"Alterans? You mean living Ancients?!" Dr. Jackson asked excitedly.
"Possibly, if it is an Alteran ship, then only an Alteran can fly it. They never shared the secret with us, no one shares everything with even their most trusted allies, but they had a method of ensuring that only an Alteran could operate their most sensitive technology. It is possible, that someone succeeded in reverse engineering an Alteran vessel. Most of the Gou'ald's technology is actually reverse engineered and built according to their specifications. You are proving successful at reverse engineering technology you come across in your explorations."
"So it may be people watching over us?" General Hammond asked.
"Or their appearance here could simply be a coincidence. This design of ship, the small, rounded wedge shape, with retractable drive pods, is intended to be an attack cruiser. It's small, light weight size makes it very fast and highly maneuverable. It is not meant to tractor something so large. The only way it would be able to accomplish it, would be if it was powered by something equivalent to a Potentia."
"What's a Potentia?" Major Carter asked.
"A storage module for zero point energy. The Alteran's ships and cities were all powered by them." Thor informed them. "But even with a Potentia supplying power, they risked fracturing their ship moving that asteroid. The asteroid was much larger and heavier then it. I have scanned the asteroid in question and it is comprised nearly entirely of Naquada. This system has no Naquada, what little there was, was depleted by the Alterans long before they left this galaxy. Therefore, its appearance is not naturally occurring."
"We were afraid of that." Major Carter said. "We monitor all near Earth asteroids of a large enough size to be a threat, this one was completely unknown to us."
"So either the Gou'ald sent it, which is the most likely scenario, or these unknown people are trying to get in good with us." Colonel O'Neill said. "And given that they were trying to hide the fact that they were even trying to help us, I doubt that."
"As do I." General Hammond. "But it doesn't hurt to be cautious. Thor, thank you for your assistance in this matter, it is greatly appreciated. If there is anything we can do to help you, please don't hesitate to ask us."
"Major Carter's assistance in protecting Othalla was of a great deal more assistance then this matter. We are happy to help our allies of Earth. I will depart now."
"Little guy still thinks he owes us." Colonel O'Neill observed after Thor had departed.
"What if it is real Ancients trying to help us?" Dr. Jackson theorized, dazzled by the possibility of real Ancients.
"Then we hope we eventually make contact with them." General Hammond said. "And we should have asked him about the weapon used to destroy the Bliskner when it was crashing into Earth."
"It's possible that's unrelated, sir." Major Carter said. "But given that this vessel is an attack cruiser, probably not. Next time we see him, we can ask about it."
"Agreed, dismissed for now."
Back outside Sunnydale, Alexander carefully maneuvered the Altimah back into the hanger bay, dropping the cloak at the last second.
"There, safely back in her nest. Corda and I can get started on the repairs and you two can get back to your work. Hopefully, we won't have another crisis before we get the repairs completed. And I'm more certain then ever that Earth has an alien enemy. That asteroid was meant to destroy Earth. Who could it be, I wonder?"
"Any of the hostile races our ancestors encountered here in this galaxy could still be around. And given that it's been a million years, new ones could have arisen in that time. We have no idea what the galaxy looks like right now." Corda reminded him. "All we can do for now, is keep an eye on the situation. We're not in a position to go looking for this enemy."
"True, unfortunately. Well, let's figure out what we need to do to repair those microfissures."
The rest of the summer was very quiet even by Sunnydale standards, so quiet that Buffy and Faith were growing frustrated.
"There are no more vampires and demons right now." Buffy complained. "We ran into only four in Sunnydale all summer. We even expanded our patrols to the college campuses, which turned out to be a good thing because we found a nest in an old frat house. But that's all we've found."
"If G wasn't making me finish High School, I'd be moving to L.A. right now." Faith agreed. "Sunnydale has seriously been boring this summer."
"That'll change now that school's starting back up." Alexander pointed out. "You know it's always worse during the school year, then during the summer. Now that we've finished the repairs on the Altimah, we can each take turns helping with patrol. In between classes and continuing to reverse engineer what we can. We're still not in a position to begin manufacturing anything ourselves, but we'll get there. In the meantime, now that Jonno and Oz understand the pulse pistol and most of the programming on the scanner, we've patented the pulse pistol and can begin writing computer programs based off its programming and registering those. They, at least, will start bringing in income."
"And then I can replace the seed money I withdrew from the trust fund." Corda said. "There could be penalties for withdrawing it early, so the sooner I can replace it, the better."
"Well, let's get some rest. College classes start tomorrow and you never know what that might bring with it." Alexander said. That pesky Murphy guy was hanging around again, someone really should just shoot him and put him out of everyone's misery, but where would the fun be in that?