- Location
- United States
Well, I wonder how many Demons will claim to be Aliens? Because the Masquerade will be quite blown because of this.
A Legacy of Chaos (A Ship of the Line story)
- Thread starter ajw
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
At least the masquerade about the non-existance of aliens as Xander doesn't have to mention magic or demons to those who do not already know of their existence. Also I am thinking that at least two members of SG-1 are not completely ignorant of the existence of magic and the supernatural. Daniel could have knowledge of it as he was an archaeologist and thus likely has some knowledge and training in magic if its only something as simple as spotting and disarming curses.
The other I am thinking of is Sam who found out from her roommate in college who turned out to be a werewolf.
Mgunh1
Not an AI, honest!
- Location
- Northern Luna Base, Module 5, Sublevel 15
So to speak, so to speak, so to speak, so to speak, gah, that's starting to loose all meaning. Seriously though, you don't need to tell the reader you are using a metaphor every single time you use a metaphor. We're big kids, we get it.
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
Maybe though I make no apologies for the way I write things.
Mgunh1
Not an AI, honest!
- Location
- Northern Luna Base, Module 5, Sublevel 15
Maybe I came off a bit strong, I was just trying to be humorous about something you might not have noticed you were doing.
Since you are aware you are doing it and don't see a problem with it, allow me to explain my position. The problem is that everyone in your story says it, insistently. Because of that, your character's voices get muddled and start blending together, resulting in them all basically sounding the same. And since we, the readers, see it over and over, it starts getting irritating.
Hoyden
Hugbot v0.28
- Location
- UK
I like the general story idea, but kind of hope the focus pulls out a little so we see the whole world advancing, the social issues of a rapid uplift and intersteller war and so on are more interesting than Xander swaning about in his hypertech ships.
Will the powers try and sabotage things, will Xander fess up about being from earth, or will he pretend to be someone thrown back in time? So many what ifs, I look forwards to seeing what you do with them.
Will the powers try and sabotage things, will Xander fess up about being from earth, or will he pretend to be someone thrown back in time? So many what ifs, I look forwards to seeing what you do with them.
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
I may have come across as a little too defensive to be honest. In my defence I have been quite stressed recently being a live-in carer for disabled parents and brother during this damned coronavirus thing.
Rereading I actually wasn't aware that I was doing it quite as much as I apparently have been I'll have to watch out for that in future. Though do bare in mind that I actually write these chapters over days or weeks - whenever I get some spare time - so such things are bound to creep in.
It's not going to be all about Xander flying about in his ships. He actually can only pilot a few of them on his own as capsuleer vessels still require a crew of people to operate the ships properly especially anything cruiser sized or above. While the capsuleer can still control even the biggest Titans on their own the ships performance will be badly affected especially during combat without a crew as automated damage control and repair systems can only do so much, not to mention there would be no one to repair them if they went off line.
The Powers That Be just like the Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart (i.e. the high level near old one level demon lords known as the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart) might want to but they will not dare to try. Both are well aware that they are now being watched very closely for signs of interference by not only other higher beings like the Elders and the Angels of Destiny (there is a forth crossover here with the original Charmed though that is more or less a background thing that will only really come it when Willow's whitelighter makes his first appearance) but the Ascended and the True Deity's all of which would step in and stop them if they tried to interfere too much.
Xander will mostly hide the fact that he's from Earth originally from the public and the government - only Buffy and co will know where he's originally from - something that will be helped by the fact that he a) actually looks a few years older he just didn't realize until now just like he didn't realize that the whole time since he was decanted from the cloning tank he's been speaking the Gallente language and b) the accent he now speaks with is classic Gallente so there is no giveaway Californian accent. Both of these come things come from the fact that he has had the four decades of the skills, knowledge and memories of Alexander Zenakori (the capsuleer he was turned into by the spell) dumped into his seventeen year old head.
Hence why he has something of an identity crisis to deal with as he has to accept that he is no longer entirely Xander Harris just like he is not entirely Alexander Zenakori (though he might use that name when dealing with people outside the Scoobies) but is someone who is a mix between the two of them. Add in a little bit of the leftover from his hyena possession and you get someone new and yet familiar at the same time.
As for the thrown back in time thing... nah he won't use that explanation instead if anyone asks he could profess no real clue about how he or the Fortizar got to Sol from New Eden other than an encounter with a spatial anomaly and waking up here.
Hypersonic
200cm Mk XXXIII Hellbore
- Location
- Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha
- Pronouns
- Bolo
Just wanted to give some positive feedback....
I like the story, I like where you've taken it to date, and I'm exited to see it continue.
Since a lot of the feedback seems to be negative or neutral, I figured I would give you a thumbs up on what you've done so far.
Awesome Work!
I like the story, I like where you've taken it to date, and I'm exited to see it continue.
Since a lot of the feedback seems to be negative or neutral, I figured I would give you a thumbs up on what you've done so far.
Awesome Work!
Chapter Four
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
Authors Note: I had a couple of reviews to the last chapter that wondered why I had Xander being emo at the sudden fact that he has something of an identity crisis to deal with. I actually think that this is a perfectly natural reaction for someone in his position as he has just had literally decades of knowledge, memories, personality fragments and skills from the Gallente capsuleer that he was turned into downloaded into his seventeen year old head by Ethan Rayne's spell. Thus, his brain is having to reconcile two very different points of view and he has started to realize just how much that has begun influencing him – like the fact that he was speaking Gallentese without even realizing that he was doing it – which is hard for him to deal with. Add in the fact that he was previously only seventeen i.e. at a time in his life when like anyone his age he was still learning who he was and trying to decide what he wanted to do with his life and you have a recipe for some emotional trauma to manifest itself now and again as he tries to figure out and understand just who and what he is now compared to who and what he was less than twenty-four hours earlier (remember in story time it has only been about eighteen hours since Ethan Rayne cast that fateful spell and in the process turned Xander's life upside down and inside out).
Okay now that that explanation is over with let us crack on with the next chapter. Chapter events begin a few hours after the end of the previous chapter.
Finally, my thanks as always to Keiran Halcyon for his help with beta reading this chapter.
~~~///~~~
Chapter Four
Xander's Citadel
Neptune Orbit
Xander stood on one of the many observation decks that overlooked the station's numerous docking bays, gazing down at the alien corvette he had recovered late last night. Rather than directly ask Aura for directions he'd summoned a holographic console in his quarters by tapping a few hidden buttons inset in one of the tables. From there it had not been that difficult to find out just which docking bay the corvette had been transported to after he had brought it in, then telling the turbolift to take him there.
"A strange design," he said aloud as he scanned the docked ship hanging silent in the grip of electromagnetic force beams and bathed in the bay's powerful spotlights. The more he looked at it, the more he realized that while it resembled a horseshoe crab in its basic lines the similarity was far from exact. The aft section for example appeared to be mounted on a gimbal allowing it to rotate three hundred and sixty degrees parallel to the central axis of the ship. He had no idea what purpose that would serve.
"It is unusual," Aura agreed. Xander managed, just, not to jump at Aura's response to his words. Guess I am getting better at anticipating her answering me, he thought. "Forgive me Xander I did not realize you had left your quarters and come to this bay or I would have greeted you on arrival. Are you feeling better?"
"A little," Xander replied as after thinking about it for a while he had come to the conclusion that whoever he was now was who he was and that there was no real point in getting depressed about everything that had happened to him, how fundamentally he'd been changed by the spell cast on Sunnydale yesterday evening. It helped somewhat that in many ways he'd gone through something similar already as he'd slowly gotten used to the enhanced senses he'd been left with after the hyena spirit had been exorcised from his body. Of course, then he'd had Kyle and the others to help as well as they'd also been left with enhanced senses after the possession. From what Giles had told him it was not unusual for such possessions to leave a permanent change on the host even after the intruding spirit was banished from the body something about a soul imprint. I really need to get back to Sunnydale even if I only stay a short time, he thought, I need to let Buffy and Willow know I'm still alive though Giles can do that after I see him. I also need to tell Kyle and the others though knowing those four they'll insist on coming back here with me when I see them.
"Though I do need to head back to Earth for a little while soon," he admitted, "there are some people back in my hometown that I need to see."
"You have mentioned that you are worried about this Buffy person attacking you has that changed," Aura asked.
"No, it hasn't but I have thought of a way around that, especially as right now it will be midmorning in Sunnydale so Buffy will be in school."
"Oh?"
"We have portable comm devices do we not?"
"Of course, there are a number of different devices available," Aura replied as she began to realize some of what he had thought of. "I would recommend that you take a type three mobile QEC comm device. I can have a drone deliver one to a ship if you wish."
Information bubbling up from Alexander's memories immediately informed Xander that a type three mobile quantum entanglement communications device was one of the smaller and easier to operate devices. They were a favourite of infiltrators and covert operations specialists both for their small size and the fact that – unlike the older subspace comms used before QEC technology had been perfected – they could not be intercepted or tracked. It would also be perfect for his purposes as he could activate it remotely either from a ship or from the station.
"Before I answer, can you confirm if we have any cloak capable vessels capable of safely entering a planet's atmosphere, landing and then taking off again without detection," Xander asked. "I have no intention of dealing with some Air Force flyboys intercepting me and trying to either shoot me down or force me to follow them to their base." While he doubted AMRAAMS or Sidewinders would be able to even scratch shields – they were designed after all to withstand hits from far more powerful and advanced weapons than that – it would be a headache he could do without.
"Yes, there is a squadron of Caldari Manticore-class stealth bombers docked in secondary docking bay seventeen. Would you like me to prepare one?"
"Yes, please Aura and have the QEC device delivered to the bomber."
"As you wish. Do you wish me to fill the vessel's magazines?"
Xander considered that for a moment. While he was confident that the stealth bomber's cloaking device would prevent him being detected by anyone on Earth unless he allowed it he was also conscious of the fact that going to Earth completely unarmed would not be a good idea. Especially if something happened and his cloak went offline, and he had to tangle with some intercepting Air Force F-16's. "Alright," he said at last. "But light missiles only, either Nova's or Mjolnir's."
"As you wish," Aura replied and went quiet for a moment. "I have begun the preparation and arming process."
"How long will it take for the bomber to be ready?" he asked.
"Given I am having to rely entirely on drones and automated systems to prepare the ship it will take thirty standard minutes," Aura replied. "While we are waiting do you wish me to brief you on the results of my preliminary analysis of the alien corvette?"
"No, put that on a terminal in my quarters. Have we received any more transmissions from Earth?"
"A great many more," the artificial intelligence replied. "Since this morning we have received sixteen more messages from General Hammond, they are all the same, so I believe the transmission is on a loop that repeats every fifteen minutes. We have also received nearly a hundred more data transmissions."
"Have you analysed them?"
"Yes. The transmissions appear to be a first contact information package like the standard first contact packages maintained by the great empires and Concord in New Eden," Aura answered. "It originates from some organization called SETI."
"The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. They're a multinational organisation set up to search the stars for any sign of intelligent life."
"I figured as much. I have the standard Gallente package ready to transmit on their frequencies do you wish me to send it to them?"
Xander considered that for a few moments. From Alexander's memories he knew that all the first contact packages maintained by the civilizations of New Eden contained more or less the same thing – they were after all a what if/just in case thing as the people of New Eden had never encountered another space faring species – basic information on New Eden just adjusted slightly to reflect each empires perception of things. It certainly wouldn't give them too much information and opened the possible opportunity for him to explain his presence here without having to drop the M word. Not many people would believe magic to be real after all, he certainly hadn't until his introduction to the supernatural world, not to mention he could easily pretend to be a Gallente especially since he didn't exactly sound Californian anymore.
"Do it," he said at last.
"As you wish. The message has been sent at the speed of their radio waves they should receive it in four hours, eight minutes."
"Set it for a repeat broadcast every two hours for the next twenty-four. That should give them more than enough time to construct a translation matrix."
"There is another option. In future transmissions, I could include a simple computer program they could use to create such a matrix far more quickly," Aura pointed out, "even the most basic quantum computer should have no difficulty using it."
"Ugh, Aura they don't use quantum computers," Xander told her, "they're still only theoretical back on Earth right now. They still use silicon-based binary computers."
"Oh! I did not realize that they are that technologically backwards compared to us," Aura admitted sounding shocked and indeed she was shocked, well as far as an artificial intelligence could be. Simple binary computational methods were so primitive that nobody – aside from technological historians – ever really thought about that positively ancient and extremely primitive technology any longer.
"Understandable," Xander replied as he began making his way towards the closest lift. "Now I'll head up to the staging area to get ready. Oh, and make sure there are some clothes my size stored in the bomber. I'll need them after I land."
"I have already seen to that Xander."
"Okay thank you, Aura."
"You are most welcome. Preparation of the bomber is proceeding better than I expected its fusion plant is now coming online. It will be ready for departure in fifteen minutes, I have also begun plotting a course to Earth for you."
"Thank you, Aura."
"You're welcome."
~~//~~
Fifteen Minutes Later
Once again cocooned within the hydrostatic capsule and seeing the world through sensors instead of his eyes, Xander felt the station's tractor beams release him, leaving the ship floating free in Neptune orbit. With a thought he engaged the cloaking device and felt a curious sensation that reminded him of cold water flowing over his skin as the cloaking field formed around the ship. His vision shimmered and rippled, like he was looking through a waterfall, for a few moments until it returned to normal.
Information flowing into the cybernetic implants crafted to his brain let him know that the cloaking field was stable and working correctly. Okay time to make my way back to Earth and hope everything goes as planned, he thought as he brought the ship around onto the correct warp vector to take him to the inner solar system. Due to the position of Mars relative to Earth he wouldn't be able to travel directly from Neptune to Earth but would have to drop out of FTL near Mars, cruise around the red planet at sublight speed before coming onto a warp vector that would drop him back into normal space at the Lagranian point between Earth and the moon.
In moments he had the ship in position and gave the command to engage the warp drive. "Warp drive activated," Aura's voice confirmed as the depleted vacuum bubble formed around the ship microseconds before the stealth bomber – cloak still active and working correctly – vanished into FTL flight on route to Earth.
Unlike the last time he had piloted a ship through warp, then he'd been far too nervous to really think about it, Xander allowed himself to appreciate the incredible technology that warp drive was. While it was considerably slower than using a cynosural jump drive, let alone using a stargate, it was still an incredible technological achievement that the people of New Eden had made or rather rediscovered at the end of the ten thousand year – give or take a century or two – long dark age that had followed the sudden, catastrophic collapse of the EVE Gate wormhole. He allowed himself to enjoy the majesty of it, of gliding through the solar system at warp, watching asteroids, comets and the various planets and their attending moons whizzing past as blurs of colour and weird shapes as the outlines were distorted by the watery shimmering of the walls of the tunnel being created by the warp engine.
All too soon, however, the ship dropped back into normal space on the dark side of Mars. While Mars was small as terrestrial planets went, its gravitational mass was still more than sufficient to block a straight shot to Earth. Which meant he would have to cruise past the red planet at sublight speeds until he was clear of the gravity well. So with a thought he brought the sublight engines online at the maximum level he could, without compromising the integrity of the cloaking field and began a relatively slow flight around the fourth planet following the flight vector Aura had set out for him.
Deciding he might as well enjoy himself he idly studied the red planet with the ship's sensors, immediately noting the fact that a large dust storm was starting to sweep over the planet. One that was highly charged from the friction between the sand grains as the relentless Martian wind picked them up and rubbed them against one another. Despite the growing interference from the storm he was still able to pick up the faint radio signals of one of the probes that NASA had sent to Mars over the last few years.
Then he was past Mars and once again moving into open space. He immediately adjusted course coming onto the new warp vector that would in the next minute or so take him to Earth. He activated the drive hearing so to speak the normal warp drive activated notification from Aura. Seconds later he was once again travelling down a warp tunnel. This time however, the transit was very brief due to the relative proximity of Mars to Earth and in practically no time at all the warp tunnel ended and he returned to normal space.
To find himself floating in the Lagranian point between Earth and the barren, airless companion that was her moon. Immediately he brought the ship around onto a vector that would take it to Earth and Sunnydale and engaged the main sublight engines. The bomber surged into motion and began the surprisingly complex job of safely entering the atmosphere. No wonder practically everyone in New Eden uses space elevators, he thought as ascending/descending space elevator towers was far easier – if a little slower – way of getting to and from a planet's surface than taking a ship into the atmosphere. Only if speed were required would a ship be used and that was usually a shuttle or, if attacking someone, a dropship or gunship.
Before long he reached the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere prompting him to make final adjustments to his entry vector and begin the descent. In no time at all he was passing through the various layers of the atmosphere, the ion exhaust from engines – already quite dispersed by the cloaking field as they passed through it as cloaking would be kind of pointless if someone could track you by just locking onto sublight engine ion trails – interacting with the tenuous balance of the upper atmospheric ranges triggering instant storms.
He paid it no mind as he dropped into the lower most layers of the atmosphere and the great blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean came into view. Slowing to a safer atmospheric speed he changed course again, aligning on the Californian coastline and beginning his approach towards Sunnydale. Below the waves, their rippling surface being occasionally disturbed by dolphins and the odd whale coming up for air, swept past. He glided over a cruise ship – without even a gust of wind to announce his passing to the sun worshippers packing her upper decks – and the occasional superyacht as he got closer to the coast. Shipping began to increase with more and more ships – commercial, military or pleasure – the closer he got to the coast though he paid it no real mind as he was too high to collide with anything not to mention his cloak made it impossible for their primitive – by New Eden standards – radars to even get the slightest hint of his presence.
After another couple of minutes Sunnydale itself came into view looking for all the world like any other idyllic coastal Californian town. Certainly, there was nothing to suggest that beneath it was a portal to any number of hell dimensions or that at night, vampires and other demons prowled its streets looking for someone to kill/eat/turn or torture for fun. Reducing his speed down to a crawl he began searching for a place to land that would be out of the way, though he would keep the bomber cloaked regardless as the last thing he wanted was for the military to show up in town after some satellite or other spotted the landed 'alien' ship. Even after he left the ship as his Neo-eComm would make finding it again child's play.
Soon enough he found a good location in the form of the big rear car park behind the currently closed Calex Research and Development building. It was large enough for the bomber to land and the slowly going wild bushes and trees around the perimeter of the property would prevent any passers-by from seeing him appear out of thin air. Not that it would matter if anyone did given how people in Sunnydale seem to ignore anything out of the ordinary, he thought before putting that out of his mind and focusing on the important job of landing.
Carefully he positioned the bomber over the empty parking lot, which was starting itself to show some signs of the lack of maintenance since CRD closed last year. Cracks had appeared in the asphalt – some no doubt caused by the earthquake that had last year rattled Sunnydale just before The Master escaped his prison – and here and there tufts of grass and the occasional dandelion was growing through. Once he was sure that everything was okay, he gave the command to commence the landing procedure. Landing thrusters fired instantly whipping up a windstorm on the ground, blowing some hapless joggers on the path behind the parking lot around and sending discarded crisp packets and other flotsam flying in the sudden gale, and the cloaked ship began its descent. With a whirr and a click landing struts – still concealed beneath the cloak – extended and locked into position. Moments later, a jolt ran through the hull as the small spaceship touched terra firma for the first time, the landing thrusters disengaged, banishing the wind affecting the outside world as quickly as it had come.
Xander disengaged the interface and found himself back in the capsule floating in blue fluid. Okay time to get out of here, he thought before giving the mental command to the capsule to open.
~~//~~
Ten minutes later, once more dressed though his hair was still wet from the hydrostatic fluid, Xander walked down the bombers embarkation ramp seeming to appear from nowhere to anyone who was watching. Not that there was anyone as once the windstorm subsided the joggers had run off. As soon as his feet touched the ground Xander activated the Neo-eComm causing a holographic display to appear around his right forearm. A quick command had the bomber closing its ramp again and firmly logging his current position. That done he closed the Neo-eComm down and looked around to get his bearings.
Then he began walking towards the perimeter fence.
~~//~~
One Hour Later
Xander smiled as he finally arrived at Giles residence on the opposite side of Sunnydale from the CRD site. He hadn't realized just how difficult crossing Sunnydale in the middle of the day – especially the freeway to Los Angeles that ran straight through the middle of the town – would be. But then I would normally be in school now trading barbs with Cordelia and her minions and attempted to dodge Herr Snyder thus I wouldn't see much of the traffic that fills the streets during the daylight hours, he thought before giving a slight shrug as it hardly mattered, especially as Giles would be at the high school for a good few hours yet.
Instead he focused on the task at hand.
Reaching down he moved the flowerpot near the entrance that concealed the spare key that he knew was there, a key spelled that nobody but people Giles knew and trusted could find it. Picking up the key he proceeded to let himself into the small but quite homely dwelling that the Watcher called home. After closing the door, he made his way to the coffee table in the middle of the living room area before putting down the small satchel that he had brought with him. From the satchel he retrieved the small communications device that he was going to leave here for Giles.
Carefully he put the small device – about the same size as a small tea plate – down on the coffee table and spent the next few minutes setting it up making it ready for remote activation as soon as its proximity sensor detected Giles presence. All too soon he was done.
A few moments later he was disappearing back into the streets of Sunnydale heading for his cloaked bomber.
~~//~~
Earth Orbit
Sometime Later
Xander considered his options as he returned to orbit. While he could easily return to the Fortizar orbiting Neptune to wait for Giles to get home from work and call him from there, a part of him wanted to stay here in orbit. After all it was perfectly possible that Giles would want to see him face to face and perform some mojo to confirm he was who he said he was. In which case it would make more sense to just sit here in orbit and wait.
A reflection caught his eye and he turned the ship's sensors on what had caught his attention. To his surprise he found what was clearly a debris field in a high orbit of the planet. A debris field made from materials that were not found on Earth and in fact did not match anything in the New Eden database either. Trusting in Alexander's memories he realized that from the size of the field and its rate of spread at least two ships of heavy cruiser class or above had been destroyed in orbit and that whatever battle had taken place it had occurred within the last week. I wonder if the battle was the fireball in the sky everyone saw last week, he thought, that the government said was an unusually large solar flare hitting the planet's magnetosphere as of course they wouldn't tell us the truth.
His interest peaked; he engaged the thrusters and moved up into a higher orbit and approached the debris field. He came to a stop at the edge of the field and began running a more comprehensive set of scans of the debris field.
"Aura will you help with analysing these scans please," he thought-spoke to the AI.
"Of course, Xander. Commencing analysis," Aura replied. Within moments the analysis of the scan data began to be relayed into his consciousness and Xander believed his physical body – floating in the capsule – blinked in surprise at what was revealed. Though the materials that made up the debris were for the most part unfamiliar he was picking up quite substantial traces of gold alloyed with the materials. Huh, maybe these people, whoever they were, liked gold in much the same way the Amarr do, he thought. His surprise only grew when he detected traces of basic weapons grade nuclear materials in the debris along with traces of plastic explosives. Trajectory analysis of the debris also indicated that the two ships had collided as one was exploding from within. Kamikaze ram perhaps, he thought, a final attempt by the loser of a fight to take their enemy with them?
"Xander I should point out that the materials used in the hull of the two ships destroyed here are almost identical to the materials used in the hull of the alien corvette back aboard the station," Aura told him. "The only differences are the greater percentages of gold and the metallic quartz like material."
"Which doesn't tell me very much beyond the fact that they're common starship building materials around here," Xander thought spoke back. "Just like how everyone back in New Eden uses tritanium."
"Good point. Oh, this is interesting."
"What is?"
"Turn the sensors to the set of coordinates on the planet I am sending you," Aura told him. Feeling the information come in, Xander followed the instruction and blinked when he saw a large concentration of the same metallic quartz material beneath what he recognized as Cheyenne Mountain. One that was far, far too pure to be a deposit of whatever ore it was.
"So, the Air Force has some of whatever this material is," he replied, "and given the nuclear and C4 traces in the debris field they probably had something to do with the destruction of these ships. Which they then covered up with a story about a solar flare."
"Why would they cover a battle in orbit up?"
"Probably because they don't want anyone to know about whoever built the two destroyed ships. Probably think the world isn't ready to know."
"That's stupid."
"Agreed," Xander replied before an alert flashed through the system. What? he thought as he looked at what was causing the alert and blinked in surprise when he saw that it was a massive energy signature beneath Cheyenne Mountain coming from the mass along with subspace distortions consistent with a wormhole. "That's impossible! A wormhole on a planet?"
"That should not be possible, everything we know about wormholes indicates that they cannot exist on a planetary surface," Aura replied, sounding as shocked as an artificial intelligence could get. "The gravity well should instantly cause them to collapse."
"Yet it obviously isn't here," Xander commented as he set the systems to record as much information as they could, which wasn't that much to be honest given the limitations of the sensor arrays on a stealth bomber.
"Indeed, it will be interesting to analyse your sensor telemetry when you return."
Giving the mental equivalent of a nod Xander turned his full attention to documenting this strange but most intriguing development.
~~//~~
Stargate Command
A Few Minutes Earlier
"Off world activation."
General Hammond's head shot up from his desk at Walter's voice over the base PA system a moment before the alarms began sounding. Which would immediately kick over a hornet's nest as the base defence teams scrambled to get to their stations. Now what, he thought as he stood up and hurried out of the room. In his heart he hoped that there was nothing wrong with any of the mere handful of personnel that they were allowed to have off-world right now – especially given they were restricted to light duties at the moment and couldn't embark on any further exploration of the Stargate Network, only to continue working on planets where they had a presence, until their reinforcement process was finished – however his head told him that it was a foolish hope. None of their people would dial in outside of their scheduled times – which he had committed to memory – unless something was wrong.
It took only a few moments to reach the control room from his office. He was pleased to note immediately that the iris was closed and that defence teams were rapidly mustering in the gate room.
"Report," he ordered Walter noting out of the corner of his eyes Colonel O'Neill coming into the room with a curious look on his face. No doubt like him Jack wanted to know just who was dialling in at this time and why.
"Sir we're receiving a distress call from SG-4 on P3X-382," Walter reported, "they report that they are under attack by Goa'uld air forces and request immediate assistance with the evacuation of the native population."
"Sir," Jack said, immediately offering to take SG-1 through the gate to P3X-282 or Nasya as it was called by its native inhabitants.
"Go, take SG-2 with you," Hammond ordered. While Jack, his team and Major Ferretti's team geared up and made their way to the embarkation room he would alert Doctor Fraiser and her emergency teams to prepare for incoming refugees.
"Yes sir," Jack acknowledged formally before turning and racing out of the control room to get his team ready. Hammond for his part picked up a phone and called the infirmary so he could give Doctor Fraiser the news.
~~//~~
Ten Minutes Later
Jack O'Neill and the rest of his team, alongside SG-2, stood in the embarkation room watching the gate going through the dialling procedure. While he knew that they were going to be going into a massive firefight between their own forces and the Goa'uld gliders strafing the Nasyan village Jack found himself looking forward to stepping through the gate again. It beat sitting around the SGC doing virtually nothing but twiddle his thumbs, do his paperwork – the bane of his existence – and worry about that alien space station that had been detected over Neptune and which the whole world knew about by now.
"Chevron seven… locked," Walter's voice said over the PA system a microsecond before the Stargate roared into life again with the usual initial unstable vortex shooting towards them with the familiar ka-whoosh sound before stopping and collapsing back into the rippling, water-like surface of the stable event horizon.
"SG-1 and SG-2," Hammond said again over the PA. "Your job is to reinforce SG-4 during the evacuation of the Nasyan population from the Goa'uld attack. As soon as the civilians are through all three teams are to withdraw at once."
"Understood sir," Jack called back.
"Good luck."
"Alright everyone you know what to do let's get it done," Jack said starting to march up the ramp towards the Stargate before without hesitation stepping through the event horizon which made its usual slurping sound as he passed through the water-like surface. Quickly the rest of his team, then SG-2 followed along behind him vanishing into the event horizon and being instantly converted into a data stream and sent zipping across the galaxy through a subspace wormhole.
Nope of them were aware that the activation of the wormhole had not gone unnoticed.
~~//~~
Xander's Stealth Bomber
In Orbit
Xander observed the sensors with great interest as another wormhole was established beneath Cheyenne Mountain, beneath the series of artificial caves that housed NORAD. Clearly somebody down there, and from the location he was willing to bet it was the Air Force, had a device capable of generating wormholes that were stable inside a planetary gravity well, in defiance of all the laws of physics as the people back in New Eden knew them. The question is what are the Air Force doing with it? Not to mention how long have they had it, he thought.
"Very interesting," Aura commented. "I wonder what kind of device it is, though it is obvious what it is used for as there is nothing else that you can use wormholes for other than transportation. I will analyse the sensor data in more detail when you return, hopefully that will give us some more information on the nature of whatever technology this is. Also, if it's common in this galaxy, the databanks of the alien corvette will likely contain information on it."
"Agreed. When I return, we'll try to gain access to the interior of the corvette," Xander replied.
"It should not be that difficult as while the hull is dense and strong my analysis indicates an industrial strength fusion torch should be able to burn through the airlock doors."
"Good that should make things easier," Xander commented before a new alert flashed through the system. Now what, he thought as he checked the system and both his mind, and the eyes of his physical body blinked in surprise. The proximity sensor of the communications device he'd left at Giles modest home had detected the door to the property opening, nearly an hour before Giles normally got off work. Did school end early today for some reason, he thought as he activated a camera on the device that had been carefully pointed at the door so he would know the instant the somewhat technophobic Watcher came in.
Just in time to see the door open and Giles step through. Only the Watcher was not alone, instead walking in with him were two other people, one being Jenny Calendar who he knew to be Giles' significant lady friend. The other however made him frown slightly as he had hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with her now, it was none other than Buffy herself. Oh, great though at least she can't slay me through a hologram, he thought before listening to what they were talking about through the comm devices microphones.
"….so Xander remembered everything," Buffy was saying, sounding shocked. "But why would he tell us otherwise? Neither I nor Willow held what he did when possessed by the hyena against hi… hey what's that on your coffee table Giles?"
Deciding that it was as good a que as he was going to get Xander remotely activated the device and projected a hologram of himself. "Because I knew Willow would not understand my continuing to talk to Kyle and the others who were affected. Smart as she is, Willow can sometimes be a little dense," he told Buffy as the blond Slayer's eyes widened and her face went as white as a sheet. Naturally, he was thought-speaking through the comm device, turning his thought-speak into audible words.
"X… X… Xander," Buffy stammered.
"Hey Buffy, nice to see you unaffected by your stint as Lady Useless," Xander replied. Buffy gaped at him, as did Giles and Jenny, then her eyes rolled back in her head and the Slayer fainted dead away. "Okay I did not expect that. Yelling and running at me with a stake was what I expected, not fainting."
"How are you here Xander," Giles demanded to know as Jenny started fishing in her purse, likely looking for some smelling salts to bring Buffy round. "Are you a ghost of some kind?"
"No, I am not a ghost G-man, this is simply a holographic projection of me," Xander replied, "though I understand why you would think I was a ghost considering that vampiress killed me last night. What was killed was only one of my clones."
"Your clones?" Giles repeated as Jenny succeeded in producing some smelling salts from her purse and began using them on Buffy, bringing the Slayer around.
"Yeah thanks to that spell I was turned into a capsuleer. Meaning that I'm to all intents and purposes immortal. When my body died my mind and I guess my soul were instantly transported into a new clone body aboard a space station in orbit of Neptune. What was up with that last night by the way? I thought Halloween was supposed to be quiet for supernatural shenanigans."
"It's a long story," Giles replied, "but if you're on that station out by Neptune – which has really kicked off a media feeding frenzy – then how are you talking to us now?"
"Simple I placed this QEC device in your apartment earlier today. You see I'm not actually on the Fortizar right now. As it stands, I'm actually a few tens of thousands of kilometres above your heads in a cloaked ship."
"How," Buffy demanded looking at him somewhat suspiciously especially as she noted differences in his appearance as while the hologram in front of her looked like Xander he appeared to be a few years older.
"It's a long story."
"We have time," Giles replied, "not to mention we need to determine if you are who you say you are."
"If Buffy promises not to slay me, as I have no intention of dying again anytime soon it kind of hurts, on sight I can come back down to Sunnydale."
"When?"
"I can come now if you want. Meet me outside the old CRD site, Buffy knows where it is, as it's where we took out the demon bot."
Giles looked at Buffy getting a reluctant nod of agreement not to slay him on sight. "Alright we'll head over there now. Buffy will not slay you yet but if you turn out to be a demon or some spirit then…"
"I'll get slayed. Fair enough. I'll head back down now, meet me outside CRD in an hours' time."
"Very well, one hour."
Xander nodded then closed his transmission. Then he set about plotting a new course back to Sunnydale.
~~~///~~~
Authors Notes: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it and yes we are now entering the next episode of season two of Stargate SG-1 though Xander will not actually play much if any role in the episode itself beyond something to do with his space station and a certain intrigued fugitive Tok'ra though he does now know that the air force is up to something with a device that somehow defies the laws of physics as he – and Alexander as well as Aura – knew them by creating wormholes on a planet's surface. Finally some of the Scooby gang now know he's alive though they don't exactly trust he is who he says he is right now – given some of the supernatural nasties they've encountered on the Hellmouth the scepticism I think is perfectly natural – what happens with them will be dealt with in the next chapter. Until then stay safe everyone.
Okay now that that explanation is over with let us crack on with the next chapter. Chapter events begin a few hours after the end of the previous chapter.
Finally, my thanks as always to Keiran Halcyon for his help with beta reading this chapter.
~~~///~~~
Chapter Four
Xander's Citadel
Neptune Orbit
Xander stood on one of the many observation decks that overlooked the station's numerous docking bays, gazing down at the alien corvette he had recovered late last night. Rather than directly ask Aura for directions he'd summoned a holographic console in his quarters by tapping a few hidden buttons inset in one of the tables. From there it had not been that difficult to find out just which docking bay the corvette had been transported to after he had brought it in, then telling the turbolift to take him there.
"A strange design," he said aloud as he scanned the docked ship hanging silent in the grip of electromagnetic force beams and bathed in the bay's powerful spotlights. The more he looked at it, the more he realized that while it resembled a horseshoe crab in its basic lines the similarity was far from exact. The aft section for example appeared to be mounted on a gimbal allowing it to rotate three hundred and sixty degrees parallel to the central axis of the ship. He had no idea what purpose that would serve.
"It is unusual," Aura agreed. Xander managed, just, not to jump at Aura's response to his words. Guess I am getting better at anticipating her answering me, he thought. "Forgive me Xander I did not realize you had left your quarters and come to this bay or I would have greeted you on arrival. Are you feeling better?"
"A little," Xander replied as after thinking about it for a while he had come to the conclusion that whoever he was now was who he was and that there was no real point in getting depressed about everything that had happened to him, how fundamentally he'd been changed by the spell cast on Sunnydale yesterday evening. It helped somewhat that in many ways he'd gone through something similar already as he'd slowly gotten used to the enhanced senses he'd been left with after the hyena spirit had been exorcised from his body. Of course, then he'd had Kyle and the others to help as well as they'd also been left with enhanced senses after the possession. From what Giles had told him it was not unusual for such possessions to leave a permanent change on the host even after the intruding spirit was banished from the body something about a soul imprint. I really need to get back to Sunnydale even if I only stay a short time, he thought, I need to let Buffy and Willow know I'm still alive though Giles can do that after I see him. I also need to tell Kyle and the others though knowing those four they'll insist on coming back here with me when I see them.
"Though I do need to head back to Earth for a little while soon," he admitted, "there are some people back in my hometown that I need to see."
"You have mentioned that you are worried about this Buffy person attacking you has that changed," Aura asked.
"No, it hasn't but I have thought of a way around that, especially as right now it will be midmorning in Sunnydale so Buffy will be in school."
"Oh?"
"We have portable comm devices do we not?"
"Of course, there are a number of different devices available," Aura replied as she began to realize some of what he had thought of. "I would recommend that you take a type three mobile QEC comm device. I can have a drone deliver one to a ship if you wish."
Information bubbling up from Alexander's memories immediately informed Xander that a type three mobile quantum entanglement communications device was one of the smaller and easier to operate devices. They were a favourite of infiltrators and covert operations specialists both for their small size and the fact that – unlike the older subspace comms used before QEC technology had been perfected – they could not be intercepted or tracked. It would also be perfect for his purposes as he could activate it remotely either from a ship or from the station.
"Before I answer, can you confirm if we have any cloak capable vessels capable of safely entering a planet's atmosphere, landing and then taking off again without detection," Xander asked. "I have no intention of dealing with some Air Force flyboys intercepting me and trying to either shoot me down or force me to follow them to their base." While he doubted AMRAAMS or Sidewinders would be able to even scratch shields – they were designed after all to withstand hits from far more powerful and advanced weapons than that – it would be a headache he could do without.
"Yes, there is a squadron of Caldari Manticore-class stealth bombers docked in secondary docking bay seventeen. Would you like me to prepare one?"
"Yes, please Aura and have the QEC device delivered to the bomber."
"As you wish. Do you wish me to fill the vessel's magazines?"
Xander considered that for a moment. While he was confident that the stealth bomber's cloaking device would prevent him being detected by anyone on Earth unless he allowed it he was also conscious of the fact that going to Earth completely unarmed would not be a good idea. Especially if something happened and his cloak went offline, and he had to tangle with some intercepting Air Force F-16's. "Alright," he said at last. "But light missiles only, either Nova's or Mjolnir's."
"As you wish," Aura replied and went quiet for a moment. "I have begun the preparation and arming process."
"How long will it take for the bomber to be ready?" he asked.
"Given I am having to rely entirely on drones and automated systems to prepare the ship it will take thirty standard minutes," Aura replied. "While we are waiting do you wish me to brief you on the results of my preliminary analysis of the alien corvette?"
"No, put that on a terminal in my quarters. Have we received any more transmissions from Earth?"
"A great many more," the artificial intelligence replied. "Since this morning we have received sixteen more messages from General Hammond, they are all the same, so I believe the transmission is on a loop that repeats every fifteen minutes. We have also received nearly a hundred more data transmissions."
"Have you analysed them?"
"Yes. The transmissions appear to be a first contact information package like the standard first contact packages maintained by the great empires and Concord in New Eden," Aura answered. "It originates from some organization called SETI."
"The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. They're a multinational organisation set up to search the stars for any sign of intelligent life."
"I figured as much. I have the standard Gallente package ready to transmit on their frequencies do you wish me to send it to them?"
Xander considered that for a few moments. From Alexander's memories he knew that all the first contact packages maintained by the civilizations of New Eden contained more or less the same thing – they were after all a what if/just in case thing as the people of New Eden had never encountered another space faring species – basic information on New Eden just adjusted slightly to reflect each empires perception of things. It certainly wouldn't give them too much information and opened the possible opportunity for him to explain his presence here without having to drop the M word. Not many people would believe magic to be real after all, he certainly hadn't until his introduction to the supernatural world, not to mention he could easily pretend to be a Gallente especially since he didn't exactly sound Californian anymore.
"Do it," he said at last.
"As you wish. The message has been sent at the speed of their radio waves they should receive it in four hours, eight minutes."
"Set it for a repeat broadcast every two hours for the next twenty-four. That should give them more than enough time to construct a translation matrix."
"There is another option. In future transmissions, I could include a simple computer program they could use to create such a matrix far more quickly," Aura pointed out, "even the most basic quantum computer should have no difficulty using it."
"Ugh, Aura they don't use quantum computers," Xander told her, "they're still only theoretical back on Earth right now. They still use silicon-based binary computers."
"Oh! I did not realize that they are that technologically backwards compared to us," Aura admitted sounding shocked and indeed she was shocked, well as far as an artificial intelligence could be. Simple binary computational methods were so primitive that nobody – aside from technological historians – ever really thought about that positively ancient and extremely primitive technology any longer.
"Understandable," Xander replied as he began making his way towards the closest lift. "Now I'll head up to the staging area to get ready. Oh, and make sure there are some clothes my size stored in the bomber. I'll need them after I land."
"I have already seen to that Xander."
"Okay thank you, Aura."
"You are most welcome. Preparation of the bomber is proceeding better than I expected its fusion plant is now coming online. It will be ready for departure in fifteen minutes, I have also begun plotting a course to Earth for you."
"Thank you, Aura."
"You're welcome."
~~//~~
Fifteen Minutes Later
Once again cocooned within the hydrostatic capsule and seeing the world through sensors instead of his eyes, Xander felt the station's tractor beams release him, leaving the ship floating free in Neptune orbit. With a thought he engaged the cloaking device and felt a curious sensation that reminded him of cold water flowing over his skin as the cloaking field formed around the ship. His vision shimmered and rippled, like he was looking through a waterfall, for a few moments until it returned to normal.
Information flowing into the cybernetic implants crafted to his brain let him know that the cloaking field was stable and working correctly. Okay time to make my way back to Earth and hope everything goes as planned, he thought as he brought the ship around onto the correct warp vector to take him to the inner solar system. Due to the position of Mars relative to Earth he wouldn't be able to travel directly from Neptune to Earth but would have to drop out of FTL near Mars, cruise around the red planet at sublight speed before coming onto a warp vector that would drop him back into normal space at the Lagranian point between Earth and the moon.
In moments he had the ship in position and gave the command to engage the warp drive. "Warp drive activated," Aura's voice confirmed as the depleted vacuum bubble formed around the ship microseconds before the stealth bomber – cloak still active and working correctly – vanished into FTL flight on route to Earth.
Unlike the last time he had piloted a ship through warp, then he'd been far too nervous to really think about it, Xander allowed himself to appreciate the incredible technology that warp drive was. While it was considerably slower than using a cynosural jump drive, let alone using a stargate, it was still an incredible technological achievement that the people of New Eden had made or rather rediscovered at the end of the ten thousand year – give or take a century or two – long dark age that had followed the sudden, catastrophic collapse of the EVE Gate wormhole. He allowed himself to enjoy the majesty of it, of gliding through the solar system at warp, watching asteroids, comets and the various planets and their attending moons whizzing past as blurs of colour and weird shapes as the outlines were distorted by the watery shimmering of the walls of the tunnel being created by the warp engine.
All too soon, however, the ship dropped back into normal space on the dark side of Mars. While Mars was small as terrestrial planets went, its gravitational mass was still more than sufficient to block a straight shot to Earth. Which meant he would have to cruise past the red planet at sublight speeds until he was clear of the gravity well. So with a thought he brought the sublight engines online at the maximum level he could, without compromising the integrity of the cloaking field and began a relatively slow flight around the fourth planet following the flight vector Aura had set out for him.
Deciding he might as well enjoy himself he idly studied the red planet with the ship's sensors, immediately noting the fact that a large dust storm was starting to sweep over the planet. One that was highly charged from the friction between the sand grains as the relentless Martian wind picked them up and rubbed them against one another. Despite the growing interference from the storm he was still able to pick up the faint radio signals of one of the probes that NASA had sent to Mars over the last few years.
Then he was past Mars and once again moving into open space. He immediately adjusted course coming onto the new warp vector that would in the next minute or so take him to Earth. He activated the drive hearing so to speak the normal warp drive activated notification from Aura. Seconds later he was once again travelling down a warp tunnel. This time however, the transit was very brief due to the relative proximity of Mars to Earth and in practically no time at all the warp tunnel ended and he returned to normal space.
To find himself floating in the Lagranian point between Earth and the barren, airless companion that was her moon. Immediately he brought the ship around onto a vector that would take it to Earth and Sunnydale and engaged the main sublight engines. The bomber surged into motion and began the surprisingly complex job of safely entering the atmosphere. No wonder practically everyone in New Eden uses space elevators, he thought as ascending/descending space elevator towers was far easier – if a little slower – way of getting to and from a planet's surface than taking a ship into the atmosphere. Only if speed were required would a ship be used and that was usually a shuttle or, if attacking someone, a dropship or gunship.
Before long he reached the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere prompting him to make final adjustments to his entry vector and begin the descent. In no time at all he was passing through the various layers of the atmosphere, the ion exhaust from engines – already quite dispersed by the cloaking field as they passed through it as cloaking would be kind of pointless if someone could track you by just locking onto sublight engine ion trails – interacting with the tenuous balance of the upper atmospheric ranges triggering instant storms.
He paid it no mind as he dropped into the lower most layers of the atmosphere and the great blue expanse of the Pacific Ocean came into view. Slowing to a safer atmospheric speed he changed course again, aligning on the Californian coastline and beginning his approach towards Sunnydale. Below the waves, their rippling surface being occasionally disturbed by dolphins and the odd whale coming up for air, swept past. He glided over a cruise ship – without even a gust of wind to announce his passing to the sun worshippers packing her upper decks – and the occasional superyacht as he got closer to the coast. Shipping began to increase with more and more ships – commercial, military or pleasure – the closer he got to the coast though he paid it no real mind as he was too high to collide with anything not to mention his cloak made it impossible for their primitive – by New Eden standards – radars to even get the slightest hint of his presence.
After another couple of minutes Sunnydale itself came into view looking for all the world like any other idyllic coastal Californian town. Certainly, there was nothing to suggest that beneath it was a portal to any number of hell dimensions or that at night, vampires and other demons prowled its streets looking for someone to kill/eat/turn or torture for fun. Reducing his speed down to a crawl he began searching for a place to land that would be out of the way, though he would keep the bomber cloaked regardless as the last thing he wanted was for the military to show up in town after some satellite or other spotted the landed 'alien' ship. Even after he left the ship as his Neo-eComm would make finding it again child's play.
Soon enough he found a good location in the form of the big rear car park behind the currently closed Calex Research and Development building. It was large enough for the bomber to land and the slowly going wild bushes and trees around the perimeter of the property would prevent any passers-by from seeing him appear out of thin air. Not that it would matter if anyone did given how people in Sunnydale seem to ignore anything out of the ordinary, he thought before putting that out of his mind and focusing on the important job of landing.
Carefully he positioned the bomber over the empty parking lot, which was starting itself to show some signs of the lack of maintenance since CRD closed last year. Cracks had appeared in the asphalt – some no doubt caused by the earthquake that had last year rattled Sunnydale just before The Master escaped his prison – and here and there tufts of grass and the occasional dandelion was growing through. Once he was sure that everything was okay, he gave the command to commence the landing procedure. Landing thrusters fired instantly whipping up a windstorm on the ground, blowing some hapless joggers on the path behind the parking lot around and sending discarded crisp packets and other flotsam flying in the sudden gale, and the cloaked ship began its descent. With a whirr and a click landing struts – still concealed beneath the cloak – extended and locked into position. Moments later, a jolt ran through the hull as the small spaceship touched terra firma for the first time, the landing thrusters disengaged, banishing the wind affecting the outside world as quickly as it had come.
Xander disengaged the interface and found himself back in the capsule floating in blue fluid. Okay time to get out of here, he thought before giving the mental command to the capsule to open.
~~//~~
Ten minutes later, once more dressed though his hair was still wet from the hydrostatic fluid, Xander walked down the bombers embarkation ramp seeming to appear from nowhere to anyone who was watching. Not that there was anyone as once the windstorm subsided the joggers had run off. As soon as his feet touched the ground Xander activated the Neo-eComm causing a holographic display to appear around his right forearm. A quick command had the bomber closing its ramp again and firmly logging his current position. That done he closed the Neo-eComm down and looked around to get his bearings.
Then he began walking towards the perimeter fence.
~~//~~
One Hour Later
Xander smiled as he finally arrived at Giles residence on the opposite side of Sunnydale from the CRD site. He hadn't realized just how difficult crossing Sunnydale in the middle of the day – especially the freeway to Los Angeles that ran straight through the middle of the town – would be. But then I would normally be in school now trading barbs with Cordelia and her minions and attempted to dodge Herr Snyder thus I wouldn't see much of the traffic that fills the streets during the daylight hours, he thought before giving a slight shrug as it hardly mattered, especially as Giles would be at the high school for a good few hours yet.
Instead he focused on the task at hand.
Reaching down he moved the flowerpot near the entrance that concealed the spare key that he knew was there, a key spelled that nobody but people Giles knew and trusted could find it. Picking up the key he proceeded to let himself into the small but quite homely dwelling that the Watcher called home. After closing the door, he made his way to the coffee table in the middle of the living room area before putting down the small satchel that he had brought with him. From the satchel he retrieved the small communications device that he was going to leave here for Giles.
Carefully he put the small device – about the same size as a small tea plate – down on the coffee table and spent the next few minutes setting it up making it ready for remote activation as soon as its proximity sensor detected Giles presence. All too soon he was done.
A few moments later he was disappearing back into the streets of Sunnydale heading for his cloaked bomber.
~~//~~
Earth Orbit
Sometime Later
Xander considered his options as he returned to orbit. While he could easily return to the Fortizar orbiting Neptune to wait for Giles to get home from work and call him from there, a part of him wanted to stay here in orbit. After all it was perfectly possible that Giles would want to see him face to face and perform some mojo to confirm he was who he said he was. In which case it would make more sense to just sit here in orbit and wait.
A reflection caught his eye and he turned the ship's sensors on what had caught his attention. To his surprise he found what was clearly a debris field in a high orbit of the planet. A debris field made from materials that were not found on Earth and in fact did not match anything in the New Eden database either. Trusting in Alexander's memories he realized that from the size of the field and its rate of spread at least two ships of heavy cruiser class or above had been destroyed in orbit and that whatever battle had taken place it had occurred within the last week. I wonder if the battle was the fireball in the sky everyone saw last week, he thought, that the government said was an unusually large solar flare hitting the planet's magnetosphere as of course they wouldn't tell us the truth.
His interest peaked; he engaged the thrusters and moved up into a higher orbit and approached the debris field. He came to a stop at the edge of the field and began running a more comprehensive set of scans of the debris field.
"Aura will you help with analysing these scans please," he thought-spoke to the AI.
"Of course, Xander. Commencing analysis," Aura replied. Within moments the analysis of the scan data began to be relayed into his consciousness and Xander believed his physical body – floating in the capsule – blinked in surprise at what was revealed. Though the materials that made up the debris were for the most part unfamiliar he was picking up quite substantial traces of gold alloyed with the materials. Huh, maybe these people, whoever they were, liked gold in much the same way the Amarr do, he thought. His surprise only grew when he detected traces of basic weapons grade nuclear materials in the debris along with traces of plastic explosives. Trajectory analysis of the debris also indicated that the two ships had collided as one was exploding from within. Kamikaze ram perhaps, he thought, a final attempt by the loser of a fight to take their enemy with them?
"Xander I should point out that the materials used in the hull of the two ships destroyed here are almost identical to the materials used in the hull of the alien corvette back aboard the station," Aura told him. "The only differences are the greater percentages of gold and the metallic quartz like material."
"Which doesn't tell me very much beyond the fact that they're common starship building materials around here," Xander thought spoke back. "Just like how everyone back in New Eden uses tritanium."
"Good point. Oh, this is interesting."
"What is?"
"Turn the sensors to the set of coordinates on the planet I am sending you," Aura told him. Feeling the information come in, Xander followed the instruction and blinked when he saw a large concentration of the same metallic quartz material beneath what he recognized as Cheyenne Mountain. One that was far, far too pure to be a deposit of whatever ore it was.
"So, the Air Force has some of whatever this material is," he replied, "and given the nuclear and C4 traces in the debris field they probably had something to do with the destruction of these ships. Which they then covered up with a story about a solar flare."
"Why would they cover a battle in orbit up?"
"Probably because they don't want anyone to know about whoever built the two destroyed ships. Probably think the world isn't ready to know."
"That's stupid."
"Agreed," Xander replied before an alert flashed through the system. What? he thought as he looked at what was causing the alert and blinked in surprise when he saw that it was a massive energy signature beneath Cheyenne Mountain coming from the mass along with subspace distortions consistent with a wormhole. "That's impossible! A wormhole on a planet?"
"That should not be possible, everything we know about wormholes indicates that they cannot exist on a planetary surface," Aura replied, sounding as shocked as an artificial intelligence could get. "The gravity well should instantly cause them to collapse."
"Yet it obviously isn't here," Xander commented as he set the systems to record as much information as they could, which wasn't that much to be honest given the limitations of the sensor arrays on a stealth bomber.
"Indeed, it will be interesting to analyse your sensor telemetry when you return."
Giving the mental equivalent of a nod Xander turned his full attention to documenting this strange but most intriguing development.
~~//~~
Stargate Command
A Few Minutes Earlier
"Off world activation."
General Hammond's head shot up from his desk at Walter's voice over the base PA system a moment before the alarms began sounding. Which would immediately kick over a hornet's nest as the base defence teams scrambled to get to their stations. Now what, he thought as he stood up and hurried out of the room. In his heart he hoped that there was nothing wrong with any of the mere handful of personnel that they were allowed to have off-world right now – especially given they were restricted to light duties at the moment and couldn't embark on any further exploration of the Stargate Network, only to continue working on planets where they had a presence, until their reinforcement process was finished – however his head told him that it was a foolish hope. None of their people would dial in outside of their scheduled times – which he had committed to memory – unless something was wrong.
It took only a few moments to reach the control room from his office. He was pleased to note immediately that the iris was closed and that defence teams were rapidly mustering in the gate room.
"Report," he ordered Walter noting out of the corner of his eyes Colonel O'Neill coming into the room with a curious look on his face. No doubt like him Jack wanted to know just who was dialling in at this time and why.
"Sir we're receiving a distress call from SG-4 on P3X-382," Walter reported, "they report that they are under attack by Goa'uld air forces and request immediate assistance with the evacuation of the native population."
"Sir," Jack said, immediately offering to take SG-1 through the gate to P3X-282 or Nasya as it was called by its native inhabitants.
"Go, take SG-2 with you," Hammond ordered. While Jack, his team and Major Ferretti's team geared up and made their way to the embarkation room he would alert Doctor Fraiser and her emergency teams to prepare for incoming refugees.
"Yes sir," Jack acknowledged formally before turning and racing out of the control room to get his team ready. Hammond for his part picked up a phone and called the infirmary so he could give Doctor Fraiser the news.
~~//~~
Ten Minutes Later
Jack O'Neill and the rest of his team, alongside SG-2, stood in the embarkation room watching the gate going through the dialling procedure. While he knew that they were going to be going into a massive firefight between their own forces and the Goa'uld gliders strafing the Nasyan village Jack found himself looking forward to stepping through the gate again. It beat sitting around the SGC doing virtually nothing but twiddle his thumbs, do his paperwork – the bane of his existence – and worry about that alien space station that had been detected over Neptune and which the whole world knew about by now.
"Chevron seven… locked," Walter's voice said over the PA system a microsecond before the Stargate roared into life again with the usual initial unstable vortex shooting towards them with the familiar ka-whoosh sound before stopping and collapsing back into the rippling, water-like surface of the stable event horizon.
"SG-1 and SG-2," Hammond said again over the PA. "Your job is to reinforce SG-4 during the evacuation of the Nasyan population from the Goa'uld attack. As soon as the civilians are through all three teams are to withdraw at once."
"Understood sir," Jack called back.
"Good luck."
"Alright everyone you know what to do let's get it done," Jack said starting to march up the ramp towards the Stargate before without hesitation stepping through the event horizon which made its usual slurping sound as he passed through the water-like surface. Quickly the rest of his team, then SG-2 followed along behind him vanishing into the event horizon and being instantly converted into a data stream and sent zipping across the galaxy through a subspace wormhole.
Nope of them were aware that the activation of the wormhole had not gone unnoticed.
~~//~~
Xander's Stealth Bomber
In Orbit
Xander observed the sensors with great interest as another wormhole was established beneath Cheyenne Mountain, beneath the series of artificial caves that housed NORAD. Clearly somebody down there, and from the location he was willing to bet it was the Air Force, had a device capable of generating wormholes that were stable inside a planetary gravity well, in defiance of all the laws of physics as the people back in New Eden knew them. The question is what are the Air Force doing with it? Not to mention how long have they had it, he thought.
"Very interesting," Aura commented. "I wonder what kind of device it is, though it is obvious what it is used for as there is nothing else that you can use wormholes for other than transportation. I will analyse the sensor data in more detail when you return, hopefully that will give us some more information on the nature of whatever technology this is. Also, if it's common in this galaxy, the databanks of the alien corvette will likely contain information on it."
"Agreed. When I return, we'll try to gain access to the interior of the corvette," Xander replied.
"It should not be that difficult as while the hull is dense and strong my analysis indicates an industrial strength fusion torch should be able to burn through the airlock doors."
"Good that should make things easier," Xander commented before a new alert flashed through the system. Now what, he thought as he checked the system and both his mind, and the eyes of his physical body blinked in surprise. The proximity sensor of the communications device he'd left at Giles modest home had detected the door to the property opening, nearly an hour before Giles normally got off work. Did school end early today for some reason, he thought as he activated a camera on the device that had been carefully pointed at the door so he would know the instant the somewhat technophobic Watcher came in.
Just in time to see the door open and Giles step through. Only the Watcher was not alone, instead walking in with him were two other people, one being Jenny Calendar who he knew to be Giles' significant lady friend. The other however made him frown slightly as he had hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with her now, it was none other than Buffy herself. Oh, great though at least she can't slay me through a hologram, he thought before listening to what they were talking about through the comm devices microphones.
"….so Xander remembered everything," Buffy was saying, sounding shocked. "But why would he tell us otherwise? Neither I nor Willow held what he did when possessed by the hyena against hi… hey what's that on your coffee table Giles?"
Deciding that it was as good a que as he was going to get Xander remotely activated the device and projected a hologram of himself. "Because I knew Willow would not understand my continuing to talk to Kyle and the others who were affected. Smart as she is, Willow can sometimes be a little dense," he told Buffy as the blond Slayer's eyes widened and her face went as white as a sheet. Naturally, he was thought-speaking through the comm device, turning his thought-speak into audible words.
"X… X… Xander," Buffy stammered.
"Hey Buffy, nice to see you unaffected by your stint as Lady Useless," Xander replied. Buffy gaped at him, as did Giles and Jenny, then her eyes rolled back in her head and the Slayer fainted dead away. "Okay I did not expect that. Yelling and running at me with a stake was what I expected, not fainting."
"How are you here Xander," Giles demanded to know as Jenny started fishing in her purse, likely looking for some smelling salts to bring Buffy round. "Are you a ghost of some kind?"
"No, I am not a ghost G-man, this is simply a holographic projection of me," Xander replied, "though I understand why you would think I was a ghost considering that vampiress killed me last night. What was killed was only one of my clones."
"Your clones?" Giles repeated as Jenny succeeded in producing some smelling salts from her purse and began using them on Buffy, bringing the Slayer around.
"Yeah thanks to that spell I was turned into a capsuleer. Meaning that I'm to all intents and purposes immortal. When my body died my mind and I guess my soul were instantly transported into a new clone body aboard a space station in orbit of Neptune. What was up with that last night by the way? I thought Halloween was supposed to be quiet for supernatural shenanigans."
"It's a long story," Giles replied, "but if you're on that station out by Neptune – which has really kicked off a media feeding frenzy – then how are you talking to us now?"
"Simple I placed this QEC device in your apartment earlier today. You see I'm not actually on the Fortizar right now. As it stands, I'm actually a few tens of thousands of kilometres above your heads in a cloaked ship."
"How," Buffy demanded looking at him somewhat suspiciously especially as she noted differences in his appearance as while the hologram in front of her looked like Xander he appeared to be a few years older.
"It's a long story."
"We have time," Giles replied, "not to mention we need to determine if you are who you say you are."
"If Buffy promises not to slay me, as I have no intention of dying again anytime soon it kind of hurts, on sight I can come back down to Sunnydale."
"When?"
"I can come now if you want. Meet me outside the old CRD site, Buffy knows where it is, as it's where we took out the demon bot."
Giles looked at Buffy getting a reluctant nod of agreement not to slay him on sight. "Alright we'll head over there now. Buffy will not slay you yet but if you turn out to be a demon or some spirit then…"
"I'll get slayed. Fair enough. I'll head back down now, meet me outside CRD in an hours' time."
"Very well, one hour."
Xander nodded then closed his transmission. Then he set about plotting a new course back to Sunnydale.
~~~///~~~
Authors Notes: Well another chapter bites the metaphorical dust. I hope you all enjoyed it and yes we are now entering the next episode of season two of Stargate SG-1 though Xander will not actually play much if any role in the episode itself beyond something to do with his space station and a certain intrigued fugitive Tok'ra though he does now know that the air force is up to something with a device that somehow defies the laws of physics as he – and Alexander as well as Aura – knew them by creating wormholes on a planet's surface. Finally some of the Scooby gang now know he's alive though they don't exactly trust he is who he says he is right now – given some of the supernatural nasties they've encountered on the Hellmouth the scepticism I think is perfectly natural – what happens with them will be dealt with in the next chapter. Until then stay safe everyone.
Canis
Shoulder Puppy
- Location
- United States
Something I see a lot of people bitching about with Stargate is the decision to cover up the Stargate because of the people in charge not thinking that public could handle it...and at the beginning of the series I fully feel they were correct. I don't think they had a good way of revealing the Stargate and its attendant dangers without causing mass hysteria until much later in the series. Right now that belief seems to be held only by Xander and his AI companion, but I've SEEN this sort of thing in far too many fics not to be wary of it.
Do I think they stretched the cover-up too long in the show, even given the conceit that it WAS a weekly show? Hell yes. But I also don't think it was until they had the Prometheus that they could even hope to manage the reveal without causing more problems than they could solve and as Season One's finale showed simply turning the gate off and reburying it wouldn't have worked.
Do I think they stretched the cover-up too long in the show, even given the conceit that it WAS a weekly show? Hell yes. But I also don't think it was until they had the Prometheus that they could even hope to manage the reveal without causing more problems than they could solve and as Season One's finale showed simply turning the gate off and reburying it wouldn't have worked.
While I agree about the sentiment, a first contact with a friendly and powerful lost human would really cushion the blow of the Goa'uld's existence. And besides it really doesn't make sense from the point of view of a capsuller to hide the existence of space travel.
Canis
Shoulder Puppy
- Location
- United States
That's why it's only a thing that concerns me, and not an outright problem I have with the story. Especially if the author avoids dipping into protagonist-centric morality as a lot of these stories (talking specifically about the Ship of the Line challenge stories) tend to do.
The fact that it's in-character for teenagers to be headstrong, stubborn, and convinced that they're right...that kind of plays into it being in-character for him to come across as having a sense of moral superiority. I'm just a little worried that due to his position in the story it'll end up bending over to make him right especially as I don't recall what the author's specific stance on the canonical Stargate cover-up at this point in its run was.
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
What they should have done at the end of season one really is swallow their pride and arrogance - and there was some arrogance involved - and admitted that this is not something that the US Air Force - however well trained its people are - can manage on their own. They should have reached out to their allies in NATO and enlisted their aide against the Goa'uld. The Stargate Program itself could have remained a secret but one kept within NATO as that would have solved quite a few problems as they would have had a lot more money, a lot more manpower and a bigger brain pool to draw upon.
Though it is understandable why some people would argue that they should bury the gate and leave the whole thing alone. That is human nature, what they didn't realize - and SG-1 didn't help their own case here by concealing Daniel's intelligence of the incoming Goa'uld attack until after Kinsey gave the shut down order making it look like a desperate last gamble to keep their program open - that they had already pissed the Goa'uld via both the death of Ra (which plunged the Goa'uld Empire into civil war as rival System Lords scrambled to sort out who would replace him) and their clashes with Apophis too much for such a strategy to work.
Indeed the capsuleer part of Xander - all the memories, knowledge and experience he's inherited from Alexander Zenakori - does not see any reason why the existence of interstellar travel should be hidden as to him its a perfectly normal part of existence.
You need not worry as I am trying to avoid that pitfall.
The thing is if they handle meeting Xander right then they have just been given all that they really need to protect Earth from the threat of the Goa'uld Empire. Aboard the Fortizar he has a copy of the complete New Eden technological database including the schematics of their weapons technologies especially - for them - planetary defence weapons which are capable of shooting even the largest warships in New Eden out of the sky.
Canis
Shoulder Puppy
- Location
- United States
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it around season 2 or 3 where they started to have Canadian and I think maybe some British soldiers in the background/as the numbered SG teams? I'm pretty sure they started branching out and bringing in some personnel from allied nations prior to the Russians getting their own gate. Or maybe I'm getting things confused and that's when they started bringing in Marines which is also a tacit acknowledgement that they need more help given that Inter-service Rivalry IS a thing, especially at the levels the Stargate Program is known at.
But the point I'm making is that while we don't see a great deal of it in the spotlight the Stargate Program while run and primarily funded by the US did go International before the formation of the IOA.
But the point I'm making is that while we don't see a great deal of it in the spotlight the Stargate Program while run and primarily funded by the US did go International before the formation of the IOA.
No they had consultants from other nations (Basically Canada and the UK) working in Area 51, but the recruitment pool of Stargate command was only expended with the addition of Army and Navy personnel, even after the Security Council became the head entity there only ever was internationnal personnel in Atlantis and in the different ships built by individual countries.
That was even more incongruous when you realize that Stargate had many episodes where SG-1 would come into contact with other realities and see that Earth was fucked or conquered by the Goa'uld, Ori or whatever else; and yet they didn't think that they needed to look beyond national borders to protect the Earth.
That was even more incongruous when you realize that Stargate had many episodes where SG-1 would come into contact with other realities and see that Earth was fucked or conquered by the Goa'uld, Ori or whatever else; and yet they didn't think that they needed to look beyond national borders to protect the Earth.
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RichardWhereat
Feanor did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Australia
Yes, well, Americans.
Hypersonic
200cm Mk XXXIII Hellbore
- Location
- Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha
- Pronouns
- Bolo
While Daniel makes sense, with how science focused Sam is I don't really see it. It would make more sense for it to be Jack from a black op, tealc from old jaffa tales, or even Hammond or Janet being briefed in case of off world supernatural threats. One of the better Buffy/SG crossovers I remember from a yahoo group has the secret service aware of super natural threats and had the SGC warded against them.
I can't remember if it's canon or just common fanon for crossovers with magic, but Sam seems to always be portrayed as unable to accept magic as a thing.
- Location
- Seattle, Washington, USA
This is quite simply bizarre. I could sorta see Xander letting his Earth memories override his Gallente memories, but Aura would never make the mistake of thinking two dimensionally in space.
The fastest course from Neptune to Earth only involves a sublight detour around Mars if you treat the Solar system as a disk. But it's not a disk, it's a sphere. The fastest course is therefore up or down relative to the plane of the ecliptic, then a direct line to near-Earth space. The only part of that that is sublight is dropping out of warp, reorienting for a few seconds, and jumping again.
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
They started to have some Canadian scientists help especially in the form of Rodney McKay - who they quickly banished off to Russia as he dared to argue with Samantha Carter even though he was right to do so as what they were doing with the gate at the time was incredibly dangerous and could have easily backfired on them - and some other minor characters. The inclusion of marines really only means that the Air Force was acknowledging that it didn't have enough manpower to mount anything more than minor hit and run assaults - that especially in the first few seasons usually saw SG teams including SG-1 having to run back through the gate with their tails tucked between their legs dodging plasma bolts the whole way - that were to the Goa'uld little more than a minor irritation at best and an annoying pest at worst.
Indeed you would think that would have convinced them. Unfortunately with the Goa'uld especially the main element of their defence of Earth strategy was based around the bluff of Asgard military intervention should the Goa'uld attempt to directly attack their planet - something even Anubis was wary of hence why the first time he attacked Earth he lobbed a naquada-rich asteroid at them rather than openly commit his forces and risk a few Asgard battlecruisers showing up to blast them to pieces.
Sam's reaction to magic is usually a fanon thing as she is regularly portrayed as being negative about magic being a thing and being rendered virtually catatonic from shock when she's shown anything supernatural in nature be it magic or seeing a vampire turn to dust after having a stake driven through their heart. Which kind of makes sense as her mindset is very much 'science is everything and everything is science'.
Thinking about it Jack knowing magic or at very least the supernatural is real makes sense. Jack could have encountered vampires or other demons during his black ops career and thus has some idea about them, which could lead to a scene at some point where he doesn't bat an eye when Daniel shows he knows a bit of magic.
RichardWhereat
Feanor did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Australia
Except that sam has seen that three staff blasts render humans to dust. This is too similar for her to be rendered catatonic.
Canis
Shoulder Puppy
- Location
- United States
I've never agreed with the "Carter goes catatonic from magic" thing. I've always felt the reaction that's more true to her portrayal in the show (because they did add pseudo-magic elements in later with the ascended) is "look for the advanced technology, if she can't find it observe and catalog while questioning in order to figure out how it fits." Because Carter's a Scientist on the absolute bleeding edge of Earth-human science and seeing and doing things that for most normal people and scientists is magic because of how hidebound a lot of science has become.
An actual scientist doesn't see something that violates the "laws" of physics and write it off as a hoax. No they ask "can you repeat that?" And if it can be repeated they start studying it to figure out how it fits in with what they already know. And that's always been how I view Carter given all the crazy stuff they run into over the course of the series.
Edit:
I can easily see early series Carter being highly skeptical about the existence of gods and various other higher beings and taking a while to admit that there are beings out there answering to those names and providing help with the mojo, but if it's anytime after the Ascended have been introduced to her she should immediately wonder about where those being sit on the Ascended Being scale because of the non-involvement rules/laws of the Ascended Ancients. Doubly so if it's after the Ori have been introduced.
An actual scientist doesn't see something that violates the "laws" of physics and write it off as a hoax. No they ask "can you repeat that?" And if it can be repeated they start studying it to figure out how it fits in with what they already know. And that's always been how I view Carter given all the crazy stuff they run into over the course of the series.
Edit:
I can easily see early series Carter being highly skeptical about the existence of gods and various other higher beings and taking a while to admit that there are beings out there answering to those names and providing help with the mojo, but if it's anytime after the Ascended have been introduced to her she should immediately wonder about where those being sit on the Ascended Being scale because of the non-involvement rules/laws of the Ascended Ancients. Doubly so if it's after the Ori have been introduced.
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- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
It was actually three zat'nik'atel blasts. Though they soon ditched that one shot stuns, two kills, three disintegrates thing as the shows writers admitted that they didn't think it through properly hence why it was later dropped in favor of one shot stun and two shots kill. A vampire being dusted by a lump of sharpened wood being stabbed into their heart is very different especially as zat disintegration is soundless whereas a vampire makes an eerie scream as it turns to dust due to the blood demon that reanimated the corpse being banished back to whatever hell dimension it came from.
That being said I would like to make it that Sam is a bit more open minded about magic than is normally the case for her in the fanon. Eventually maybe even have it that she could become something of an alchemist as that is at its most simple level magically enhanced chemistry kind of like how its portrayed in Fullmetal Alchemist i.e. that you have to know the structure of what you want to change and what you want to change it into in order to make the alchemy reaction work.
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
There are differences between ascended beings and true deities as while powerful the latter are still mortal to a degree and can be killed - like how the Ori were killed by the sangraal - whereas the latter are not only far, far more powerful but are true immortals. Thus they cannot be killed, only imprisoned, diminished if nobody believes in them anymore they cannot gain any extra power from the faith of their worshipers or banished like how Glorificus (Glory) was banished to our dimension and imprisoned inside a human host.
Canis
Shoulder Puppy
- Location
- United States
Maybe so, but Carter DOES put things into terms of her own frame of reference and without one of the Ascended telling her otherwise she's going to assume that dieties - if/when she's convinced of their existence - are just more advanced ascended if she's already run into the ascended by that time. One thing the "Magic Coma Carter" things do get right is that she's very much stubborn about fitting things into her world view. It's just that coming across something that doesn't fit doesn't put her into a bluescreen, it simply causes her to revise her world view so that it can fit the things she's observed. Seeing somebody using "magic" without any obvious technology she's going to assume something like nanotech and/or some sort of biological mechanism that taps functions on principles that nobody has observed/categorized before.
It's going to take a lot to convince her of the existence of actual gods and such, but magic? Not so much, especially if she can get her hands on some of the books which have instructions for repeatable results like Willow's little pencil floating exercise and such. The bigger rituals even fall under this category - assuming they can actually be repeated - with the various requirements (like being on a full moon, or needing to be naked) being nothing more than additional variables that just haven't been fully explored yet.
The stuff that does require calling upon some sort of deity in order to work are going to be where she has a lot of skepticism even after being shown that they can/do work because they don't always work.