Chapter 36 - The Plan and Final Preparations
Ok guys the story is finally ready to move into the Pegasus galaxy and the adventure that it will lead Leo and his people on.
Earth - Stargate Command - ET-Feb 2002
Oma is once again on earth looking on as the humans who have brought so much chaos to the Avalona Galaxy stand vigil over their dying friend. She was still not sure about what she is about to do but if anyone is deserving of a little help to reach the next stage of life beyond the physical it is Daniel Jackson.
She knew what he did to end up as he had and the type of courage it takes to sacrifice himself for people you barely know puts him above others of his kind. He was now in the last minutes of his life and the time to help him take the next step was close so she entered his head to guide him through the process. It was also a way to give him the chance to say goodbye to those he cared for as once he ascended he would be required to cut all ties with those from his former life.
While she was guiding Daniel his body in the mortal plane was being watched over by his friends who he thought of as family as Jacob Carter was trying to use the Goa'uld healing device to heal his body.
With the interference of Jacob and the device Daniel had a choice to make between letting them heal him and slowly recover or let life take its course and move on to the next plane.
It was a hard choice but with everything he could learn and discover he decided to move on so he reached out to the only person he knew would understand his decision.
In a projected version of the gate room Daniel talked to and convinced Jack to let him go and that this was not the end of his story but the start of the next chapter. With his decision made he took the last step needed and his body dissolved into a being of energy that gave off a bright white light and he made his way to the higher plane with the guidance of Oma.
ANS Legacy - Bridge - ET-Feb 2002
Gathered on the bridge of the Legacy where Leo, the newly awakened Aries, Doctor Reacher and the rest of the bridge crew. They were gathered to watch as the fleet tender that had arrived a week ago along with a dozen tugs worked tirelessly to bring Aries ship into orbit and onto the waiting tender.
It has been a long week for Leo as he worked to bring the original Alterans who decided to descend up to the waiting transport ship after waking them from their apparent ten thousand year sleep. Even with everything Leo has told them before there was still some shock as the discovery of their ancestors has brought stories into fact. With actual evidence of what Leo has been telling them all along the belief systems of those who haven't quite bought into what Leo has been saying have been shaken and that has led to some heated debates between the crew of the ships in orbit.
Thankfully it hasn't gone beyond harsh words and a few brawls but the officers have kept the crews mostly under control but he was under no illusions that this wouldn't cause problems with the colonials and those within the new Alterans who still hold to their old religions.
The initial contact with Aries was a memory he wasn't likely to forget for a while due to the fact that Doctor Reacher almost immediately fainted when confronted with an awake member of the ship they were in and Leo has made sure to remind him of it when he gets too enthusiastic with questioning them.
After the good doctor recovered from his fainting spell they had a discussion with Aries and learnt a lot from him and his ships crew including how many of them there were and how they managed to end up on this planet. The story started with the evacuation of their home cities and followed along with the journey to the world the colonials knew as Kobol. He then went on to describe the aims of their faction to give up technology and rediscover their more baser instincts.
He told them about the theory that after millions of years of being the most powerful race they had lost their ability to fight and survive when actually faced with adversity they couldn't solve with technology alone. He also told them about a group among them who agreed that the distraction of technology was keeping them from discovering more of themselves and wanted to join them purely to focus on ascending to a higher plane like others of their race.
There was a lot of information but at the end Leo decided that this wasn't the time to discuss everything and put his focus more to waking the 850 other Alterans and recovering what's left of their ship. Their ship was in rather good condition overall it just had a lot of damage to there engines after it had taken damage from a run in with the wraith while leaving the Pegasus galaxy. After making some emergency repairs they continued their journey but the repairs didn't quite hold together long enough to get them to Kobol.
They then landed on the planet using the last bit of life in their engines before sending a distress call to their fellow Alterans but no one answered or came to help so they decided to put themselves into status until they could eventually be recovered.
So with the final Alterans awake and the ten thousand year build up of debris removed from above the ship using the ships limited shields they were able to get the tugs attached and were just going through the final safety checks before attempting to lift off the surface and break the atmosphere.
It took the better part of an hour to go over the last of the safety checks before the order was given to start the recovery operation. The tugs slowly increased power to their engines and with a little effort made the initial take off from the surface. As they gained altitude the strain on the tugs increased but were still well within safety margins so with the final order they put full power into their engines and pushed the ship into orbit.
The Tender ship was waiting for them to get far enough away from the planet that it could then use its own engines to maneuver itself into position to secure the ship to its deck. The whole process took more than 6 hours to complete and was successful for the most part with only a few minor problems and damage to the tugs but overall it made Leo happy that they could now research the technology on the ship to make their trip to the Pegasus galaxy more survivable.
Space Station Olympus - Orbit of Altera - ET-Mar 2002
The group of ships made their return to the Altera Prime System without looking at the last few systems as there was a lot they needed to do now they had both the Alteran Transport ship and the Alterans themselves.
Leo is currently holding a meeting of his ruling council in the new council chambers that he specifically had included in the designs of the space station that was to be the main civilian hub for near orbit control. He chose to keep the same Greek theme from his original world when naming important locations or ships. Along with Olympus for the civilians the military station was due to be completed in the next few months that would orbit in parallel with Olympus was to be named Tartarus when it was complete.
So Leo was sitting with the rest of his council around a round table with a holographic display taking up the centre of the table. Joining them was Aries as the representative of the original Alterans saved along with two others who were his advisors when he was councillor of war. They had already decided for convenience sake to call the original Alterans as Ancestors to avoid confusion when being addressed as a group.
They were here to discuss the place and roles the Ancestors would be taking within their society after it was discovered that they had suffered from various degrees of amnesia due to the time they spent in status. The plan was also to discuss the research targets for the teams assigned to the ancestors ship and what it could mean for their plans going forward.
Leo brought the meeting to order and started to address the attending members. "Welcome my fellow council members, I would also like to welcome the three guests that join us here today." He said while bowing his head in the direction of Aries and his Advisors. "Now the goal of this meeting is to plan out what role the ancestors will play as well as what to focus our limited manpower on when dealing with the transport ship we recovered. Lastly we will be discussing the plan and required resources for when I lead the task force to the Pegasus galaxy in the coming years."
Aries then addressed the gathering. "I would like to point out that due to the length that myself and my people spent in status we have suffered from partial amnesia that shows little signs of recovering. With that in mind we would like to take on more of an advisor role where we can help with what knowledge we have managed to remember. Also this allows for the new generation of Alterans to lead the way and avoid making the same mistakes we made going forward."
The council members nodded and Louise said. "I think that is an ideal way to integrate your people given your limited numbers and side effects of status. What I must also mention is that with the fact we now have proof to support the modified history of our people some religious tension has been reported in some areas." She then pressed a button on her section of the table. "What you can see is that the people who migrated from the more religious parts of our society are not sure what to make of the gods being actual people. What worries me the most is what this will mean with our relations with the colonial remnants as we know Roslin has used her religious beliefs to gain support of the more zealous of their people."
Leo contemplated what Louise was saying and made a decision. "Ok i think i understand your worries so with that in mind i want higher security checks for any travel between New Altera and the colonial systems going forward and i will contact a few friends we have in the higher levels of their government to better control the situation and not allow it to get out of hand. With regards to our own people offer them the chance to speak to the ancestors and learn why they think of them as gods as from my experience the powers the ascended have are pretty much godlike to any lower plane existence."
They all nodded in agreement. They went on to discuss which areas the ancestors would be best placed in and what help they could provide with the research into the more advanced aspects of the Ancestors transport ship. This included prioritising the research into the FTL system, Shields and weapons given that they were going to be entering a galaxy which for all intents and purposes was completely hostile to them.
They finally moved onto the discussion of the plan for the upcoming expedition to the Pegasus galaxy and the timetable till they launch. Leo already had a basic plan in mind but he needed to confirm some things and having more input from others with more knowledge in certain areas never hurts.
"Ok, moving on to the next issue is the plans for the Pegasus mission and what the goals of the mission should be. With that in mind I have laid down a basic plan of action including what resources I think would be needed and a timetable for it." Leo said before pressing a button on the table and each member received a file to read. "If you each spend some time going over this then we will discuss the necessary changes needed to make it happen."
The file he sent contained his initial three stage plan to create and secure an operating base in the Pegasus galaxy. The plan was broken down into three waves and included anywhere between a dozen to two dozen fleet assets.
The Initial Plan.
The first wave will include Leo himself as overall commander and his flagship the ANS Legacy, Other fleet assets would include three of the new Cruiser's based on the Colonial Gunstar that have been updated with new designs and will also include four Corvettes for scouting purposes. The goal of the first wave will be to first deploy relay satellites between the Altera Prime system and the Pegasus galaxy allowing more immediate communications. This included placing satellites in the void between galaxies with enough spare range to reposition satellites if one or more are destroyed. Once that is complete they are to scout out the outskirts of the Pegasus galaxy closest to their own galaxy for information and possible resources.
The second wave will follow the first wave six months later and will be made up of two Legacy class ships, four Cruiser's, two Corvettes, two construction ships and a number of supply ships. Their main mission will be to travel to a location just outside the Pegasus galaxy within the void between galaxies and build a military space station for use as an operations base. The combat ships will operate as the station's defence fleet and will be available to reinforce Leo's fleet when needed without risking the safety of the station.
The third wave will follow three months after the second and mostly be made up of civilian support and include enough military assets as escorts. The fleet will ideally be made up of four Cruiser's, four Corvettes, three transports, two mining and refinery ships and two botanical ships. The transports and escorts will return to Altera once they have unloaded their personnel and supplies to the station and the other ships will be used as needed by the station and Leo.
Other ships may be included as needed once the initial scouting has been started and they have a better idea in what state the Pegasus galaxy is in. The station will also have the ability to build ships up to and including the cruiser class designs as well as any parts they will need as long as resources are available.
The councillors read Leo's initial plan and most agreed with the way the deployment was split into three waves and that the base of operations will be based in the void between galaxies to limit detection. The first to bring up a change was Admiral (James) Adama.
"While I think the plan is good, I think there needs to be more combat ships in the first wave as well as a supply ship or two as you don't know what you're flying into and without enough support could find yourselves in a world of hurt before we could send any help." Adama said.
Leo shook his head and replied. "While I would like to take more ships with me, we still need to keep a sizable fleet within the Altera Prime system just in case the Cylons or any other threat show up. The number of ships I've assigned has taken into account the number of personnel we have or will have trained and the number of ships we will be able to build in that time. I know with the automated production and the amount of focus we have put on military ships over civilians has allowed us to produce a large amount of ships in a short time while maintaining standards we should still start to change focus to allow for civilians to order ships. I know it might now be what you want but if they have ships of their own they can mine resources needed that we don't have the manpower or time to do ourselves and an added bonus is that it will help uplift the economy especially if we start contracting civilian companies to produce the less vital parts and resources." Leo knew he diverged from what they were discussing but he needed them to know that he was not going to be running a dictatorship where everything is controlled by the government.
The councillors and guests nodded and Adama grudgingly agreed that the military is just one aspect of a civilisation and should only be prioritised when needed. "I understand but i still think you should take the extra supply ships in case you need them and have extra personnel stationed on them just in case there needed for some reason as there is no reason you can't build a small base planet side while scouting the area as I'm sure the crews of your ships would appreciate some time planet side on occasions."
Aries spoke up then. "The Pegasus galaxy has a large variety of habitable planets and we may be able to isolate any Astria Porta from the network while defences are built around it."
The others nodded when Councillor Spencer spoke. "May I ask for a more detailed explanation of the Astria Porta network as it may be a strategic asset we could use?"
Aries nodded and answered. "The Astria Porta is a device that allows instantaneous travel between two said devices. Each gate has its own location based address that can be dialled from another gate on the same network. There are several thousand Devices spread over the entire Pegasus galaxy and any other galaxy the Alterans or their allies colonised allowing for the movement of personnel and resources extremely quickly and with no additional cost. Each galaxy is on its own network and may be accessed from another galaxy with an additional symbol added to the address although it takes massive amounts of power to dial into another galaxy." He then paused and looked at his advisor and continued. "The only difference the Pegasus galaxy has to the other networks is that the devices themselves are the newest version and the entire network is isolated from the others due to the threat of the wraith and the only gate that can be dialled and dial out to other galaxies is the Atlantis gate which is unavailable to the wraith."
The other councillors were shocked at the revelations and what kind of resources and technology it would take to achieve the kind of coverage the Astria Porta Network has that they completely overlooked to mention of the Alterans allies. Leo knew a little more about the background of the Alterans and their allies but believed they had enough to worry about without having to take into account races that may no longer exist.
"Ok then the supply ships and additional personnel will be added to the plan for the construction of a planet side base to eventually take advantage of the Astria Porta network. I would like to ask Aries to assign some members of his military to help advise the training of a brigade of Spartans on how best to combat the wraith and what tactics you used that worked against their ground forces short of orbital strikes."
Aries nodded and made a mental note of who would be most suited for such a role. Leo then went on to discuss the need for additional training for the Navy on the newer systems and technology developed.
"Also I will be addressing the people tomorrow at noon to inform them of Aries and his people's arrival to get ahead of any rumours and conflicts that may arise from their inclusion into our society." Leo said and then concluded the meeting.
Next Day - Olympus Station - Public Address
Leo entered the room and walked up to the podium followed by his entire council and Aries. On his entrance the room became quiet as the gathered press watched him approach the podium and begin his address.
"My fellow Alterans, I come before you today to inform you of the state of our growing nation. We have now settled into our new home world and we are making great strides in rebuilding the once great civilisation our ancestors once had. What I must tell you today may be hard to accept and may bring you into conflict with your own beliefs but I ask you to remain calm and approach it with an open mind and if you still have questions we have made people available to answer them if able." He paused for a second to let that sink in then continued. "During the shakedown cruise of the newest built ship the ANS Legacy we made a startling discovery in one of the systems we were scouting for resources and threats. That discovery was a crashed and derelict ship. What we found on that ship was several hundred people in a form of suspended animation and when we finally wound the command centre of the ship we encountered the ship's leader who had been awoken by our intrusion of his ship."
Leo wanted to continue but paused again as the press in front of him started whispering amongst themselves with a few of the impatient shouting out questions. "Questions will be answered at the end so please quieten down and allow me to finish." The press did as asked and Leo continued with his address. "Once we were sure there was no threat we talked with the awoken leader and discovered that they were a group of people who were making their way to their new home world and had been asleep for over ten thousand years while waiting for rescue."
He waited patiently for the room to quieten down again as the revelation of the people found being over ten thousand years old shocked most in the room. "On further discussion we found out the world they were travelling to was not unknown to us. Their new home world was to be named Kobol."
Leo just stopped and let the chaos wash over him as the revelation that their original Home world and the centre of the colonial religion was not the cradle of life like they thought as even with Leo's revelations not many didn't believe that life didn't start on Kobol. It took almost ten minutes for the room to quieten down to continue. "I know this may have shocked some of you and may bring your beliefs into question but what I reveal today is based on fact. That doesn't mean that believing in those beings with power close to that of gods is wrong as they are our ancestors and the origin of our race but that doesn't mean that blind faith should trump proven fact. So with that in mind I would like to introduce Aries, the person the God Ares is based upon."
Leo stepped back and Aries stepped up to the podium to address the waiting press, the people watching and listening through live coverage. " Greetings, I am Aries, a member of the high council of my people before we were forced to leave our home galaxy some ten thousand years ago. My race was known as the Alterans and where a race that has been travelling the stars for millions of years before a plague nearly wiped our civilisation out. We were reduced from several tens of billions to a few million before we moved to what you know as the Pegasus galaxy." He let that sink in before continuing. "When we reached the new galaxy we terraformed thousands of planets over several million years and seeded life on these planets using an older version of our own genome, just less evolved. Everything was working out until a little more than ten thousand years ago when we came across a race of beings that fed off the life force of other races."
The shocks that this press address where giving just kept coming as once again there were exclamations and shouts of disbelief coming from the gathered press and Leo can only imagine what those watching and listening would be like.
Aries waited patiently for the room to quieten down before continuing his bland but informative address. "In our arrogance we studied this race and this allowed them to study us. Through this they developed space flight and took to conquering the worlds we seeded life upon. At first we made attempts to be diplomatic with this race but the ships sent never returned and several outposts of our people were attacked and destroyed. Before we knew it we were fighting a war with an enemy who could replace their losses faster than we could. For hundreds of years we fought a war of attrition before we were eventually driven back to our last world and decided to once again leave and find a new home."
He looked at Leo who indicated to continue. "When a decision to leave the Pegasus galaxy was decided there were three different groups who wanted to take our race onto different paths. The first returned to the galaxy we left due to the plague and wanted to watch and study the life that had since developed there from the seeding of life we performed after we cleared the galaxy of the plague. The second group wanted to abandon technology and focus on spiritual evolution and ascend to a higher plane of existence, this group is who makes up those you knew of as gods, mostly anyway. Then the third group which I was a member of wanted to abandon technology and rediscover our survival instinct and the will to fight. I lead the third group as to be honest when i said we fought a war it was more like we used our advanced technology more than our ability to fight and that is what i believe cost us as the wraith found ways around our technology and when that happened our people where lost in what to do to continue the fight."
Aries was getting to the end of his story and Leo was getting ready to finish his address. "What led us to being found on that barren planet was that when we were leaving we were attacked and took damage to our engines. We performed emergency repairs but without the parts we needed the repairs only lasted till we were at the edge of the system we were found in. We decided to land on the only world with an atmosphere and send out a distress signal and when years passed with no response we decided to go into status and wait to be discovered by any future descendants or other races." He paused and decided to answer a few questions he heard from those shouting out when he first started his address. "So to answer a few of the questions I heard, No I am not a god taking human form. Yes I'm the Aries from your religion as from what I have read from the data provided the gods you have are the last known members of the Alteran High council before it was disbanded due to our race splitting. No, we don't have access to advanced technology that we used to have as a side effect of being in status for so long is that we have suffered from partial amnesia but we will be taking up advisor roles with the colonial R and D department and sharing what we remember with your scientists. I think that is enough for now and I now pass you back to High Councillor Kosta."
The gathered press continued to shout out questions but Aries just let it wash over him as if he was above the need to explain. Leo nodded as Aries walked past him and then approached the podium to finish.
"Thank you Aries for your informative speech. Now before you go I would like to announce that given what we have been told by the group we have termed the Ancestors given their role in the history of our race. The announcement is that we plan to send an expedition back to the Pegasus galaxy to scout out the situation there and hopefully recover any technology left behind by our ancestors and maybe make a difference against the race called the wraith as they are a threat to every living being more so than even the Cylons. Lastly we have talked with Aries and he has made members of his group available for civil discussion with those who want to ask questions about their history and beliefs. With regards to the press, if you have questions I would ask you to submit them in written form to the Public relations department and we will respond with all due haste. Thankyou and good day."
Leo left the podium and was followed by the rest of the council and Aries. The door had just closed when Leo made a comment that summed up what they were all feeling. "Well that went better than i was expecting, Lets hope no new problems arise from these revelations."
They all nodded and left to get back to their own jobs as Leo and Aries walked down the corridor towards his office.
Altera Orbit - ANS Legacy - ET-APR 2004
It's been a long two years for the new Alteran nation, they have had to deal with religious unrest from both internal sources and external ones. They have had to finalise the Nations constitution and the hierarchy of the new government structure. Then they have had to deal with allowing civilian companies access to limited versions of the new technologies to allow a competitive market to develop to boost the economy. Lastly they have had to deal with delays when it came to the final preparations to Leo's planned expedition.
As Leo was thinking about the last two years he felt a sense of pride in what he has accomplished with nothing more than a few supportive people and a lot of hard work. What had him troubled though was the strained relationship they have had with the Colonial remnants since they heard about Aries and his group's appearance. It wasn't just the Colonials that were the problem as a very small minority of a few hundred new Alterans have been pushing to have Aries censored for saying he was their god and that the other gods were just evolutionarily advanced people.
Thankfully their movement has remained as nothing more than a small distraction as the majority of people accepted what and who Aries was especially after a few live Q and A broadcasts with different members of Ancestors group. What also helped is the fact that the majority of people who were recruited or requested asylum were mostly practical people and not overly religious. The major problem was the Colonials who after a few trade missions back and forth had received a copy of the address and were not happy having their belief system destroyed especially considering that Roslin used her religious piety to secure her re-election.
In the end though, the military commanders who knew Leo and his people just took it in their stride and put a stop to any ideas the civil government had about forcing their views on the Alterans. Leo was extremely grateful to them for that as they understood that they were seriously outgunned even with the ships Leo had all but donated to them as the Alteran fleet was upgraded with newer ships.
As he was looking out the window of the Admirals quarters on his flagship he thought back on what it took to get to this point as the original plan was to launch a year ago but with the last minute breakthroughs in shield and hyperdrive technology they decided a delay was in order. In the end it worked out as with the added time to the start of the mission they were able to add an additional Legacy class heavy cruiser to the first wave giving Leo a bit more freedom when it came to engaging any enemies they may encounter.
They originally thought a 6 month delay was enough but installing the upgrades on the already produced ships was more difficult than they originally thought but thankfully they had the resources to eventually get through those difficulties. With the added upgrades they now had a hyperdrive that could get them to the Pegasus galaxy in a little over 2.5 months based on what they had managed to learn from the drive in the ancestor's ship.
Additionally the basic shields they have developed have been marginally improved but only to about forty percent of the power the ancient ships on the transport was capable of and from what Aries said the military ships the ancients used had even more powerful shields.
In the end they were now ready for the expedition and in preparation for such Leo had temporarily stepped down as high councillor and given the role to Louise while he was away in the Pegasus galaxy as ideally the leader of the nation needed to be here not gallivanting in another galaxy. It was decided that he would play a dual role of both Fleet Admiral and Councillor for the duration of this mission to give him authority in both the military and civilian sides similar to his old world's governor generals.
Leo was interrupted from his musings when the comms buzzed with an incoming message so he walked over to his desk and picked up the handset. "Admiral all ships have reported that they are ready and we have received the mission start order from headquarters."
Leo replied. "Very well, tell all ships to make their way to the system edge and hold position for jump order."
"Yes, sir" Leo put down the handset and looked back out of the window looking down on the world he helped build but he couldn't help but anticipate what lay ahead for them. He made his way to the bridge just before they reached the edge of the system.
It took them 30 minutes to reach the system edge while sticking to the speed restrictions that were imposed to maintain safety for travellers within the system. Leo looked from the display screen and watched as his small fleet reported in and Leo decided to skip the speech this time and gave the order to depart.