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 Twenty-Eight
New Macross City
A Few Hours Later
Sitting quietly in the solitude of the bungalow that had been assigned to him when construction on this part of New Macross City had been completed Rick Hunter nursed a steaming mug of coffee. Now that he had some time to sit and think he found his thoughts preoccupied by the whirlwind of events that he had gotten caught up in recently, really ever since he'd led the mission to Mars. A mission that had sounded so simple, so easy when Admiral Gloval had first assigned it to him.
Boy were we wrong about that, he thought even as he vividly recalled what had happened when they'd gotten to Mars. How he had gotten transported, Star Trek-style to an Ancient space station that had for all of human history been thought to simply be one of the two asteroid moons of Mars. How he had met and interacted with the Ancient artificial intelligence Primus not just once but twice and learned all about both the industrial fabrication facilities and the terraforming – he preferred that name to what the Ancients had apparently called it – plant hidden beneath the Martian region known as the Tharsis Bulge.
Thinking about those facilities, and the discussions he had had with Primus, he put his coffee down and reached into a pocket of his uniform and withdrew a small Ancient device. A data reader that Primus had given him that contained a personal copy of the information that he had given command when he got back, along with turning over the potentia module that had been released to them for study. No doubt the advanced alien power source – which blew protoculture-based power sources completely out of the water in terms of potency and efficiency – was now in some laboratory at the Robotech Research Group being poked and prodded by utterly fascinated robotechnologists.
For a few moments he held the device in his hand, the device feeling slightly warm due to its largely crystalline nature though the more metallic parts were also quite warm due to having soaked up some of his body heat while it had been sat there. He was so tempted to activate it and begin going through some of the information that Primus had given them and him, but ultimately decided now was not the time. Instead he slipped it back into his pocket, resolving to begin going through it later. He was due to have some time off next week he would read through the data then.
For now he was just happy to sit here drinking his coffee. He had just taken another sip when someone knocking the door caught his attention. Huh who could that be at this time in the evening, he thought as he stood and began moving to the door. Night had fallen on New Macross City nearly four hours ago which, combined with the fact that there were warnings out for bad weather in the form of strong winds and very heavy rain this evening, had seen the city streets largely empty as people retired for the evening. It took only a moment for him to reach and open the door…
…to find Admiral Gloval standing on the other side the overhead porch protecting him from the drizzle that was falling on the city. Though from the way the wind was picking up the storm meteorology had predicted was getting closer.
"Admiral this is a surprise," he said in greeting before stepping aside to allow Gloval in, "please come in."
"Thank you," Gloval answered as he stepped into the nice warm home, Rick closing the door behind him shutting out the increasingly wild night. He started to slip off his coat as Rick turned to look at him.
"I have a fresh pot of coffee in the kitchen. Would you like some sir?"
"I would Rick thank you," Gloval replied, "and you can drop the sir bit. I am not here for official business at least not right now."
Rick blinked and frowned in confusion. "Alright please take a seat in the living room. I'll go pour you a coffee now. Milk and sugar?"
"Yes two sugars please."
Rick nodded and made his way to the kitchen to fix the older man a coffee. Gloval for his part made his way to the living room – he knew where it was as being mass produced in a hurry all these officer bungalows had the same internal layout – and made himself comfortable in one of the chairs. After a few minutes Rick appeared with the hot beverage that everyone in the military practically ran on and offered it to him, which he accepted with a grateful nod, before sitting down in his own chair.
"So what brings you here at this time of night," Rick asked knowing that Gloval's own residence was in a different part of the city and that he would have had to have made a quite treacherous – given the worsening weather – journey to get here. Though it was also possible that that admiral had come straight from UEDF Command which was a bit closer to here. Still it left him quite the journey to get home to his bed.
"I wanted to talk to you Rick," Gloval replied, "I need to fill you in on a few things and I want to sound you out about an idea that is being discussed by the defence council."
"Something tells me that I am not going to like whatever they're thinking up."
"Probably not," Gloval agreed knowing that Rick certainly wouldn't particularly like what the council had thought up, what they actually wanted him to order the younger man to do but which he had convinced them to let him talk it over with him first. To see if he could convince him that way instead of making it an order, an order that while Rick would obey he would resent and would likely make him more likely to leave the military once his current enlistment period ended next year. "However before we get to that there is something I need to fill you in on."
"Oh?"
"Yes you recall what I told you about how Loki followed the SDF-1 across the system periodically temporarily abducting our people and replacing them with clones and swapping them back afterwards once he had done whatever experiments he wanted."
"Of course I remember. But why are you… wait are you going to tell me that he took and cloned me at one point?"
"Indeed he did," Gloval confirmed and wasn't surprised when a look of surprise momentarily flashed across the younger man's face before his features went stony and his normally quite warm blue eyes went colder than Antarctic Ice, a warning sign that told anyone who knew him that Rick Hunter had been dangerously angered by what he had just been told. He made a mental note to send Lisa over later as she was increasingly demonstrating that she was one of the few people who could really deal with Rick when he was that mad. "Please calm yourself Rick as yes what Loki did to you and others was wrong it has revealed something interesting about you and a few others. Information that Commander Thor has recently forwarded to us."
Rick frowned slightly but did as he was bid, taking a few deep breaths, and letting them out slowly in order to calm down. It was a skill his father had taught him years earlier, especially when it became obvious that he had fully inherited the infamously cold Hunter family temper.
"What is it," he asked after a few moments.
"Apparently technically speaking you, and others like you of which Loki found two among the other veritech pilots, are not entirely human."
"What?"
"There is a specific DNA sequence in you that affects your central nervous system including the brain. Instructing the production of certain proteins and enzymes that are not a natural part of human biology. Instead they come from another race altogether. A race that Thor referred to as the Ancients, the builders of not just the Stargates across this and other galaxies but who also created a certain AI and space station that you are familiar with."
"The marker," Rick breathed recalling what Primus had said to him about how he carried a legacy of his creators in his blood and in his cells. "I am not surprised Primus mentioned something like that when I asked him about how I could use the neural interface so well. But there are others? I don't suppose you could tell me who?"
"I can since I can trust you not to tell anyone else. One is Commander Fokker, though the sequence is not as strong in him as it is in you. The other though has a just as strong sequence and that's Lieutenant Sterling. Though even in him the sequence is slightly different."
"Somehow I am not surprised about Max," Rick admitted, "nor Roy to be honest."
"Nor was I," Gloval agreed. "But the reason I am telling you about this relates to the Ancient space station and Primus."
Rick blinked and frowned puzzled for a moment by the mention of the ancient artificial intelligence that ran the previously hidden Ancient space station. Why would Admiral Gloval mention it? Then understanding came. "You want me to go there again?"
"We do," Gloval confirmed, "the Secretary General and the Defence Council have both agreed to bring the terraforming plant online in the rapid terraforming mode. They also want to set the industrial plant there to work making some starship parts that we cannot currently make on the factory satellite. While that's in progress we want to put a crew on the supervisory station to both observe the process and begin probing the database in more detail."
"Makes sense," Rick said, "and I guess you want me to be in charge of the expedition?"
"Given the rapport that you seem to have with Primus and the ease with which you can use the interface you are the logical choice."
"I know," Rick admitted with a sigh, he had after all been expecting something like this would happen eventually even before this whole thing with the Ancient facilities over and beneath the surface of the red planet – well soon to be blue and green planet now – had started. He had known that he wouldn't be able to remain a veritech pilot and Skull Leader forever, they had lost far too many senior officers during and in the immediate aftermath of the Rain for that.
"If I do this who will take over for me with Skull Squadron," he asked.
"Who do you want?"
Rick considered that for a few moments. A part of him wanted to give the role back to his suddenly resurrected older brother, but he had to admit that that might not really be the best choice. Oh Roy was a good pilot but in there harsh post-Rain world they needed the best possible person to fill that role and he knew just who it should be.
"Give it to Max," he said at last. "He has more than earned command and he's been a good second in command of the squadron since Captain Kramer died."
"I guessed you would say that" Gloval admitted as he was well aware that there was a recommendation in Lieutenant Sterlings file from Rick that he be considered for squadron command. Given his skills in the cockpit and his calm affable nature he was a perfect choice for the role and it handily made sure the resurrected Fokker was free for other duties – like test piloting the prototype for the next generation of veritech fighters when they were ready to begin test flights in much the same way as he'd been the senior test pilot for Project Valkyrie – once he was cleared to return to active duty.
Rick chuckled at the response.
"So when do you want to start this," he asked.
"We're starting to put together an expedition team now so you should be heading out there in about a week," Gloval replied, "I will get all the files for all the candidates sent over to you."
"I would appreciate that," Rick admitted, "how will we be getting out there this time. Another ride from the Zentraedi?"
"No this time the Asgard will be the ones to give you a ride," Gloval admitted, "they've asked to have a few of their people along as its apparently quite rare for them to get a look at still functional facilities built by the Ancients. Many have been lost or destroyed in the millennia since the last Ancients ascended."
"Ascended?"
"From what both the Asgard and the Nox have told us it's a process in which you evolve to become a being of pure energy and thought on a higher plane of existence no longer needing a physical body."
"Huh I'll have to ask Primus about that."
"That would be appreciated," Gloval admitted, "along with anything he knows about the Stargate networks as there are apparently quite a few different networks beyond the one in this galaxy. Apparently most of the galaxies around us have their own gate network, some still in use, some abandoned, and some simply forgotten about."
"That would fit with what Exedore said before about star portals."
Gloval nodded in agreement not at all surprised that Rick knew about that even though he had not been in on the meeting in question having been elsewhere on Fort Minotaur at the time. He had all the security clearances necessary to know and he was well aware of the truth that the only thing in the universe faster than space folding was scuttlebutt. There was nobody in Fort Minotaur who didn't know exactly what it was they had currently sat in what would have been the bases wind tunnel if the Rain had not happened and they'd had to hurriedly turn it into their main military facility for the European sector after their original base outside Paris had been obliterated, along with the city, during Dolza's attack.
"It would," Gloval said at last, "hopefully Primus will have something useful for us."
"I will do my best to get us some information," Rick replied then hesitated, "sir what are we going to do about Vince?"
Gloval grimaced guessing why Rick was asking as he knew how horrified Claudia and Jean had been when they had been told about what had happened to Vince due to the actions of one of those AUL bastards. Given how upset Claudia had been it was not surprising that Rick knew about Vince being taken as a host by a Goa'uld. "Unfortunately there isn't much we can do right now," he admitted. "He could be anywhere in Goa'uld space and we know from information given to us by the Asgard that Goa'uld space is vast controlling over half the galaxy. Add in that the Goa'uld Empire is currently in the midst of a civil war finding him, and getting that thing out of him, is not going to be easy. We will try though which is why we are stepping up our preparations for use of the Stargate."
"I suppose that's all we can do," Rick admitted, "I just wish I knew who…"
"Your not on your own," Gloval said before finishing his coffee. "We will find out though, whoever thought this up will pay for it."
Rick nodded even as he finished off his own coffee and put it down. As he did so Gloval stood up, grunting slightly at the stab of pain from his knees as arthritis made its presence known. Gah old age doesn't come by itself, he thought with a wince. He waved Rick off when the younger man looked at him in concern having heard his slight groan.
"I'm fine," he said reassuringly. "It's just arthritis. I do however have to leave and head home myself before the storm arrives."
"I understand," Rick replied.
"I will make sure all the relevant information is in your office on the base in the morning."
"Thank you."
"Your welcome and thank you Rick for agreeing to this."
Rick nodded back though he didn't speak, he didn't need to as it was clear that this particular conversation between them was over. Instead he merely followed Gloval back out into the hallway and when the other man was ready showed him out. Standing in the doorway Rick watched Gloval get back to his car, holding his cap down with one hand against the strengthening wind though the drizzle of a short while earlier had stopped.
After a few moments Gloval's driver drove off with the admiral comfortable in the back of the car. Rick watched them go until they disappeared around a corner. Then he closed the door and made his way back to the living room, once again fingering the Ancient data reader he had in his pocket especially now that he knew he would soon be sent to Mars for the third time. Returning to the living room he sat back down, took out the device and with a thought activated it…
…he had some reading to do especially with regards to the Ancient DNA that was apparently in his system.
Goa'uld Nar'kesh Frigate
Pearl Nebula
That Same Time
"My lord we are approaching Refuge."
Sitting on the throne in the small pel'tac of the frigate that had been chosen as his and Persephone's royal escape ship Hades allowed himself a small smile at his loyal First Primes report. Finally, he thought as the journey here from Elysium had taken far, far longer than it should have due to the civil war. They had had to take the long way around dodging a major battle being fought between Amaterasu and one of Sokar's main allies in the form of that traitorous worm Helios. Which had not been fun at all as it had taken them dangerously close to the Serrakin Commonwealth, which was one of the last places that any Goa'uld wanted to find themselves the only place worse being Asgard protected worlds, straying to within a mere dozen light years of the border.
But they'd managed and they were finally here. Soon he would be able to begin planning how he was going to take revenge upon those who had attacked him. Who had taken both his best fleet lord and most importantly his throneworld from him. He knew it would take some time, but he was a god and he had all the time in the universe, but vengeance would one day be his.
"Very good. How long until we emerge from hyperspace?"
"Another sixty seconds my lord," Tor'et reported from the main console.
"Excellent. As soon as we drop out of hyperspace contact the garrison commander and check if the evacuation of key personnel from Elysium was completed in time."
"Yes my lord."
As his First Prime turned to his task with a slight eagerness, which wasn't surprising as Tor'et's wife and children had been in the first evacuation group and the Jaffa warrior was no doubt looking forward to reuniting with them, Hades turned his attention to the triangular viewport at the front of the bridge. Currently it was completely filled by the shimmering purple, white and blue tunnel of a Goa'uld hyperspace conduit as it had been ever since they had fled Elysium and he began mentally counting down the seconds until it would finally vanish.
After a few more moments the hyperspace conduit flashed a brilliant purple-white and a soft shudder ran through the deck as the frigate transitioned between hyperspace and normal space. Through the viewport he saw the light give way to a momentary blur of meaningless colours and shapes that soon resolved into the pale blue, green and red hues of the Pearl Nebula as the sublight engines cut in and overcame the effect of hyperspace inertia.
Ahead of them, orbiting a bright F-type star, was a single habitable world with two moons and an extensive ring system. He had discovered this star systems existence a few millennia ago, back during his last major war with Cronus, and quickly determined that it was an ideal refuge due to the fact that no other Goa'uld knew of its location either in space of its Stargate address. Plus the planet was rich in both naquada and trinium, possessing some of the largest reserves of both materials that he had ever heard of. To avoid suspicion he had taken his time building up the garrison and facilities here, all the while hoping he would never have cause to retreat here, and after all this time there should be sufficient resources to give him a good head start on the long process of recovery.
Abruptly the ships sensors came alive with a warning and Hades resisted the impulse to groan. He had hoped, planned, for this refuge to be safe. Had someone else discovered it and was now planning to ambush him? Some other Goa'uld perhaps.
"Report," he ordered.
"My lord sensors are picking up a large metallic object adrift in the nebula distance five hundred thousand kilometres off our starboard side," Tor'et reported, "there is a great deal of interference from dust in the nebula gasses but it appears to be completely inert with no power or life form readings at all."
"Can you identify it?"
"Not at this time my lord. There is too much interference, we're lucky we're detecting it at all."
"Dispatch a pair of gliders to investigate."
"Yes my lord. My lord the garrison on the planet is reporting that the first and second evacuation waves made it through the Stargate however only a quarter of the third wave followed before the connection with Elysium abruptly terminated," Tor'et reported, "all attempts since to contact Elysium have failed. Master Koth'n believes that the gate on Elysium has either become blocked by debris or has been destroyed."
"Likely," Hades agreed knowing that Koth'n had a good head on his shoulders and was as knowledgeable about these things as a Jaffa could be, as much as they allowed. The elderly Jaffa Master was a former First Prime of his, having served him with distinction and honour for over a hundred and twenty years until his age began to tell. At which point he had replaced him with Tor'et while reassigning the venerable old warrior to the refuge to spend his twilight years overseeing events here. "Begin moving us towards refuge. I want to be able to ring down to the palace as soon as possible." He didn't add that both himself and his Queen had been slowly going stir crazy stuck on a small frigate like this for so long, he didn't need to as everyone aboard had been getting just as cranky.
"Understood my lord. My lord the gliders have been launched and are moving towards the unknown contact now, intercept in four minutes."
Hades nodded even as a soft shiver of acceleration ran through the deck as the Nar'kesh began to slowly make its way towards the orbit of Refuge. Hades allowed himself another small smile at the knowledge that he would soon be back in the opulent comfort of one of his palaces. He was so looking forward to a nice hot soak in a marble bath, not to mention a proper pampering from the servants. It would be wonderful after having to survive on simple low-pressure showers for so long as a frigates water-recycling systems could only do so much.
He became so lost in thinking about the luxury to come – he had had more than enough slumming it like this he was a god after all not a damned Jaffa – that he completely lost track of the passage of time. Thus he was surprised when Tor'et spoke again.
"My lord our gliders have reached the anomalous contact," the great Jaffa warrior reported, "it's a Zentraedi warship."
"WHAT! Have they followed us here?"
"I do not believe so my lord. The gilders confirm that are no life signs or even any power emissions from the vessel, it's dead in space," Tor'et reported even as he read another report, "the gliders sensors indicate that the hull has been quite seriously damaged with numerous compartments across multiple decks open to space."
"Interesting," Hades mused even as in his minds eye he could see what had happened. The Zentraedi vessel had been engaged in battle with someone, a battle that it had been losing prompting the crew to try and escape by their novel FTL method – what had Charon called it space folding? – in an attempt to survive. Only for the vessel to lose auxiliary power after they came out of their jump resulting in the crew succumbing to hypoxia as their air ran out, a slow and quite unpleasant way to die. Still there deaths meant he now had an opportunity that he would be beyond foolish – something he was not unlike some other System Lords – not to take advantage of.
"Tor'et mark the location of the derelict then recall our gliders. We will send investigation and recovery teams to the vessel later."
"Yes my lord."
"Once our gliders are back onboard, take us into land at the palace. I tire of being on this ship."
"As you command my lord."
As the Jaffa began carrying out his orders Hades leaned back on the throne and allowed himself an evil, evil in the way only a Goa'uld could be, chuckle and a grin. Due to a quirk of fate he had a Zentraedi warship in his possession and while he had lost Thanatos – killed when the Javelin prototypes detonated before they could be fired – he had other scientists in his employ. He had no doubt that they would make short work of probing and reverse engineering the warships secrets…
…and then he would make the Zentraedi, and their Terran masters, pay for their insolence in daring to attack him by using their own technology to destroy them.
Authors Notes: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust; I hope you all enjoyed it. I bet you all thought that Hades was out of the picture for good after his defeat at the Battle of Elysium. Unfortunately – for our heroes – while he is down he is far from out and having been defeated badly in previous battles with other System Lords, especially Cronus which cost him his place on the High Council, he has made contingency plans based around his chance discovery of the planet he calls Refuge. And now he has a Zentraedi cruiser to look at though it is out of protoculture so there is no power to anything and the auxiliary fusion generators are also dead in the water due to lack of fuel. Still it will make him quite dangerous later in the fic though he is going to be keeping his head down for awhile as the other System Lords know by now what happened at Elysium and that his chief scientist had violated Ra's edict against the development and deployment of antimatter weaponry. As a result, and since they cannot get Thanatos because he's been vaporised, they want Hades head.
Finally if anyone is curious the Zentraedi cruiser is one of a handful that managed to space fold away from Sol after the destruction of Dolza's base and with it the vast majority of the Zentraedi Armada. The cruiser was however seriously damaged by the blast wave from the destruction of Dolza's command base and wasn't able to get too far away before its power systems failed and it lost all power. Well that's all I have to say for now. Until next time.