Stargate Nova Roma - Episode 2

2 – Awakening

(Tower Seven – Stasis Lab – 29 May 2010)

What Marcus didn’t know what that he had never left the well. Instead, he and the boy had been teleported by an Ancient device buried deep underneath the town. It had relayed them to another, which had send them further along, until they had reached Tower Seven. There, they had been put inside a pair of stasis chambers. That had been over two-thousand years ago.

Aranov stood next to the stasis chambers. They had discovered the second chamber – containing young Antonius – further into Tower Seven. He had managed to access the logs for the chambers and realized that neither the centurion or the boy had aged a day. When he figured out why, he whistled.

“The pods have frozen them in time.”

Colson and Haley were at the room’s main control panel.

“We’re going to have to be careful.” Haley said. “If we get it wrong, they are going to age into dust.”

“I think we should take the diver approach.” Colson began. “Slowly reducing the power as we go.” He punched up a screen. “There is an automated program for the job. But this thing was designed for Ancients, so….”

“…we put the function on manual and reduce it slower than the programs schedule.”

It was at this point that Major Claus Anders entered the room. “How are things going ?” He said. “Are we ready to thaw our two ancient icicles ?” His voice grew serious. “And what about the psychological shock ? We’re going to have tell them that over two-thousand years have passed. We’re talking a major transition here.”

“Yeah, I have an idea or two about that.” Aranov said. “For now, however, let’s deal with the physical.”

“Do it.” Anders said. “But I want Doc H and a full medical team in place before we dial power down one volt.” Doctor Julia Henderson was the Beta Site’s Chief Medical Officer. She was a top notch doctor from New Zealand. “We’re not taking any chances.”

“You’re the boss.” Aranov said.

Aranov took out his radio and began setting it up.

(Beta Site – Tent – 29 May 2010, Three Hours Later)

Marcus was asleep on his bed. Then he heard something and his eyes snapped open. ~What the….~ His mind flashed, as he realized that he was no longer in his room. In fact, this place was unlike any place he had ever seen. It was a tent, but not of any fabric he knew off. His bed was crude woodwork, but the mattress was odd. As were the sheets. The place was lit by several oil lamps. He examined himself and found that he was wearing a simple white T-shirt and a pair of pants which stopped at his knees. His uniform was on a nearby chair.

“Where am I ?”

He got to his feet. His legs were stiff, but operational. He made his way to the exit of the tent. Marcus stepped outside and gasped. Because he was seeing something impossible. There were two suns in the sky.

“No…” He shook his head. “….that cannot be.”

But it was. His head swam. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. What he was seeing could not be. Yet it was. He opened his eyes and made his way into the tent. Marcus found his sword next to his uniform. He picked it up and went back outside. Looking around, he realized that his tent was part of some kind of military camp. His sword at the ready, he made his way to the center.

 “Where am I ?” He muttered. “What is this place ?”

It was at this time that people came out of the tents. They all wore the same clothing – which Marcus figured was an uniform – and were carrying some kind of devices. And from the way they were carrying them, he figured these devices were some sort of weapons. They were yelling him in a language he did not understand. It wasn’t Greek or Latin. They pointed the devices at him.

~Stay calm, Marcus.~

He studied the group. There were eleven of them. They were a mix of men and women. Some were white, others were Nubian and some had a color of skin Marcus had never seen before. Suddenly, another man came from one of the tents. He said something to the group and they lowered their weapons. Then he looked at Marcus. He spoke Latin with a thick accent, but it was clear enough to understand.

“Greetings, Centurion Valerius. I am Tribune Anders.” He began. “Put your sword away and follow me. I have a lot to tell you.”

He had no idea what else to do, so he lowered his sword and followed the man. The Tribune led him towards a large tent. Inside was a large collection of tables and benches. Anders sat on one of the benches and gestured for him to sit across from him, which he did.

“Tribune….” Marcus began. “….where am I ? The sky, it is….”

“….impossible ?” Anders said with a smile. “Centurion, I have a lot to tell you. And you will consider most of it impossible.”

Marcus leaned on the table and listened as the Tribune told him of impossible things.

(Beta Site – Valerius’ tent – 3 June 2010, 0800)

After the Tribune had finished, Marcus had returned to his tent. It was as if his head refused to accept what he had been told. He had spent the last couple of days hiding in his tent. At least here, the world made sense. The whole thing was insane. Two-thousand and twenty-two years….gone. How was he supposed to believe that ? His family, all dead. It made his heart heavy. Suddenly, there was a noise outside. He grabbed his sword and followed his ears. They lead him to the center of the camp.

Two soldiers were arguing. One of them was a blond man with green eyes, while the other was a black haired woman with brown eyes. The Tribune had given him a device which translated the other languages in the camp to Latin. It had taken him two days to figure the odd machine out, but now he knew how to operate it. He shook his head. ~It’s like something from the myths, made by the gods themselves.~ They were standing next to a large weapon. The weapon itself stood next to a large ring. Anders had called it an Astra Porta, a Gate to the Stars.

“The schedule says that you were to clean it, Decurion.” The man was saying.

“There was a problem in the caves. They needed my help. I simply did not get around to cleaning the weapon.”

“No excuses, I want…”

Marcus cleared his throat and gave the two of them a stern look. “Are you two done ?” He looked at the female Decurion. “Decurion, clean the weapon.” Then he looked at man. “You, help her. And no arguments. These kind of conversations are not good for unit morale. Is that clear ?”

“Yes, sir.” The two of them said, before setting to the task.

He made his way back to his tent, pondering what had just happened. ~Two thousand years and still….~ He was not a part of their army. So they did not have to obey his orders. But they had, so maybe…..just maybe, there was a place for him in this world.

Stargate Nova Roma - Episode 1

1 – Back Then

(Philippi – Street – 12 BC)

Centurion Marcus Valerius grinned at he walked towards his father’s house. His sister Octavia was chasing his nephew Gaius the Younger. He figured the boy was supposed to go do his studies, but rather wanted to play. Marcus had been like that at his age, but his mother would always catch him and drag him along. As he entered the house and gave his cloak to one of the house slaves, Octavia nabbed the little rascal and took him away.

“Father, I am home.”

Gaius Valerius the Elder was in the garden, but came at the sound of his son. He was an older man, with grey hair and sharp blue eyes. In his young days, he had been a soldier. He had never climbed the ranks, because of his inability to read and write. But because he had been smart with his spoils, he had amassed a small fortune. And when he had been allowed to retire after Battle of Philippi, thirty years ago, had been able buy his family a house. Two weeks later, Marcus had been born. And a year after that, Octavia had joined the family.

“My son, the centurion.” Gaius said with a huge smile. “I am proud of you, my boy.”

“You and mother taught me well.” Marcus said. “Speaking of which….”

“She’s in the kitchen, preparing the evening meal.”

Marcus went into the kitchen. Attitia Valerius and two of the house slaves were working. When she saw him in his armor, his mother grinned. How she had ever ended up married to his father, was still a mystery to Marcus. As a young girl, his mother had been send by her parents to work as a servant for one of the richer families in Rome. She had used the opportunity to sneak into the house library to try to figure out reading and writing.

One day, she had been caught by the owner of the house. Instead of punishing her, the man had given her lessons. She had passed that knowledge on to Marcus, while his father had taught him everything he knew about soldiering. Armed with these skills, he had joined the army and made his way up the ranks. Until – today – he had been made centurion.

“So, did they give you good troops ?”

“I got seventy-two men, fresh out of training.”

“Sounds like you have a great deal of work ahead you, my son.”

“Yes, I do.”

Suddenly, there was a ruckus outside. Marcus and Attitia left the kitchen to find one their female slaves in tears. After his retirement from the army, his father had used the money that had not gone into the house, to buy several slaves. By clever trading – and the grace of the Gods – he had increased his fortune to the point where the Valerius family could own and maintain four slaves….two women and two men. The Gods had then blessed the slaves with seven children. The female slave was crying because her youngest – Antonius – had fallen down a well. Marcus did not waste any time. He removed his armor and helmet as he made his way to the well. When he got there, it was clear what had happened. A piece of the well had collapsed, taking the boy with it.

“Cursed Nero.”

Nero Gaius Octavius was the governor of the town. He was extremely cheap on town maintenance. Had he not been so, the well would have not collapsed. Marcus carefully climbed down the well. When he reached the bottom, he found the boy. He was in bad shape. Marcus gently picked him up. With the boy on his back, he navigated his way back to the surface. When he got there, a crowd was waiting. Two men – clearly doctors from their attire – took the boy from his and spirited him away in the direction of the Valerius home.

While the crowd talked and gossiped, Marcus collected his helmet and armor and headed home. He not rescued the boy for glory, but simply because it had been the right thing to do. He heard some people complain about him saving a slave. It made anger flare in his chest. ~Vile, arrogant fools.~

Marcus knew that they had been blessed by the Gods. If they wished it so, they could have made the Roman the slaves of the Greeks, instead of the other way around. So Marcus always treated the house slaves well. When he walked into the house, the doctors were busy treating the boy. (Gaius the Elder had assured them he would pay the bill.)

“Well done, Marcus.” His father said.

“Thank you, father.” He washed his hands in a bowl of water at the door. “Will he make it ?”

“These Greeks doctors know what they are doing. Unlike that arrogant fool Magnus.” Doctor Magnus was the ranking Roman healer for the town. Gaius the Elder did not consider him competent. “I think he stands a fair chance.”

“Good.” Marcus dried his hands. “I  will be in my room, sleeping.”

His father nodded. Marcus made his way to his room and lay down on his bed. Between the promotion and the rescue, he was exhausted. Soon, his mother would wake him for the evening meal and everything would be fine again. Or so Marcus thought…..

Stargate Nova Roma - Episode 0

Prologue

Beta Site (P3X-224) – March 2010

Alec Colson had been living on this planet for six years now. He had come here – through the Stargate – to hide from some nasty businessmen who wanted him dead. Back then, the planet had rough and untamed, except for a small camp of Quonset huts and tents that surrounded the Gate. In the time since, the planet had been thoroughly charted and sampled. But the camp….well, it was exactly as it was six years ago. And that the source of the argument he was currently witnessing between Colonel Frederick Jones and Doctor Nikita Aranov.

Jones was the military commander of the base, while Aranov – a crack archeologist – led the civilian side of things. Aranov wanted Jones to ask for better – and larger – housing. But the Colonel was approaching his retirement. And he didn’t want to rock the boat this close to finish line. The result was a shouting match between the two. It wasn’t first time this had happened. And it always ended the same way, with Jones pulling rank and torpedoing the upgrades. This time was no different and Aranov stormed off. Colson had been watching the exchange from the mess tent and shook his head.

 “I presume the work on the new targeting scanner is stuck again.” A female voice suddenly said.

Captain Jennifer Haley was the ranking military scientist. She led a small team of soldiers and airmen who were working on several projects. The most important of those projects, however, were here attempts to dial the ninth chevron. A Stargate could dial addresses of seven, eight or nine symbols – or chevrons – long.

A connection between two Stargates in the same galaxy, was  seven symbols long. If you want to dial from one galaxy to another, you needed a eight symbol address. And an extra power source. Because dialing between galaxies required more power that the Gate’s default power source could provide. (Said power source was located inside the dial-home-device, which was an alien pedestal with a control panel on top. The DHD’s control panel was how you dialed the Gate.) And finally, there was one address that had nine symbols.

It required an insane amount of power and led to an alien spaceship called Destiny. Destiny had been built by the same people who had invented the Stargates. And thanks to some trouble with a group of smugglers called the Lucian Alliance, over eighty people were stranded there. Haley’s team was one of several working on a way to get to the ship and rescue those people. Alas, from the look on her face, it was not going well.

“What makes you think I’m stuck ?” Colson said.

 “You’re peeling potatoes.” He was. “You always peel potatoes when you’re stuck.”

“That’s the problem of being on the base with the least funding and the least imaginative CO in the program.”

Earth had several off-world outposts. Of those, the Beta Site was considered the least important. This was because it was the back-up of the Alpha Site, which was the back-up of Stargate Command back on Earth. Haley sat down next to him, took out a knife and joined him in peeling. (The base had sixty people, so there were plenty of potatoes to peel.)

 “Well, Project Nine….” That was the code name of her efforts. “….is not going anywhere either.”

“What were you trying to do ?” Colson was an engineer. A good one. Alas, Colonel Jones – the paranoid bugger – had forbidden him from working on Project Nine.

 “Design a capacitor.” Haley began. “I figured that would allow us to make regular supply drops without having to find a new power source. But without better computers and equipment, it isn’t going forward. Were Nick and Jones at it again ?”

“Yes.”

Before they could continue their conversation, the Stargate activated. Colson looked at his watch and frowned. Once a week - on Friday at 1600 hours – Earth dialed the Beta Site. All their reports for the week were then transmitted home. But today was Wednesday and it was 1217. So this was not a good sign. Suddenly, two people walked out of the wormhole.

~Oh, brother, this is not good.~ Colson’s mind flashed as he recognized President Henry Hayes and General Johnathan ‘Jack’ O’Neill. The brass had apparently decided to pull an unannounced inspection. ~There’s going to be fireworks.~ Colson thought. Then he went to greet their two visitors.

Beta Site – A Week Later

There had indeed been fireworks. Jones had ended up reassigned to a desk at the Pentagon, while his second-in-command had been promoted to base CO. Captain Claus Anders had served on Atlantis from the start of the expedition until 2007. He had never been at the heart of things, but he had done his job well. So he had been promoted to his post on the Beta Site.

And now that he was in command of the place, he had some major changes in mind. To begin with, he had reassigned Colson to Project Nine and arranged for the targeting scanner project to be moved to the Gamma Site. Then he had taken a critical look at the budget for Beta Site maintenance. It had revealed that the budget was indeed no river of money. But Colonel Jones had been so cheap during his command, that there was a small lake of funds. And Anders was now draining that lake.

The Beta Site was located in a flat clearing. They got her water from a small stream, which two hundred meters to the west. But during the rainy season, that small stream turned to a raging river. And about seven hundred meters to the north of the base,  that river had cut a passage through a large mountain.

What made that so interesting, was that it wasn’t just as central passage. But also several side chambers. And Anders was using their budget to turn the central passage into a sealed pipe. Once that was done, they would be free to move the base into those side chambers. But before they did that, Aranov wanted to check them for artifacts. So now Aranov, Colson and Haley were exploring the side chambers together.

 “You do know that we haven’t found a single artifact on this planet.” Haley began. “Ever.”

“I know, but Colonel Jones never allowed us to explore a single cave.” Aranov said. “Ever.”

“We scanned them.”

“That’s not the same and you know it.”

Up until now, the chambers had been domes, which had been connected by narrow passages. But as they had spoken, they had walked into a square space. The whole thing felt very unnatural. Aranov’s green eyes went wide as he took in the place. He simply couldn’t believe it. This led to him not looking where he was going. In the middle of chamber was a round slab of stone. He wandered onto it. There was a soft hum, followed by a flash. When it faded away, Aranov was gone.  

 “Nick !” Colson said.

“That was a transporter.”

Colson ran onto the slab, followed by Haley. The hum was heard again and they dissolved in the transporter beam. When it faded, they were in a dark chamber. As their eyes adjusted, they spotted a crack of light. Haley took out a flashlight and turned it on. The crack was between a set of doors. The doors appeared to be Ancient. The Ancients were the race who had invented the Stargates and build Destiny. As they approached the doors, they slowly slid open. Beyond them was a balcony, where Aranov was taking in a view.

 “Nick, are you okay ?” Colson said.

“I’m fine.” Aranov said. “But you should see this.”

The two of them joined Aranov at the balcony. Colson let out a whistle. Beyond the balcony was a massive cave. And in that cave – apparently in pristine condition – sat a city. An Ancient City.

Ancient City – Two Months Later

Millions of years ago, the Ancients had built a city called Atlantis. But Atlantis was not just a city, it was also a spaceship. What the Ancients had done with that ship was a long story, but that didn’t matter to Aranov. What did matter, was that before they had built a full sized flying city, the Ancients needed to figure it all out. So they had begun with building a flying tower. The first one had been only five floors, the next seven, the one after that nine, and so on. And the cave was where the Ancients had stored all those prototypes.

But that was not the end of story. Because these towers were not exactly the same as those that made up Atlantis. Before getting settling on a final style and systems package, the Ancients had experimented. So when they had been build, some towers had lacked some stuff. While others had things not found in the final product. And tower seven – the last one before the Ancients – had come with repair Nano-probes. Which were tiny repairs robots. In fact, they were so small that you couldn’t even see them with the naked eye.

The Ancients had not used them on Atlantis because they were to slow and too difficult to program. But when they had abandoned the prototype and shut everything, they had made mistake. They had missed some of the nanites. The tiny robots had set to work, bringing the rest of their brethren back on-line and maintaining the towers. This was why the towers will still around. There was no doubt in Aranov’s mind that without them, the prototypes would have collapsed into dust long ago. At the moment, however, he was more interested with exploring the towers.

 “They’re mostly empty shells.” He noticed as he and Major Anders opened up a room. “A couple of full established rooms to run diagnostics, control the experiments and live in.”

“So they are not very useful ?”

 “No really.” Aranov said. “They’re not meant for permanent habitation. We found one or two labs that were used for long-term research. But nothing big.”

The room they were in now was a lobby, which led to a balcony and another room. Aranov opened the room. What he saw inside, made him gasp. The room was a lab. And in the rear of the lab was a stasis tube. He had seen Ancient stasis tubes, but this one was nothing like those designs. And it was active. Anders saw the tube and asked the one question that mattered.

“How the hell did he get in there ?"