, placing the cannons evenly was allowing them to easily handle the array of craft angling towards them. Hearing shuffling behind her, Hermione turned to see Harry reclining back in his chair fully, closing his eyes and she smiled as she knew what he was about to do.

Parvati was handling the ships in space excellently, but they could not fire the plasma turrets at the moon without risking harm to the people on the surface. In moments, Hermione gasped as she saw a cloud of ferrum burst forth from the ship, her console telling her that Harry had fired them from every single launch tube at once. Even with their view restricted to just the forward dorsal hull, the sight was incredible, and she could only imagine how it looked from outside as hundreds of bright yellow lights burst outwards from the ship in unison.

The ferrum zoomed away from the ship, intermingling with the pale green-yellow bolts of fire from the plasma turrets except that they would occasionally move in a new direction as Harry flew them after the ships that were now in the atmosphere.

A small message appeared on Hermione's holographic screen and she turned to Parvati.

"The pyramid is trying to run. Should we try the big gun?" She asked, addressing both Richard and Parvati as Harry was far too busy to pitch in right now.

The smirk on her father's face gave his opinion clearly and Parvati gave her a pleased nod as she turned back to her console and entered the command sequence. Hermione used her own console to orient the ship so that they were once more pointed towards the now fleeing pyramid, narrowing the angle and thus lessening the number of plasma cannons that could fire on the vessel.

"Firing in three, two, one. Now." Parvati said, counting down before the three of them all watched out the front of the dome as a beam of intense, narrow green energy lanced forwards from the ship.

It instantly pierced the failing dome shields of the fleeing craft before it continued through the armoured hull too. Had they been able to see beyond it, Hermione estimated the beam was continuing onwards, until it became so attenuated by the distance that it lost the power to stay intact. As Vir continued altering course, the beam swept sideways through the pyramid and a chunk of the external curved ring broke off, severed completely from the main body.

A moment later, the ship as a whole exploded as the beam hit something truly vital inside and a shower of tiny chunks peppered the shield of the Vir, not a single piece passing through.

As the beam ceased, Hermione altered their course once more, rolling the ship to allow Parvati a wider field of fire across the still incoming smaller ships, what little remained of them at least. She smiled as she saw the small fighters trying to shoot down Harry's ferrum, but their weapons either missed the nimble devices entirely or simply glanced off the energy fields they emitted in flight.

"Good work, girls. Let's finish this off." Richard said, moving forwards and watching over Parvati's shoulder as she targeted the remaining ships. With many of the dorsal and ventral cannons now able to target them, the diminished field of craft was soon reduced to naught but a single ship, one of the larger ones, that had broken away from the assault and was making for open space.

As Parvati trained all the cannons on it, a purple cloud appeared before the ship and it raced out of the system, likely to be the only enemy survivor of today's events.

Parvati leant back in her chair and expelled a huge breath of air turning to face the two Grangers and smiling widely. She jumped up and gave Richard a huge hug and Hermione wanted to join them, but her focus fell to Harry, who was still focusing on the ships below that were now beyond their ability to safely destroy by any other means.

ϟ

"Jack!" Daniel yelled from his place tucked behind a tree a few metres away, barely audible over the repeated staff-weapon fire coming from the gate.

"What?" O'Neill replied, turning to see the man pointing into the sky.

"We've got incoming."

O'Neill turned his gaze upward to see a dozen gliders and several al'kesh making their way through the atmosphere. They would be on their position in moments.

"Crap. Focus fire on the gate. We need to get the hell out of here." He yelled into his radio at SGs 14 and 15, backing them up as he slowly approached what remained of the small squad of Jaffa that had snuck through while most of SG-15 was escorting them to the nearby village.

"We're nearly out of ammo, Colonel." Lieutenant Riley shouted from nearby.

O'Neill assessed their options. If they took any longer to take back the gate, they wouldn't have time to dial out before those ships were on top of them. Right now he wished they had brought some more grenades along with them, but that just triggered a probably terrible idea instead. He pulled a block of explosive from a pocket on his vest and affixed a trigger to the top. It was a crazy idea, but right now they were about to be hammered from above and they were plum out of sensible options.

"Everyone down." He said as pulled the detonator from his pocket and lobbed the C4 through the air. He tracked the arc and waited until the block fell into the midst of the Jaffa taking cover behind the stone base in which the gate was mounted, yelling, "Fire in the hole!" as he pulled the trigger.

The block was still a metre or so in the air when it exploded violently, the shockwave scattering Jaffa in every direction. While the lack of shrapnel meant they would not be down for long, the relief from the attack allowed all three teams to advance forwards, with Daniel finally making it to the DHD. Teal'c and Carter dropped into place alongside him, offering covering fire as the Jaffa gathered themselves after the explosion. Hoping that the blast had not damaged the gate, O'Neill glanced up and realized they had run out of time.

The ground around the gate began to explode as the gliders unleashed their staff weapons at the scattered troops and concealed but screaming residents of the nearby village. O'Neill dove to the side as the tree he had been hiding behind was cleaved in two by a blast that cut through it about halfway up and covered him in the dirt that the energy blast had scattered when it struck the ground.

"Ah, hell." He said, holding his ringing head and trying to shake off the impact.

Before he could right himself, a figure was there. "C'mon, sir. We gotta get out of here." Major Graham said, hauling him back to his feet.

O'Neill grabbed his P90 from where it had fallen on the ground and checked the progress of his team. They were holding their position and Daniel fell forwards onto the dome on the DHD, triggering the stargate which gave off the usual kawoosh, flooding the dark clearing with light from the event horizon.

"Sir," Carter's voice sounded over the radio. "We've established the wormhole. Sending IDC now."

"Get these people through the gate, Carter," O'Neill replied, turning to Graham.

Before he had a chance to say another word, the al'kesh bearing down on them exploded into a million pieces and the two soldiers ducked behind the nearby trees to protect against the rain of shrapnel that blew out from the explosion.

"What the hell was that?" O'Neill yelled before he looked up again to see the gliders and the remaining al'kesh being engaged by a massive swarm of yellow lights.

The extremely maneuverable gliders could not outfly the tiny things as they swept through the hulls of anything in their path. Even the al'kesh shields were no protection. O'Neill could see that they were active as Teal'c had been firing on the nearest vessel with his staff, but whatever these things were, they just passed straight through, tearing the ship to pieces before it exploded as well, though much further off this time.

"Talk about timing, sir," Riley said coming up beside him and Graham as they watched the tiny lights devastate the goa'uld craft.

"I want me some of those," O'Neill said as a few of the lights veered downwards and struck the few remaining Jaffa stragglers dead on, sending bits of them flying in every direction. Whatever they were, they were damned powerful, and evidently, extremely precise.

"Must be located in those ancient ruins. We can come back later to negotiate for access. Hell of a lot better than basic trade discussions. Though the Lazarians never mentioned anything like those before." Graham said, his voice surprisingly loud in the now almost quiet clearing. Without the Jaffa and gliders hammering them from all sides, there was nothing but the cool evening breeze rushing through the trees and the crackle of the nearby fires. And the oddly melodic buzzing of the lights above.

O'Neill keyed his radio. "All hands report in."

"Sir, this is Carter. Teal'c and Daniel are helping us move the Lazarians with us through the gate now. No sign of any remaining hostiles."

"Mawes here. We've got wounded, about twenty-five metres to the southwest of the gate. Arthurs is dead, and Thomas can't walk. Johnson is unconscious, but he'll live."

"Grady here, sirs. I'm pinned under a tree directly north of the gate. Blasdale and Astor are trying to shift it now. I'm sorry sirs, but Louis didn't make it. He was taken out in the initial assault."

O'Neill looked up into the sky where the tiny lights were circling as though still searching for targets before they began to disappear in white bursts of light that almost looked like Asgard beams. "T, go help Astor free Grady. We'll come help Mawes with the wounded. Get everyone back Earthside asap." He released the button on his radio and turned to his fellow unit commanders.

"What the hell was that, Colonel?" Graham asked, panting slightly as the adrenaline wore off.

"Who cares. Let's get these people through the gate before reinforcements arrive."

The lieutenant and major just nodded in response before the three commanders headed off to the southwest, left wondering just who they had to thank for saving their sorry asses tonight.

ϟ

Harry opened his eyes again and was immediately glomped by his girlfriend. Evidently, she had been waiting on tenterhooks for him to respond.

His arms wrapped around her and pulled her into his lap, not caring that her father was only feet away, cheering with Parvati. Looking out the dome, all he could see were the moon and planet, and a large field of debris scattered about the empty space between. They had wiped out the entire force and taken no damage in return.

And from the odd sensation that the sensors provided of the surrounding environment while piloting the ferrum, it appeared that most of those on the moon's surface were up and moving about. All in all, the test had been a complete success.

He gave a relieved sigh and looked away from space and at the smiling woman in his lap. "So, that went well." He said, drawing laughter from all present.

"I'd say that went brilliantly," Hermione said, leaning in and giving him a soft kiss. "I was so nervous when they started shooting at us."

"Me too," Harry admitted.

"Come on. I wasn't worried." Richard said. "This thing took a direct hit from that asteroid. Those little guns were never gonna penetrate the shields."

Harry knew the man was being cocky. Harry had seen just how powerful the shields were first hand too, and still, he was worried that somehow the energy blasts from the Goa'uld ship would pass right through.

Shifting Hermione slightly, he checked the systems of the ship on the small panel on the arm of his chair and noted that while two of the potentia were showing a lower energy capacity, they were still almost fully charged. Not only had they come out of the battle the victors, but they had also proven the ship and its systems. The scans that Parvati had run earlier were still running over the area around the gate and he saw no hostiles anywhere as the last of the SGC personnel disappeared through the stargate back to Earth. He sent a few vulta from the ship to monitor the planet before he focused back on the others.

"What's say we head home and celebrate? That way everyone can join in."

No one seemed to have any objections, and not wanting to let go of her right now, Harry tucked Hermione tighter into his arms and activated the course she had prepared at the beginning of the fight, shooting Vir back into hyperspace and heading for home.


END OF BOOK THREE