Q & A:
mrazab1994: Well, they did seem needlessly concerned for the hero of the story ;D I too hope that inspiration will keep coming. Inspiration and time to write that inspiration down.
Carmencami99: Yes! that's the phrasing I was missing. You learn to leave with Rush. I also think that if I don't introduce new characters from time to time, the story might become a rehashing of the original. So, Lora should be a nice addition. I'm also trying to make her with slightly different views from those of the average Terran, a way to introduce the newly created Alterrans that in no way should be carbon copies of humans. I think I'm getting good at predicting when readers are starting to get unnerved because I'm not writing about something :D.
Not sure about diverging from the main (Vargas) plot either. I'll think hard before creating any new subplots that are not necessarily needed.
As said in the last chapter, Liam is the main character in this epic story. No way he's gonna die.
random Norwegian: As far as mobile missile platforms are concerned, I have something in mind, but you'll have to wait a few more chapters to learn about it. Sorry, but no spoilers at this point. Not sure about the timetable. It can last a lot, but I'm not going to prolong the story needlessly. If I find a reasonable and interesting way to end it, I'm gonna take it.
If I'm going to write the fourth book, it won't be part of Liam's Trilogy, and I need to stress the if part too because am not sure I'll write it. If I do, though, it will be with existing fictional universes. This is fanfiction, which is for people to reimagine existing stories. Also, if I was to put the effort of creating my own universes, with new characters and everything else, I'll rather write a completely original story and try to publish it instead. I think that would make more sense.
I can try to explain quantum disruptors (QDs), the way I envisioned them. Everything in the universe on the smallest level can be thought as a distinct energy pattern (or energy waveform) both matter and energy. A quantum disruptor breaks that energy pattern, effectively breaking matter or energy into lesser energy patterns or outright erasing it. Because of it, a QD must be calibrated to match a particular energy pattern (that of the armor for example, or shield). A Pulse QD cannot hold the continuous amount of disruptive energy as beam weapon can. The most a pulse QD can hope is to break part of the armor, which then breaks, crumbles or losses some of its attributes, maybe the ability to disperse energy among others. A QDB on the other hand, and depending on how dense the fired beam is and how long it can stay active can even erase matter or energy from existence. It is a process of annihilation between the two, the armor and the beam.
The point with the research done with the QDBs is to show that not everything can be solved in a day or two. That sometimes it takes years, and maybe sometimes it cannot be solved at all. The Terrans must face challenges before getting rewarded ;D
Alexa: The truth about the Key coming up right now ;D
EffervescentNova: True, the most knowledgeable of them all is Liam. However, since even the ascended don't know everything, he doesn't either. Even he went into the universe with no knowledge of what to expect.
AlistairAshby: from the show, I didn't get the feeling that exotic particles are dangerous. Not as much as unpredictable in how they are created. that fact messed up the math behind the Arcturus generator because it could not be predicted. If they were dangerous in they way you think, I think the Arcturus would have simply blown up. There are, though, quantum torpedoes which work by extracting zero point energy from the universe. I suppose they create exotic particles as well. Maybe I'll work on quantum torpedoes that have some hidden potential because of the exotic particles.
Thanks to my beta, and hope you'll like this chapter too.
Walking down the long flight of stairs, Sam quickly neared the lowest level of the large lab where most of the top-secret projects were being done these days. There, inside that large and tall room, scientists were working tirelessly in an attempt to finalize the last few research projects that would give the alliance of four races a decisive advantage over the Vargas. They really needed it. They needed it because the Vargas were spread everywhere, with numbers and allies dwarfing those of the alliance by so much that there was no comparison to be made. If only they could finish the research being done in this particular lab, they could finally go on an offensive and one day, maybe, even end this senseless war.
Yet, Sam's current worry wasn't about the research being done in that lab. Another problem has arisen. One that could in the future come back to bite them in the ass.
Entering inside the portion of the lab where rows of desks were placed, Sam was greeted by a ghastly sight. Scores of scientists drained of their life force to the bone. Most of them were pale - certainly having seen no sun in weeks - sickly crumpled on their desks, and with their glassy and joyless eyes darting between multiple monitors. There was no doubt in Sam's mind. The only thing that was keeping them going was huge amounts of coffee, if not the ingestion of some other, much stronger drug. Further away, and through the glass walls of his office, Sam could see the man in charge as well as the one responsible for the state of the people in the lab.
She walked briskly towards the office and the man inside.
"Rodney! What are you doing to these people?" Sam shouted to the man that was almost asleep on his desk. He didn't look any better than the rest. If anything, he looked worse.
Rodney jumped, quickly noticing the intruder. He suddenly winced, before grabbing his head with both hands. "Don't yell! My head is threatening to split in half!"
This wasn't the time to listen to his whining. "Answer my question, Rodney!"
Rodney was angry and frustrated, and it was showing.
"What do you want from me? I'm trying to develop what that terrorist of a man is asking of us before this month's meeting comes up!" he pleaded.
"Terrorist? What are you talking about?" Sam asked. It seemed that Rodney had finally gone completely bonkers.
"Jack. I mean Jack. I'm squeezing these people beyond any boundary or reason so that he wouldn't come back here and threaten everyone again because we didn't deliver in time. I want to have something for the next monthly meeting so that he wouldn't need to come again. Ever!"
"Rodney… today is Thursday," Sam answered.
There was a long pause. "Saying that it is Thursday when we are on a space station around an alien planet in a binary system inside a pocket universe created somewhere in between the Milky Way and the Pegasus galaxy doesn't give me the necessary information."
Sam sighed. Rodney wasn't wrong about how useless knowing which day of the week it was while orbiting a planet that wasn't Earth. Still… "Rodney, today's date is November…the 3rd."
"Oh, crap!" Rodney responded. "Four days! Where did I lose four days?"
Sam turned as she heard the other scientists starting to complain. Apparently, while closed inside this lab and with no contact with the outside whatsoever, they didn't notice the deadline had passed. She turned as she more than anything sensed Rodney as he sprang from his desk. He passed next to her, storming out of his office like a bullet. "What are you complaining about, you bunch of ingrates! We missed the deadline, so what! We will keep going until the next one in a month's time! You got it?"
Sam watched as one of the scientists dropped onto the floor. From the looks of it, she fell asleep the same instant as she hit the deck. "Wow. This is too much, Rodney, even for you. Give these poor people at least a few days of rest."
"I can't. Jack checks the logs every time he comes here. He'll know that people weren't at their desks for two straight days."
"Oh, come on Rodney. Jack isn't the terrorist you keep stating he is."
"Oh no? Then let me explain to you what kind of man he is. The first time he didn't like the progress we were making, he instructed dispatch to only deliver meatloaf… for a month! I don't know how he got himself such connections, but the result was that we ate meatloaf for an entire month, Sam!
"Next month it was even worse. After his second visit, he…" Rodney was for some reason having trouble speaking. "He changed the beverages we were receiving on the station. The only drink we received was… LEMONADE!"
Sam could almost see tears in Rodney's eyes. Maybe Jack was pushing it a little too far. Jack's fascination with big honking space guns had gotten worse. Apparently, it was at the point where he was threatening people; in Rodney's case with poison no less. "Okay, that's it! Leave Jack to me. He won't be coming here anymore. From now on, you're dealing with me and only me. At least, that is as far as anything related to the research you're doing is concerned. Is that okay with you, Rodney?"
"When you say that you'll deal with Jack, does that mean you'll deal with all of them? There isn't only one of them, Sam."
"Yes, I'll deal with all of them… somehow," Sam replied, but she wasn't too happy about it or confident in her own success for that matter. It wasn't easy to deal with all three of them. Those three were crafty, and since they were almost the same person, it could almost be said that they were capable of telepathic communication. She needed to tread carefully or they could otherwise pull a fast one on her. "Now, let's go back to the real reason why I'm here, shall we?"
"Which is?" Rodney asked, clueless.
"First, it is true that as a member of the council you should be present when they are convening, at least at the monthly discussions. However, since your work now is so important, I will be the one coming to you with everything that has transpired in those meetings, and if you have something important to pass on, I'll be your proxy in the council. Does this sound acceptable to you, Rodney?"
"Of course it does. I'm actually glad that I don't have to lose days away from this lab and my work by traveling outside of the pocket universe and then having to wait for the chance to enter it again. There's always a delay of a few days at the very least."
He was glad he wouldn't have to leave, but the grunt the other scientists let out was enough to let Sam know what they thought about the idea. They would have to suffer through it, there was no other choice.
"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm proposing this. Since I'm stationed on Asura, I have no problem going through the supergate, travel to the Milky Way galaxy and then to Earth." Sam was taking a datapad out. "Sign this so I can be your proxy in the council."
Rodney took the datapad. "Are you sure it won't be too big of a burden for you? I mean, you still have your own work as the Third Admiral of the Navy to think about. You are in charge of the Navy's R&D after all."
"We are still doing very little in terms of research compared to you here in the pocket universe. The only major research project that I'm working on is the one where we're trying to understand how Jack's polymorphic suit works, especially the ability of that strange energy field to strengthen the bonds between molecules, which it turns out is even more complicated than we thought."
"I thought Liam was on the right track before he went away," Rodney inquired.
"He was. We were the ones who didn't read the fine prints and mistakenly assumed that the field only strengthens the covalent bonds between molecules. However, in some notes he wrote only a month after he started working on it Liam already noticed changes on a quantum level that shouldn't have been there if his initial suppositions were correct. If we didn't skip those, we would probably be much further right now. We were focusing on the bond between molecules as the goal, instead of thinking of it as the side effect of what the energy field was really doing, which was to make changes on a quantum level on how energy particles interact."
"Oh, that sounds bad. How much time did you lose before you noticed?"
"One scientist noticed that the equations weren't coming up right for what we were observing in our experiments. I don't know if you know him. A guy named Eli Wallace," Sam explained.
"Yes, I know him. When it comes to math, he has an innate ability to see the equations in his mind. I was fascinated with him. He just went through the Genesis Project at the time we first met."
"Yes, well, you know how scientists are when someone in his twenties is trying to tell you that you're doing something wrong," Sam said, with frustration rising as she recalled the events that led to their delay.
"So, let me guess. They arrogantly discarded everything he said and possibly even ridiculed him," Rodney replied knowingly. The science community was a fierce one, and opinionated people were to be found in abundance.
"Yeah, it went so far that Eli decided to move onto another project, rather than deal with them. I think he is now on the Destiny. Anyway, the negative side is that not only did we go in the wrong direction for a year or so, but we've also lost the only scientist who was able to so easily understand the underlying math, which I must say is beyond our ability to comprehend. We had to borrow a few of the newly minted Alterrans and a few Asgard who are true geniuses when math is concerned in order to somehow continue with the work," Sam explained, slightly disgusted. "When I heard about those idiots in the R&D and what they've done to Eli… I wanted to space them."
"I bet," Rodney replied. The math involved was on the level where even Rodney 2.0, the one that went through the Lantean ascension machine and almost died because of it, would also have a challenge in understanding it, much less solving it. "So, how are you now standing with the project?"
There was something in Rodney's voice and that she had detected that was making her very curious. Although, she still couldn't fathom what it might be. "We were able to create a field that is capable of strengthening a composite material like the armor we've developed up to ten times."
Rodney was whistling. "That's not bad. Not bad at all. I know this isn't even close to the final goal of the technology you want to create, but even that is something that can definitely be used."
"Yeah, but there's a problem. So far, we were able to create only a small field. Nothing that could envelop the hull of a ship or anything like that," Sam responded, again noticing what had now become a mischievous smile on Rodney's face. "Okay, Rodney, what is it with that smile of yours? It's creeping me out."
"Well, we are currently working on a quantum disruptor beam and we are having problems containing it in a tight beam. The released energy simply doesn't listen to us. As you know, the QDB should be a weapon that does almost the opposite of what you guys are doing. The main reason why we are having problems is that we have gobbled up different technologies like the weapon on Dakara, the Vargas strange energy weapon and then tried to tweak all that by adding more things coming from the pocket universe, hoping it would finally work somehow. The problem is that we have no underlying theory that explains what we are trying to create. This project is an awkward attempt at getting something by blindly changing things and expecting to eventually get something good out of all of it. Luck is too much of a factor in this project for my liking, Sam.
"However, if you give us the underlying equations you worked on your project, we could maybe find something that could push our research ahead in the right direction. Maybe we won't find anything or maybe we'll be lucky and we'll hit the jackpot, I don't know, but one thing I do know. The way we are doing it right now, it could take ten years before we get even the smallest of results."
Sam smiled, mischievously. "Oh? So, you're saying that you need my help in order to continue, is that right?" She was paying him back for the arrogance he had shown after he became the new member of the Council after having successfully created a working Arcturus reactor.
Rodney would probably have exploded, but he was so tired that he barely reacted with a weird twitch of his body. "Sam, look around. These people are at their limits. And I swear, if we have nothing to show for in a month, I'm going to drink that lemonade that is right now being cooled in our fridge."
"All right, all right, Rodney. No need to threaten with suicide," Sam hastily responded, but there was a mischievous grin on her face. "Besides, you are a dead man walking anyway."
"What? What are you talking about?" Rodney asked, once again clueless.
"You having missed the monthly meeting was bad, but, Rodney… wasn't there another reason why you needed to go to Earth?" Sam asked, waiting for realization to strike the forgetful man like a ten pounds heavy and wet towel across the face.
Rodney was walking back to his desk while looking thoughtful. "Well, no… I don't think… today is November, the 3rd, so… yesterday… was… the… anniversary!" Rodney dropped onto his chair, suddenly looking pale. "Yep, I'm a dead man."
"Well, it seems you'll have enough time to come up with a proper way to apologize to her since you're now stuck here for the conceivable future. She also got another tour with one of the Peace Corps' medical ships, the one currently slated for departure to worlds in the Milky Way galaxy that have been attacked by the Vargas or their henchmen. I don't think you two will see each other anytime soon, which means you'll have to come up with some great gift for when you finally do meet," Sam replied. The truth was that she met with Keller two days ago, and she had to board the medical ship even before their anniversary the next day. However, Rodney had forgotten all about it and he needed to pay the price, which meant that she wasn't about to tell him that little bit of exculpatory evidence. She felt bad for him. It must not be easy to be chosen as the person who needs to develop something that could mean the difference between victory and defeat in a war where losing also meant the end of their entire race. Even more so, having to be in charge of a project that someone like Jack has a special interest in must be even more nerve-wracking.
"Y-yeah, I think I can come up with something for Christmas, I think," Rodney replied, but there was no joy whatsoever in his voice.
"And since Jack is not going to come here anymore, you can give those poor schmucks in the other room a few days of rest so that we don't have any fatalities in the R&D department. It would be a bitch to have to explain it at the next council meeting, which I'm the one who'll have to attend in your stead. Got it, Rodney?"
"Got it. Everybody is free until Monday."
Somehow, they must have heard even though Rodney hadn't shouted the reply. The next instant, the entire lab was empty. Somehow, they had even dragged the woman that fell on the floor. In record time, Rodney and Sam remained the only people in the entire lab.
"You see, Rodney. This kind of reaction tells you when you went too far. You must take more care of your people," Sam said while turning only to notice that Rodney was fast asleep on his desk.
Well, it was time for her to go to the planet's surface. There were other research projects that were being conducted in the Clava Thessara Infinitas and she wanted to visit them all and see how they were proceeding. She had heard many great things were being done in here. Yet, since the work done by Rodney's team was currently the most important, other teams were being overshadowed even though they were accomplishing great things. Felger's team was the one having the greatest results. He was working on a gravitational barrier strong enough to stop anything, even the STD torpedoes, just as Jack had ordered him to do, although a few years later than Jack had intended.
Even the light could be bent around the protected object, in theory. It was like the barrier created a closed space around it, completely isolating it from the rest of the universe. Of course, as a defense, such a barrier was beyond just great. No known weapon could harm you if you were inside. Yet, the problem was that whatever was inside was also unable to see or interact with the outside universe. A ship inside the created closed space would be unable to fire back, use sensors, or even have communications with the outside. There was also the problem that all tests of the systems showed there was the need for a massive amount of energy in order for the device to function properly. It was debilitating, and yet, the thought of having some kind of ultimate defense was pushing them to research it further, hoping for the day when they would start installing such a system aboard their ships. However, for that to happened, they would have to succeed in protecting something bigger than the meter long ship model they were barely able to surround in a lab. More work was definitely needed, but it was promising.
Other projects were being done in this place. She knew there were scientists working on increasing the efficiency of every component on the next generation of ships, including shields, propulsion, weaponry, energy generation, component durability and so on and so on. Some were working on their shielding, trying to prevent even something like the replicators from finding a way of penetrating them, other than through the use of brute force. Others were developing phased torpedoes that in theory should be able to pass through the hull of a ship before exploding. Something that they were centering on the weapon the Tollans had built a long time ago and that was to be used against Earth's Iris. Overall, the Alliance was arming itself to the teeth with whatever they could think of in order to prepare for the day when they would inevitably have to leave the protected confines of their star systems. Those that were currently filled with various defenses like minefields, missiles, long-range energy weapons and a disruptive field capable of blocking everything that needed subspace to work. Once they took the fight to the Vargas in some unknown and distant galaxy there would be no such gadgets that could give them an edge in battle. There they would need other ways to face the Vargas and still come out victorious. And not only victorious but rather they needed overwhelming victories over an enemy that had many times their resources and that spanned across a good portion of the known universe.
Sam didn't like it. She thought they would have turned away from constant research for the military and devoted most of their time in researching things that would instead benefit the Terran society. After all, her department should have become the only one that worked on developing new toys for the Terran Space Navy, while Rodney's department should have taken care of other research not related to the military. Their predictions were that research towards enlightenment and ascension should have started years ago, yet, to this very day, it still hadn't. And they all knew how long it would take for that kind of research to bear any fruit. At least, that was if the people stuck in the time-dilation field in the Pegasus galaxy were any indication on how long it took.
She sighed, thinking how there was not much she could do to change things. Not until they chased the Vargas out of their region of space. She hoped the equations they've come up with for another project would help Rodney develop the weapon everyone was expecting would give them a massive edge in the war, one that would eventually allow them to win against the Vargas.
Beside that weapon, she didn't know what other miracles could help them survive this war, and survival was, indeed, what was at stake here, for she knew that the Vargas would not stop until they were all dead and burried.
Making camp on a planet in a distant galaxy was an experience he was going to cherish for the remainder of his hopefully long life. Moments such as these showed him how he had made the right choice when he had decided to join the expedition. Eli wasn't certain that leaving Atlantis to embark on this perilous mission, full of unknowns and with the not so small chance of never being able to get back home, hadn't been impulsive. The three months spent on Haven, while training in the ways of the military under the planet's crushing gravity, didn't help ease his worries that maybe - just maybe - this mission wasn't for him after all. Those were the harshest three months of his life, especially the first two or so weeks immediately after coming on the planet completely unprepared for what was to follow. It wasn't just about the training in which he was convinced that their instructor was a natural born sadist who greatly enjoyed seeing his pupils suffer throughout the whole training process. The gravity and the much higher air pressure was making even the moments when they weren't training barely bearable. As trainees, they had access to special facilities that could change the conditions inside a localized field to those more suited to people born on Earth. However, their instructor wouldn't let them use that or other similar features meant to ease their stay on Haven ever. Apparently, his philosophy was that, since during their future missions there was a possibility of being stuck on a planet with even harsher conditions than those currently present on Haven, and where they wouldn't have the luxury of spending any time in some cozy room with Earth settings, then he wasn't going to allow it during training either. He simply wasn't going to make their training any easier, which meant 24 hours a day of constant suffering. And yes, even sleeping wasn't fun. At least that was the case for the first two weeks until their body became more acclimated to the pressure and extra weight. It was a very difficult time, and yet, somehow, he had made it out alive from the whole three-months-training-camp ordeal, stronger than ever and ready to take his rightful place as a fully-fledged member of the expedition.
Nobody would tell him that he didn't belong here. Not in the way those obtuse scientists had said to him just because he was younger and because he didn't attend the same education as those fossils did.
Now he was glad they had gone through the rigorous training regiment, since the planet he was currently on had a similar gravity as that of Haven, around 1.3g, and with the air having a slightly higher oxygen and CO2 concentration than what was the norm on Earth. His head was throbbing a little and the walk from the gate to where they had decided to place their camp - one mile away and on a slightly higher ground - wasn't a picnic either. However, he knew that all this would pass after a few days spent on the planet needed to acclimate. He was also glad that he wasn't among the first to venture through the gate on missions to other worlds except for this one, which was not a bad one as far as planets in this galaxy were concerned. The Destiny didn't have detailed information on the planets they were going to visit, but even what they did have had been enough for him to understand that some of them weren't very hospitable.
"Already taking a break?" Commander Scott asked as he passed near Eli.
"Give me a break," Eli responded while munching one of the disgusting protein bars. While on long-term missions of exploration, and while away from Destiny, they had one meal a day and the rest was comprised of as many protein bars as you could stomach. Of course, no one managed to eat more than two a day. "I just helped install the mining unit over there."
"Eli, the unit has an antigrav sled, and to make it work, you just needed to push a button."
It was true. The Alterrans were great at inventing things that saved you from doing manual labor of any kind. The mining unit was a great example of that fact. The machine was big, but it had its own antigrav unit, which made moving it a very enjoyable task, almost as if you were taking you dog for a walk. Once the unit was placed where you wanted to mine something, its activation shot countless tendrils no thicker than a standard fishing line into the ground. Those tendrils then spread through the ground for miles in all directions. The machine uses them to suck materials you wanted on a molecular level. The idea behind this machine was that sought materials were always to be found, everywhere on the planet, even those that were categorized as rare. The problem is that their concentration is usually so small that excavation and separation from the unwanted materials were unfeasible. However, since this machine grabbed only elements the machine was programmed to search for, almost any location with even trace amounts of some precious element were enough to in time come up with a sizable quantity. It was also the cleanest way to collect what you needed since the ground wasn't disturbed or destroyed by using some destructive methods and there was no pollution because of the use of some dangerous chemicals. On Earth, leaving unwanted chemicals behind was still a very common side effect when mining was concerned.
What Scott had said was very true. He didn't do all that much to get the mining unit up and running. However, now it was too late to back down and simply admit it. "I moved it up the hill."
"Yeah, I see sweat coming down your cheeks," Scott spat back, sarcasm dripping with each word spoken. "By the way, did you take the chip?"
Eli began tapping on the many pockets on his jacket and pants until he found it. "Here it is. Not that it matters, even if I left it on camp."
"I know, I know, they aren't the fastest creatures in the universe, but it is better to have it than to have to run and search for it when you need it the most. And you never know. There are other creatures here too, not just them."
'Them,' Eli thought while frowning. Those were the strangest sentient beings they had ever encountered and they definitely didn't have anything in common with any other known race; humans included. He wasn't sure how such a race could have survived, much less progressed to the point they did. In his opinion, the most similar creature to them was… a sloth. One of their villages was less than five miles from the gate's location, yet, it would take the creature five hours to reach it and only if it was in a hurry, which wasn't often. It was the main reason why Eli couldn't understand how such a creature could thrive. It was true that the planet had a stronger gravity, which could promote the evolution of a species that didn't move much. There was also the fact that ninety percent of the food requirements of the creature - dubbed by the expedition as Sloth - was done by ingesting some weird, dark purple vegetable resembling a carrot that could be easily found growing and could even easier be cultivated. Analysis of the plant suggested incredible properties, even for humans. Sadly, it was even more disgusting than the protein bars, which was an accomplishment worthy of notice.
Still, with not much need to go around in search of food, the only other reason for moving faster would be to have some kind of strong predator that forced you to flee. The Sloths had solved that particular problem in a different way. They were excreting some kind of liquid through their skin that somehow repelled all the carnivores on the planet. Though lethal attacks still happened from time to time by a few of the bigger predators, even with the plentiful use of their natural repellant. However, even those occasional deaths were countered by the creature's longevity that easily compensated for the loss of a few individuals mauled by an animal that didn't get the memo on how disgusting these creatures were. In the end, the Sloths were the dominant and smartest species on the planet, maybe even as smart as humans were. Still, through observation, the researchers had come to the conclusion that the creatures wouldn't progress much more than they already did, or at least not anytime soon and not without some incentive that would trigger a positive evolutionary response. In short, the need to change was missing, as they were living comfortably as they were with no worries whatsoever. They were now living in small villages, mostly in huts and with fields filled with the strange carrots planted all around them. Even on an intellectual level, there was no need for a change. The greatest discoveries are always done in a time of dire need. On the other hand, the Sloths had everything they needed, and they lived their lives carelessly without worrying too much about possible predators or by infightings because of a food shortage.
Not much need to invent the wheel in such circumstances, is it?
Even while knowing all that, everybody on the planet was issued a chip that was connected to the central stealth unit in the camp in order to conceal their presence if needed be. The hybrid Senari-Alterran concealment system was capable of making everybody and everything with the chip invisible and undetectable even by the Vargas sensors. Therefore, if a Sloth suddenly decided to take a hike near their camp – a five hours hike - they would simply activate the cloaking system and the entire camp, their equipment and the people in it would simply disappear. This way, nobody needed to have a personal cloaking system on them at all times and yet, trees and other objects around them weren't affected by the cloaking system. It would otherwise be strange if trees suddenly started disappearing into thin air.
As he took the last bite of the healthy but also utterly disgusting protein bar, he began hearing a puzzling sound. A sound that, as far as he knew, should not be heard by anyone on the planet. Since the whining sound was coming from his left but also slightly from above, he was sure that the thing making it must be nothing other than a flying craft. The second thing that he noticed was that things were starting to disappear in the distance where their camp was. Only moments later, the mining machine and then Scott vanished as well. He understood that the stealth system they were talking about was coming online, at the same time as he too phase-shifted. Now he could see everything that had disappeared once again, yet everything around him lost all color. It was the aftereffect of the cloaking system. He could see other cloaked objects, but the world also lost all colors and it seemed somehow dimmer.
This was also the moment when the flying thing making the whining sound flew over his head. From what he could tell, the only way for somebody to be piloting that thing that just flew over him was if the pilot was the size of a fairy. This, in turn, made him conclude that probably what flew over him was unmanned. It was maybe a meter in size and rounded, and he was certain that the thing could not have any type of FTL propulsion installed, which indicated that it was native to the planet or, as the more logical conclusion, that it was brought here by something else.
Something much bigger and that was probably still in orbit, high above them.
Eli could see that the flying saucer had stopped moving above the stargate. As far as interesting things to see and possibly scan while at it, the stargate was on top of a list of interesting things on this planet that contained exactly one entry. If everything cloaked was disregarded as a possible curiosity for something like an automated, flying saucer, then after a short scanning of the stargate, the thing should fly away, hopefully, to never return. He couldn't be certain, but he thought that the expression plastered on Scott's face was conveying the same sentiment. More so because he knew that both of them had recognized the little devil. It wasn't the same as those seen in the Milky Way galaxy. Those in the Milky Way galaxy also weren't much to look at, and definitely were built with cheap materials as their basic building blocks. This one was even worse, and the muzzle of the two plasma cannons on the front had a caliber by at least half an inch smaller than the one he had personally inspected from a collected wreckage while still in the Milky Way galaxy. Still, there was no doubt about what they were looking at, and the best way to describe it would be to call it a precursor of the Milky Way Reapers.
Unbelievably, their training had taught them how to deal with such situations as well. They were currently under cloak and talking or using a radio was strictly forbidden. As explained by their training officer on Haven, failure to shut up and stay silent in such a situation would be severely punished. If not by the superior officer at the scene, then certainly by the plasma blast fired by the enemy. Hence, Eli was staying silent as a mouse, waiting for Scott to walk silently towards him. Since the development of cloaking tech that allowed those under its influence to continue seeing each other, the military had decided that all members of an away team must know the sign language.
"Reapers huh? Who would have thought?" Eli said by making quick signs with his hands.
"We knew the Vargas are spread everywhere. Still, I'm a little angry at our bad luck. Not only are we in a galaxy where there are reapers, but we also have the bad luck of having a reaper come to this planet while we are here," Scott replied, he as well by making signs with his hands.
"I don't think that luck has anything to do with it," Eli responded while giving an inquiring look at the floating reaper, still near the gate.
"What?" Scott asked by making the well-known sign, even to those who didn't know the sign language.
"Think about it," Eli began. "Reapers know about stargates for certain. So, this one is not scanning the stargate because it is fascinated by something new. We didn't see this exact behavior in our galaxy because we don't use gates anymore, but I think the reaper is here because of the subspace noise created by an active stargate. Essentially, we are the ones who called the Reaper here."
"Crap!" Scott made the appropriate sign quickly. "That means the Reapers know where the Destiny is too!"
"Calm down. The Destiny is long gone by now. I'm certain they can't track it once it goes into FTL," Eli replied, trying to calm Scott. It wasn't exactly a situation where they could be calm, but there was no point in freaking out either since there was not much they could do except by spending time by improving their sign language.
Scott did calm down. He too must have realized that there was nothing to do but to wait. Scott slowly walked and sat next to Eli on a boulder. "Well, let's wait comfortably then."
"How long do you think we will have to wait for the reaper to leave," Eli asked. It was bad to have to deal with machines. They had unlimited patience.
"I don't know. I'm hoping it will eventually come to the erroneous conclusion that this planet was dialed but that nobody came through, so no reason to stick to this place for too long," Scott responded. "Then again, it could be days before it decides to do that."
There was a long pause, simply because Eli didn't know what to say. They had enough weapons with them to blast the bugger, but that would clearly be a mistake. No one knew exactly what was in orbit, but whatever it was, it certainly had enough firepower to turn this entire place into a desolate wasteland. Therefore, the best and probably the only option was to wait patiently and see.
Even with the ability to communicate through sign language, they will quickly exhaust all topics of conversation. It was already happening and it hasn't even been fifteen minutes. He needed to restart the conversation.
"Do you want a protein bar?" Eli asked by using the sign language. Anything was better than the silence.
Scott turned, giving Eli a look that made him flinch. "As if having the Reapers here isn't bad enough."
On the other hand, maybe staying silent wasn't the worst thing. He would pass on the bar too.
Soren stormed into the room where the Furling hologram was, quickly noticing Loral and two other people inside. It was the same as when he had left. It wasn't strange either since he was the only one who could open the doors leading in and out of the room, and blocking the doors also meant an extremely annoying alarm beeping mercilessly. He hoped that the ship would soon give them a little more control over its functions, so that he can at least allow other people present to move freely and without the need to be chaperoned at all times, even for simple things like going to the bathroom.
"How much longer?" Soren asked. He knew the time was almost up, but there could be last minute changes in the prediction the Furling hologram had given.
"I asked a minute ago," Loral replied while turning to face him. "Five more minutes and the integration process will be completed."
"Good, good," Soren replied while rubbing his hands expectantly. "In these six days, I must have gone through thousands of possible scenarios on what is going to happen after the component is integrated. I'm tired of playing scenarios in my head. I want to witness the real deal."
"I'm more curious about finding out what the key component is?" Loral asked.
"Actually, I think I can guess what it is," Soren replied.
"Oh? Please do tell," Loral replied, now clearly curious.
"I think it is the VI core," Soren replied.
"Why do you think that? To me, it could be any of the other advanced components on Liam's ship that the Furling need for this sphere to be fully functional."
"It is true that I can't be certain, but from the memories of the Furling I have from the Repository of Knowledge I know that they were particularly bad at that stuff," Soren continued.
"The Furling were bad at making VI cores?" Loral asked.
"Of course they were. And if you think about it, it isn't strange at all." Soren replied, waiting for Loral to think about it for a while. It didn't take long.
"I'm thinking about it. Yet, I'm not any closer in understanding why?"
"Well, I told you before that the greatest ability of the Furling was to see events from the distant future unfold. With such an ability, it isn't strange at all that they were great engineers since they could easily get ideas on how to build some unknown device by watching it as it was being built in the distant future, maybe even by themselves. However, their ability isn't all-powerful. While they could see something being built and replicate or reverse engineer it in their present, a VI core is nothing special without the billions of lines of code needed to make it work properly," Soren explained. Now waiting to see if Loral understood.
"I get it! There is no way that through visions of the future a Furling could copy billions of lines of code!" Loral responded as realization dawned.
"Exactly! You can't become a programmer capable of programming something as complex as a VI core by just looking somebody from the future while he is typing the code. It is impossible. Furthermore, it takes hundreds of different people, coding day and night for decades, that's how gargantuan a project such as a VI Core is. Being able to see the future doesn't mean you are able to create everything somebody else was able to create."
"So, you think that the Furling were after the VI core in Liam's ship. You think they are after William," Loral continued.
"Not necessarily. I think they are after the VI core and the original core programming. I don't think they care about William that much. If I were the Furling, I would have stashed a Furling consciousness aboard this sphere for the moment when a VI core became available. We know that the VI core on Liam's ship is the most advanced core ever created by the Alterrans. By combining a copy of it with the consciousness of a Furling that built this sphere, they could achieve the ultimate avatar for this construct, while leaving William intact as Liam ship's avatar."
"As theories go, I must admit that yours is a very intriguing one, and also a theory I would very much like to be true. A sophisticated virtual intelligence would make managing this massive sphere much, much easier. Can you imagine the number of people needed to properly man this construct otherwise?" Loral concluded.
"Yes, I don't know what lies behind these thick walls, but whatever it is it must need a lot of attention," Soren said, thoughtfully. Who knew what the sphere contained. What something that was a perfect sphere of no less than 1,800 kilometers in radius may hold?
"Hello," the Furling hologram sprang to life, slowly scrutinizing the people in the room.
"Hello, I am Soren," Soren replied, as he had noticed that this wasn't the reply expected from a simple AI.
"Yes, I am aware. I went through all the sensor data for the last three years," he responded. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you, friend of old. By now, you must have realized that I am a true Furling and not a simple AI construct only capable of minimal interaction like the one you previously interacted with. My name is Hunahpu, and I am here to help you in any way I can."
"It was 'bout bloody time!" Soren shouted.
"Uh, anger," Hunahpu said while looking at the floor. He immediately began fidgeting with his hands. "It was to be expected, after three years spent on the ship, alone… with that beard no less. My people warned me, though. That is why I was prepared for it; somewhat prepared. The Alterrans were often angry at the Furling. Nobody understood our actions, although those were always done to benefit distant future, yes?"
If Soren remembered correctly, the Furling were a race that abhorred confrontation, rarely even crossing eyes with whom they were speaking as that to them was a sign of confrontation. It was also a reason why the Furling liked spending time with the Nox more than with the other races. The Alterran were bigger than the Furling and as opposed to the diminutive aliens, they did not have any qualms from looking others straight into their eyes and even raising their voices at times. To the Furling, the Asgard were an even bigger challenge as they were taller and more intimidating than the Alterran were. As the youngest of the races, the Asgardian were also the most impulsive and at times confrontational with the Furling, on a whim. It wasn't even all that strange that the Furling had progressed in such a way since with their ability to see the distant future, they could easily evade any kind of altercation with ease.
"I apologize," Soren said, putting a milder expression, which the Furling it seemed has greatly appreciated. "It has been a tiring three years, and I am not certain that your ability to see the future and consequently having done everything in your power to bring the best possible future to fruition explain my long isolation as a necessity."
"Yes, yes, very difficult to understand, because there is no rational way to come to the same conclusion as we did, other than to witness the future the same way as we do. Every time we see the future, it changes and this selected path was the only one that gave us all three wanted outcomes at a satisfactory level. I apologize for the discomfort caused. However, we believed it to be a small price to pay for achieving the wanted outcome, yes?" Hunahpu explained.
"If you say so," Soren replied, not yet fully convinced. Then he remembered something Hunahpu said. "What three wanted outcomes?"
"The first outcome was for this Sphere to be found by you, without the Vargas finding out of its existence. We believe we have succeeded in keeping it hidden, which will in your future endeavors, help you greatly. The second outcome was for the Battle of Eden to happen and for the Edenians to survive without loss of a large number of civilians on the ground. There were also many possible futures where we saw the battle of Eden going better than it did in this reality. However, two main factors were different in them. Because no Vargas ship had escaped in order to warn the others, Liam decided to remain. This, in turn, changed the future considerably. So much that in two years' time the Vargas returned with over ten thousand ships and destroyed everything in their path while searching for him. We immediately discarded all paths that led to Liam remaining.
"The second factor is the Edenian deciding to relocate in the Clava Thessara Infinitas, which will allow them to turn into Alterran faster, which will then in turn speed research inside the pocket universe considerably. Research that you desperately need, yes?
"The third favorable outcome is for the Terrans to survive the Battle of Earth with minimal losses to their infrastructure. Unfortunately, we did not see a future in which their world survived unscathed from the attack. It is our belief that, with these three outcomes coming to pass, you have the best possibility of surviving the war against the Vargas," the Furling in holographic form explained in detail.
Soren sighed. "Well, if you say that what happened was all needed, I have no reason not to believe you. And it is true that if my three years in isolation meant the Vargas not knowing about this construct, about the Battle of Eden, and the Battle of Earth passing with minimal casualties, then I agree that it was a small price to pay. However, I believe that we now have something more important to discuss. First, to know if this construct is fully activated and second what happened to Liam's ship and possibly even to Liam?"
"With Liam ship's return, I was finally able to access the virtual intelligence that was missing in this construct. You have correctly assumed that we the Furling do not have the knowledge to program a virtual intelligence by virtue of foresight alone. Too many lines of code to be able to copy them from the future. We also do not have the same proficiency in programming as the Alterrans," Hunahpu explained, pausing for a moment. "However, upon inspection of Liam's ship, it was discovered that it was badly damaged, and not only in the sense of physical damage inflicted by weapons fire. We do not know of a weapon that could to it, but the ship has sustained some kind of attack that purged random memory addresses in the ship's memory crystals, progressively corrupting the VI's memory and core coding," Hunahpu explained.
"Wait! Are you saying that Liam's ship sustained a cyber attack?" Soren asked, mystified.
"Essentially, yes. However, this wasn't the type of attack you are assuming that happened. Usually, a cyber-attack finds some weakness in the system's defenses in order to gain access. Once access has been gained, malicious code is introduced in order to wreak havoc on the system. Such weakness does not exist in William's case. The VI is fully capable of repelling any such type of attack. What the ship has sustained was some kind of bombardment with high energy particles with pinpoint accuracy directly from subspace. Such bombardment simply overrode the information in the stored crystals with garbage data. From the logs, I was able to conclude that William was fighting this attack by attempting to create redundancy in his memory and by employing some kind of algorithm that constantly checked for discrepancies in the various memory crystals. At a certain point, it seemed as if William was able to repel the attack, but then the attack intensified, it seems from multiple sources at once. At that point, William understood that the only choice he had was to imprint the instructions on how to reach this galaxy in several million locations in the ship's memory banks so that a copy would always survive before he became too corrupt to function, which happened only milliseconds later. As he ceased to function, the subroutine he created engaged and the ship went into hyperspace on its long journey to here. It took this ship's computer almost seven days to restore the AI Core programming to its initial state so that it could be used in conjunction with my consciousness."
"We haven't witnessed any such attack before. Not during the Battle of Eden, and not afterward in the Milky Way galaxy. I wonder why that is?" Soren asked. If the Vargas has used such a devastating weapon on their fleet in the Battle of Eden, they could have destroyed them all as ships would simply stop working, or worse begin malfunctioning in the midst of battle. They would have to think of a way to prevent such a weapon from being effective if they wanted to have any chance against the Vargas. However, this now wasn't the bigger issue. "What about Liam and William?"
"Unfortunately, William's consciousness had sustained grave damage. Although, a quick analysis showed that enough redundancy of separate pieces of consciousness still exist to create a whole, which is a very positive discovery. It will take time, but I am optimistic in my ability to restore William successfully. However, his memory is in a much worse state. It appears he had to make a choice what to try to save and what not. At this point, I am uncertain of what memories will be restored. However, I will endeavor to save them all."
"I suppose that only if and when you restore William's memories, only then you'll be able to tell us where Liam is. Am I correct in my assumption?" Soren asked, already knowing the answer would be a resounding confirmation of his worries.
"Yes. At the moment, there is no data that would give us Liam's whereabouts," Hunahpu reported, somberly.
"Thought so. What can you tell me about the sustained ship's damage?" Soren asked.
"Energy residue on the ship's hull is indicative of Vargas weapons fire. However, the large chunks of the ship's missing armor and interior were caused by grazing shots from antiproton beams. Several of them at once, probably while doing high-speed evasive actions. My approximation of the events suggests that the ship's shields were strained to their limit by simultaneous impacts from multiple weapons, which allowed the antiproton beams to pass through for at least a short period of time. However, even this was enough for even the strong hull of Liam's ship to succumb eventually. And once pierced, antimatter expanded inside the ship with devastating results. Internal explosions caused pieces of the ship to outright explode as seen from these images," Hunahpu explained while showing the damage on the images that were currently floating in front of the people in the room. "It is a miracle the ship survived such an onslaught. That is if my approximation from evidence collected is correct, yes?"
Soren was looking at the images, aghast. It is easy to forget how big Liam's ship was, and think that the damages displayed on the one meter in size floating images were small. Those weren't small at all. On the displayed image, a ten-centimeter depicted hole translated into a gash of three hundred meters on the starboard aft side of a three-kilometer long ship. It was one of the biggest holes, yet it was far from being the only one. Even without any minute analysis of the ship, Soren could easily conclude that during the skirmish the ship was surrounded on all sides. This hadn't been a fair fight. That was certain. "Will you be able to repair the ship?"
"We have predicted this occurrence, yet we did not have the exact measurements of Liam's ship. Also, the ships armor plating is difficult to produce, even for the advanced shipyards located deep in the bowl of this construct. Estimates are that it will take between six and seven months before the ship is fully operational and upgraded with newer technologies."
"Upgraded? With what?" Soren asked.
"There are some improvements we the Furling were able to devise in the five million years since we left the Milky Way galaxy. Since the hull of the ship is damaged, I will attempt to improve upon the armor's defensive capabilities. I am also working on a defense against the weapon that disabled William. In addition, I expect that once we reach home, the scientists in the Clava Thessara Infinitas will have innovations readily available to be installed on Liam's ship, the same as on any other ship. I will also prepare Liam's ship to accept the quantum disruptor beams once they are ready. Hopefully, before we reach home."
It was strange to talk to a Furling who, although he had never been in the Milky Way galaxy, he knew more about the upgrades the Alliance was working on than he did. "Well, we will have to familiarize ourselves with the capabilities of this vessel. However, right now I would like us to move it to Cydonia, in anticipation of our voyage back home. How long will it take us to reach Cydonia?"
"One jump," Hunahpu responded. "Twenty-seven minutes to charge the quantum flux capacitors in order to translate the needed 23,342 light-years."
"I like the sound of that. Just as a curiosity, what is the longest jump this vessel can make?" He simply needed to know.
"After ten hours and fifty-two minutes of charging at full power, the quantum flux capacitors will reach maximum saturation. This is also enough time to calculate the space-time coordinates of the exit point, which can be no more than 17.3 million light years distant."
Soren's jaw dropped. He was impressed, and that didn't happen often. Then, he thought about it a little, not quite sure he liked his conclusion. "How can you possibly assure that this construct won't end inside a comet, moon, planet, star or any other object in space that might be waiting on the other side? It is impossible to have sensors capable of detecting anything at such distances."
"Such sensors are not needed for normal operations of this construct. There is a reason why William's AI core was joined with a Furling consciousness. A long time ago, it was envisioned that a combination of the two could give predictive capabilities, at least such that would give the split second of time needed to evade disaster by changing the coordinates or aborting the jump, even before anything truly happened."
"You can see this vessel exiting the jump point before the jump even occurred. Of course! This is the only way for a ship such as this to make any sense."
"You're correct. Such a vessel would have little chance of surviving hyperspace, would be too slow to travel via warp and would be too dangerous to make instantaneous jumps at such distances if left without the ability to see into the imminent future," the hologram explained.
"Well then. Let's get back to Cydonia and let's start packing." Soren said, before turning to Loral and putting a massive grin on his face. "Let's finally leave this wretched galaxy, shall we?"
And after five years, the Key is finally found and Soren is going home! Yay!
Thanks for reading. Leave a review if you feel like it.