Summary: This is a self-insert style story into the Babylon 5 universe set just after the Dilgar war. The concept is that I have been abducted by an Ascended Alteran from the twenty-first century and changed into a full blooded microian Zentradi with the cybernetics and biological augments of a Spartan II from the UNSC and placed in command of a ship based off my design of the Tsunami-II, while having access to the combined knowledge of both the Alterans and Asgard, weapons of both races along with Forerunner, UNSC and 26th century Starfleet weapons. How will the Vorlons react to this addition to their 'Circle'?
-{[Dimensional Castaway]}-
"'Come to me, warriors of light, fore thou art thy sword of justice and truth'"
Chapter 00: Abduction"Urg my head." John muttered as he slowly woke up, a hangover worse than the one he had after his eighteenth pounding behind his eyes. "What in the name of the great Sajuuk did I do last night?" he groaned, before suddenly realising two things. The first was that he had been on the close down shift last night and was unable to go and have anything stronger than a soft drink, and second he was actually laying in the middle of a cold hallway. "Where the hell am I? I know that I went to bed in my room last night." He asked himself as he slowly used the wall to stand-up.
Once John was sure that he wasn't going to fall over, or be sick, he began to slowly make his way along the hallway in search of both some water and anyone to help him. "Dumb question, but where is everyone." He whispered as he reached the end of the hallway and the only open door, curious as to what might be inside he slowly entered hoping to at least find somebody who could help him.
As he entered the room the first thing he noticed when he had cleared the doorframe was that he didn't recognise any of the consoles in the room, although they did look vaguely familiar from something but he just couldn't recall what though.
In the centre of the room was a trapezoidal shaped console that was connected to a horseshoe shaped console that in turn was attached to a waist high tower with a dome on top, further into the room on the wall opposite door was two towers flanking a screen of some type. These larger towers where cut so that they looked as if they had been hollowed out with crystal like material used to fill the space and filed with liquid running through them into the ceiling and deck. "Why does this look familiar?" he muttered as he became mesmerized by the softly pulsing blue and purple light coming from an alcove like tower with a sphere floating in it that was on the left next to the centre console.
He was so entranced by it the high-tech, almost alien looking equipment, in the room that he never noticed that he was moving towards the sphere as if drawn to it by some unseen force. He stood in front of dark grey almost black, alcove with its bright pale blue sphere, for a second reaching out to touch it slowly, as soon as his hand made contact with the surface it seemed as it was glued while his mind was assaulted with all sorts of memories and information.
In an instant he saw children being crammed into the back of some sort of aircraft with at least two dozen others as men in futuristic armour helped them strap equipment loaded packs on while shouting insults. Fighting against waves of aliens as civilians rushed past into spacecraft. Being injected with drugs, micro-cybernetics and nanoprobes to enhance him beyond that of a normal human and many other wondrous things before releasing him as he passed out.
When he came back around a few minutes later he gave a loud gasp as he took a deep breath, finally remembering why everything looked so familiar. "DECULTUR! I'm in the Asgard, Alteran, Starfleet core room I designed back in college!" he shouted as he looked more closely at the main interface control station.
"Yes it is." Said a voice coming from the corridor that he had first woke up in.
John spun around to see a woman, a highly attractive aristocrat looking one at that, wearing white and tan robes, similar to those of the Alterans from Stargate, which had a soft glow to them, while her voice held a musical echo to it.
"W…Who are you?" John asked, attempting to hide how nervous he was feeling, since if this was the Asgard, Alteran, Starfleet core he had designed, then this meant that both Stargate and Star Trek was real, therefore it would stand to reason that this woman was …
"Why do you ask a question to which you already know the answer?" She said with a warm smile.
He knew exactly what she appeared to be, how could he not given he had watched the entire series from the original movie right through to that unsatisfying and quite frankly rubbish Stargate Universe, so he had a fair understanding of the basics of the show. "You're… you are an Alteran, an ascended one to be exact." John replied, his mind still trying to make sense of everything.
She smiled again, only this time with a hint of sadness. "Yes I am all that remains of the Alteran once known in your language as Divinity from the Sands of Time, or as I was known by the Furling war-master Forthencho, Minerva."
That bit of information was a shocker for John. "Wait, wait, wait hold on as second." He said pinching the bridge of his nose as he distantly remembered that Forthencho was the name of the Lord of Admirals from Halo and not Stargate. "I got the impression from the TV shows that the Alterans had a very strict rule about interfering on the lower planes of existence." Recalling his knowledge for the mythos of the Stargate universe.
Minerva nodded her head, glad that her chosen champion wasn't freaking out. "That is correct, however I am merely the memories of her that where retrained so that I could assist you on the path to the Mantle though sadly that plan is now in grave danger. You see after we fled from the Wraith after three centuries of constant defence and submerged our last fortress class city ship Atlantis, thus returning to Terra, I and a small group of other Alteran's left the Fundamenta and travelled to what you would call ancient Rome. When we arrived the people there believed us to be gods, due in part to our other worldly clothing. It took us some time, however we eventually managed to convince them we were as mortal as them, but after the last of our group ascended stories of our 'divinity' began to spread once more. It was … interesting." She said with a small smile. "Yet we began to fear that we would be tempted to follow the path which our cousins the Ori and Kobolian's fell to, but as our legends had become popular prior to our ascension we were bound by our laws of none interference. Thankfully the religion died out, and we managed to remain uncorrupted.
'Well at least I'm not dealing with the Q' John thought thinking of that cosmic prank pulling Bosh'tet from Star Trek, before realising something major from what he had just been told. "Back up a bit, are you saying that the Ancients, Halo even Battlestar Galactica and everything related to them is real, not just works of fiction!" He said to Minerva.
She just gave another warm smile, inclining her head to him as she answered. "So how do you explain this?" She said waving her arm around to indicate the room and herself.
"It could all be a dream, I could have slipped into a coma or any other number of things." John said almost as if he was trying to convince himself as much as possible.
"Well after you touched the Scientia Repositio, you should know that this is real, as it not only downloaded a large amount of knowledge and memories, it also altered your gene-song as well." Minerva replied softly as though talking to a young child.
John gave her a curious look for a moment then closed his eyes. Instantly he realised that he knew a lot of information. It wasn't just stuff he had learnt at school or college either, but other things as well; how to fight and shoot any type of weapon, skills to design, build and operate any type of weapons or spacecraft and millions of other items he had never dreamed possible.
He knew that the knowledge was real because he could see images of himself learning the different fighting styles, how to take apart the various weapons and rebuild them, and how to operate the various other items of technology, all this information was so detailed and the images so realistic he knew they hadn't just been created by his imagination from nothing.
He opened his eyes, shocked as he stared at Minerva in a mixture of wonder, awe, shock and a rather large, and healthy, dose of fear as the realisation hit. "H… how?" was all he managed to gulp out.
"As I said you are on the path of the Grey Jedi towards the Mantle, and this will allow you to correct a great wrong while annoying some authoritarian Bosh'tets in the process."
"Oh which ones?" John asked as he could think of a fair number of them from several different sci-fi franchises he had either watched or played games of.
"Understanding is not required, only obedience." Minerva smirked slightly, before continuing with her short lecture. "You see, since I and the rest of those you would call the Alterans come from a universe in which Star Trek, Stargate and Halo are real. Several millenniums ago I fore sore a great and darkness spreading out like a plague destroying countless lives and civilizations in its wake as it moved across the universe. I knew that I would be unable to simple sit and watch as it happened, so I continued my studies after my evolution and ascension, searching for a way to travel between the various universes at will, and after a number of centuries I came upon the knowledge, and after visiting a few of them, I began to search for the focal point and found you."
John couldn't believe what he had just been told, out of the literally billions of beings she had no doubt encountered she had picked him, a simple shelf stacker with an animation degree to stop some great cosmic evil. "Why me? I'm nothing special. I'm not a soldier like the Master Chief, or a scientist like Spock or anything else you might need. Hell, I can barely support myself, why in the name of the great Sajuuk would I want the weight of the galaxy upon my shoulders?" He asked raising an eyebrow in questioningly way.
She frowned with a glare that would make the being known as 'Q' shut up, making him sober up real fast. Since the primal part of his mind realised that when an ascended being gives you a death glare, it is time to snap to attention and listen up. Normally he wouldn't have thought twice about it, given the rules that he now knew to be real about interference on the lower planes, but if what she had said was true and neither of them where in their home in universe, then if she wanted to remove him from existence, then she could.
"I picked you because, despite the ideas of my people, I can see that the core beliefs of both the Mantle of Responsibility and the core tenants of the Grey Code guide the goodness in your heart, the caring nature of your soul and the drive of your geas to do what is right over what is easy. This is the reason that I chose you John S'Jet of the Kiithrid S'Jet." She replied a bit of her power leaking into her voice, not to mention that it was his formal title, making him listen as if his grandmother was telling him off.
John sighed allowing his shoulders to slump in defeat, since he knew that when a woman used your full title it was time to simple agree, and nodded his acceptance. "Very well I agree, however," he suddenly smiled a predatory smile as an idea came to mind. "I'd like to request a few things if I'm going to pull this off."
"Understandable." She agreed, knowing how some of her kin would have dropped their chosen champion in at the proverbial deep end with not support and hope for the best.
"First off I'd like this room to be integrated into a copy of my ship design the Tsunami-II with a complete understanding of not only how to create but also apply the information housed in the core with that of the local technology." John asked.
"That is easily done, since it will allow you to fight the darkness." Minerva said agreeing with the logic used by her champion, although she wished that he had chosen a more powerful style of ship.
"Secondly, I'd like to be independent of any of the local powers, but powerful enough that I can prevent the rise to power of… call them actors."
"Agreed. If I could I would even remove them myself, but the 'others' would prevent me." She said scowling at her thoughts of those sanctimonious K'peckt came to mind.
"So what happens now?" John asked.
"Now I take my leave, I have already placed this room into your choice of ship and given you the tools and knowledge to use them against this darkness. I have left a few ideas and basic plans, along with a suggestion or two for upgrades that are keyed to your gene-song in the core for you. May the great protector Sajuuk and the Mantle of responsibility watch over you on this day and for all time John D S'Jet of the ancient and noble Kiithrid of S'Jet." She said before vanishing in a flash of pale, almost white, purple light leaving John alone in the Asgard-Alteran-Starfleet core with his thoughts.
"So… I'm to save the universe then, no pressure." He muttered aloud as he turned back around to the main console of the most advanced computer in several universes, and began going through the information and instructions on what to do first.
The first thing that he noticed was although Minerva had fused this room into his choice of ship, it was orders of magnitude more advanced than anything he had even dreamed of thanks to being built by an actual ascended Alteran, she had even installed a fully functioning model of the alternate reality drive that was encountered by the Tau'ri's Atlantis expedition with his target destination already programmed in.
Next he read that she had also included four Starfleet Argo class heavy cargo shuttles, even complete wing of ten Starfleet Gryphon class heavy fighters, twenty TS-MF Exus mobile armours, plus an FTL capable version the capable Thunderbird SHADOW. First off everything was powered by a mix of Asgard and Forerunner power sources with his ship and the having a version of the same Forerunner engines as the UNSC Infinity from Halo. The SHADOW was also packing a pair of linked Ori beam cannons that was powered by an independent naquadah reactor in place of the 50mm machine cannons and used an Asgard-Forerunner hybrid combat AI system, which was on top of its normal armaments. "Deculture!" he swore as he continued to read over the fighters specifications. "That's not a fighter, it's a dreadnought the size of a fighter."
As he continued to read he began to find the changes that she had done to the design of the Tsunami-II. First it had two naquadah energized enhanced neutrino ion reflex generators as the primary power source with several smaller naquadah enhanced reflex reactors as a secondary backup. It also had a large amount of other Asgard, Alteran, Forerunner and Starfleet technology installed such as a drone manufacturing system and launchers, it even had the a reflex cannon with the power of a Nupetiet-Vergnitzs class command battleship as well as a fully working copy of the proto-culture matrix and Flowers of Life.
It was what he read next that shocked, and freaked him out a fair bit. It seemed that Minerva had gone all out when she had abducted him, in that she had also altered, radically so in fact. He was now no longer human, or at least one from the 21st century, but was now a full blooded microian Zentradi with the cybernetics and biological augments of a Spartan II, the Alteran technology control gene with the added bonus of his immune and regeneration system being reinforced by nanites. Minerva had artificially increased his evolution, similar to what the Librarian did to the Master Chief, but not to the point it would kill him only enough to be able to retain all of his new knowledge.
-{[Dimensional Castaway]}-
John spent the next few days using the core, going over everything and using the 26th century Starfleet style replicator to make a number of second generation Mjolnir mark VII armours all enhanced with Asgard, Alteran and Starfleet technologies, an enhanced mass effect style omni-tool with a combined 32nd century Starfleet tricorder and replicator integrated into it, along with filling the various armoires with a mixture of Covenant, UNSC, 26th and 32nd century Starfleet weapons, M41A Pulse rifles and even a few modified Mass Effect weapons like the M-3 Predator and M-8 Avenger from the Systems Alliance that would work without element zero.
It was still hard for him to get his head around all of this, even with all of his new knowledge. He'd spent those last few days looking at everything in new ways, way which prior to his abduction, he never would have thought about in a million years. It was amazing, and scary, the amount of technology and knowledge he now had at his command.
The mere fact that he was on a 510 meter pocket battlefortress in orbit of NGC-2447 that with its compliment of fighters, which could glass a good sized part of the USA, was a heavy burden. The fact that Minerva had picked him, so she must have seen something in him. 'By Sajuuk I hope she wasn't wrong.' He thought.
John left the core room, and sealed the door with a Forerunner hard light shield and a reinforced blast door, and headed for the command blister. It looked exactly how he had envisioned it a hybrid of Asgard, Alteran and Starfleet technology mixed with the combat bridge of the Minerva from Gundam Seed Destiny. All the stations, navigation, weapons, sensors and communications, had all been replaced with the hybrid technologies with the displays all being replaced with forerunner hard light holographic screens. The only thing that was pure Alteran was the command chair, which was an Alterans interface control chair.
The remaining stations, air/ ground operations, damage control et al, where also replaced with Asgard, Alteran and Starfleet equivalents, with the plot table at the rear replaced with a larger table with a real time holographic galaxy map, similar to those used in mass effect, but could also be used to show anything from a tactical overview of a star system to real time communications.
The only other major change was the hull, which had been the sub-standard robotech alloys used on all Zentradi ships he had envisioned it having, was replaced with a new hybrid alloy of naquadah, trinium, forerunner metals mixed with the original robotech alloys, which not only allowed for better protection from energy and projectile weapons and also increased the proficiency of the hull polarization field, but was also infused with Asgard auto repair nanites that were developed in the wake of the Replicator War, making the ship look very sleek and gave it highly advanced look.
John walked over to the control chair and sat down, leaning back as it gently reclined into its active state, as he calmly placed his hands onto the bio-memetic gel pads that was used instead of physical buttons. He closed his eyes and focused his mind on activating the dimensional jump drive. He had discovered early on, about two hours after he had been using the core, that his use of this technology felt natural, but just put it down to the download he had received from the repository in the core room.
Suddenly he actually 'felt' the ship begin to hum with energy as it was transferred from the numerous sub-space capacitors around the ship to spread all over the hull as it prepared to make the transition to a different universe. He turned his head slightly so he could see the right hand side monitor, which was showing a live image, from a cloaked probe, of Earth, not knowing if he would ever see it again, or his family, with one last look he made his vow to the empty bridge, and the universe. "In the name of the great protector Sajuuk, on the lines of my Kiithrid ancestors. I John S'Jet of the Kiithrid S'Jet vow to return someday."
Then in a burst of blue, green and white light the most advanced ship ever created left the universe, onto a new universe with strange new worlds, civilizations and also untold dangers waiting for the inexperienced, though highly trained young man, as he travelled to a universe to help prevent the destruction of the last best hope for peace.
-{[Dimensional Castaway]}-