Starborn Smith [Stargate, Battletech Multicross]

Author's Note: This chapter was written using text from the Stellaris paragon_1_l_english.yml file which is part of the Stellaris source file. Certain lines are copied directly from the game file. 

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POV: James Cromwell. Two weeks after initial contact with the Curator Enclave.

*knock knock knock*

A set of three quick raps sounded from my door before it opened. I was greeted by the sight of one of the Dendredans who was normally guarding the gate. "Sir, we have a request for you from the gate. The Curators said they have a meeting ready with an…. Astrocreator Azaryn."

I nodded and stood up, grabbing my jacket from the back of my rather comfy chair, "Did they say when the meeting would be?"

He nodded. "Tomorrow, sir. They said that whoever is going to meet her will have to travel to their enclave first."

I sighed. It was clear that whatever the Aeldari had seen during her time on Pangar had been enough to convince the rest of the Curator Enclave of our trustworthiness, alternatively, they could be using the sign of trust as a way to make us lower our guard.

I nodded at the kid. "Get Ma'chello. It looks like we have a team to assemble."

The kid quickly left and I went to go find a couple of people. Arthur was the first. He had locked himself away in one of the Hangars and begun to make repairs for the Colonial Jump Drives. There were two ships still in good condition, and we'd need another four before we could begin bringing asteroids in for resource mining. 

I entered the massive hangar which stuck out of the mountainside like a sore thumb. The massive tunnel was easily twenty meters wide, and just as tall. I was rather surprised to see one of the hangars having been appropriated for disassembling several old Vipers we'd salvaged from Daedalus.

Nonetheless, I continued to my final destination. One of the smaller hangars that had been constructed. Within it, I found the fourteen raptors – two more had been recovered from Daedalus' hangars, as well as the spare parts to make at least a dozen more. I turned away from them and made my way to the nearest Raptor.

The one in question had been lifted almost six feet off the ground, and most of the rear end and underside of the ship had been removed. Arthur was working away with what I now knew were called Jump Spinners. "Arthur."

He looked away from the raptor and then over to me. We stared at each other for a few moments, before he turned back to one of the other people and spoke in what I assumed was Caprican. He had picked up on the language rather quickly, all things considered. 

He nodded to me as he approached. "Elder."

I nodded back. "How are the repairs coming?"

He turned back and looked at the raptor. "We should be good to start test runs in a couple of days. I'll be focusing on building a drive from scratch after that."

They were ahead of schedule then. "We have word from the Curators. They've set up a meeting with Astrocreator Azaryn. Tomorrow."

He winced. "I can't go, Elder. I'm too busy here."

I actually snorted in response. "Of course you won't be going. You're too valuable to have galavanting across the galaxy. No, I need your help preparing the team for what they should expect during the meeting."

We went to the conference room to find Ma'chello already there. After some discussion, we decided onMarcus Novak as our negotiator, considering his experience with terraforming in the past. After the various members for the diplomatic team had been decided on, Arthur spent about an hour briefing them on what he remembered of Astrocreator Azaryn. All together, it wasn't much, but it was enough to get a good idea of what sort of person this Astrocreator was in the original timeline. 

Of course, that was assuming Arthur's knowledge wasn't somehow massively incorrect. That was still a possibility.

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POV: Marcus Novak

Listening to the tales of this Astrocreator were something else. Capable of terraforming entire worlds into lush habitable paradises which were referred to as Gaia worlds. Although his description made very little sense, the idea he was describing would be incredible if it came to be. 

Arthur had believed it would be important for the person leading the negotiations to be knowledgeable on Terraforming. With that in mind, it had been decided that I would be the one to lead the negotiations from our group. 

I had worked for DoME for more than 40 years, and I have decades of experience with surveying worlds and leading terraforming projects. (I had three planetary terraforming projects under my belt, though all of them were in the deep periphery, and had likely failed after just a decade or two of being abandoned). 

With me was the Claymore's lead researcher, Joan Sterling, as well as a couple of the Manassas' Marine complement and some of the villagers who would be acting as guards, not that it would do much good if this was indeed a trap. 

The gate was dialed and with a deep breath we stepped through. As was standard procedure by this point, we dialed three separate stargates, each checked ahead of time for signs of other activity, each lacking anything that could be construed for signs of advanced visitation. 

We dialed the final gate, and with a deep breath we stepped through. I felt several long seconds pass before I was greeted with the sight of a bronze room; a massive floor to ceiling window occupied my view, and intricate curves covered every wall. It was exactly as described. 

I looked down to see a pair of humans and an avian being with a long white beak standing before the gate. I took a deep breath. Alien species were real … I knew that already, the Goa'uld existed after all. This was different though, the Goa'uld used Humans as puppets and were effectively indistinguishable from humans if they chose to be. This was a species that had developed civilization on their own, and were capable of communicating.

With a measured breath, I stepped down from the raised dais which held the Stargate. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I am Marcus Novak, lead diplomat and negotiator for Kaelastrum and its inhabitants. May I know your name?"

The bird seemed rather taken aback for a few moments, but quickly reached out his feathered hand, which I gladly took. "I am called Beak of White."

I smiled and took his hand, four fingers plus an opposable thumb, just like a human. "I apologize for the discourtesy. I've only met a single alien – Egeria, and even that was through the body of a human."

Seemingly understanding, Beak of White nodded his head once. "I see. I must say, I am rather curious where your people are from."

I smiled. "In time, I hope you'll be able to visit. We have not been visited by the Goa'uld in at least a thousand years, and I'd rather keep it that way."

He nodded once more in turn. "Very well." With a press of an object attached to his wrist, the gate began to dial once more. "It is time for you to go. The Astrocreator is waiting for you."

I thanked him for his time and stepped through the Stargate together with the other members of the team.

The other side was almost exactly what I had been expecting. A lush green forest spread out, for a moment, I spotted a small Avian creature similar to a hummingbird, before it zipped away. 

Looking up, I could just barely make out a green-ish looking ceiling. Most of the light that filtered into the room came from what looked to be a nearby star, but I couldn't tell for sure since the star was far enough away not to hurt my eyes.

A voice came from beside us. "Welcome. You have sought me out. Why?"

I turned to find a strange plant-like humanoid. A strange sort of shawl covered her face, and three glowing bulbs grew from her back. She was exactly like Arthur had described, but seeing her in reality was so much different than I had been expecting. 

All of us stared at her for several long moments, and she stared at us in return. A long few moments passed before I finally got a hold of myself and replied. "We have discovered a world, and we hoped to negotiate for one of your Terraformation Nuclei. If that isn't available, then we'd request your expertise in terraforming the world."

Azaryn blinked at us several times. "Fascinating. Terraformation Nuclei… I've never told anyone that term before. How is it that you know it?"

The forest around us had become uncomfortably silent. I coughed several times. "I'm afraid I'm not permitted to answer that."

She blinked several more times before the sounds of the forest around us returned. "Very well then. Tell me, what value do you ascribe to life?"

Arthur had stated that she might provide us with several challenges. "That depends. Life comes in many forms. Life itself has infinite potential and infinite possibilities, afterall."

Her face lit up with a smile. Despite her inhuman nature, her appearance took my breath away for a brief moment. "How delightful. I could not have put it better myself. I assume you know who I am, since you sought me out?"

I nodded slightly. "Only vaguely. We only know that you come from the world of Azathea, and that you yourself are a self described scholar of astrocreation, though I am afraid we are unaware of what that entails. Only that it is some type of Terraforming."

She continued to smile. "Fascinating. Very well then. I will provide you with a challenge. If you can neutralize my gift, then we can continue this conversation."

She seemed to pull a closed vial from her back and hand it to us. "When you are ready, please contact this address." 

The Stargate behind us – it was of the same design as the one in the Curator Enclave – began dialing, and within a matter of moments, a wormhole opened up. Joan carefully took the vial from Azaryn and asked, "what if we are unable to neutralize it?"

Azaryn blinked and stared at us for several moments. "Ahh, you misunderstand. It isn't a challenging task, just rather time consuming and requires using techniques that are not commonly used among most civilizations."

We thanked her, and before we had the chance to ask any other questions, she ushered us through the Gate and back to the Curator Enclave. The entire meeting had been less than a couple of minutes. Beak of White stared at us as the gate deactivated behind us. "Hmmm. She sent you back so quickly. That is good."

I raised an eyebrow. "Considering how short a time we spent with her, I find that rather hard to believe."

He chuckled lightly. "That means she didn't want to contaminate her data. She is a scientist before anything else. She wants to see how far you can go on your own before she starts assisting you."

I sighed. Beak of White handed me a piece of paper. I looked down to find a gate address as he continued speaking. "Here, this is the gate address for this station. You may dial straight here when you come next."

I looked up at him in suspicion for a few moments. "I appreciate it, though I'm afraid we're going to test this when we get the chance. The need for some level of paranoia is necessary."

A strange rasping sound came from his throat, reminiscent of laughter. "I would expect nothing less. Had it not been for our own rude behaviour, we would not have provided that address to you either."

With a raise of his hand, the Stargate began dialing behind me. We all moved out of the way, and once the gate had dialed, we stepped through and began the return trip to Mycena.

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POV: James Cromwell. 

I sat around our usual meeting table. Today, it was just me, Ma'chello, and Arktos. 

As I took my seat, the two of them looked between each other. Ma'chello began for the two of them. "James, I think it's time you told us how you've gotten all your information."

I took a deep breath and nodded. I'd been hinting at them for months now, all but outright telling them where the information would come from. I hoped that it would prevent the truth from sounding quite so absurd when they finally heard it. "Arthur has memories of a previous life. In that life, all of… this… was fictional…"