Robotech: The Stargate Saga Version 2.1

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 Eight

Recovery Room

Secure Medical Section,

Fort Minotaur, Crete

A Few Hours Later

Maria Hunter looked up from where she was sitting at her son's bedside at the sound of approaching footsteps. She wondered if it was one of the nurses or another member of the base medical staff coming to check on Nathan's progress as the last time Doctor Johnson had looked at his neural scan, he'd told both her and Rick that Nathan could wake up at any time now. However, it wasn't a nurse or anyone like that, it was just her nephew returning from wherever emergency meeting he had been summoned to a short time after they'd returned from getting some much needed sleep.

Not that she herself had slept that much or easily to be honest. She had found her thoughts, as they had frequently been for the last few years, preoccupied with thoughts of Nathan. Until Commander Hayes had come to see her, and she'd been brought here after being told what had happened, her thoughts had always been dominated by trying to understand why he had suddenly run away in the way he had. Wondering if there had been any warning signs that she might have missed, any sign that someone was turning him away from her. Of course, now she knew that there had been no sign and that Nathan running away had not been a voluntary choice of his but the result of him being deliberately infected with some kind of mind controlling biological compound.

Since she'd learned that and learned what had happened to Nathan with his own mind and personality overwritten by another artificial one, she had found herself worrying and thinking about everything he had done and been through while under the control of this Prime persona. Had he been aware of what had happened to him the whole time. Had he been trapped in his own head screaming and beating on some type of mental wall while not only was his body altered – she'd been told that his very DNA had been restructured somehow into a form that wasn't as human as he had been before – but the personality in control had done who knew what was his hands? Or had he just not known, had he essentially ceased to exist as Nathan when his mind was overridden by the other personality? There was currently no real way to answer those questions – though according to Dr Johnson he shouldn't have been aware at all as his mind while suppressed had been essentially in a form of cerebral stasis – and wouldn't until after he woke up whenever that was.

Though she had already determined that, no matter what, she would help him get through this. Help him recover and find out who he was now as she wasn't so blind as to assume he would be able to go back to being exactly the person he was before. His experience would have left psychological scars and those could change a person. She clearly remembered how much Mitch had changed after his combat deployment to the Middle East during the Gulf War, especially after his best friend Daniel Fokker was killed after their F-16 was shot down by Iraqi missiles. She'd also seen the differences in Rick's behaviour and mannerisms since his experiences in the Robotech War, he was harder and while still friendly and loving there was a hardness in his blue eyes that hadn't been there before and there was no longer any innocence left in him.

"Aunt Maria," Rick said breaking her out of her thoughts. She jumped slightly, before looking a little sheepish at getting so lost in her thoughts that she had clearly ignored his presence and looked up in time to see him offering her a steaming mug of liquid. A liquid that from its scent was clearly coffee.

"Thank you, Rick. Milk and two sugars, right?"

"Yeah, I remember just how you like your coffee Aunt Maria," Rick replied as he sat down in another chair. "Anything?"

"Doctor Johnson came in and checked him just after you were called away," she answered. "According to him the latest neural scans show Nathan could wake up anytime now."

"So, it's a waiting game again."

"Unfortunately. Though if I can ask why were you called away after we got up? Assuming you can tell me."

Rick frowned slightly and took a swig of his coffee. He honestly wasn't sure if he could tell his aunt about the emergency briefing, he'd been called to but then again, the news media were soon going to learn about a large underground explosion in the Dolomites and it wouldn't take them long to realize what caused it. Enough independent experts survived in the world to confirm that the explosion was nuclear in origin or at least looked nuclear. He'd heard that their preliminary analysis of sensors data from orbiting satellites and a Zentraedi cruiser that had been in orbit directly over the area had confirmed that while a nuclear level explosion it had not been a nuke as they understood it but a naquada-based weapon. There was EBSIS and the UIR. Both of whom had also detected it – though without the Zentraedi sensor data they didn't know it wasn't a nuke -and were already screaming murder about it accusing the UEG of illegal underground weapons testing and other such political bullshit. They would no doubt brief the worlds media on it and there were enough anti-UEG media outlets out there still – all of whom had access to the steadily being rebuilt internet – to let the whole world know what had just taken place.

Thus, there was no reason for him not to tell her. Well as long as he left the naquada part out as the existence and properties of that material had been classified by the Defence Council. He only knew about it because he had a high enough security clearance to know. It was another of the little perks that came with having been the CAG of the SDF-1 during the latter half of the war and still being the leader of Skull Squadron.

"I can," he said at last. "Sensors on our orbital satellites, and on some of the orbiting Zentraedi cruisers, detected a nuclear explosion beneath the Dolomites a few hours ago. Ground based seismometers detected it a few seconds later. We've determined that it came from somewhere beneath Marmolada."

Maria blinked. "Someone detonated a nuke beneath the highest peak in the Dolomites," she asked incredulous, vaguely remembering that she and Nathan had planned to climb the Marmolada during their trip to Italy, after exploring the old World War One trails that the Italians had cut into the very rock of the mountains, as they were both were – or in her case had been as she was a bit too old for it now, the ravages of time in the form of arthritis beginning to take their toll, years of worrying about Nathan and the surprise death of her brother hadn't helped there either – keen and experienced mountaineers. Well until Nathan ran away to serve whoever this Vosegus character was.

"It looks like it," Rick confirmed. "The working theory is that Vosegus – whoever or whatever he really is – is behind it, probably to destroy whatever base he had hidden there as he had to know that we would find it eventually, though we cannot be certain. Though it's really set off a political shitstorm both within the UEG and with those independent groups like EBSIS."

"Maybe it was part of his plan? Cause chaos while going to hide somewhere else," Maria suggested though she didn't comment on how they would have eventually found the bases location. That was obvious as they would simply ask Nathan as she was sure that, if he were well enough, her son would have to answer some questions about what had been going on these last four and a half years with him and with Vosegus.

"Very likely. I know that possibility has occurred to Admiral Gloval. The council will look into it."

"You respect Admiral Gloval a great deal, don't you Rick," Maria noted with a slight smile. "I can hear it in your voice."

"Yeah, I do all of us who were on the SDF-1 – either because they were assigned there like Roy was, or like me and the citizens of Macross City, got caught in the space fold and dumped out near Pluto – do. Because he earned it as I don't think anyone else would have been able to get us back to Earth in the way he did not with an entire fleet of Zentraedi warships in the way. He's a good man, tough as hell, ruthless in the way only Russians can really be when he wants to be but compassionate and fair."

"You'll have to tell me a bit more about that voyage I don't know anything really about it. Hell until just after the Rain I thought that…"

"… that I and everyone who was on Macross Island was dead," Rick finished for her with a shake of his head and once again feeling a stab of anger at the way they had been treated by the government after they got back to Earth the first time. All to maintain a lie that they had died in a sudden volcanic eruption and hadn't been teleported to the far side of the system due to a desperate move to escape attack by a Zentraedi battle fleet. "You can blame the late, and very unlamented by just about everyone, Senator Russo, and his cronies for that. They wanted to hide the fact that we were attacked by the Zentraedi to a) avoid causing a panic and b) to buy time to finish their white elephant Grand Cannon projects."

"Politicians," Maria said with a snort, letting the distain she'd long had for politicians show in her voice. Rick chuckled at her response. "Though what's a Grand Cannon?"

Rick blinked and was about to reply when a soft groan from the direction of the bed caught both their attention. Both their eyes shot to the bed…

…just in time to see Nathan open his eyes. Before abruptly shutting them again as he was suddenly dazzled by the overhead lights.

"Ooh bright light, bright light," he said, making both Rick and Maria chuckle as he sounded so like the Mogwai Gizmo from the Gremlins movie as he said that. It was a promising sign that despite everything he had been through Nathan's sense of humour – which according to Aunt Maria he had inherited from his father – was still intact. At the sound of their chuckles Nathan opened his eyes again, blinking against the overhead lights and looked at them. "Mom? Rick?"

"Yes, we're here," Maria replied with a smile even as Nathan raised a hand to shield his eyes from the overhead lights, only to pause gazing in shock as he saw his arm and the sheer size of the muscles there.

"What, what's happened to me," Nathan breathed lifting his head and looking down at his torso, gaping in shock as he saw the muscles before looking back at them again. "Where am I? And Rick you're in a uniform! I thought you said you would never join the military. That you'd never let them turn your skills as a pilot into a weapon of war."

"For the first part you're in a recovery room in the infirmary of Fort Minotaur, a UEDF military base on Crete," Rick answered even as he remembered those comments he had made to both Nathan and Roy. It had been the last time they had all been together before Nathan and Aunt Maria had made that fateful trip to Europe after the former's graduation from High School. He had changed so much since then, grown up so much.

"And I know I said that" he continued, "but life has a way of changing everything you had thought or believed. In my case it involved getting dumped out by Pluto in a battlefortress with seventy four thousand other people and having to fight against a thousand ship strong alien armada across the length of the solar system to get back home after the fold drive mysteriously goes bye-bye."

"Huh when was this?" Nathan asked confused as he didn't remember any of this and what the hell was a fold drive? And why would it mysteriously vanish? "And does me being in this place have something to do with me suddenly looking like I've had a body transplant from Arnold Schwarzenegger?"

Rick and Maria exchanged a look both concerned by the fact that Nathan didn't seem to remember anything from the last four and a half years. "What's the last thing you remember baby?" Maria asked, making her son pout slightly at being referred to as baby. She knew he hated it when she did that not that she was going to stop as no matter what had happened to him, what he'd been through or how big he was Nathan was and always would be her baby and that's all there was to it.

Nathan frowned puzzled by the question. "I went to that party at the nightclub I was invited to. I remember drinking a lot like you do. Someone must have slipped me something when I got tipsy as I remember feeling euphoric and then I got dizzy. I went back to the hotel then…" his voice trailed off as he was suddenly assaulted by a barrage of images, memories, and feelings. They were his and yet not his at the same time and swept through his mind like a flood making it impossible for him to ignore them.

"What's happening," Maria demanded looking at her nephew as Nathan's eyes abruptly shut and he suddenly started gripping the sheet on the bed with a white-knuckle grip. Behind his eyelids she could see his eyes moving rapidly and his breathing was getting faster too.

"I can't be sure, but I think he's remembering everything that's happened to him over the last couple of years," Rick answered a moment before Nathan abruptly screamed and writhed on the bed as though he was in tremendous pain. It only lasted for a moment or two before he went still but maintained his death grip on the bedsheet before his back arched again and he began talking in a language neither of them had ever heard before. Though that ended a few seconds later being replaced by shaking and shivering before he seemed to calm.

Nathan's eyes opened again. "Mommy," he breathed sounding like a small, frightened child and not the six-foot tall two hundred- and forty pound man that he now was. His expressive green eyes shining with tears of pain, humiliation, rage, shame, and regret.

"It's okay Nathan," Maria said standing up and moving to sit on the side of the bed. Gently she reached over and pulled him over to her, letting him bury his head in her lap. "It's over now, your safe, Vosegus cannot hurt or use you anymore."

At her words the floodgates opened, and Nathan began to weep. Maria gently wrapped her arms around him, comforting him as she had done ever since he was a small child. Rick for his part reached out and put a comforting hand on his cousin's arm. Neither said anything, they didn't need, to nor was there really anything that they could say, all they could do was what they were doing and offer as much support and comfort as was possible while Nathan cried out his pain and humiliation.

After what seemed like hours the tears slowed and then finally stopped. Nathan slipping back into an exhausted sleep. Maria gently laid him back on the bed, stood up and placed the sheet back over him. Then she stood there and just watched him sleep, her own emotions churning as she gazed upon his reddened, tear-streaked face. It was going to take him a long time to really recover from this, if he ever truly could, and that infuriated her to no end. After a moment she felt Rick's hand touch her shoulder.

"Rick, I want you to promise me something," she said at last voice thick with numerous emotions. "Find this Vosegus character whoever he is, whatever he is and wherever he's hiding. Find him and kill him for what he's done."

"Oh, you can bet I will Aunt Maria," Rick answered as his expressive blue eyes – normally so full of kindness and warmth – turned colder than artic ice as he let his own anger and hatred for the person/being/whatever who had done this to Nathan and who knew how many others - show. Whoever/whatever Vosegus was he had made himself his enemy and – as any Zentraedi who had faced him in war and managed to survive it would attest – that was the last place anyone would want to be. "I will find him, and I will kill him."

Secure Briefing Room L22

A Few Hours Later

Colonel Louis Ferretti, formerly of the United States Air Force regiment but now of the UEDF STORM Commandoes, couldn't help but feel a twinge of nerves as he arrived in the briefing room, he and the rest of his unit had been summoned to. He had already heard rumours that the mission that they were going to be sent on had something to do with that alien ring device – what was it called again? Oh yes, a Stargate – that they had sitting in an incomplete wind tunnel on the science levels of this base. He had heard that they had even been able to activate it and, in the process, learned that they were going to have to once again review everything that they had thought they had known about physics.

He supposed that it was something that scientists were used to doing in the modern day that it no longer bothered any of them that laws and theories that had for years, and in some cases over a century, been thought immutable had turned out to be anything but. The discovery and reverse engineering of the incredible, and sometimes downright magical, sciences and technologies known as robotechnology had ensured that. From what his scientist cousin had told him before he knew that robotech had forced over a dozen revisions so far and had opened the door on sciences that should have been impossible. Sciences like super dimensional physics that were frankly like something out of that old British sci-fi series he'd watched one time while stationed in the UK, Doctor Who.

He put those thoughts out of his mind for now and glanced around the briefing room. To see that his whole unit was here, all looking impressive in their distinctive grey uniforms. They were not the only ones present there were at least two, possibly three, full teams of army combat engineers and a whole gaggle of scientists and civilian civil engineering specialists. There were even a few micronized Zentraedi present, notable due to the fact that they were wearing the micronized version of the new red and white uniform being adopted by the Free Zentraedi Forces replacing their old green and purple Imperial uniforms.

It was quite an eclectic mix to say the least.

Which told him that something that was both weird and potentially truly momentous was going to be going down here today. And he was willing to bet that that Stargate thing was going to be at the very centre of it all. It all added up to one thing in his mind, they were planning to send them all through it. Why though was anyone's guess.

Thankfully he didn't have to speculate for very long for at that moment the door to the room opened and more personnel from the base began to filter in, including Doctor Carter and General Richards himself. One of the combat engineers immediately yelled attention at the presence of the commanding officer of Fort Minotaur causing every one of the military personnel, including Ferretti, to immediately leap back to their feet and stand at attention. Ferretti inwardly smiled as he saw Carter struggle not to do the same. You can take the woman out of the Air Force, but you can't take the Air Force out of the woman, he thought amused knowing that Carter had left the military years ago to focus on scientific endeavours especially after the alien ship crashed into Macross Island.

"Stand easy," Richards ordered immediately as he moved to the podium at the front of the room. Everyone did as bid. "Please be seated."

Immediately the military personnel did as they were instructed, sitting down with a fair few rustles and creaks of the synthetic leather fabric covering the seats. Not for the first time Ferretti inwardly smiled as one of the really major improvements with the UEDF over the old US Air Force was that the seats you sat in for briefings and so on were actually really comfortable. Once everyone was settled Richards cleared his throat to get their attention, especially the attention of the scientists, before speaking up.

"Good afternoon, everyone," he said in greeting. "I am sure you are all wondering just why you have been summoned to this meeting."

"The thought has crossed our minds sir," Ferretti admitted. "I assume it has something to do with the Stargate?"

"That it does Colonel Ferretti," Richards confirmed with a nod to the head of the STORM commando unit that had arrived a few days ago with the neuro-somatic imprinter. An imprinter that would soon be sent back to the secure storage site in North Wales, once an appropriate escort was arranged and once the North Atlantic storm that was currently battering the coastlines of the United Kingdon and Ireland with very heavy rain and force ten gales passed them by.

"As you are all aware by now several hours ago, we were able to successfully activate the Stargate and make a connection to a planet located in a star system six hundred and forty light years away from Sol," Richards continued, creating a small hubbub especially among the scientists who couldn't help talking about it especially how the Stargate completely violated the laws of physics as they understood them. Richards held up his hands for silence and slowly the scientists settled down and looked a little sheepish. "The world we have found is habitable and from what we have been able to tell so far completely uninhabited. It is these two factors that have prompted a rapid response from both the Defence Council and the UEG in New York."

"What decision is that sir," Ferretti asked guessing it had to be both for both the Defence Council and the UEG to have decided on the planet so fast. Normally it took forever for the latter especially to make a concrete decision on anything, as almost everything would have to be reviewed by this or that committee and debated over at least a dozen times first.

"Given that the planet is habitable the decision has been made to do a primary assessment for the potential for colonisation under the Gloval Initiative."

A confused murmur ran through everyone in the room as none of them had ever heard that term before. After a moment one of the scientists put up a hand for attention. Richards looked over at the younger man and nodded.

"General Richards might I ask what this Gloval Initiative is?" the scientists asked.

Richards smiled. "It is the brainchild of Admiral Gloval himself," he replied, "due to the devastation of the Robotech War the admiral has been arguing for quite some time now that humanity must spread its wings out into the galaxy. That it is time that we leave the cradle of this world – as battered, bruised and battle scarred as it is – and begin establishing ourselves out there among the stars to avoid getting nearly wiped out again.

"The issue is still being discussed in some areas of the government, but the Secretary General has made it clear that the idea will be adopted in full, and that the committee stage is simply following formality," Richards continued knowing that even the blindest politician in the UEG was well aware of the bullet of extinction that they had barely dodged at the hands of Dolza. One only had to look out at the scorched desert that covered much of Earth, desert created when anything and everything in the path of the quantum firestorms created during the reflex cannon bombardment had reduced anything and everything they encountered into clouds of superheated elementary particles. "While the plan was to begin building colony ships at the Factory Satellite, once its repairs are completed, to carry our people to the stars and beyond the discovery of the Stargate now offers us a new option. While the colony ships will still be constructed, we will also take advantage of the gate that has fallen into our laps. Which is where we here at Fort Minotaur – well until a better site can be found to house the gate – come in."

"What do they want us to do sir?" Ferretti asked curious.

"I am glad you asked Colonel. All of you assembled here will embark through the Stargate to the planet in question and first begin setting up an outpost in the cave system that houses the Stargate on that world," Richards explained, "easily portable supplies and equipment will be sent through with you while more bulky and extensive equipment will be brought to the system by a squadron of Zentraedi warships being dispatched by Commander Breetai.

"Once the outpost is set up and running you will begin a thorough assessment of the planet in question searching for suitable sites for a colony, useful resources as well as any potential threats or complications. The Zentraedi ships being sent will sweep the system as well to make sure nothing is amiss," Richards continued. "After all the last thing we want is to start settling and find out the next planet over is inhabited by something like a real life version of the Klingons."

A ripple of laughter ran through the room at that though the Zentraedi all seemed to perk up slightly at the mention of the Klingons. The various fictional warrior races in science fiction from Star Trek's Klingons to Star Wars Mandalorians and even Mass Effect's Turians and Krogan had become a subject of fascination for the Free Zentraedi. Especially as they worked to discover a new identity for themselves, and build a new society for themselves, outside of the narrow box that the Robotech Masters had kept them in for their entire existence.

Richards waited until the laughter died down before speaking again. "If everything checks out then the combat engineers will be in charge of laying the groundwork for a settlement by one of these," he continued before pressing a button on the podium. Immediately a large projector field in front of him powered up and a hologram pixeled into existence. "This is what the shipwrights are calling an Angel-class colony ship."

Everyone leaned forward to examine the hologram. It showed a massive disc shaped spacecraft that was nearly two and a half kilometres in diameter and whose disc was nearly a hundred meters thick. Rising from about five hundred meters into the disc was a large domed structure within which they could see a small city.

"Each of these colony ships when completed will be able to hold up to half a million people," Richards continued, "and will carry anything and everything needed to establish a new home on another world. They will be designed to land and form the nexus of any new colony we build."

"Incredible," one of the scientists breathed. "And we actually have the capability to build these things?"

"We will once the Factory Satellite finishes its repairs in a few weeks' time" Richards answered, "that will give you plenty of time to do the initial surveys and assessments. Any questions so far?"

"When do we leave sir," Ferretti asked.

"You will be leaving to begin your task tomorrow once the last of the required supplies have arrived from warehouses in Heraklion," Richards answered as he dismissed the hologram, "so everyone prepare yourselves accordingly. If there is anyone who for some reason doesn't want, or cannot, go please inform either me or the senior officer who will be in command while you are there before departure. And speaking of that it is time I introduce him to you."

As he spoke, he pressed another control on the podium. For a moment more nothing happened then the door opened and a tall man in the uniform of a UEDF Brigadier General came into the room. The moment he came in Ferretti's eyes widened in shock and recognition as he beheld a man he had not seen in years, not really since the near-fatal shooting of his son had prompted him to take a leave of absence from the then US Air Force. Naturally he was older now and his once dark hair was now salt, and pepper coloured due to the ravages of time, but he was still tall and strong. It was all he could do not to laugh in delight as he knew this man well and knew he could do the job and would do it with both style and sarcastic sass…

…their new commanding officer was none other than Brigadier General Jack O'Neill.

Authors Note: Well, another chapter of this rewrite/reboot bites the dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. And I really hope you all liked my little surprise there at the end of the chapter as yes in this version of the story Jack is alive – I took on board all the negative feedback about how he was dead and figured out away to change it – as in this reality while Charlie O'Neill did still accidentally shoot himself while playing with Jack's personal sidearm it wasn't a fatal wound though it did scare both his parents half to death and led to Jack first taking a leave of absence from the military and upon returning accepting a desk job to be closer to home. I will be slowing down now though on the updates for this, especially as we move further away from the events of the original version – though some of those events will still take place though the timings and so on will be very different – of the story in a hopefully better direction. Until next time.