My eyes flew open and I found myself staring at the roof of a Goa'uld Room. It felt like just moments had passed since I entered the sarcophagus. I slowly sat up, finding that the room was empty. I took a few seconds to gather my bearings before slowly standing up and getting out of the sarcophagus. Several people began to enter the room as I slowly lowered my feet onto the ground. Looking up, I saw Elder James, Elder Callum, and Elder Annalise alongside Arktos and several Jaffa all entering the room. With them was a stasis tube on a wheeled cart.
Elder James nodded at me. "Arthur. How are you feeling?"
I smiled. "Like you should be worshipping me," I replied with some cheekiness.
The Elders stopped and looked me over. Elder Callum chuckled lightly "Man, was it really that good?"
I stopped and considered his question. "I feel really good. It was like I had the greatest massage of my life, but cranked up to 11. All of my muscle aches are gone and all of my worries don't seem quite so… unmanageable."
Shuddering, I continued. "Yeah. I can see why someone would get addicted to this."
Elder James nodded. "Then it is a good thing that you will not be using the device any more."
Nodding, I carefully stepped out of the way as Elder Dorian and Elder Callum began typing away on a pair of noteputors. After about 30 seconds, Elder Dorian put down his noteputor while he and Elder James put on a pair of gloves. With a hiss, the tube opens to reveal the frozen form of an asian woman with short cropped black hair. Together, Elder James and Elder Dorian carefully lift the woman out of the capsule and place her within the sarcophagus.
With the gentle rumbling of stone, the lid of the Sarcophagus closes shut. Elder James looks over to Arktos. "What now?"
Arktos stared at the sarcophagus with slightly furrowed brows. "Now we wait. Even if she is not revived, her body will be brought back to peak condition."
Elder James let out a deep sigh and sat down on the ground.
"Any guess on how long it will take?"
"None." replied Arktos succinctly.
The Elder nodded.
"I'll wait here then. Callum, Arthur, you two return to the Ha'tak to manage the work. They're running out of places to search, so they're going to start the dismantling soon."
Arktos nodded.
"Then we will leave you in peace to wait."
Elder Callum and I left the room alongside several of the Jaffa while Elder Dorian and Elder Annalise stayed behind with Elder James.
We quickly arrived back at Enyalius's fortress. To find stacks upon stacks of crates all placed together, presumably by object type. As we returned, Elder Dresden found us.
"Callum, Arthur. We've searched everything. We've cleared out every room, hallway, and air duct. We've got nothing."
Elder Callum let out a deep sigh.
"A shame it wasn't that easy. Time to start tearing her apart. Call everyone up."
A little over thirty minutes later, all 500 people had congregated near the front of the fortress. Yelling as loudly as he could, Elder Callum began.
"Alright people. We're going to be taking this ship apart. You are to go through each crystal one at a time and document. I want everything about each crystal; shape, diameter, height, color, if it looks like it has a dent or a scratch, then make sure to mark it down. When you're done with that, you are to completely check every single port and document its appearance and shape. Do not lose any of the crystals. "
With that, Elder Callum let out a deep sigh.
"We are going to be here for a while."
I nodded. He looked at me and gestured for me to follow.
"Come on. The more hands the better."
We each grabbed an internally cushioned wooden crate and entered the ship. A short walk later, we arrived at a room filled with a half dozen pillars. Each pillar was covered in retractable tabs which could extend out of the pillar to reveal the control crystals for the ship.
I beelined to a particular pillar – the primary control crystals for the Hyperdrive – and opened it up. Inside were 63 such crystals. Starting from the activation crystal, I began carefully removing and labeling each of the control crystals, with Elder Callum there to help me.
Once I was finished with the primary control panel, I moved onto the secondary panels, and then the backup panels. If all I had been doing was removing crystals and throwing them in a box, then I could have been finished in thirty minutes. Unfortunately, I was going through the painstaking process of identifying the shape and original position of every single crystal for the Elders to later reference.
By the time I was done, it had been almost eight hours and there was still no sign from Elder James or the others. The Sarcophagus really struggled with fixing brain injuries. Healing those with Brain Tumors had taken nine hours on average. I expected that reviving a person would take at least that long.
It had been a full day, and I retired to bed that night.
I was awoken early the next day by one of the Villagers; Elder James had returned and requested I join him. As I entered the Leopard's bridge, I was surprised to find a meeting of all the Elders and someone new. Someone who had previously been a corpse.
"Arthur, let me introduce Andrea Sarti, Chief Engineer of the SLS Manassas."
My eyebrows shot up. Quite frankly with how long the Manassas' crew had been dead, I hadn't expected the sarcophagus to work; shows you what I know.
She reached out to shake my hand; I almost didn't realize what she was doing before I quickly took her hand and shook it firmly.
"Captain Cromwell has asked me to begin making repairs to the Manassas." Her voice remained professional and courteous through the entire conversation. She continued, "I have been told that you have the greatest understanding of KF Drive Physics of those currently available to assist me."
I raised an eyebrow. "I believe Elder Callum will have a better understanding than me, ma'am, but I've read the manual and I have the schematics for the Field Initiator memorized."
She frowned and turned to Elder James who just nodded at her before she turned back to me. "You will be working with me while the rest of my crew is… revived."
I nodded. "Understood."
She frowned. "While you are working with me, you will respond to me as ma'am. Am I understood?"
I quickly responded. No reason to anger probably the only person who could get the Manassas working again. "Yes, ma'am."
She turned back to Elder James. "I'd like to see the ship. When is lift off?"
Elder James looked down at his watch. "Three hours."
She saluted once and turned to leave the room, leaving me with the other Elders. Elder James walked up to me. "Go get your stuff ready."
I nodded and left the room. I returned from the village several hours later and the Leopard once again launched into orbit. From the moment that the Leopard launched, it took barely an hour for us to get within visual range of the Manassas. From there, it was another 15 minutes of careful maneuvering before we were docked with the Hardpoint.
Elder Callum called me over to help unload some cargo. A set of Transportation Rings. Apparently, a set of them had also been set up down below on the planet. Touching it, I was rather surprised to find that nothing happened.
"Where did you get this," I asked as I carefully turned towards Elder Callum.
"We pulled it out of one of the Tel'tak. Why?"
Cautiously, I replied. "My first perk didn't activate."
Elder Callum stops for a moment before continuing. "So your perk doesn't work on something you've already used it on… what if we removed the Transport Rings before you used your perk?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. We'll have to test it later."
He nodded and we proceeded with locking down the set of Transport Rings so that they wouldn't float off. Finally, Elder Callum got out his radio. "Transport Rings are secured. Send the confirmation."
A moment later a reply came. "Response confirmed. Ring Activation should begin momentarily."
A few short seconds later, the ring activated. Placed in the center of the ring was a piece of paper that slowly began to float upwards and away from the rings. Grabbing it, Elder Callum read off the paper. "Message reads… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5."
Another few seconds later came a second reply. "Understood. Elder James will be… beaming up momentarily."
As he finished speaking, the rings activated and standing in the center was Elder James. He seemed to look around for a moment before turning to myself and Elder Callum. "Just as described. Where would the Chief Engineer be?"
Elder Callum nodded. "She's still preparing her equipment."
"Good." Getting out his own radio, Elder James began speaking. "Inform the ground team that they are free to join us. Just make sure they're off the pad ASAP once they're up here."
"Yes sir." Came the short reply. Shortly after, villagers began teleporting in using the Transporter Pads. In a matter of a couple minutes, eight more people had appeared in the hold. Elder James turned to me. "Arthur, you're coming along."
We took the elevator down to Deck #24 and into Hold J where the large collection of Stasis Tubes were stored. Elder James once again opened up a container to reveal dozens of activated Stasis Tubes. With as much care as they could, four of the devices were lifted and carried to the elevator.
Myself and Elder James didn't get on. Instead, we entered a separate hallway which was labeled as "airlock." I immediately stopped and asked what I thought was a rather important question. "Elder, do we need a space suit here?"
He looked at a panel against the wall as he replied, "If we do, then something has gone wrong." The panel came alive, the words "atmosphere detected" legible on the screen.
"No, we won't need a space suit." Opening the airlock revealed a large door, and a corridor leading to a second large airlock. As we passed through and my hand touched the edge of the Airlock for support, I felt my perk activate.
First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Bug-Eye (Cobalt Eye, Experimental Platform)
Terran Hegemony Computer Core (Experimental)
This computer was the largest and most complex computational device I had come across yet, though only arguably the most powerful. Goa'uld computer tech – when they chose to use it – was significantly more effective, and that wasn't even mentioning the highly optimized computer architecture of the DHD. A quick mental glance through the schematic left me slightly confused. This device ran on custom software that was only technically based on the THOS operating system. I would have time to explore that later.
We entered the Bug-Eye's forward storage room and took an elevator up a couple of levels to what I presumed was the bridge. Upon an elevated platform was a Holotable around which were 4 chairs. Against the walls were room for another eight terminals, presumably for the members of the crew.
As we floated towards the Holotable, the room seemed to come alive around us. Looking at the bridge, I failed to find anything of real note. I found the Elder fiddling away at the Holotable.
"Elder, why are we here? My perk has already activated."
The Elder didn't acknowledge me for a moment. "I'm doing a favor for an old friend."
On the Holotable, the 3d projection of a face appeared. It spoke. "Thank you, James. This video will continue in 60 seconds. This is private, so please leave the room."
I frowned, and Elder James patted me on the shoulder. "Your father asked me to show you this recording when you turned 17. It's a bit early, but it will have to do. I'm returning to the village. Go Find Lieutenant Sarti when you're done here."
I was totally stunned. I didn't even realize the Elder had left until the video continued from where it left off.
"Hello, Arthur. I hope you never have to see this recording, but if you are, then I am dead. This ship is all that I have, it is now yours. The crew were aboard the Manassas during the missjump, so I'm afraid you'll have to find a crew for her yourself."
He took a deep breath.
"Now for the big issues. These names likely won't mean a thing to you, feel free to ask James about them if you feel like it. Your name is Arthur Isadora Cameron, son of Alistair Cameron, the bastard child of Simon Cameron and Isadora Sinclair, first cousin once removed of Richard Cameron II, the final First Lord of the Star League and Director General of the Terran Hegemony."
I had a single thought on my mind; "well… fuck."