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.

Interlude Seven

Asgard Battleship Gungnir

Earth Orbit

A Short Time Later

Sitting in the quiet sanctuary of his quarters Thor scowled, in a subtle Asgard fashion, as he read the analysis of their scans of the scorched planet below. In the two days since they had made the offer to assist in the reconstruction of this planet – an offer that had been accepted as had their offer to contact the Nox who knew more about regenerating worlds than anyone this side of the long since ascended Ancients – they had been running endless scans of the planet. Mapping out everything so they would have some idea where to begin the mammoth task that helping the people of Earth – and their new Zentraedi allies – rebuild their world after the devastating attack by Dolza and the Zentraedi Main Fleet.

They were beginning to get an idea of just how enormous a task that was going to be.

While some areas of the planet had been spared the vast majority of it had been hit hard by Dolza's attack. Where there had once been forests or grasslands all teaming with life, where cities that could be millennia old had stood, there was now nothing but glass and compacted ashes some of which were still heavily irradiated with the specific types of very damaging radiation produced by quantum energy weapons like the reflex cannon. One thing that was also obvious was that in many areas the topmost layers of the planet's surface, especially the soils, had been completely vapourised during the attack leaving the bedrock beneath exposed. Indeed in some places even the bedrock itself seemed to have either been vapourised or melted into a crude form of molten lava further sterilizing everything.

It was actually downright amazing that the humans here had managed to survive Dolza's savage, but devastating, assault upon their world. And not just survive but fight back and ultimately defeat the great Zentraedi warlord and in the process destroy the vast majority of the largest Zentraedi battle fleet ever assembled a fleet powerful enough to conquer vast swathes of the universe. What remained of it had either crashed onto the surface – which had ironically led the humans here to rediscover the Stargate that their ancestors had buried several millennia earlier when, with some background help from his people, they'd driven the Goa'uld from Earth – or was now drifting in the great debris field that was forming a crude ring system around the planet. A field that was slowly being cleaned up as the wrecks were towed into the cavernous recycling bays of the factory satellite that they'd so recently captured and in the process defeated another Zentraedi warlord and sent an entire fleet of the bioengineered giants down in flames. There was much to admire in such a warrior spirit.

"Very impressive," he muttered to himself not for the first time since he'd learned of it being impressed by the humans, or rather Terrans as they now called themselves it was certainly better than the name the Goa'uld knew them as Tau'ri, accomplishments. He would really like to meet this Admiral Gloval at some point as well as this Lynn Minmei whose singing had done so much to begin breaking the neuro-somatic conditioning that the Robotech Masters had used on the Zentraedi leading to the defection of not just one of the greatest of all Zentraedi high warlords – Breetai himself – defecting to the Terran side but an entire Imperial-class fleet.

A bleep informed him that new scan data was in and awaiting his perusal as it had found something, something unexpected. Now what could this be, he thought as he moved the control stone on the arm of his throne-like chair bringing up the new report. They were picking up two energy signatures in the region of the planet that the Terrans called Amazonia, which was one of the few really intact areas but then there had been no major city there for Dolza to target, that should not be there. One was coming from a crashed Zentraedi monitor, which was showing signs that someone had restored its secondary fusion generators to life though the main reflex furnaces were still inert, which he made a note to inform the Terrans of in their next meeting as they would no doubt want to investigate it.

The other energy signature was coming from an ancient ziggurat temple that was still heavily overgrown and likely had not seen the sun since the end of the Mayan Empire over three centuries ago if not longer. It was a signature that he was very, very familiar with as it was coming from a Goa'uld sarcophagus device and from the steady level it was at there was someone inside – almost certainly a Goa'uld as the Goa'uld had been known to periodically imprison their own kind inside one for various reasons – being kept alive in stasis. Well that won't do, he thought entering a command that would see the sarcophagus transported to a secure storage area aboard this ship, allowing them to deal with whatever Goa'uld was inside later. A set of runes flashing on the holographic display informed him seconds later that the transport was complete and the sarcophagus securely stowed aboard.

Pleased he made a note to begin sweeping the planet for any more signs of Goa'uld in stasis or Goa'uld technology that might have been left behind when Ra and the System Lords were forced to abandon the planet. The former he would remove as the last thing the people here needed was Goa'uld hiding in their midst, as they would if they ever escaped stasis, and plotting to acquire power and to be worshipped as living gods in the way they liked to be. The latter well he would turn that over to the Terrans for study, Goa'uld technology didn't change that much or that quickly so anything found would certainly be able to give them valuable insights into how Goa'uld tech functioned.

A bleep from the comm unit caught his attention and he pressed one of the runes causing the holoscreen to change showing an image of one of the officers manning sensors. "Commander our long-range sensors have detected the Nox vessel approaching," the officer reported immediately. "They will arrive here in four minutes and thirty-five seconds."

"Very well I will return to the bridge shortly," Thor replied, "advise both the Terrans and the Zentraedi Command Ship of the expected arrival time of the Nox vessel."

"Yes commander."

"Also advise them of the activity we detected from the crashed vessel in Amazonia."

"Yes commander," the other Asgard replied before, seeing that Thor had nothing else to say, closing the communications channel down from the other end prompting the original report screen to reappear. Thor gave the latest reports one last scan, before saving and closing them down for a later more in depth analysis. Then he manipulated the control stones and runes on the arm of his chair activating the transporter system and instantly teleporting himself to the command chair on the bridge. The other Asgard paid no mind to his appearance though it was obvious from the way they all subtly stiffened that they knew that he was here.

For his part Thor scanned the holographic status displays floating in the air, seeing everything that was going on around the Gungnir in an instant. He immediately noticed that a small group of Zentraedi ships had moved out of their normal position and begun moving out into space. A few taps of his throne controls let him know that they were heading out to begin additional scans of the system, something that according to Commander Audun's reports the Zentraedi had been doing for quite some time now, with this particular group scheduled to fold to the region of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. As he recalled Audun had even queried the Terran representative a Doctor Elizabeth Weir about what the Zentraedi were doing and being told that they were searching the system for useable resources.

Thor thought that was actually quite a good idea as it kept the Zentraedi occupied as one thing that the Asgard had learned over the centuries was there was nothing more dangerous than a bored Zentraedi. Bored Zentraedi tended to, in their experience at least, be even more prone to violence due to the aggression engineered into them by the Robotech Masters. Idly Thor had to wonder how the Terrans and their allies were coping with that aggressive nature as they would have to find some outlet for it or there could be a potential problem.

"Commander the Nox mothership is coming out of hyperspace now," sensors reported bringing Thor out of his thoughts.

"Understood," Thor replied, pressing a rune to bring in an image of the location where the Nox mothership was projected to emerge from hyperspace. He was actually quite looking forward to seeing it as it had been a few millennia since he had last seen one. Mostly because while they did have the capability for even intergalactic travel the Nox generally didn't leave their homeworld Gaia, preferring to live in harmony with the world's ecosystem spending most of their time in giant cities – that like all Nox technology were bioengineered constructs of incredible complexity that nobody other than the long since ascended Ancients could hope to rival – that floated above the surface drifting on the planet's winds. Something that they had done since before the Asgard had first encountered them or rather when the Ancients introduced them to the Nox and the now long since vanished to somewhere else in the universe – naturally without telling anyone where they were going or why – Furlings.

He was brought out of his thoughts when a bright whitish-green hyperspace window abruptly burst into existence spilling a torrent of eldritch light into normal space. The window flashed and the Nox ship emerged into normal space, the great rift in the fabric of space and time folding closed behind it as though it had never been present at all. The design of the Nox ship had not changed since the last time he had seen one, an elongated oval bisected by a pulsating ring of multicoloured light. While he knew that it was purely functional – since it was a part of the vessels sublight propulsion systems which were a uniquely Nox take on inertialess engines that nobody outside the Nox, except perhaps the Ancients if they'd still been around, could quite understand – it along with the organic construction of the vessel made Nox vessels beautiful to look at.

"Commander the Terrans are hailing the Nox vessel," communications reported. "Should we do the same?"

Thor considered for a few moments before making his decision. "No we will let the Terrans and the Nox speak first," he replied knowing that it was important that the two races speak and establish a repour first as they would naturally be working very closely together to really begin repairing the damage done to Earth by the event the Terrans referred to, correctly and somewhat euphemistically, as the Rain of Death. As much as he would like to speak with the Nox, especially about a pressing issue facing his people that the High Council would like there help with, it could and would wait.

"Understood commander."

Thor turned his attention back to the other general stasis screens, checking on all the various systems that there were aboard the Gungnir. The mighty battleship was one of the largest and most powerful warships ever constructed by the Asgard, packed with cutting edge technology much of it designed to counter the ever present threat of the Robotech Masters, thus there were a great many things that he needed to be kept informed about aboard. Systems that he needed to know were working exactly as they should, should he ever find himself having to take the ship into battle against the enemies of the Asgard people.

He was just finishing his perusal when a chirp from the sensor station caught his attention. "Commander the Nox mothership is launching a shuttle," sensors reported, "we read three Nox life signs aboard. They're heading towards the factory satellite."

"Commander we are receiving a message from the factory satellite. Doctor Weir is going to be holding a face-to-face meeting with the Elder leading the Nox delegation and would like to know if you wish to attend the meeting," communications added.

Thor considered for a moment though the very fact that Doctor Weir had asked told him that either she or the Nox Elder – whoever it was – actually wanted him to come to the meeting. "I will attend," he said at last, "have a shuttle prepared for immediate launch."

"Yes commander."

Hunter Residence

Outside Denver, Colorado

North American Quadrant

Nathan Hunter felt like a stranger as, for the first time in so many years, he gazed upon his bedroom in the only home he'd ever known. Aside from being clean, he didn't doubt that his mother had vacuumed it everyday while he'd been enslaved to Vosegus his own mind overridden by another, the room was just the same as it had been the day he and mom had left to travel to Denver International Airport for the flight to Rome. Unlike him it had not changed, or been changed, at all. His old school reference books were still sitting on his desk in front of a powered off computer, his desk chair still had his high school athletics jacket slung over its back.

Slowly he walked around the room, idly brushing his fingers against the possessions and items that had once defined his entire world. All his hopes, his dreams and the plans he had had for the future, a future that thanks to someone drugging him with something that one night no longer exist. Not only had his enslavement and transformation into a technically now alien being by Vosegus but the Rain of Death had wiped away that entire world. Yes it was true that Denver had been, somehow, spared a direct reflex cannon hit the city had still sustained damage and the devastation beyond it had changed everything beyond recognition.

Continuing to move around the room he came to the wardrobe. Out of curiosity he opened it to see all his old shirts hanging there, washed, pressed and ready to be worn. Not that I can where them anymore, he thought knowing that none of them would fit him anymore. Hell if he tried to put one on he would likely rip the fabric the moment he tried to do it up, or the moment he even moved his arm to do the buttons up, as he was seventy pounds of solid, inhumanly strong muscle heavier than he had been. It didn't however stop him from reaching in and running his fingers over the fabric and feeling his eyes begin to sting with tears as he vividly remembered each and every time he had last worn one of them.

"What am I doing here," he muttered softly to himself as he went to close the door only to pause when he saw his reflection in the mirror on the inner surface of the door. His changed appearance and the way the clothes they'd gotten for him in New Macross before they'd caught a maglev train here, as the rapidly expanding maglev networks were a lot more reliable than flying nowadays due to the continuing instability of the atmosphere after Dolza's attack, fit him hiding little driving home that while he was himself again he wasn't – and never could really be again – the person who had lived in this room. That version of Nathan Hunter had died at the hands of Vosegus and his brainwashed minions the trouble was he didn't know who this new version of him really was.

The only thing he knew was that he had been remade to be a warrior. He could feel it deep inside of him, in the very fibres of his being, that that was what he was now. What he should be. But do I want to be as I have never liked violence, he thought even as he knew, somehow, that his previous aversion to violence was gone from his psyche. The erasure of the Prime persona and his restoration couldn't change that, couldn't bring it back.

With a sigh he closed the door, slamming it a bit harder than he intended making the wardrobe visibly vibrate from the imparted force. Then he turned and walked over to the bed and sat down, his two hundred and thirty pounds of weight making it creak slightly as he did so. Then he leaned forward and buried his head in his hands. He had hoped, had prayed, that being here again being home would help him, would give him some idea of what to do now that he had his life back. But it didn't seem to be, in fact it was only making him more confused than ever.

"What the hell am I going to do," he asked himself. Naturally no answer came because he honestly didn't have any answers…

…and that scared him more than anything else he had been through.

Authors Notes: Well another interlude chapter bites the dust. I hope you all enjoyed it. I think you can all guess who was in the Goa'uld sarcophagus that Thor detected in that Mayan pyramid and transported up to his ship. Unlike in the canon Stargate timeline she wasn't found in the late nineties by a group of archaeologists due to the at the time ongoing Global Civil War which meant that the expedition that would have found Hathor – and who would have been killed by her the instant she realized that they were not Goa'uld or Jaffa – was never mounted. One thing's for sure if the Asgard do wake her its not going to be a pleasant experience for her, for however long they let her live.

Poor Nathan he was so hoping that going back to his family home, seeing all his old things again, would help him discover who he is now and what he wants now. After all while Prime is gone he cannot really go back to being the person that he once was. But inevitably it hasn't done so. Eventually he'll find a new path for himself, will that be in the military or somewhere else you'll have to wait and see. Next chapter I am hoping to cover the meeting between the Nox, the Terrans – with a certain micronized Zentraedi along - and the Asgard while Rick and co get underway for Mars and the start of the next big story arc. Until next time.