Chapter 41

  About an hour later the Skidbladnir came out of hyperspace over a lonely world with two moons. There was an asteroid belt not too far away from the planet followed by a few gas giants. On their sensors there appeared to be a habitable world in that system but it wasn’t the planet they were heading too. This planet was old, lifeless and holistically red.

  “Ok everyone, we’re here!” stated Amos, his voice filled with excitement.

  “What is the purpose of coming to this world? This world is void of life,” wondered Sha’re.

  “Freyr knows why this world is so important. Right Freyr?” said Amos a hint of wisdom in his voice.

  Freyr looked at his computer terminal to ascertain where Amos had taken them. “Ah hah, yes, I know where we are. This is the fourth world in Earth’s system. I believe they call it Mars.”

  “Absolutely right, Freyr. Although it is too early to make contact with my government I thought it would be prudent to go ahead and set up a base here.”

  “This world was also in his dream,” said Reva, obviously trying to make Amos blush.

  Amos tried to ignore the comment but could see Sha’re and Egeria make eye contact.

  The Skidbladnir moved closer to the planet and began to pick up telemetry. “I’m picking up a radioactive environment, with no breathable atmosphere and no signs of biological life,” Reva reported.

  “I don’t get it, if there is no sign of life how can this planet be of any use to us,” said Egeria.

  “Easy, we’re going to terraform it,” said Amos.

  “Wouldn’t Stargate Command pick up any activity over this planet and send ships?” asked Karlan.

  “Not likely, Earth doesn’t have the capability to see this far and they won’t get any ships until a few years later. Since I eventually want to incorporate my homeworld into the Commonwealth it would be prudent to set up a base close by.”

  “Well how are we going to do that, when there’s no breathable atmosphere,” asked Sha’re.

  “We use a Lantean City Ship,” Reva chimed in.

  “Bingo,” said Amos busily typing into his command chair.

  Out of nowhere appeared a Lantean City Ship high in orbit over the planet Mars. The Skidbladnir docked with the city and used a remote control Reva made to automatically raise the city’s shields and pressurize the buildings. Once in the city the crew of the Skidbladnir exited the ship and headed to the gateroom.

  “This is an amazing city," said Egeria, taking in all that surrounded her. The Lantean city looked surreal with its towers glowing in the void of space with the red planet behind it. Egeria did not realize the technological threshold the Commonwealth had until she first glimpsed this city.

  “Nevermind… you have it all together don’t you, Amos Fyree? We might be able to make a home here afterall,” said Egeria, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

  Amos looked at her and smiled, “My dreams do have a habit of coming true, Queen Egeria.”

  Egeria was taken aback by his crass comment and once again began to blush.

  The crew of the Skidbladnir made their way to the city's gate room and began acclimating to the city's systems. Suddenly, the lights on the Stargate began to glow.

  “Fuck! The gate! Someone's attempting to dial in!” Amos cursed. “I forgot Pegasus gates supercede Milky Way gates. Reva quickly, deactivate the Stargate!” ordered Amos with urgency.

  Reva did as Amos commanded and before four chevrons were activated, the Stargate had been shut down.

  "Whooo that was close,” said Amos. “Stargate Command would have gone apeshit if they gated in and saw us.”

  “I don't understand. Do we go on without a Stargate then?” asked Egeria, curiosity etched across her face.

  “Ive actually been thinking a lot about that and I think I have a solution.” said Amos as he made his way to Reva's computer terminal. Amos placed a hand on Reva's shoulder and she stood up while Amos took her place. “On Destiny, an ancient vessel commandeered by my homeworld, the ancients were able to create a nine chevron address that automatically activated the ship's Stargate from anywhere in the Universe. Destiny's Stargate does not act like other Stargates that use six points in space to make a connection with a seventh or eighth symbol serving as its point of origin. No, Destiny uses a specific code that locks on to any world as long as the code is properly imputed into the dialing device. I believe I may be able to create a similar nine chevron address that can serve as a specific code that will allow travelers to gate here instead of Earth. If I can just pull up the city's dialing program, I might be able to. There. Finished.”

  As soon as Amos had finished speaking the chevron's on the gate began to glow. It was an outgoing wormhole.

  “Kaswoosh!”

  "What world is that?”asked Freyr.

  "A random world in this galaxy devoid of life,” explained Amos. “I just dialed it in order to test our new address. Luckily, it worked. We are now the proud owners of a nine chevron gate address.

  The crew of the Skidbladnir continued to acclimate to the city’s systems, activating systems and preparing the city for cohabitation.

  "Now, it's time to land,” stated Amos. He turned to Egeria who was walking around the back of the gate room mesmerized by the wonders of this new city and the red planet below them.

  “Hey Egeria, do you know how to make the crystals your people use to make underground layers?” Amos asked.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Oh, you mean the tunnel crystals. Yes, I do know how to make them. My sister, and fellow wife of Ra, Hathor used to play with those crystals while we were young and joked about running away from our ex husband together,” she said hysterically.

  “The Tok'ra use those crystals to set up underground bases on various worlds, they also have a side effect of producing oxygen. We can use them to make a small portion of the planet breathable,” said Amos.

  Freyr escorted Egeria to the Asgard computer core and the two began working on making the Tok'ra Crystals. Within an hour they were complete.

  “These crystals should burrow several hundred kilometers underground and make the entire area full with oxygen,” Egeria explained.

  “Good,” said Amos, “I have an excellent location for us to build a colony.”

  A giant red dot appeared on the view screen pinpointing a massive volcano on Mars.

  “Take us there Reva – to Olympus Mons,” Amos ordered. A brilliant flash of light burned in the Martian sky as the city ship descended over the caldera of Olympus Mons. The second generation Lantean City ship hovered over the mountain creating an ominous glow on the red and desolate planet.

  “Now, drop the Tok'ra Crystals,” Amos said. Soon several Tok'ra Crystals fell to the Martian surface and burrowed a hole into the ground.

  “I’m picking up a lot of volcanic activity deep underground, if we land we might be consumed by lava” said Reva, carefully monitoring the crystal’s progress.

  “That’s ok. Reva, remember back to Taranis, when the Volcano exploded?” said Amos, “We used your ablative nanites to absorb the volcano and make a foundation.”

  “That’s right, I do remember. If I can just replicate the process, not only will we be safe from the lava, but we should be able to make a foundation to build deep underground,” she said, excitement in her voice.

  After printing a swarm of kinos, Reva released them into the new chasm made by the Tok'ra Crystals. As the Kinos descended they ejected nanites into the Martian volcano forming a protective foundation covering the whole of Olympus Mons.

  “As always, it's working,” said Reva proudly. “The heat from the lava is being absorbed by the nanites. The caldera is cooling down! I’m reading habitable pockets of Oxygen and Nitrogen forming deep underground, soon the entire mountain will be ready for colonization!”

  “Can you program the matter converters on the nanites to produce more Oxygen?” asked Amos intently.

  “Why yes, yes I can. I can also program them to absorb excess radiation and toxic gasses,” she replied.

  As the volcanic activity calmed down and a viable atmosphere formed deep under Olympus Mons, Amos landed the city on top of the caldera of the volcano.

  “This is an incredible technological feat. You terraformed a section of an entire planet in mere minutes,” stated Freyr clearly impressed by another one of Amos’s experiments.

  “You’re right, this world is the culmination of trials we have already overcome. If we wouldn’t have had that catastrophe on Taranis none of this would be happening right now. Also, if it wasn’t for me experimenting with replicator nanites we wouldn’t have made the inside of the Caldera habitable. All of these things worked towards this moment.” said Amos.

  Karlan was also impressed by this endeavor but after looking at the six of them still wondered why setting up an entire world would be for.

  “So what’s next?” Karlan wondered. This planet can’t be just for the six of us.

  “You’re right, now that we have our own planet, we’re going to need more people,” Amos stated.

  “Shall I contact Orban and have my people gate in?” Karlan asked, sincerity in his voice.

  Amos got up, and walked to the edge of the stairway leading down to the rest of the city.

  “No, I have a better idea… Everyone drop what you’re doing and follow me.

  The Skidbladnir six exited the gateroom on their city ship and walked down the long corridors of the ancient metropolis. From pier to pier they walked that entire city looking up periodically to take in the red martian landscape underneath their Lantean domed shield. In the south west pier of the city they came to a large room.

  “What's this place?” asked Sha're.

  "This is where the Asurans used to make replicators.” said Amos. "Reva and I took this technology out of the Lantean City Ships in order to prevent anyone from making any more replicators without our consent. However…” Amos stopped speaking mid-sentence and produced a kino and data disk from his wrist matter converters and threw the orb into the center of the room. “...With the success of Reva and Egeria I think it’s time we start making more beings like them,” stated Amos.

  “I think that’s a wonderful idea,” said Freyr emphatically.

  Amos turned to Reva standing next to him and asked her to help him set up the new beds.

  When they were done Amos asked her if she knew of any other way to create beings like her besides using DNA.

  “No, my love, I don’t know of any other way to create more of my kind besides harvesting DNA,” she said bashfully.

  “That’s not good. We need someone who can specialize primarily in making more beings like Reva.

  “We also need a name for these beings, since they are neither human nor replicators” added Freyr.

  Amos paced back and forth thinking about how to make more biosynthetic lifeforms. He also started pondering a new name for them since they were about to become their own race.

  “I know, how about we call them Elves,” Amos said.

  “Elves, I like that name,” Karlan echoed.

  Amos looked at Freyr and asked, “Freyr, did a race of beings known as the Elves used to exist in the Ida galaxy? Elves are part of Norse Mythology just as much as the Asgard; it would make sense if they actually existed.”

  “Elves are nicknames given to advanced humans the Asgard did dealings with, however other races in Norse mythology did exist at one point and time but were wiped out in our long standing war with the Replicators.”

  Amos nodded his head taking in Freyr’s words. “If an official elven race never truly existed then we should definitely name these new beings Elves due to their close resemblance to mankind and their intimate connection to the history of the Asgard.”

  “I agree,” said Freyr finding reason in Amos’s words.

  Amos walked over to a replicator bed and pressed around on the device. “That leaves us with only one problem. How to make more without a large catalog of DNA. I know, how about we create just one more elf made solely for the purpose of making more elves and streamlining this technology. I’ll take the DNA of Reva and Sha’re already on file and blend the two together making a completely new… elf.”

  Amos worked vigorously, synthesizing the DNA strands of Reva and Sha’re until a new being emerged.

  Reva, worried that he would just make another version of her, opened her mouth and said, “Baby… wouldn’t making another version of me only increase the problem. I have the knowledge of the Ancients and the Asgard database, however, we need someone specifically designed to making more elves.”

  “You’re right, my love as usual,” Amos said as he was busy coding the new elf. Amos stopped what he was doing for a moment and turned to Freyr who was already standing right beside him monitoring his progress. “Freyr, do you think we can access Earth’s internet from here?”

  “Yes we can, my people access Earth’s internet all the time while we are in orbit of your world,” said Freyr.

  Amos looked over at Freyr in disbelief wondering if he still might get abducted, then he shook his head and went back to work.

  Freyr showed Amos how to access Earth’s internet using subspace. He then brought up several websites.

  “What is that?” asked Karlan.

  “Medical data, I’m uploading all of Earth’s medical knowledge into the mind of this new elf,” said Amos as he worked.

  “Karlan walked up to the screen and stated, “We still have access to the Orbanian database. We should upload all of the medical knowledge from there as well.”

  “Good idea,” said Amos. He then added the Orbanian medical knowledge to the new being as well.

  “You should also include everything we have about fertility and sexual reproduction. The knowledge of the ancients is vast but it has very little on human sexuality,” said Reva.

  Both Amos and Karlan turned to look at Reva, as well as Egeria and Sha’re.

  “What?” said Reva, embarrassed by what she just said.

  Reva was right, however. This elf, as well as the other elves created, should be able to sleep and reproduce with humans. Having all of our sexual knowledge would help them navigate the nuances of human life and make them feel like they are a part of the human race.

  “You’re right… I’ll add all our porn as well.”

  “What’s porn?” Egeria asked.

  “You don’t want to know,” said Sha’re.

  Amos made the finishing touches on this new lifeform and was ready to bring the new being to life. “Ok so in summary, I’ve included all of the medical knowledge I could find in the Earth and Orbanian databases as well as all knowledge pertaining to sexuality and reproduction. In addition, I went ahead and added the knowledge of the Ancients and the Asgard database as well so they can access it if they need further references,” he stated.

  Out of nowhere a beautiful woman appeared; lighter than Reva and darker than Sha’re, sharing physical features from them both.

  “This is the most naked women I’ve seen in my entire life,” said Karlan as Egeria laughed and Sha’re shook her head.

  “Sorry, I almost forgot,” said Amos and quickly put on a white Star Fleet uniform dress on his new creation.

  Suddenly, the new being woke up.

  “Hello my love,” she said looking right at Amos.

  Egeria laughed, hearing her say this and quickly blurted out,”Was she in your dream too?”

  Amos looked at Reva and the both said at the same time: “Yes.”

  Egeria folded her arms and leaned back against the wall, contemplating how this was possible. She didn’t know Amos and Reva had the power of the Ancients.

  “So what should my name be?” the new woman asked.

  Amos was about to answer before Freyr answered instead. “How about Freya,” he said a sense of innocence in his voice.

  Amos looked back at Reva again who confirmed with him telepathically that he could in fact dream the future.

  “Freya… yeah, I like that name. Hello, Freya, welcome to Alfheim.”

  “Thank you my love. I eagerly await to fulfill my purpose.”