Chapter 208 - Ancient Politics - Part 2
“So, since you’re both here,” Eventus began without further preamble. “Let’s start with the most immediate of the issues. Continued restoration of the Aurora’s crew, and housing for both of your crews in the city.”
“Two members of my crew are able and willing to immediately diverge onto the bio-restoration path as soon as they have access to the city’s knowledge transfer units.” Helia put forward.
Trebal seemed to consider that for a moment before giving a slow nod. “On top of the new human that volunteered, that should allow us to at least quadruple the number of crew we are cycling through the restoration procedures." She turned an almost look that was equal parts judging and expectant on Eventus. “I assume you continue to be busy to utilize your gift to assist with that?”
Eventus grimaced, a slight feeling of guilt welling up in him now that he no longer had an easy excuse to avoid doing so. “With the amplifier we recovered during our trip to Earth I should be able handle at least one person a week without depleting myself to the point where I become unable to handle my other duties.”
“An amplifier?” Helia asked in confusion, a feeling Eventus could see was seemingly shared by the others in the room.
Their lack of knowledge wasn’t entirely surprising of course, as information about the devices had been purposefully obscured to those below certain security levels after the decision was made to remove the technology from public availability. But that was one of the things he was planning to change, so it wouldn’t hurt to give a brief explanation now.
“A highly complicated device for amplifying mental abilities. The one we recovered on Earth was illegally made by Janus for his sister, and while it’s not exactly designed for someone of my base ability strength, it’s more than enough to minimize the ability drain to the point where I won’t be completely wiped out by handling a fifty cycle biological reversal.”
It would also give him an excuse to take at least one day off a week, something his recent encounter with Ganos Lal had made him woefully aware that he needed.
He turned to Trebal. “Speaking of which, I could probably get you back to your pre-stasis age today if you wish?”
Trebal shook her head. “I am only about twenty cycles off at this point, save your energy for more quickly assisting the next group in reaching a point of being ambulatory again.”
“Moving on to the residency issues,” Helia pushed forward. “We run into the problem that the humans are all over the city.”
“And?” Eventus asked, not sure why she considered that such a problem. “It’s barely five hundred people in a city sized for millions.”
“Five hundred primitives.” Helia snapped. “They do not have even the smallest inkling of the potential dangers that sleep in the city. Or the capability of avoiding those dangers should they accidentally be unleashed. And that’s not even getting into the risks our technology could pose to others in the hands of ones who do not have the maturity to handle it.”
Eventus rolled his eyes. “That starship broke atmosphere millions of years before either of us were born when we left our entire civilization laying around back in the Avalon galaxy. Even if we send them home now, all that means is that we won’t be around to help in a few cycles when some experiment of theirs punches a hole between universes and causes an invasion of extradimensional creatures.”
Which was pretty much guaranteed to happen given what he remembered about the various things the SGC was researching.
“As loath as I am to admit this,” Trebal put forward. “Even with those on the Tria added to our numbers, we are not actually capable of handling things without the human’s assistance.” She turned an almost expectant look on Helia. “At least, not unless your suggestion is to spend the next several hundred cycles hiding away and rebuilding.”
“We’re not doing that.” Eventus directly stated. “Even if the Ori weren't about to set out on a crusade against Avalon we wouldn't be doing that.”
“And as I explained to you before,” he continued, turning to focus his gaze fully on Helia. “These are not the humans you are used to. They evolved without our interference, contain enough of our genetic legacy that at least half of their people can trace their lineages back to us, and would probably be our peers at this point if it wasn't for the several different ways we screwed them over.”
A look of confusion settled across Trebal's features. “How did we harm them?”
“We drained their home system of hyperspatial elements and the technology we left behind when we fled the galaxy directly led to the rise of the Goa'uld.” Eventus explained, expanding on that a bit more upon seeing the unknowing looks on everyone's faces at the name. “They're a symbiotic species that has spent the past thirteen thousand cycles doing everything in their power to keep humans from advancing beyond the iron age.”
“Reguardless of the human’s potential capabilities,” Helia seemingly acquiesced the point. “Much of my crew is not emotionally prepared to deal with the caution and hand holding that would be required for regular interactions with them.”
“Then don't interact with them.” Eventus shrugged. “I set aside residential pier one for our own use, so outside of repair and cleaning teams your crew won't have to interact with any humans unless they want to.”
Helia narrowed her eyes at him. “So you would segregate us in our own city?”
“I would let your crew segregate themselves.” Eventus countered, starting to feel a bit exasperated with the woman. “They can take all the time they need to recover there while the rest of us work to get done all the things that desperately need doing.”
Was it petty of him to phrase things like that, absolutely, but if he could push on through after losing everyone he was close to in the universe they could take a little criticism about their overly picky life choices.
“So far my people have not had any notable troubles with the humans.” Trebal offered before Helia could say anything more. “Doctor Weir is a competent civil administrator, Doctor McKay a moderately competent multi-discipline researcher, Doctor Beckett a highly competent medical specialist, and all signs point to the city not being wrong about its nomination of Colonel Sheppard to the position of Military Councilor.”
“Oh please,” Helia rolled her eyes in obvious derision. “ The only one of us still alive who is not qualified for the position of Military Councilor is High Councilor Eventus.”
“Actually I'm control chair qualified on every modern capital ship type. Qualified as a level twelve pilot on gate ships, interceptor craft, and transports. And I participated in thirty seven combat operations against the Wraith during the war.”
Most of which had involved putting down specialized hives or facilities grown using gifted members of their people as a base. Which had always been a chore and a half given how that tended to allow the Wraith’s technology to bypass a lot of its normal power limits.
“So while there are several councilor positions I wouldn’t be qualified for under the city’s moderate competency requirements, Military isn’t actually one of them.”
“Regardless,” Helia said. “My point about the limited qualifications required for the position stands.” She focused on Trebal and gave a reluctant nod of acknowledgement. “Though I will grudgingly admit that the humans appear to have done a somewhat competent job in setting up a limited planetary defense perimeter around Lantea."
She frowned. “Unfortunately that does bring up another issue, the number of humans on the continent is large enough that the Wraith will not be able to miss detecting their combined life force.”
Trebal turned to Eventus. “A fair worry, if the Wraith believe we are going to be taking humans from their worlds and providing them protection on ours, they may decide we are no longer a small contained threat that can be ignored.”
The same thought had occurred to Eventus, so he offered the woman a nod of agreement. “While there may be a few singular exceptions in the future, the Athosians are the only group of Pegasus natives that will be allowed to settle on this world.”
“Continuing on then,” Helia said, using her interface to bring up a hologram of residential pier one. “We should begin the discussions on which of the buildings we will be focusing our people in so we can begin repair and restoration efforts.”
“I was hoping for something with a good view of the rising sun.” Trebal put forward, staring at the hologram with a furrowed brow. “Maybe building 7-E?”
Helia shook her head in disagreement. “7-E is too distant from the pier’s secondary control tower, we should centralize our position around there.”
Eventus let out a silent sigh as the realization hit that this was probably going to take a while.
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After nearly three hours of dealing with the crews of the Aurora and Tria basically nitpicking each other over apartment locations, Eventus had finally managed to bow out due to the fact that he needed to help Anise/Freya and Yami get their own living situation together.
“You want us to live here?” Yami asked skeptically as she looked around the barren penthouse suite.
“What's wrong with it?” Eventus asked her with a confused frown. "It has a great view of the city, three bedrooms each with their own separate bathroom, walk-in closets, a kitchen with its own food synthesizer, and is rated to survive a class ten weather event.”
“Honestly,” he continued, looking out the large windows with a slight pang of envy. “I probably would have grabbed this suite myself if the one on the first floor didn't have direct beach access.”
Of course, there were a lot of nicer places around the city, but he had decided to focus their little group around the same building he himself lived in for the ease of handling the various security issues that might crop up around the four of the women.
“I believe her complaint is more that you want 'us’ to live here.” Anise put forward with a slight bit of annoyance in voice.
“No,” Yami corrected, scowling slightly at the Tok'ra. “My complaint was about the lack of furnishings. The fact that you will be staying here with me is only to be expected given the Tok'ra's wish to supervise me at all times.”
Eventus bit his lip to keep from admitting he really just didn't want to deal with setting up and securing two apartments today.
“I sent Rayla to grab some mattresses from one of the material synthesizers. For everything else you're free to use the holographic interface to design whatever furnishings you want and I'll have them created and brought up tomorrow.”
“...What holographic interface?” Yami inquired after a moment.
“The one that exists everywhere in Atlantis now that the city's fully powered again.” Eventus said dryly. “The suite's set up to accept guest level verbal commands in English, so all you need to say is open interface.”
At the words a holographic screen and keyboard materialized in the air in front of him.
“And one will appear in front of you. Adjustments can be made to screen size, position, and volume either verbally or manually. Please note however that your access will be monitored at all times and that any attempt to bypass guest access restrictions or code in a virus will trigger an immediate security response.”
The door slid open before anything else could be said, an anti-gravity platform carrying a pair of folded foam cubes and fresh tan bedding floating in followed by a grumbling Rayla wearing the fluffy pink robe and bunny slippers that been amongst the various things Eventus had picked up for her during their trip to Earth.
“You could have just gotten the soldiers to do this, you know.”
“I actually couldn’t have,” Eventus said, doing absolutely nothing to hide his amusement at the Elf's choice of dress. “This floor is under a security lockdown, the only ones who can currently access it are you, me, Anise slash Freya, and Yami.”
And sure he could have just added the soldiers as temporarily allowed, but Rayla had been sitting in his hot tub since they had gotten back, and he had needed to get her out of there some way.
“Though on that subject.” He turned back to the Goa'uld and Tok'ra. “If either of you want to hook up with a human for some fun, it's going to have to be in their quarters, not your own.”
“In my experience the Tau'ri of Earth tend to find the thought of having sex with one who is joined somewhat difficult to reconcile with their cultural morals.” Freya volunteered, seemingly unbothered by the turn the conversation had taken. “So I do not think it likely any of the Tau'ri here would be interested in having such a liaison with either of us.”
Eventus stared at the Tok'ra for a moment, trying to figure out how they could have misjudged things that badly before deciding it would probably be better for his mental health to just try and correct the mistake. “I'm going to guess the Earthlings you talked to about the subject either had personal hangups or were under strict orders not to liaise in that manner with you. Because I have to have overheard at least three different debates while staying at the SGC over whether sleeping with a Tok'ra would count as having a threesome or not.”
Yami choked back a laugh. “Truely a question that has followed the Tok'ra through the ages.”
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Author’s Notes: Helia’s really not happy with the humans sticking around, and kind of hoped Trebal would support her with things so together they could pressure Eventus to maybe compromise on the issue. Sadly that didn’t really work out that well because the general feeling of disdain for humans was a lot less prevalent outside of the city-ships during the Aurora's time.