Robotech Stargate Saga: Otherworld
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own amusement – sadly all Stargate and Robotech characters and concepts remain the property of MGM, Amazon and Harmony Gold respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no profit to give to anyone.
Chapter Nine
SDF-1
A Short Time Later
Dressed in a clean uniform, that had someone had procured for him from somewhere, Cadet Rick Hunter would admit – to himself at least – to being nervous as the lift he and Roy were in rose through the ship towards the command tower. He believed that he had a good reason to be after all it wasn't every day that a mere cadet like him got to meet with the commanding officer of the most powerful ship in the entire UEG space navy. The very same ship that a decade ago had changed the world and restored some sanity to humanity that had previously been hell bent on destroying itself.
Well Earth humanity anyway as by now almost everyone on Earth – well everyone who hadn't been living under a rock somewhere – knew about the Stargate by now. Knew about it and the fact that there were human based societies all over the galaxy, many still worshipping the gods of antiquity. Of course, many didn't know that many of those "gods" were still around and members of a parasitic race of sentient alien space snakes that liked to burrow into someone and take over their body. Knowledge of the Goa'uld and their true nature had largely been kept from the public as the very last thing anyone wanted was for the neighbourhood paranoid nut to think everyone who disagreed with them had been taken over by a Goa'uld. Not to mention what every conspiracy theorist out there would have made of it.
In both cases it would have been trouble that nobody really needed.
"You okay their Rick," Roy asked seeing that the younger man was quite nervous. Oh, he was hiding it but having been raised with Rick after his own parents died – and eagerly embracing the role of a big brother as Rick had been a baby when the Hunters adopted him – he could read him like a book.
"I'm fine," Rick answered automatically before emitting a slightly resigned sigh as he knew that Roy was never going to buy it. "It's just I'm nervous."
"About meeting the captain?" Roy asked gaining a nod. He supposed that he could understand why, especially as Rick was still a cadet though given that they were now effectively at war with the Zentraedi that was likely to change damned quick, as Captain Gloval could be quite intimidating in a gruff old Russian sea dog manner when you first met him. "You'll be fine. Captain Gloval is a nice guy when you get to know him."
"Have you met him before?" Rick asked curiously as he really didn't know much about Roy's interactions with the higher ups. Oh, he knew he had had them, since he had been the lead test pilot for Project Valkyrie and was recruited for that position by Admiral Hayes himself, but he really didn't know much about how they went. It was just something cadets, and little brothers, were just not meant to discuss.
"A few times since the beginning of Project Valkyrie and it was Gloval who asked me to be the CAG. He's quite a nice guy to those on his good side. Trust me little bro you'll be fine."
Rick nodded and started to feel a little bit better at the reassurance. Roy had always been good at that, reassuring him whenever he was nervous or uneasy about something. Though with the latter Roy always listened as he knew that he had a knack for sometimes just knowing things, like when something was wrong even if everything looked right. It was a strange instinct that had never once been wrong.
The high-speed lift chose that moment to come to a stop. The doors opened onto the lower level of the command section of the bridge tower. Roy led the way out and Rick looked around curiously. They were in a lobby area with a wall of permaglass inset with doors visible on the opposite side to the bank of high-speed lifts. Rick could see a lot of people working at various consoles on the other side of the wall of transparent metal, a small sign above the door saying it was Flight Operations.
"This way Rick," Roy said gaining Rick's attention. He turned and began following Roy down a corridor to a flight of stairs leading up one level. As they walked, they passed another section of permaglass beyond which was a high-tech room filled with computers. The sign above the door indicating it was the main communications centre.
"Flights operations, main communications what else is on this deck Roy," Rick asked as they reached the stairs and began ascending upwards to the main bridge level.
"On the level we've just been on? Primary sensor control, the command tower cafeteria and of course that levels escape pods," Roy answered as they reached the main bridge deck. "On this level aside from the bridge there's the captain's cabin, captain's ready room, command conference room and escape pod access. You'll learn your way around the ship soon, assuming you get stationed here since I don't doubt the academy is going to start fast tracking higher year cadets like yourself given, we're now at war."
Rick made a slight face at that. "I had hoped we would never end up at war," he admitted, "while I understand why we need to be able to defend ourselves, especially given the threats that lurk out among the the stars, threats like the Goa'uld, I had hoped that we would never have to engage in an interstellar war. That deterrence would be enough."
"I know so did I little brother," Roy admitted. He had seen enough of what their weapons could do, even before they'd gotten access to naquada robotech weapons had been powerful, certainly far more powerful than anything that they'd ever fielded in Earth's blood-soaked history. A power that had been dramatically increased when they'd discovered naquada and learned of its many incredible abilities, especially the one that amplified energy. Seeing what their weapons could do now, how even a basic anti-ship plasma missile with naquada enhancement could detonate with more force than the largest nuke ever detonated, was beyond terrifying.
"Unfortunately, reality hasn't panned out that way," he continued, "and based on what we know about them then peace with the Zentraedi was always going to be tenuous at best, impossible at worst."
"Do you think they're going to show up again?"
"The Zentraedi? Almost certainly as we know its fully possible to track a ship through subspace. Though hopefully they won't show up for a while, we're going to have enough on our plate right now with the whole Macross Island situation."
Rick grimaced at that, not at all enthused at the prospect of having to fight the giant extragalactic alien humanoids again, even as he nodded in agreement. The transportation of Macross Island out here, to the arse end of galactic nowhere, with them was nothing short of a disaster. Yes, the city shield was keeping the atmosphere in, but it wouldn't last forever, especially as the island had lost its main power source due to the transportation – the island had used a geothermal tap – and was having to rely entirely on backup gravitic fusion reactors. They had to get the people in the shelters off the deep-frozen asteroid – that had once been a chunk of Earth – before they could do anything else and that was going to be tricky to say the least. Even with the fact that they now had things like ring transporters to help with rapid movements. The fact that many of the civilians were no doubt terrified, and none of them had any training for micro-gravity environments, would only make it more difficult.
Before he could ask Roy any questions about how on Earth, they were going to pull it off, assuming Roy had any answers to give him, they arrived outside the entrance to the command bridge. Rick watched in amusement as Roy had to duck his head to get through the hatch – since Roy was six foot six it was quite a common thing for him to do – onto the bridge proper before he followed him. Captain Gloval turning towards them as he heard them come onto the bridge.
"Ah Commander Fokker good," Gloval said in greeting before looking at Rick who immediately stood at attention at the older man's gaze. "And Cadet Hunter it is a pleasure to meet you at last. You're stepping up to help in the crisis up to this point has been most appreciated. Please stand easy."
"Thank you, sir," Rick replied slipping into an at-ease posture. "I just did what needed to be done."
Gloval smiled softly and gave him a look of approval. He was already planning to submit a letter of recommendation to Admiral Hayes about the young cadet. To find out he was quite humble about his action, that he didn't see them as anything special or deserving of special treatment as he had only done what was necessary, was another point in his favour.
"Indeed, and when we return home, I will be submitting a formal commendation for your actions to Admiral Hayes office," Gloval answered, "I have no doubt that General O'Neill will be doing the same when we pull him out of the command bunker beneath the city. I hate to ask more of you, you have already done so much, but I need your help."
"How may I be of help sir?" Rick asked wondering how on Earth he could help with the situation that they found themselves in. "I'm afraid that I don't have any training in search and recovery operations in urban environments."
"That is not what I need you for," Gloval replied gesturing for Rick to follow him over to the main sensor station. Rick did so as Gloval spoke to the attractive young woman, who looked around Rick's own age, with fawn coloured hair who sat there. "Vanessa bring up the long-range scan telemetry of the third planet in this system. Specifically focused on the location of the energy signature and the Stargate."
"Aye sir," Vanessa acknowledged and brought up the requested information on another window on her display. Rick raised an eyebrow at the scan data, there was something there, something in it that was calling to him somehow.
"Tell me Cadet Hunter do you know anything about the Ancients?" Gloval asked, seeing the way Rick seemed to be drawn to the data feed. He had seen it before, from the likes of both General O'Neill and a Major John Shepard. Well before the latter had been killed when Antarctica Base had been destroyed during a brief AUL hijack of Armour One. A hijack that had seen them fire a reflex missile, thankfully non-naquada enhanced as they hadn't had much access to it at that time as it was only since they'd found the large amounts of it in the asteroid field orbiting Proxima Centauri in the last two years that they'd gained access to large amounts of the mineral, at Antarctica Base. Which had destroyed it, though thankfully not another facility nearby that few knew about, though the shockwaves from the blast had caused some damage that had taken awhile to replace.
"The who sir?" Rick replied confused.
"You might also know them as Alterans."
Rick frowned as that name resonated with something deep inside him. "I think I know the name somehow though I have never heard it before to my knowledge sir," he answered making no attempt to hide his confusion. "It's just..."
"...you feel like you should know it," Gloval finished for him. "It is no surprise. The Ancients, or Alterans depending on what you want to call them, were an ancient near-human race that existed in this galaxy for the better part of fifty-four million years. Indeed, they are a precursor to our own race, it is believed that they engineered apes to evolve into us before leaving this galaxy ten million years or so ago. They are known to be the ones who created the Stargates."
"They made the Stargates?"
"Yes. Until relatively recently we knew next to nothing about them only what the Serrakin had been able to tell us and most of that is more myth and legend than anything else."
"But that changed?"
"Yes, while I cannot go into too many details, not only are most of them classified but I don't want to be here all day, we discovered somethings on Earth in various places that revealed a great deal more about them.
"You see cadet ten thousand years ago some of the Ancients returned to Earth," Gloval continued recalling what they had found initially when excavating to examine odd energy readings around the Antarctic Outpost but then found in a previously buried by volcanic debris room in the Roman city of Herculaneum. "They brought with them many legends including the tail of Atlantis. We know that they interbred with some of our people before they left again. Many believing they either moved on to somewhere else in the universe or ascended to a higher plane of existence."
"Interesting but what does it have to do with me sir?" Rick asked.
"Simple cadet you carry a specific gene that comes from them," Gloval explained, "it was noted immediately when you joined up. A gene that allows anyone who carries it to interact with Ancient technology and in stronger expressions can even sometimes manifest in almost psychic abilities."
Rick blinked. "Like how I sometimes just know things," he said, mind awhirl with shock and amazement. It was hard to believe but realised that subconsciously he had always known that something in him was different to others.
"Exactly," Gloval replied before gesturing to the screen. "This energy signature our long-range scans have detected matches ancient technology. From the size it is either a small outpost or a crashed ship. The Stargate is inside of it. The solo Monsoon corvette we have docked aboard is being made ready as we speak. I want you on it and to go to this planet."
"You want me to access the facility or whatever it is?" Rick asked.
"Yes, we need access to the Stargate so we can summon help from Earth as Sol is currently outside our subspace comm range," Gloval explained, "normally I wouldn't ask but you have the strongest expression of the gene of anyone currently on board this ship. So, I am asking, not ordering, for you to go with the team we are sending on the Monsoon to the planet. Help our people gain access to the Stargate. Will you do this?"
"Yes, sir I will."
"Thank you, cadet. Commander Fokker will take you to where the Monsoon is getting prepared, and we'll make sure you have some armour to wear on the ground. While the planet's habitable we don't know what the wildlife or anything is like down there. There's no way to know from here."
"I understand sir."
"Do you have any questions?"
"Plenty but none relating to the mission sir."
"Very well then you may go. We will speak more when you return."
Rick nodded accepting the dismissal for what it was. He promptly turned and left the bridge, Roy walking a few paces behind him. As soon as they were back out in the corridor and the door to the bridge closed Rick turned to look at Roy.
"Did you know about this gene thing Roy," he demanded.
"I did like you I have the gene though its much weaker," Roy admitted, "so does Lieutenant Archer and Captain Wolfe. Though like me the expression is much weaker than it is in you. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you about it but..."
"...it's classified," Rick finished for him with a nod of understanding. While he wasn't exactly happy about being kept in the dark about this whole gene thing, he understood why Roy hadn't been able to say anything. "The UEG and UEDF doesn't want our opponents on Earth learning about it and kidnapping anyone who has it strong enough."
"Something like that," Roy agreed with a nod knowing that those groups who were opposed to the United Earth Government – groups like the AUL – wouldn't hesitate to do as Rick suggested in their quest to gain an advantage. Especially as – once they'd known what to set their sensors to look for – Ancient tech had been surprisingly easy to find on Earth. Granted most of it was powerless or inactive unless handled by someone with the gene but still the last thing they wanted was for their enemies to find someone who could make it work.
Someone like his little brother as he knew what those AUL bastards would do to him to enforce compliance with their will.
"So, where's the corvette docked?" Rick asked, "how is there even one here anyway?"
"Support ship after commissioning we would be joined by three more of them as close escorts," Roy answered, "as for where the one currently is, it's in the aft starboard hangar bay. This way."
Rick nodded and began following Roy back towards the level below and the lifts. As they walked, he found his thoughts drifting back to the sensor data he'd been shown, and the revelation that had been sprung upon him by Captain Gloval. He had to wonder just what it was that was down there and how interfacing with the tech would feel if he did end up doing that.
It was both interesting and scary.
Captain Gloval smiled as he watched Cadet Hunter and Commander Fokker leave the command bridge, no doubt heading for the bay where their current solo Monsoon corvette was being prepared for launch. The meeting had gone better than he had expected it to, and he was genuinely impressed by how Hunter had behaved despite his obvious shock at the revelation of the Ancient gene. From the conversation that had begun at the front of the bridge between Lisa and Claudia he guessed that he wasn't the only one.
"I'm surprised Cadet Hunter took the whole Ancient gene thing so well," Lisa commented to Claudia, like the captain she was impressed with the young man's calm demeanour and rection despite the natural shock. "I doubt I would have been as calm about it if someone suddenly told me something like that."
"He's more shocked than anything about it," Claudia answered, "I don't doubt though that Roy will get an earful later for not telling him about it beforehand. Oh, Rick will understand why he wasn't told but at the same time..."
"...he'll still be annoyed about not being told," Lisa finished. "I wonder how many more of our people have the gene?"
"It's impossible to know," Gloval replied, "some scientists say it could be one in a hundred thousand as it is rare." Though I know that they're also working on a new gene mod to give more of our people the ability, he thought. While they had encountered only a handful of working examples of Ancient technology so far – well beyond the Stargates that was – what they had encountered was potentially incredibly advanced and powerful. Certainly, it was far more advanced than the technology on this ship was, which had taken them years of hard work to begin to understand.
Abruptly the sensors came alive with urgent warnings drawing everyone's immediate attention.
"Sir long-range sensors are picking up a hyperspace window opening on a bearing of three one four by one three two," Vanessa reported, "one ship emerging, Goa'uld vessel Ha'tak-class."
Oh, great that's all we need right now, Gloval thought with a mental groan of annoyance. As if getting thrown to the far side of the galaxy by a bad space fold wasn't bad enough. As if dragging Macross Island and a sizeable chunk of the surrounding Pacific Ocean with them wasn't bad enough now they had to deal with the thrice damned Goa'uld as well. What else can go wrong today, Gloval thought with another mental groan before addressing this latest curveball thrown at them by that most terrible, feared and hated of deities Murphy.
"How far out are they," he demanded, "and are they moving towards us?"
Vanessa checked her readings. "Negative sir," she reported after a moment. "Goa'uld vessel is holding station at a distance of five hundred thousand kilometres. We are however picking up scanners, they're attempting to scan us but between them our ECM, the hull and the shields are deflecting most of their scans."
They don't recognise us, Gloval thought, whoever is in command over there wants to know more about us before they take any action that could get them killed. Smart but then the Goa'uld aren't stupid. Arrogant, yes, evil to the bone, yes, stupid not so much. "Keep an eye on them," he ordered after a moment of silently thinking about it. "Let me know the moment they begin accelerating towards us or do anything but sit there."
"Aye sir."
Goa'uld Ha'tak
A Few Moments Earlier
"My lord we are secure from hyperspace. Sensors confirm two large contacts in orbit of the closest gas giant, distance five hundred thousand kilometres."
Sitting comfortably on his command throne and idly sipping some of the excellent wine his lotaur had brought for him Hermes raised a manicured eyebrow at the report from his First Prime By'ric. Given that they had been going into an unknown situation with the investigation of the sensor data from the
Ta'kora Outpost he had ordered By'ric to bring them out of hyperspace a bit earlier than normal. It never hurt to err on the side of caution when going into unknown, and potentially very dangerous, situations. A caution that appeared to have paid off.
"What kind of contacts?" he asked curious.
"My lord one appears to be a large asteroid primarily composed of ice and rock, the other is definitely a ship unknown configuration and power signature," By'ric answered. "My lord we are detecting both power emissions and life signs coming from the asteroid. There may be a base of some kind inside the asteroid."
That would be quite unusual, Hermes thought. It would be quite unusual for someone to build a base inside an asteroid especially one that was apparently made from mostly water ice around a rock core. Such asteroids, which were usually the leftover detritus of star system formation and regularly found in the periphery clouds that separated interplanetary from interstellar space, almost never had anything in them worth the effort of doing that.
"Interesting. Let's see if we can find out a bit more about this little mystery. Run comprehensive scans of both the asteroid and the ship."
"Yes, my lord," By'ric acknowledged and gave the command to the main console. Within moments the response appeared. "My lord the asteroid has a large settlement on its surface that is surrounded by a very powerful force field. We are reading quite a bit of metallic debris floating near the asteroid that does not match any known material or alloy.
"We are having a great deal of difficulty attempting to scan the vessel," By'ric continued. "The vessel is employing some kind of countermeasures that is preventing us from getting detailed scans of the ship. I can confirm however that the vessel is a warship and that its power signature is considerably higher than our own."
Not someone to challenge lightly then, Hermes thought. "Increase power to the sensors and focus all scans on the ship, burn through the interference."
"I have attempted to do so my lord. However, the unknowns' countermeasures in conjunction with their shields are continuing to block most of our scans. At least at this range."
Hermes scowled slightly at that, while simultaneously feeling a shiver of unease go down his spine. This was most unusual and very concerning as Goa'uld motherships had very sophisticated and powerful sensors specifically meant to counter the kind of countermeasures advanced species like themselves regularly used to attempt to inhibit the scanning of their ships. While they could get a bit closer and hope the proximity let them burn through whatever interference field the unknowns were generating that would potentially be very dangerous. Especially as they didn't know the unknown warships weapons range or even what its weapons were. For all he currently knew it could be like an Asgard ship and have the power to wipe out an entire squadron of Ha'tak without breaking a sweat.
Fortunately, there was another way.
"Launch a squadron of Al'kesh," he ordered after a moment. "Instruct the crews to cloak as soon as they are launched. They are to then approach the unknown warship and attempt short range scans. If detected they are to withdraw to us for new instructions at once."
"Yes, my lord."
Minutes after Hermes gave the order three Al'kesh mid-range attack bombers launched from their specialist bays on the ventral outer framework of the Ha'tak. Immediately their outlines shimmered and blurred before they faded from the view of both the naked eye and sensors as their cloaking fields engaged.
Then the three Al'kesh moved, accelerating across the system towards the unknown alien warship that had so far defied all but the most basic attempts at scanning. The Jaffa crews within the ships determined, with the kind of fanaticism that could only come from true believers, to gather the information on the unknown ship that Lord Hermes had ordered them to acquire. All of them hoping that a close-range scan, which even from a cloaked ship could be dangerous as the risk of enemy sensors penetrating your cloak and allowing you to potentially get tracked grew with ever few hundred meters fewer distance, would gain Lord Hermes what he wanted. If it didn't, well then, they would just have to try something else.
Authors Notes: Well, another chapter bites the metaphorical dust, I hope you all enjoyed it. What Ancient thing is Rick and co going to find on the third planet when they get there, well you'll find out soon. But I will say this it's not going to be anything truly spectacular but something else, something that ended up on the planet after the Lantean withdrawal from Pegasus at the end of their war with the Wraith. If anyone doesn't recognise the name Herculaneum it's the name of another Roman city that was buried in the same eruption that buried Pompeii in the year 79 CE, though unlike Pompeii most of Herculaneum is still buried beneath meters of volcanic debris as it was much closer to Vesuvius and got buried by some of the earlier pyroclastic flows and surges. In one of the newest uncovered houses archaeologists found a Lantean personal computer which along with the UEG finding and starting to examine in Antarctic Outpost has taught this version of Earth quite a few things about the Ancients. Though they cannot use the Antarctic Outposts weapons as its not being powered by a ZPM, instead drawing power from some wired in fusion reactors which while enough to power up the computers and life support systems aren't enough to run weapons.
Whew that was a longer author note than normal – lol. Until next time.