Starborn Smith [Stargate, Battletech Multicross]

- - -

POV: Arthur Sinclair 

We were once more gathered for a meeting. This time it was on the backup world, designated Kaelastrum – a portmanteau of the latin astrum (star) and the Goa'uld kael (haven). Not exactly original, but it had taken us months to finally agree on something, so we took it. 

The meeting place was a specially built administrative center for the external city. Just a couple of days prior, the last of the Jaffa had moved from Mycena, to their designated quarters here on Kaelastrum. Many of the villagers had started moving as well, though much more slowly since the presence of the Manassas meant that the world couldn't be abandoned just yet. 

Ma'chello was looking around the table. "All of us are in favor of beginning missions to possible allied worlds?"

Opposite him, Elder James and Arktos both nodded. "We are in agreement."

Ma'chello nodded as well. "Alright then. James, what do you have for us?"

James nodded. "We've been searching through Ares' database, and we have found the world where Egeria – the Tok'ra queen – is being held. It is on the border between Apophis and Ra's territory, and was held formerly by the System Lord Shak'ran. Ra killed Shak'ran several thousand years ago and took all of his systems. He seems to have abandoned the world about three hundred years ago."

Ma'chello raised an eyebrow. "Alright. We believe that this Goa'uld – Egeria – will be willing to ally with us?"

Elder James nodded. "Even if she doesn't, she will provide the Tok'ra a way to grow and be a greater thorn in the side of the Goa'uld. There is just one issue."

Elder James looked at me. "If we return Egeria to the Tok'ra and Ra discovers that Egeria is still alive, then there is a good chance that Ra will attack Pangar. They should currently have a society that is in the early industrial age. Unlike Ares, Ra has no need for industry. He will likely just bomb the world until there are no survivors."

Ma'chello physically winced, but sighed. "Is that an immediate concern?"

Elder James shook his head. "No, that doesn't become a concern until Egeria returns to the Tok'ra. If we needed to, we could, theoretically, evacuate the world, but there are likely several million people living there."

Ma'chello was quiet for a few moments. "I vote that we go and find Egeria. If there isn't an immediate threat that Ra will discover us, then it isn't an immediate concern."

Arktos nodded as well. "The Tok'ra are legendary in their opposition to Ra. I would be honored to meet their queen."

Elder James continued. "Alright then. Now for the big problem. We need to get a host for Egeria. They have to be both willing and aware of what they will be agreeing to, and preferably a woman."

Ma'chello sighed. "I'll see if I can find a few people, but I don't think you're likely to find any among the Dendredans."

Elder James sighed and nodded. "I've asked around. I have a few people that might be willing to take the position. Give me a few days and we'll get a team together." 

Arktos and Ma'chello nod, before Elder James gestures for Ma'chello to take over once more. 

Ma'chello stands and begins. "We've completed our initial assembly lines…"

- - -

POV: Michael Dresden. One week later.

My radio crackled, and I heard James' voice. "Begin dialing."

The Stargate's internal ring began to turn as the chevron's slowly lit up. Within moments, the blue puddle that I had gotten all too used to jumped to life. 

I grabbed my radio and waited a few moments. "ST01, you are clear for go. Good luck."

I pressed the button. "Back in a few hours." I turned to the people on my team. "Alright everyone, move out."

We came through the gate to find ourselves in the middle of an empty field. I looked over at the DHD. "Alex. Get on it. We still have two more gates before we arrive at our final destination."

"Yes, Elder." One of the younger members of the team rushed to the DHD and immediately pulled out a panel and began connecting his compad to it. After a few moments he began putting everything back together.

I watched as he placed a small object – an explosive charge – inside the internals of the DHD. If we sent the correct signal, it would destroy the DHDs memory in its entirety. 

He stood up. All together, he had taken barely a minute to complete the entire thing. "Ready to dial, Elder."

I nodded. "Good. Begin."

We repeated the same sequence two more times. If someone was really able to follow us through three separate Stargates, then we had bigger issues to deal with, we agreed that three would be enough, especially if we were destroying the DHD whenever we left a world. 

Finally, on the third world, I nodded to Alex. "Begin dialing." 

I turned to the rest of the team. "Everyone, weapons ready, but do not fire unless fired upon first."

Once more, a blue puddle formed. With cautious optimism, we stepped through. 

We found ourselves in a dark room. Turning on my flashlight and pointing it around showed that we were in a Goa'uld structure of some kind. Likely a pyramid, but we wouldn't know until we were outside. 

"Spread out. You know the drill. Check for traps, but try not to trigger anything." We quickly secured the room which contained the Stargate. It was rather spacious, very similar to other Goa'uld fortresses that I had seen. 

"Over here." I heard Alex call for me. I turned towards him and saw him pointing his flashlight at the ground, illuminating the Transport Ring buried partially in the stone floor. 

I nodded. "Room is secure." 

Next, we began searching for an exit. It took a considerable period of time, but we did eventually find what would have once been an exit. 

It took us nearly another hour to confirm that there were no other intact entrances into the facility, so we resorted to violence, as we usually did. I stood several meters away from the wall, pointed my Mauser at it, and turned away. Steam and dust filled the room for several seconds. Finally, when I let go, we were lucky enough to find the night sky greeting us outside the facility.

Carefully exiting the facility, we noticed some movement in the nearby bushes. Looking over, I yelled, carefully. "Hello?"

Slowly, a pair of kids exited the underbrush in various levels of dress. I laughed slightly and both kids turned beat red. 

Smiling gently, I spoke to the two of them. "I'm sorry to ask, but could you show us to the nearest town?"

- - -

POV: James Cromwell, Captain, SLDF. Three Days Later.

I nodded to the lady across from me. "Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, madam Thol."

The lady smiled at me. "Of course, think nothing of it. It's not very often that people from another world make contact with us." 

I chuckled as well. "I suppose it would be a rather novel experience for you. In a manner, it is for us as well." 

I smiled and continued. "Now, before we begin with anything else, I feel it is in my best interest to inform you of something, we have come to your world in search of someone. According to legend, the Queen Egeria was imprisoned by Ra on this world several thousand years ago. We are searching for her."

The Lady looked rather taken aback. "Surely, anyone you would be looking for would be long dead by now, no?"

I shook my head. "You would think, but no. The Goa'uld are capable of imprisoning their kind in what they call Stasis Jars. These devices will keep a Goa'uld alive for several millennia at least."

Madam Thol raised her eyebrows in shock. "Of course, we would be more than happy to assist in an attempted retrieval."

I almost let out a sigh of relief. "We are hoping to establish a joint archeological expedition. We will provide you any Goa'uld Technology that is uncovered, with one exception. We want Egeria's Stasis Jar."

She raised an eyebrow. "Really? We were under the impression that it would just be the Chappa'ai."

"We have discovered a few other pieces of more advanced technology. Namely a Ring Transporter, though in our initial survey of the facility we did discover some smaller pieces of what we believe to be surveillance equipment."

Madam Thol smiled brightly, "That sounds more than satisfactory to me."

- - -

POV: Arthur Sinclair. Four Days Later.

Today was my fourth day on Pangar. As soon as an agreement had been struck with the Pangarans, we had gotten to work. The local government had immediately sent academics from several of their universities to begin examining the facility with us. 

We had been unable to find a second set of Transport Rings nearby, so a second pair had been offered to demonstrate how the device worked to the locals. 

Learning about Pangaran Geo-politics was fascinating. After Ra left the world, the three large settlements had each become an independent city state, each run by a separate democratically elected council. 

Then, fifty years ago, each of the city-states had joined together to form a single unified world government. Since then, the military had seen a slow decline, and most of their active personnel had moved into law enforcement. 

I continued scanning the walls of the facility. Slowly but surely, I was making a complete, 3d-map of the entire structure. I was about 30% done at the moment. 

The Diagnostic Tool had a lot of extra things it could do. It could perform scans through several meters of stone, as well as create high-detail 3d-models of objects. 

I had also remembered a fun fact from Stargate SG-1, Goa'uld Queens are capable of sensing Naquadah from an entire planet away. So, why couldn't we do the reverse? Could we detect the Naquadah in a Goa'ulds blood using the same method? 

Yes, I very much could. After performing several tests, I was able to confirm that Goa'uld did have a unique signature that I could use to identify them. I could even get a general idea for their size. In time and with more advanced scanners, I might even be able to identify individual Goa'uld from one another using this method. 

My current method required me to be within about twenty meters of a Goa'uld for them to be detected. 

Even more luckily, I had just discovered a Goa'uld. At the very edge of the Diagnostic Tools detection range, through 20 meters of stone wall. 

I immediately made my way to find the Elder. "Elder! I got a ping." 

Both the Elder and a young woman I recognized as Maureen Valk, the Pangaran head Archeologist. 

Elder James raised an eyebrow. "Finally?"

I nodded. "On the west side of the structure."

Madam Valk wasted no time. "Show us where."

I immediately showed them the area. After a few minutes, a team was called over, and I started doing deep surface scans of every wall. 

It was finally after another six hours of searching that I found something; a hidden mechanism in the wall that would allow several of the large blocks to make way so that you could enter a hidden room. 

"Over here." 

The Elder and Madam Valk immediately came over. "See that?"

Both of them nodded, seemingly quite entranced by the almost x-ray like view that my Diagnostic Tool provided. 

Madam Valk turned to Elder James, "Any chance we could have one of those?"

The Elder chuckled. "I'm afraid that is a one of a kind piece of technology. We don't have any others at the moment."

She shrugged and turned back to me. "What else can this show us?"

"If you give it a moment…" I waited for the device to finish scanning the floor underneath my feet. "There, see that?" 

I pointed to the screen. "Looks like some sort of wire."

Madam Valk nodded and immediately walked up to the wall. "We've seen something like that at other facilities. There should be something…" 

As she ran her hand over the wall, it seemed to catch on something. "Here." 

With a seemingly great effort, she pushed against the wall as a button was activated. Immediately, the sound of grinding stone became audible. We turned around to see a pair of massive stone blocks pull away from the wall and open up a passage wide enough for five men to walk side by side. 

Inside was a pedestal, the familiar form of a Stasis Jar sitting on top of it. 

Both Madam Valk and myself prepared to walk up to the pedestal, but Elder James stopped us both. 

"Arthur, scan the room for traps first."

I immediately snapped out of my reverie and got straight to it. Stone by stone, brick by brick, I scanned the entirety of the interior of the room. 

Then, it was near the far wall that I finally noticed something. There on the scan, was an impenetrable ball of strange looking crystals and seemingly strange circuits. It was something that I'd gotten used to seeing at this point. The Diagnostic Tool was incapable of properly scanning Goa'uld tech. 

"Damnit. Elder! There's something on the other side of this wall."

He immediately rushed over. "How far?"

I looked down at the tool. "About half a meter."

He nodded and yelled through the entrance way where a couple of the villagers were waiting. "Give me your weapon."

The villager quickly handed over his Mauser. The Elder turned to everyone. "Everyone back up. Arthur, show me where I need to aim this thing."

I nodded and quickly marked a particular spot on the wall before quickly exiting the room. A plume of dust and debris filled the air as the light of the laser continued to illuminate the wall for several seconds. 

Finally, when it was over I rushed back in, to find the Elder carefully using a stick to remove a small ball from the wall. 

I took it and immediately felt my perk activate. 

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Akmar (Goa'uld Subspace Transmitter)

Subspace Antenna

"Crap."

I quickly informed the Elder of what the device was. He seemed none-too pleased. He nodded to Madam Valk. "If it's alright with you, we'll take Egeria since she will likely need immediate medical attention."

"I'm sorry, but where exactly would this lady be exactly?"

Elder James seemed rather lost for a moment, before he carefully picked up the Stasis Jar and handed it to me. "In that."

The lady was immediately confused. "How could a person fit in that?"

Elder James nodded. "That is because the Goa'uld are not human."

He turned back to me for a moment, "Head back to Mycena. We have someone to volunteer to be a host." I nodded. "Yes, Elder," and immediately made my way to the Stargate. 

It was only after passing through three intermediate Stargates that I arrived back on Mycena. I had to quickly dial Nekhara to inform them that Egeria had been found, but about 20 minutes later, Elder Annelise arrived.

I blinked at her in confusion. "You're going to be the host, Elder?"

She smirked. "You betcha. Been wondering what that's gonna be like, and I wasn't sure I'd get the chance anytime else."

I raised an eyebrow. I was rather surprised that Elder James had allowed someone with knowledge of the Inner Sphere to willingly become a Goa'uld host, but maybe he was thinking differently from me. 

Hmmm…. I might have become a bit too paranoid.

Nonetheless, we quickly arrived at the Resurrection Room where the Sarcophagus had been left empty specifically for this, since Egeria would almost certainly need healing after such an extended period in Stasis.

Now we stood before the Sarcophagus, with myself, and Lieutenant Moretti. 

I handed the jar to Elder Annelise. "Alright, to unlock it, press this and forcefully remove the cap."

She nodded and we all stood back. For several long moments, the Elder stared at the jar, before she finally removed the seal. 

For several long moments, nothing happened. Then we all heard a very slight squeal, something we had all become accustomed to hearing around Prim'ta, young Goa'uld. 

The Queen slowly crawled her way out of the Stasis Jar and around Elder Annelise's arm. She looked like any normal Goa'uld, if you ignored that she was maybe twice as long as I'd come to expect. 

The Goa'uld locked eyes with Elder Annelise and they stared at each other for a few moments. 

In fluent Goa'uld, Elder Annelise spoke to Egeria. "Nod your head if you can understand me."

The Goa'uld looked almost taken aback for a moment, but nodded its head very faintly. 

Annelise sighed. "I am willing to be your host until you are returned to your children. Do you understand?"

Once more, the Goa'uld nodded. Without any further preamble, Annelise opened her mouth and waited. The queen was hesitant for several seconds, but eventually decided and dived straight into her mouth. 

Elder Annelise stood motionless for several moments before she suddenly collapsed.

Both myself and Lieutenant Moretti dived to catch her and carefully placed her into the sarcophagus. As we stepped back, the interior of the device lit up and began to seal shut. 

I took a deep breath. Now we just had to wait for her to get up. It would probably be a few hours now.