Robotech: The Stargate Saga

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech and Stargate characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Cocooned within the cockpit of Skull One, and still feeling a little out of place here as in his mind this cockpit and this veritech still belonged to one Rick Hunter, Captain Maximillian Sterling was feeling more than a twinge of puzzlement. The orders that they had been given were strange and currently made little sense. As he recalled short time ago Skull Squadron had been summoned away from the relief efforts in New Macross City, recalled to Fokker's Field where they had all been fully refuelled and rearmed, before being scrambled again. Now they were in a holding pattern at thirty thousand feet a few dozen kilometres south of the city limits, and they weren't alone. Wolf Squadron was here as well as was a whole squad of elite Zentraedi battle mecha in the form of the remains of the Quadrono Division.

A glance at his screen showed that the Quadrono's had formed their own little squad around Miriya's veritech. He could also see that there was considerable communication activity between Miriya and the power suit wearing female Zentraedi – her former sisters in arms – around her. He didn't doubt for one second that they were all playing catch up with one another, learning about all they'd all done over the last two years that they'd been apart.

Yet none of them knew why they were all out here, hanging amidst the clouds. All command had told them to do was wait here and that more instructions would be forthcoming.

Abruptly his comm screen started bleeping reporting an incoming communication, indeed he could see that the other squadron commanders and flight leaders were also receiving the same communication request. Maybe we're about to get some answers, he thought as he reached out and touched the control to open the comm link. To say he was surprised when the screen came to life with the face and upper torso of his former commanding officer would have been quite an understatement. As was where the other man was.

Rick Hunter was sitting in what was definitely a command chair on the bridge of a starship. A bridge the likes of which he had never seen before. All the control stations, the few that he could see behind Rick, appeared to be primarily crystalline and there were holographic screens floating everywhere – many relaying streams of data in strange alien characters that didn't match any language that he was familiar with – it certainly wasn't Zentraedi or Tirolian both of which he like all UEDF personnel had become somewhat familiar with. In his case being married to Miriya he was even more familiar with the former than most and could even fluently speak Zentraedi these days. Yet as he looked at the bridge – which Rick seemed to be alone on – he couldn't help but feel a twinge of familiarity that came from somewhere deep within him. It was almost like an echo of a dream or something, a feeling like he had seen it before somewhere. Where he didn't know as nothing on that bridge looked to be based in any form of robotechnology. Well not any form he knew of anyway.

"Hey skipper," he said in greeting using the familiar nickname that everyone in Skull – and before it Vermillion – Squadron had for Rick Hunter. "This is something of a surprise. I assume you're going to be briefing us on our mission."

"That I am Max," Rick answered with a slight informal smile and with a twinkle in his blue eyes that immediately put him somewhat on his guard. He knew that look it was one that Rick tended to sport when he was about to spring something truly monumental on you. "However, before I brief you all on the mission there is something that I need you to see first."

"Oh, what's that Hunter," Jack Archer asked popping up on one of the side screens as he joined the conversation from the cockpit of Wolf One.

Rick smirked in a way that set off a major mental alarm bell in Max's head. The other pilot definitely had something big up his sleeve. "This Archer," Rick answered before seeming to concentrate on something for a moment. Immediately Skull One's sensors began chirping and before Max's shocked, amazed eyes a huge section of the air in front of and below them suddenly shimmered and distorted with a rainbow of colours and a heat haze like ripple. Then a spaceship, a spaceship that like the bridge Rick was on felt oddly familiar to him yet he knew he had never seen it before, materialized as if out of thin air as the distortion vanished.

Max was stunned as he realized that the ship had probably been there for a few minutes, concealed from both their sensors and their eyes by some type of real-life cloaking device. How that was possible he didn't know as real-life cloaking was supposed to be impossible, the energy demands of hiding even a small ship from both eyes and sensors prohibitive even when you had access to protoculture. So how could that ship – which was considerably larger than any Terran ship being even bigger than an Armour-class ship – make itself invisible like that? It's power source had to be insane even by robotech standards.

He wasn't the only one who was shocked as Jack was doing a very good impression of a codfish in the way his mouth was hanging open and his brown eyes were wide in dumbfounded shock. It was actually quite a comical look for the former mercenary who was normally so cool and collected.

"Everyone allow me to introduce you to the reason that I was summoned to Calora via the Stargate," Rick said breaking the spell that had fallen upon all of them, prompting them all to listen with rapt attention. Both due to the fact that Rick had mentioned the Stargate – something that they had all heard about as that ancient ring-shaped device, and everything associated with it was the source of a great deal of the scuttlebutt making the rounds through the ranks of the United Earth Defence Forces but none of them had ever actually seen – and the alien warship that he was on. An alien ship that could among other things do something that was supposed to be impossible. "What you see before you, and whose bridge I am currently on, is the Lantean destroyer Aurelius. I need you all to approach and land – for veritech's in battloid mode – on the dorsal hull and then engage your magnetic locks. Once your all-in place I will reengage the cloaking device and we can proceed to our target."

"Which is," Jack asked curious, fully shaking off his shock and getting down to business.

Rick smiled again, the smile of a predator who knew he would soon have his prey just where he wanted him. Something that again had every other predator, wherever they were in the galaxy, suddenly feel envious. "I would think that would be obvious Jack," Rick answered. "We are going to be going after Khyron."

Jack blinked as he hadn't expected that. "But we don't know where that purple-haired bastard went," he protested, even as he inwardly danced a gleeful jig at the idea that they were about to deliver Khyron some long overdue comeuppance. That Zentraedi warlord – who at only a hundred years old was young for the rank – had been making a major pain of himself ever since he had first been encountered on Mars over three years ago.

"We do know Jack he was tracked both by the satellites we recently put up and Breetai's flagship," Rick answered, "it's just being the wily son of a bitch that he is Khyron flew to where he was going through Gilead airspace so we couldn't intercept him without starting a war with them. And there was no way they were going to try and take on a Cyclops recon ship themselves not with F-16's and F-22's."

"Well at least they have some common sense," Jack replied referring to Gilead who he generally considered to be nothing more than a bunch of religious nutjobs who followed a very extreme interpretation of Christianity. Gilead's military leaders had obviously known that trying to take on a Cyclops with pre-robotech fighters, even the F-22 which had for such a brief time been the best fighter jet in the world a crown it had lost to the VF-1 Valkyrie, would have been downright suicidal as between missiles and beam cannon it would have easily massacred them all if the tried. "So where exactly are we going? Where has that purple haired bastard gone to ground?"

"Amazonia. Now everyone come in and land on the dorsal hull so we can get underway."

"You got it boss," Max answered bringing the conversation to an end before Jack could ask any more questions. Rick smiled slightly and nodded thankfully before closing down the communication link from his end. Max for his part decided to lead by example and began approaching the Aurelius before switching to battloid mode and landing next to, what something inside him, told him was the bridge. Sensors and external cameras showed Miriya landing next to him with a few power-suited Quodrono's landing next to her - having seemingly chosen of their own accord to place themselves back under Miriya's direct command for this particular unexpected, but very welcome, mission as Khyron's attack on New Macross had inflicted considerable damage and infuriated all of them.

He kept his eyes on his sensor screens as over the next few minutes all the other veritechs and power suited female Zentraedi assigned to this mission landed on the upper dorsal hull of the Aurelius. Landed and one by one locked themselves in place. Within moments the air around the ship – and all the mecha now attached to her hull like barnacles to a rock – distorted and shimmered with rainbow colour as the cloaking field reformed and pushed them all slightly out of sync with normal space-time. Within seconds it was over, and a faint shiver ran through Skull One as the Aurelius began moving heading straight as an arrow – even though doing so would take them right through the very heart of the Holy Republic of Gilead – towards the battlecruiser that Khyron was intending to bring back to life.

All of them intent on ensuring he never did so.

Bridge

Ancient Destroyer Aurelius

Sometime Later

Despite the fact that he was rapidly becoming used to it the alert that flashed through the ships datastream and into his consciousness still caught Rick somewhat by surprise. The navigational system confirmed that they had reached their destination coordinates. The crashed, but surprisingly intact, Zentraedi battlecruiser that the Asgard had first detected, and alerted them too, just over a week ago. A vessel that proximity sensors confirmed was there.

It was invisible from the air having disappeared beneath the verdant canopy of the rapidly growing Amazon rainforest as the combination of sunlight and plentiful, nurturing rain, has prompted the rainforest trees and other plants to quickly grow and conceal its presence. However, the thick foliage was no Impediment to the advanced Lantean sensor arrays, and they confirmed the battlecruiser's exact location. With a thought he reached out and scanned it, seeking to determine just how far along in his preparations for launch Khyron was.

The results registered in his awareness almost immediately.

Rick frowned when the sensors confirmed that Khyron was a lot farther along with his preparations than he would have expected. All of the battlecruisers primary systems were operational – albeit were running on very low power, basically just enough to keep them online and ticking over so to speak – and Khyron had clearly wasted no time in plugging the protoculture storage matrix he'd stolen from the industrial sector of New Macross City into the ship. The vessels reflex furnaces were slowly but surely coming back to life, the amount of power they were providing to the ship steadily rising. At the rate the power output was building the vessel would be capable of taking to the skies again and would thus become a threat to everyone on Earth. in just over two hours.

He couldn't, and wouldn't, let that happen.

Thankfully stopping Khyron wouldn't be that difficult. The sensors confirmed that the crew onboard was considerably smaller than what was the norm for a Rineunadou Lojmeuean-class battlecruiser. It was actually barely enough to cover the basic operation of the vessel. Which really wasn't surprising when you considered the somewhat dismal reputation that Khyron had among the Zentraedi due to his past. Thus, most would not want to work with him if they could possibly avoid it as he did have the habit of killing his own people if they happened to get in his way. Which meant his recruitment options among the malcontent Zentraedi were somewhat limited. Most of the crew were probably from his previous flagship or had come with Azonia. The few crew that there were seemed to be focused in three key areas of the vessel, those being the main engineering control room, the hangar bay and the ships command centre. The scan revealed something else that was actually quite surprising.

The system that inhibited transport onto the ship was currently shut down.

Rick grinned, somewhat evilly, at that. This was perfect they would literally be able to appear aboard and takeover critical areas of the vessel before Khyron could really begin to react. He quickly put the computer to work, working out the optimum deployment pattern to take the vessel as quickly, and as painlessly as

possible. Within seconds the advanced tactical AI programs that the Lanteans had built into the ship's mainframe presented him with the requested plan.

It took only a couple of minutes for him to review it and be satisfied with what they had come up with. Thus, he opened communications links with the mecha attached like limpets to the dorsal hull of the Aurelius to give them the appropriate orders.

It was time to introduce Khyron, Azonia and all those on the battlecruiser who had sided with them to a simple universal truth that every Terran knew. Payback was a bitch.

Command Blister

Zentraedi Battlecruiser

"Engineering reports that the main reflex furnaces are now online and are beginning to generate power. Ship power levels rising, we will be at full power soon."

Standing next to Azonia Khyron smiled as he listened to Grell reporting their status. Finally, things were looking up for them, they would soon be able to leave this accursed micronian planet and return to the Robotech Masters. Return not only with the report that Zor's battlefortress was here – though why the Masters were so intent on getting on Sian Macross-class battlefortress when they had hundreds like it back he had absolutely no idea but then it wasn't his place to question the will of the Masters – but that Breetai had betrayed them and assisted in the death of Dolza. No doubt when he informed them the Masters would send him back here with the Guardians at his back. They would retrieve the ship, eliminate the traitors and purge the insolent micronian species called Terrans from existence.

It was really something to look forward to.

"How long until we're able to launch?" he asked as he really wanted to leave this world, at least until he could come back with sufficient resources to finish what Dolza had started and destroy it.

Grell grimaced. "Not for another two hours I'm afraid," he replied, "both the antigravity pods and the main sublight drives are having to go from a near cold start as the fusion generators were not sufficient to fully charge them on their own. The fold system will be online approximately half an hour after that."

Hjuy65

Khyron scowled. "Can we not launch any faster?" he asked, throttling back the impulse to erupt at Grell over the delay as it wasn't his fault and if there was one thing, he agreed with the micronians on is not shooting the bearers of bad news.

"I'm afraid not two hours is the best we can do."

"There maybe one way to speed things up," Azonia commented drawing Khyron's attention.

"What do you mean?" he asked curious as he turned to look at her.

"We could divert power from the primary weapons systems to the propulsion and anti-gravity systems," Azonia said, she held up a hand to forestall the argument she could immediately see on Khyron's lips. "Our defensive weapons and missile launchers would still be functional its just the main gun and the particle cannons that will not be powered. The transfer of power would cut the charging time in half. Once airborne we could restore power to the primary weapons as we will need them if we are to leave this planet without Breetai or the micronians shooting us down."

"You make a good point my dear," Khyron admitted before turning back to the patiently waiting Grell. He had been a very good lieutenant to him over the years, he would have to recommend to the Masters that Grell be rewarded with a command of his own soon. "Transfer the power as Azonia suggested. The sooner we can leave this planet the better."

"As you wish," Grell replied before speaking into his headset relaying the order to the engine room. After a moment the response came back. "Power transferred. Propulsion systems are now charging at twice the speed they were before."

"Excellent. Let me know when we're ready Grell."

"Of course."

Khyron started to turn to speak to Azonia to discuss their plans from here on out, especially as the journey back to Tirolian space would be long and hard, but before he could speak alarms suddenly went off. What in Haydon's name, he thought whirling to speak to Grell again even as part of him recognised the particular tone as that that warned of intruders.

"What is it?" he demanded seeing Grell suddenly listening to something on his headset. After a second or two Grell went pale which was so not a good sign. "What is it?" he repeated.

"Micronian battle mecha," Grell answered shock in his voice even as through his headset he heard weapons fire both the high pitch of particle beams and the staccato sound of micronian autocannons.

"What! Where?"

"In the engine room."

"How in Zor's name could the micronians get aboard without us detecting them," Azonia demanded as more intruder alarms went off. She turned to look at the command blister console and her eyes widened when she saw both battloid mode Valkyrie's and Queadluun-Rau suits in the hangar bays – exchanging fire with startled defenders. As she watched in a golden shimmer of what was clearly a transporter beam another group of both appeared, flanking and quickly overpowering the defenders gunning them down in a hail of energy and projectile weapons fire. "Impossible."

"What is it," Khyron demanded a second before the main lights abruptly went out, dull blue emergency lights coming on a moment later. "Now what?"

"The micronians have cut main power," Grell reported.

"He's right our feeds show the reflex furnaces and secondary fusion generators powering down," Azonia added a moment before a faint buzzing sound filled the command blister. All three Zentraedi turned to where the sound seemed to be coming from in time to see in a golden shimmer three battloids – one in the distinctive markings and colours of Skull One, another in the bright red of the mecha her traitorous former second in command Miriya controlled – appear in the blister autocannon gunpods already raised and ready to fire.

"Stand down," a voice, that wasn't Rick Hunter but which she recognised as the micronian who had turned Miriya, said from Skull One. "Stand down or we gun you down."

For a few moments the three Zentraedi were two startled by their sudden appearance to react, then Khyron snarled in an almost animalistic fashion and reached for his particle beam sidearm. He never drew it for as his hand closed on the grip Max fired a single burst. The shells from the autocannon, travelling as they were at hypersonic velocity, hit Khyron instantaneously and punched right through the fabric of his uniform to rip his chest and vital organs apart even as the sheer kinetic force lifted the already dead warlord off his feet and slammed him into the bulkhead – his last scream of pain and defeat echoing in the command blister as his lifeless body slumped to the floor leaving a steak of blood on the wall.

Azonia and Grell exchanged a look. They both knew that if they foolishly attempted to do what Khyron had then they would be killed too and honestly neither particularly wanted to die. So, in a universal gesture of surrender among humanoid races they raised their hands.

Bridge

Ancient Destroyer Aurelius

A Few Moments Later

"All resistance on board has ceased skipper," Max reported from the holographic screen floating in front of Rick's face. "We now have complete control of the ship."

"Excellent news Max," Rick replied even as he mentally gave the command to the datastream to decloak the ship. "How many prisoners have you taken and what are your casualties like?"

"We have no serious casualties' boss, a few bits of scorched armour yes but no injuries on our side. We took the malcontents by such surprise that they barely had chance to fight back. As for the Zentraedi we have twenty-three prisoners and a dozen fatalities including Khyron. Among the survivors we have prisoner is Commander Azonia. What should we do with them?"

Rick considered that for a few moments. There was a small part of him that wanted to order that the Zentraedi be killed as they had been many opportunities to meaningfully engage with them or with Breetai. And through that with the brighter future that they were working to build for both their races out of the ashes of the Rain of Death. Only for Azonia and the others to turn their back on those opportunities again and again and continue to embrace not just their warrior programming but maintain their allegiance to the Robotech Masters who had both created and enslaved their entire race. Having them killed would eliminate any future threat from them.

Yet that didn't feel like it was the right thing to do. Personally, he would be far more in favour of trying harder to reach out to those Zentraedi still battling with their programmed aggression and loyalty to the Robotech Masters. Maybe the Asgard or the Nox would be able to offer some help in dealing with this somewhat thorny issue. Thankfully what to do with this particular group of malcontents over the longer term was not his concern, he just had to decide what to do with them right now. The Defence Council would have the headache over what to do with them over the longer term and they were quite welcome to it.

"For now, lock them up in the cruisers brig," he said at last, "I'll contact Command and find out what exactly they want us to do with the prisoners."

"Will do sometimes its good to pass the headache up the line," Max answered.

Rick chuckled. "That it is Max," he answered, "go attend to locking the crew up. I'll be back in touch with you soon."

"I'll ger right on it. Skull Leader out."

As the holographic screen pixeled out of existence due to Max closing the commlink Rick felt a momentary stab of loss at Max referring to himself as Skull Leader. A title that, until two days ago, had been his. Has it really only been two days, he thought as it felt almost like a lifetime since he had first stepped aboard the Aurelius given everything that had happened since. Everything that they had been through together so far from the moment he first sat in this chair. He pushed aside those thoughts, there would be time for them later and instead focused on giving a command to the datastream and opening a communications link with command back in New Macross City.

Skull One

An Hour Later

Through the cockpit canopy Max watched as the Zentraedi dropship containing the prisoners taken from the battlecruiser began ascending back to orbit and Commander Breetai's flagship. Breetai had convinced the Defence Council to let him hold the prisoners aboard his flagship while the Council decided what exactly they were going to do with them. There was bound to be a lot of arguing in the Council over the issue with the xenophobes like Colonel Matthews arguing for the harshest of sentences and being opposed by more level headed members like Admiral Gloval who was back on his feet, and unhurt, after a Nox healer dealt with the wounds he had taken during the late, and very unlamented by just about everyone, Khyron's attack on New Macross.

They just had one more thing to do themselves now before they could head back, or rather Rick had one more thing to do. And that was make sure that nobody could ever use that battlecruiser again, they'd already recovered the stolen protoculture and emptied its fusion fuel tanks. But command didn't want to take any chances, so they had ordered Rick to destroy the ship before they landed on the upper hull of the Aurelius and began their cloaked flight home.

A bleep from Skull One's sensors informed him that the Lantean destroyer was moving slightly, changing position so it was broadside on to the downed cruiser and angling so every turret down one side had a clear shot. The power readings from the ancient warship began increasing exponentially and he didn't need the computer to tell him that the vessel was powering weapons. He had to wonder why he seemed to just know things about that ship. Hopefully he would be able to speak privately with Rick soon and hopefully get answers, if Rick had them to give him and if command allowed it.

A bleep from the sensors brought him out of those thoughts and he watched as the Aurelius opened fire. From each barrel of her starboard side cannon turrets, including both the dorsal and ventral heavy turret, emerged a bolt of a strange green energy. Travelling at a phenomenal speed the bolts seemed to reach the ship instantaneously and the effect was devastating.

Being built by a race millions of years older, and over a million years more technologically advanced, the bolts from the Aurelius neutron cannons sliced through the armour of the Zentraedi warship like it was paper and not a superstrong robotechnology nanolaminate composite and tore into the innards of the warship slicing through structural supports with ease. Immediately the hull, deprived of many of its key supporting structures began collapsing in upon itself. A second salvo followed obliterating what was left of the ships internal support structures turning the doomed ship from a mighty warship – that in its time had brought terror to countless millions across multiple galaxies – into a smouldering pile of shattered, melting hull plates. Plates that ceased to exist a few seconds later as a third salvo from the phenomenally powerful weapons of the Ancients completely vaporised them leaving no evidence that they'd been there but a blackened smudge on the ground and a ship-shaped hole in the forest canopy.

It was over.

"Skull Leader to all units," he said into the general comm frequency. "Everyone proceed to land on the upper deck of the Aurelius for transport back to New Macross."

A chorus of acknowledgements came from all the other pilots – Terran or Zentraedi – who had taken part in this highly successful surprise attack upon Khyron. As he began guiding Skull One towards the warship Max changed channels, opening a personal comm frequency to Rick and expanding it to include Miriya since he didn't keep anything from his wife. For a moment more nothing happened then his comm screens came to life one showing Rick the other Miriya.

"Hey, Max I've been waiting for your call," Rick said in greeting, "you have questions don't you."

"You bet I do," Max answered, "that ship your on, the bridge that you're on as soon as I saw it i…"

"…felt like you knew it," Rick finished for him. "It's a genetic memory Max. I was exactly the same the first time I saw this ship and as soon as President Jowmart brought me and Colonel Ferretti onboard, I knew exactly where to go on the Aurelius, where her bridge was and so on."

"Pretty exact for a genetic memory," Miriya pointed out, "normally such things are just vague impressions in most sentient species."

"What exactly does it mean," Max asked both confused and curious.

Rick sighed. "I'm not supposed to tell you this yet, command is still working out how to tell everyone who is like us but I'll tell you if you both promise to tell nobody about this," he said. Max exchanged a concerned look with Miriya at that. What did Rick mean by people who were like them? Were they in some kind of danger because of whatever this was, whatever this genetic memory pertained to? Did it endanger his little Dana as well? After a moment both himself and Miriya nodded and gave their agreement.

"Alright I can't tell you very much at this point in time," Rick admitted, "but if you come by my place when we're all off duty – and assuming command doesn't want me to take the Aurelius someplace else – I will tell you everything that I know about it."

"Alright we'll be there," Max agreed, "as long as you don't mind us bringing little Dana along."

"Not at all I always love seeing her."

"Is there anything you can say now," Max asked.

"Only that me, you, Roy and everyone else like us are technically speaking aren't as human as we have always believed ourselves to be."

"WHAT!" Max exclaimed uncharacteristically raising his voice firmly communicating his shock at that revelation. "What does that mean?"

"It means we carry some of the DNA of the Lanteans. The ancient race who built the Aurelius and among other things over the last few million years built the Stargates here and across much of the local group of galaxies."

"The Old Ones," Miriya breathed.

"Old Ones?" Max asked.

"It's an old legend that I have heard of now and again over my centuries," Miriya admitted, "that until ten thousand years ago there was an ancient race of indescribable power – power far beyond the Robotech Masters themselves – that dominated vast swathes of the known universe until that was, they vanished. We Zentraedi only of them from legends that we inherited from our creators who refer to them as the Old Ones. They're one of the few ancient myths that even the Robotech Masters do not discount and indeed have been known to be periodically obsessed with. The legends of the Old Ones also refer to star portals which are almost certainly the Stargates. Minister Exedore would know more than me."

"Huh I will have to pass that one on if you don't mind Miriya."

"Not at all Rick. But if you and Max have the DNA of the Old Ones in you what exactly does it mean? Are your people related to them in some way?"

"I don't know entirely what it means yet," Rick admitted, "I know quite a bit though as Primus told me a lot as did a neural interactive simulation that was left here on this ship, specifically for me to find by her original captain. A man named Bonran though how he knew it would be me to activate the ship again after ten thousand years on Calora I don't know."

"We're going to have a lot to talk about aren't we," Max said as he landed on the upper deck of the Aurelius and saw on a side screen all the other veritechs and battle suits doing the same.

"Yeah, Max we are," Rick confirmed even as he reengaged the cloaking field and directed the navigational system to take them back to New Macross City. "We are."

Authors Notes: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it. I had originally planned for a far more dramatic battle with Khyron but the more I tried to write it the more I found that it didn't work and that a surprise attack from within his own ship, using the transporter systems of the Aurelius, was the best way to take that purple haired Zentraedi pest down and low and behold it worked. Now Max is being inducted by Rick – without orders though Gloval won't argue with him about it and would prevent any blowback from Rick's political opponents on the Defence Council of which there are one or two, some of which is based in jealousy of Rick having a link to the Ancients when they don't – into the greater mystery of their connection to the Ancients which actually goes much further than both of them being ATA positive. Though in both men's cases their exposure to the ambient radiation field produced by protoculture has mutated and amplified the effects of the gene essentially pushing it and then a little bit farther along the human evolutionary path than it otherwise would have.

Next chapter we will be catching up with what Tharos is up to and set the stage for the next phase of the arc with Tharos/Vince Grant as the Goa'uld fights for his life against the forces of Sokar. I will try to get that chapter ready before Christmas but, given how little time there is left and how chaotic it's getting around here as it always does in the build up to Christmas, I naturally cannot make any promises. Until next time, peace and out.