- - -
POV: Kaela Arden
I shuddered as I stared out the front window. "It glitters like gold…"
Re'vok nodded. "Lets hope we actually make it back."
I couldn't move my eyes away. Arthur had found images of the Pax Magellanic in the Curator archive. They had left me totally unprepared for what the ship would look like in person. The glinting sunlight off the golden hull made the ship look like a living being; the way the curved twin pylons flanked around the front of the ship, the streaks of green and white that flowed over the hull, the strange black struts that were only just barely visible, but seemed to merge with the black of space. It was both equally beautiful and terrifying.
[SPOILER="Pax Magellanic by Archangel72367"]
Deviant Art Link: https://www.deviantart.com/archangel72367/art/PAX-MEGALLANIC-166638867
[/SPOILER]
Even worse, the subspace scanners totally failed to penetrate the vessel's hull. While there were no external signs that the ship was online, we had no way of knowing what was going on within the vessel.
I took a deep breath. "We're heading back. We need to report this as soon as possible."
Re'vok nodded. Immediately, he turned the ship around and began accelerating us towards the desert world we were using as a base.
- - -
An hour later.
I stepped out of the stargate. I brought my compad which contained the scans we had taken of the Pax Magellanic. As the gate deactivated behind me, I pulled out my radio. "This is Kaela. We've found the Pax Magellanic."
The radio was silent for a moment. "Copy that. We'll have someone to escort you to the head office."
A few minutes later, one of the villagers in SLDF uniform arrived. He gestured for me to follow, and I did just that. After a short ten minute walk, we'd reached the main office, and I was taken up to a room on the second floor.
If I wasn't mistaken, then just a few levels below, a room was filled with people arguing over government systems. I took a seat and waited.
A few minutes later, Ma'chello, Arktos, and Elder James all entered the room.
"You found it." Elder James spoke as he took a seat at the round table.
It wasn't a question. I nodded and pulled out my compad. "Here are the scans of the ship, as far as we can tell, she's in pristine condition."
Ma'chello raised an eyebrow. "As far as you can tell?"
I nodded once more. "The vessel is shielded from Subspace sensors. The only reason we found it was because of its shape, and because it was hidden next to an asteroid."
Ma'chello grabbed the compad and started searching through the readings. "I see. No signs of any power either."
I pursed my lips. "Sir, I don't like it. Combined with the scanner issues, this whole thing feels off."
Arktos nodded as well. "Indeed. That's before we take that graveyard of wrecked hulls into account. Do we know how long ago they were placed there?"
Ma'chello continued looking through my Compad as he replied. "It was approximately 20,000 years ago. Now, look here. This spectrum is from the ship's hull. It looks like it's been coated in a strange compound. There looks to be traces of Naquadah… I don't believe this sort of material was mentioned in the Curator information."
Elder James nodded. "It wasn't, but that information would likely have been considered top secret. Especially if it was developed near the end of the war when the remnants of the Commonwealth were looking for ways to fight against the Goa'uld."
They were quiet for a moment as Ma'chello continued tapping away on the compad. I coughed. "What should we do?"
Arktos asked another question. "How much of the belt do you still have to scan?"
"We've only scanned about 40% of the belt so far. It'll be about two more weeks before we have a relatively completed scan."
Ma'chello nodded. "Have you detected any signals coming from the ship?"
I shook my head. "None. The ship is basically a black hole of sensor data. We detected absolutely nothing."
Arktos nodded. "Let's watch the ship then. Finish up scanning the belt. Make sure that it is clear of possible hostile forces. Once we're sure the Pax Magellanic is the only vessel in the system, we'll move on from there."
Elder James seemed to shrug. "I don't have a better plan. We'll start preparing people to crew the ship if necessary."
Ma'chello nodded as well. "Assuming that the interior of the ship hasn't been coated in the same material, it should be possible to scan the interior of the ship to get a better understanding of its current state. "
The next hour was spent discussing minutiae. I returned to Voragine and continued scanning the system. The ships entered rotation, with at least two cloaked vessels watching the Pax Magellanic at all times.
- - -
The next two weeks were spent scanning the rest of the belt, as well as the other planets and moons in the solar system. It was entirely possible that there was another vessel hiding in deep space, either in the system's Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud, but quite frankly, it would take years to survey every object in the star system.
After 16 days of scanning, we had discovered a LOT of wreckage, including debris from multiple outdated Goa'uld ships. These vessels were clearly older than even the Cheops which had been in service since the days of the first Goa'uld Empire.
We marked the debris down, and moved on. We would come back to further examine the vessels once we knew what was going on with the Pax Magellanic.
During this time, the construction of a permanent facility to house the Stargate on the Cybrex Ringworld had also been started. Hearing about that had been interesting.
So, as the last section of the belt was scanned and confirmed to lack any significant debris fields, the time finally came to take another look at the reason we'd come out here in the first place
Every single ship in the system, all four Al'kesh and all twelve Tel'tak were prepared. In formation, all 16 vessels took off, cloaked and took the short trip to the location of the Pax Magellanic.
The absolutely beautiful vessel never failed to take my breath away. Now however, the golden light that reflected off the ship's curved hull felt much more eerie than I remembered.
We had swapped from the standard Resistance-armor to an SLDF standard load out. While the resistance jackets were excellent at defending the wearer from the blasts of Staff Weapons, they failed when put up against other types of weaponry. SLDF marine armor worked okay against nearly all forms of known weaponry. They also integrated into space suits very well, while the resistance armor was still in the prototyping stage for that sort of integration.
With a deep breath I spoke into my radio. "This is Unit #1. We're entering the vessel for the initial sweep." At the same time, Re'vok decloaked the vessel, and with a practiced ease, he gently pushed the ship into the Pax Magellanic's port hangar deck.
Re'vok narrowed his eyes as the clunk of the Tel'tak landing reverberated through the hull. "I'm detecting a standard atmosphere in the hangar."
We hadn't passed through any door or barrier that I had seen. That could only mean one thing. "Did we pass through some sort of energy shield?"
Re'vok nodded. "It looks like it. Scans indicate that it is just at the hangar entrance, but I'm failing to detect any power signature. The walls of the hangar have also been coated with the same scanner resistant material."
I nodded and stood up. Turning to the other people in the ship, I spoke. "Helmets on. We have no way of knowing if the field holding back the air will fail."
With a final series of clicks, everyone was prepared. With the press of a button, the airlock extended from the ship. We all stuffed ourselves in, and when the airlock had fully cycled, we began to exit the ship in standard formation. The inside of the hangar was a very similar golden color to the exterior of the ship.
As we took our first steps onto the hangar bay floor, I was amazed by how well the vessel had held up. For a moment, I had believed that maybe, just maybe the ship's AI had totally fallen apart. That absolutely couldn't have been the case. The ship was in excellent condition. It just wasn't possible for a ship to remain in this kind of state without regular maintenance.
Behind us, the airlock retracted back into the side of the Tel'tak, leaving no visible entrance into the ship.
I turned back to look at my second in command, Helena Devi. She nodded at me once. We both had the same thought.
With a deep breath, I pressed the button for my radio. "I'm Kaela Arden. We're hoping to meet with the commanding officer of the Pax Magellanic."
We collectively held our breath, waiting for the shoe to drop. For almost thirty seconds, nothing happened. Then our radio crackled. "This is Jill Pearce, Acting Commanding Officer of the Pax Magellanic. Identify yourselves."
We all stiffened even further. I didn't know what I had been expecting, but a direct response had not been it. With a shuddering breath, I responded. "I'm Kaela Arden, commanding officer of the expedition to this system. We represent a group of peoples who allied to defeat the System Lord Ares. We've come to seek weapons that will allow us to continue the fight against the Goa'uld."
"How do you know the name of this vessel?" The voice was harsh, almost angry.
I responded as quickly as I could this time. "We purchased a list of all Systems Commonwealth warships from the Civil War and managed to identify the vessel from that list."
Another few moments passed before the entryway door slid open to reveal seven people. In the lead, a blonde woman walked forward toward us. They stopped just a few feet away, and we stared at each other.
Finally, she spoke. "Welcome aboard the Pax Magellanic. Why are you here?"
I gulped once. "We heard rumors of a ship in this area of space a few thousand years ago. We connected the rumors from the time with the existence of this vessel and came to search for any possible salvage."
Her eyes seemed to bore into me for several long moments, before she spoke again. "Please follow me, we have a room ready for receiving guests."
I took in a shuddering breath and looked at the other members of the crew. I wouldn't have thought anything of them, but knowing what to look for made it rather easy to pick out the flaws. All of them were totally blank faced, they breathed very little. They were uncanny to look at. The fact that they were all androids actually made a lot of sense, in that regard.
I gulped and slowly released my Mauser, letting it hang by my side. Waving to my team members to do the same, I nodded to the woman. "We'll follow you."
She turned around, three of the other crew members standing with her. I followed right behind her, with my crew behind me, and the final three members of the welcoming crew in position behind my team.
The interior of the ship was beautiful. The golden motif that decorated the exterior and the hangar continued throughout the interior of the vessel. We took less than two minutes to arrive at our final destination. It was a relatively large room, with several dozen tables and chairs.
If I had to guess, it looked like it had been a cafeteria. The acting captain gestured to the nearest table. "Have a seat."
I turned back to my team and nodded for them to spread out a little bit around the room, before finally taking off my helmet and sitting down.
Despite the SLDF cooling suit built into my outfit, the sweat was pouring off me. A clunk filled the room as I placed my helmet on the table. It was then that the captain spoke. "No one has been in this star system in several thousand years. I'd be interested in learning about the rest of the three galaxies."
Once more, I gulped. "I'm afraid the Three-Galaxies are out of my purview. Somehow the Slipstream was shattered, so reaching any other galaxy isn't really feasible. I can tell you about the current state of the Milky Way though."
I looked over at one of the other crewmen who was standing by the door. I nearly jumped out of my seat at what the captain said next. "Then a general run down of the current state of the galaxy then. We haven't had contact with anyone outside this system in several thousand years."