- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair. A few hours later.
I took my seat in the conference room. With me were Ma'chello, Elder James, Arktos, and Arriston. Elder James nodded. "Alright, Arthur, tell us about this new perk choice."
I nodded and began reading out the descriptions of each of the three perks. It was Ma'chello who was the first to speak. "I think it's safe to say that the second option is completely unacceptable."
Arktos nodded. "Neither of the other two options are potentially hazardous. The possibility of another Replicator-like swarm is not a pleasant idea."
Arriston nodded. "The Celestial Forge has explicitly stated that leaving such an entity unsupervised would be unwise. It is for the best that you do not take this option."
Elder James nodded and pulled up a flexi. "I think that the best choice would be for the Hurogok. A pacifist dedicated purely to engineering, that is also willing to follow you? They are capable of effectively nano-scale production, and are very good at improving existing technology… on top of that, they can reproduce asexually…"
The Dingbots would have been a better choice, but that was forgetting the genuine possibility of them going rogue. The risk there was just too great.
Arriston pursed his lips. "And what about this… Soul of the Forge? Can you tell us anything about it?"
I shook my head. "I'm afraid not. Judging by the description, it assists blacksmiths; how much it assists engineers, or even automated factories, however, I just can't say."
He was silent for a moment. "Well, I suppose that we've decided then?"
I nodded. "'DING!' is potentially dangerous, and 'Soul of the Forge' might not give us anything at all. 'Hurogok Ally' can probably do a lot of the things that 'Ding!' can, except they won't suddenly start expanding exponentially, and they can assist us with improving our current technology."
Arriston nodded. "Very well. Give me a few hours to get a welcoming party together for this Hurogok, and we'll be able to greet them."
- - -
Two hours later.
A large empty room had been prepared, and now it was just us and a few guards present in case of an emergency.
I closed my eyes and turned my attention to the Celestial Forge, and with a deep breath, I selected Hurogok Ally from the list of choices.
When I opened my eyes, I was unsurprised to find a strange bulbous creature, with several tendrils all over its body, floating before me.
[Huragok Images Here]
The creature turned in circles, examining its environment. With a deep breath, I carefully stepped forward and spoke to the creature. "Hello?"
The Hurogok immediately stopped spinning and turned to me. A deep whistling noise filled the room. I was completely unable to understand him. Luckily, we had expected the language barrier and had something prepared. I pulled out a flexi and handed it to the Huragok. "This includes a full dictionary of our languages so that you can communicate with us."
It took the flexi from me carefully and started examining it with its tendrils. A small portion of one side seemed to disappear under its examination. I shrugged. "Now we just have to wait and see how long that takes."
Luckily for us, it took barely ten minutes for it to decipher the technology. It handed back the flexi. I took it and read it. "Jaffa?"
I furrowed my brow. "No. I'm human. My name is Arthur."
It was quiet for several moments. "Do you have anything that needs fixing?"
I blinked and turned to Arriston, who stepped forward. "If you're willing to help us, then we'd be more than happy to provide anything you'd like."
It whistled several more times. "I'd like to get to work immediately."
I stared at Arriston and shrugged. He was quiet for a moment before nodding. "We can find something for you to work on. Ma'chello?"
Ma'chello nodded. He seemed to think for a moment before his eyes suddenly lit up. "We have a few old spacecraft that need repair. They haven't been operational in decades, but they'd be a good project to start with."
I raised an eyebrow. "The old Dendredan Shuttles?"
Ma'chello nodded. "We have several that are intact. They just need some basic repairs, and they'll be good to fly again. Just getting the few extra hulls into space would be a massive advantage."
The Hurogok floated up and down, its tentacles squirming as if in excitement. "Excellent."
I shrugged once more. "I'm sorry, but I don't believe you've told us your name."
"I am Slightly Overweight." I almost choked as I read the name. It seemed to bob up and down in confusion as I responded. "Sorry."
I turned back to Ma'chello. "I guess we can show it where he can get to work?"
Arriston nodded. "We should get a small group of engineers together so that they can assist it with its repairs. Arthur, you're currently off a project. Would you be up for this?"
I raised an eyebrow. "Sure. It would be a good experience for me as well."
Slightly Overweight continued to gently bob up and down. "I'd like to begin immediately."
Ma'chello shrugged. "Sure. I'll have one of the storage sites opened up so you can get to work. We have about eight intact vessels, and about 130 wrecks."
It was still early afternoon at the moment, so Arriston quickly ordered several of the people who were formerly working with me on the JFX project to help with the shuttle repair.
Less than an hour later, we were on Dendred, looking at the Pre-Invasion shuttlecraft that I hadn't seen since my first time visiting the world.
This hangar had four fully intact vessels. I quickly touched each of them once.
First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Ουρανός 2 (Ouranos 2)
Ουρανός 2 Chassis, Ουρανός 2 Pressure Chamber, Caelumfabrica Gravitic Pushers, DracoFabrica Naquadah Reactor
I smiled. Time to get to work.
- - -
On Dendred. That evening.
I sat down at the table once more. I rubbed my eyes for a moment as I got my bearings. Elder James raised an eyebrow. "Arthur, are you alright?"
I nodded. "Exhausted. Keeping up with Slightly Overweight has not been easy."
Arriston took a moment to look me over, but he quickly nodded. "Alright Arthur. What can you tell us about this Huragok?"
"Well, he's about as much of a workaholic as I expected." I took a deep breath and stopped rubbing my temples. "He's still working at the moment. I don't even know if he sleeps."
Ma'chello nodded from beside me. He'd joined in with the repairs since he'd grown up around the ships, and being able to see one fly had been a dream of his for decades now. "Trying to keep up is quite stressful. He isn't exactly all that talkative, but he does excellent work. I believe we'll have the first of the space worthy Ouranos-2s within a couple of days."
Arriston seemed to smile slightly. "I've always wanted to see what they look like in flight."
Elder James nodded as well. "The addition of a few more cargo ships will be quite useful."
Ma'chello nodded as well. "It's a good project to get him started. It'll give us a good understanding of his capabilities, and giving him access to the ships doesn't reveal any of our more strategically important technologies."
Arktos raised an eyebrow. "So it is male then?"
I nodded. "Yes. It prefers to be referred to as a male."
Arriston nodded. "So, has he stated anything about what he was doing before he was brought here?"
I shook my head. "The only thing he's… spoken about was working on a Slipspace drive for a ship. Other than that, we've gotten nothing about him."
Arktos raised an eyebrow. "So it has knowledge of this Slipspace that you have told us about?"
I nodded. "That's the only thing I have been able to confirm. He has experience working on the drive of some sort of warship, but he has said nothing further."
Arriston nodded. "Do you think we could ask him what he knows?"
Ma'chello and I both nodded in unison. Arriston turned to me first. "He seemed like he would talk if we asked."
Ma'chello nodded in agreement. Arriston looked between us. "Alright then, let's just ask him."
A few minutes later, Slightly Overweight gently bobbed into the room. Arriston nodded gently towards him. "Thank you for coming. We have several questions for you."
He whistled gently in affirmation. Arriston continued. "Would you please tell us what you were doing before you appeared here?"
Rather than speaking this time, he just touched the flexi and text appeared. "I was making repairs to a Covenant warship. It was damaged in battle, and most of the crew was dead."
I raised an eyebrow. "Damaged? Who were you at war with?"
Slightly Overweight seemed to almost shrug. "The Captain thought they were more humans at first, but they used weapons we'd never seen before. Their ships were all pyramidal, plated with gold. They fired golden balls of plasma that crippled our ships' shields in a single hit. The big ships were destroyed first; the few ships that survived managed to because we pretended to be wreckage. The captain captured many of the enemy. All I know is that they called themselves Jaffa."
We were all stunned for several long moments. We all knew what he had just described. Goa'uld ships. We thought he had been brought from another reality, but had he actually come from this one? I gulped, "Do you think you could point out where you come from if we showed you on a map?"
The reply was a very simple "yes."
Arriston nodded to one guard. "We'll be visiting the datacore. Have the Stargate ready for us, please."
We took a short walk to the Stargate, dialed it, and stepped onto the lead Ha'tak of Ares' fleet, now accelerating into deep space at slower than light speeds. It was traveling at approximately 2% of the speed of light after just a few months of acceleration. The effect of time dilation was still relatively minimal, but it was now measurable with even an analog clock.
We made our way to the ship's datacore, where Arktos quickly turned on the galactic map feature. "Do you recognize this galaxy?"
A negative came as the reply, and Arktos quickly began zooming away from the Milky Way to the surrounding galaxies. Slightly Overweight produced a single rather distinctive whistle. I read aloud from the flexi and Arktos stopped; I'd make sure to remember that particular whistle. It was an important one to know.
He bobbed over to a particular location, one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies, and pointed at it with a tentacle. Arktos raised an eyebrow and zoomed in. The entire galaxy came into focus. I was surprised at how accurate the readings were. It hit me then. The existence and location of many star systems were too well known to have been mapped from the Milky Way.
Elder James snapped his fingers, seemingly in realization. "Arktos, can you check Ra's most recent records? Specifically, check for locations of newly discovered Stargates."
Arktos raised an eyebrow and did just that. Nearly 300 newly discovered Stargates were shown as being within the galaxy that Slightly Overweight had pointed out. All along the galactic rim closest to the Milky Way.
Arriston became much more serious. "So Ra is active within this galaxy?"
Arktos nodded. "It would seem so. These addresses have only been added within the last decade."
I groaned. "So you're not from another universe then; you're from this one."
Arktos nodded. "I believe it would be best that we contact the Asgard immediately."
Slightly Overweight looked back and forth, confused by the mention of the Asgard.
Arriston nodded. "Yes. I believe that is the best course of action."
We took the Stargate back to Kaelastrum, where Arriston contacted the Asgard and provided them with this newly uncovered information. What the Asgard did with the information was out of our hands, but they were already quite busy. It was unlikely that they'd be able to do anything with this information in the immediate future.