Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 171

Chapter 171 - Over Performing Errors - Part 1

As slow as the Samatha Carter was compared to normal Asgard vessels, that still had it making the trip back to the Pegasus Galaxy in a little under a day.

The ship was currently on final approach to the Asuran system, which was about five thousand light-years coreward from Lantea. A location that had been picked mainly because it was in the rare sweet spot of close enough to the galactic core to have high yield neutronium deposits, yet still far enough away not to be fried by the core’s radiation.

“Did you manage to finish the disruptor optimization?” Eventus asked as he entered the bridge.

“Shortly after you left.” Thor confirmed with a nod. “I am surprised you did not wish to investigate the emergency signal.” He continued with a slight frown. “Scans suggested it was coming from a city-ship.”

“It was.” Eventus confirmed, having gone over the various identifiers embedded in the signal in the few hours since they’d passed it. “The city-ship Discenna to be exact, which was lost shortly after our original evacuation from the Avalon galaxy. However the signal included a biological disaster warning, and we probably don’t have time to deal with whatever might have resulted from that and still make it back to the city in time to keep the crew of the Tria from causing too many problems.” 

Thor’s frown deepened and he moved around a few control crystals on the console in front of him before giving a small nod. “Projections suggest it will not enter the pegasus galaxy for another three point seven million years, nonetheless I would suggest not leaving it till the last moment.”

Eventus wanted to say that was highly unlikely, but he’d dealt with his people’s former leadership long enough to know that it would in fact have been completely in character for them to put something off like that. 

“I’ll try to take care of it before the year's over with.” He sighed at yet another thing being added to his list of relatively immediate problems to deal with.

“Thank you.” Thor nodded curtly before focusing on the main window which was currently displaying a hyperspacial course infographic. “We will be dropping out of hyperspace in three seconds.”

A minor change in the hum of the ships engines was only detectable sign of the ships deceleration, and the infographic disappeared to allow them to see the orbital view of the Asuran world.

“Preliminary scans are showing a Lantean style city covering the entirety of the planet's primary continent.” Thor put forward after a moment as a hint of confusion leaked into his tone. “However their defensive capabilities appear highly limited, and the only hyperdrive capable vessel sensor’s register is a single city-ship.”

“I really have no idea what might have led to the various choices on display with all of that.” Eventus admitted honestly. “Is there anything that looks like it could generate a planetary shield array?”

He didn’t recall them having anything like that in the show, but at that level of planetary development it shouldn’t have been particularly difficult for them to do.

Another moment passed before Thor gave a small shake of his head. “Nothing that would suggest such a capability without significant reconfiguration.” He paused before tilting his head. “There is an incoming holographic communications signal from the planet's surface.”

“Might as well let it through.” Eventus suggested since trying to talk the Asurans over was why he wanted to deal with this in person.

The Asgard adjusted one of the control crystals slightly, and the holographic image of Oberoth shimmered into existence a few meters away from the forward window.

“We have warned you before,” He began without preamble. “Your kind is not…” He trailed off, staring at Eventus in wide eyed shock.

“Hi.” Eventus waved glibly.

Nearly a second passed with Oberoth standing statue still before he squared his shoulders and purposefully straightened himself up with a scowl. “Eventus Iuxta Devera, the statistical chance of you surviving the fall of Atlantis was judged so low as to be non-existent."

Considering the deeper context of the Asuran’s words for a moment Eventus gave a nod of acknowledgement. “I suppose that's fair, if Atlantis had actually been overrun I probably would have been on the front lines distracting the Wraith so others had the chance to escape to one of the emergency redoubts.”

Tilting his head slightly, a look of contemplation settled across Oberoth's features.  “If you survived, I take it other Lantean's did too?”

“Some.” Eventus confirmed with a nod. “One of those is even on this ship.”

Oberoth's hand twitched, and he gave an almost silent growl that nonetheless managed to transmit perfectly through the holographic projection. “Then I assume you are here to fulfill your responsibilities and destroy us?”

“I'd really rather not.” Eventus admitted truthfully. “The only remaining member of the old high council is set to be expelled for attempting to create a sapient organic slave race. And all members of the new high council have voted unanimously to do away with the prohibitions against artificial intelligence.”

Sheppard hadn't even been that hard to convince, though to be fair to the man Eventus had phrased the repeal vote in such a way as to suggest that it was solely for the purpose of accelerating various repairs.

“You what?” Oberoth demanded as if he couldn't quite believe what Eventus had just said.

“Repealed the various prohibitions against artificial intelligence.” Eventus repeated before deciding to expand a bit. “Which includes a complete revocation of the extermination order.” He gave a slight nod of acknowledgement to the silently watching Thor. “At least, so long as you're not set on becoming a self replicating swarm out to consume the galaxy.”

Because while he might be planning to slightly loosen the proscriptions around self replicating machinery, doing away with them entirely would be the utmost height of stupidity.

Oberoth took a moment to process that before narrowing his eyes. “If the council of old is no more, who now leads the Lantean people?”

“That would be me.” Eventus admitted with a smile. “And now that that's known, I would like to request permission to come down and discuss what comes next.”

“You would not fear for your safety in putting yourself within reach of us?” Oberoth inquired, raising a single eyebrow in seeming challenge.

“If your base coding restrictions were no longer in place we'd already be in the middle of defending ourselves against the drones you tried to fire at us earlier.” Eventus returned with a shrug, almost certain that was what the strained twitch earlier had been. “So no, I wouldn't fear for my safety.”

Several seconds passed before Oberoth gave a cut nod. “Very well then, you have permission to come down. We will send arrival coordinates, do not attempt to deviate from them.”

Not even waiting for a further response the hologram vanished, leaving Eventus and Thor to exchange knowing looks.

“He wishes to kill you.” Thor offered after a moment.

“Yup.” Eventus agreed as a slight bit of tiredness entered his voice. “Can’t really blame him given we did try to exterminate his kind for the grand crime of not wanting to be used as weapons in our war against the Wraith.”

He waved his hand at the planet out the window. “But that industrial base puts both of our current ones to shame. To the point it might be enough to secure both this galaxy against the Wraith, and the Avalon galaxy against the Ori.”

And if after the coming discussions the Asurans still didn’t want to fight, the humans from Earth could be used to crew any ships they might put together just as easily.

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Author’s Notes: Unlike the Ancient leadership who saw the Asuran’s as a weapon, Eventus has always viewed them as a Golden Piggy Bank.