Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 138

Chapter 138 - Diplomatic Deals

The ship exploded for the thirty seventh time as the hyperspatial stresses once more overloaded its shield, and Eventus let out a sigh as he shut the simulation down.

“I know that sigh.” O’Neill said, setting down his coffee cup. “Science problems?”

Eventus made a so-so motion with his hand. “More of an engineering problem. You know how Asgard ships go about a hundred times faster than your own?”

“Hard to forget.” O’Neill said.

“Technically speaking with a ZPM the Enterprise should be able to reach similar speeds.” Eventus explained. “But that technically is doing a lot of heavy lifting, because the hull wasn’t really designed for that level of stress. So like Atlantis itself, it would need to use its shields to keep the ship from being torn apart.”

He was tempted to ask the Asgard how they did it, because it couldn’t just be the hull geometry of their ships since they had been able to tow the Prometheus at somewhat similar speeds without it being torn apart.

“I'm guessing there's a problem with that?” O'Neill prodded, picking one of the breakfast donuts out of the box on the conference room's table.

Eventus nodded. “Anything past ninety-seven light years a second and simulations show the shield collapsing.”

“That's still like ten times faster than the Daedalus with a ZPM in it.” O'Neill pointed out dryly.

“Eleven point two times.” Eventus corrected. “And while it's certainly faster than your ships, it still means it will take about eight and a half hours to make the trip between galaxies.”

Which was very likely to be too slow given the speed at which the Ori could potentially put a Supergate together.

“That's not even counting the one in fifteen chance the retrofitted hyperdrive burns out.”

He was honestly starting to think he should just design a new hull from scratch at this point, however that ran into the problem that Atlantis's shipyards were completely inoperable due to spending several hundred years inundated with seawater.

The door opened and a functionary stuck their head in. “Mister Eventus, the last of the IOA representatives have arrived.”

“Good luck.” O'Neill waved jauntily as he left.

Their hopefully final meeting turned out to be in the same room as their first, though they'd thankfully done away with the raised tables and less optimal lighting in favor of more realistic furnishings.

“Eventus.” Carl Strom greeted as he walked in.

“Representative Strom.” Eventus returned with a smile. 

Carl glanced at the other representatives in the room before pursing his lips slightly. “With the confirmation from the Asgard, our various governments have agreed to the purchase of everything you’re offering with the exception of the weather control technology.”

Eventus blinked in surprise at that. “Really?”

“The geopolitics around such a technology’s use were decided to be too potentially destabilizing, so we all agreed to forgo its purchase.” Richard Woolsey explained, glancing over to Carl who gave a small nod. “In a similar vein, the neutral location of New Zealand was decided on for any of your people who may wish to visit our world for recreational purposes.”

“New Zealand?” Eventus repeated, not entirely sure he'd heard the man right.

“It was the only country we could all agree on.” Woolsey offered apolitically.

Given the general geopolitics of the world Eventus supposed he could see the reasoning around that. “Would that apply to me too?”

Because that would be a deal breaker for him since there were still a large number of places he was hoping to eventually visit on Earth.

“Just those outside of your government who wish to spend time recreationally visiting our world.” Xiaoyi clarified with a small smile of amusement.

Eventus considered that for a moment. “Can we put together a permission system for historical research? At least a few of the survivors are likely to want to visit the locations where my people ended up settling on Earth.”

“I'm sure something like that can be worked out.” Carl agreed.

“All right then.” Eventus said, grabbing his interface from his belt. “Is there anywhere in particular you want me to send the technology files? Or would your e-mail’s work?”

“What? Just like that?” LaPierre interjected, looking to the others in the room with clear confusion. 

“You agreed to the deal.” Eventus explained slowly before wiggling the interface he was holding in hand. “And I have video recordings of these entire proceedings. So unless you want to do a formal document signing or something, everything else would just be bureaucratic minutiae that can be handled at a later date.”

Left unsaid was the fact that if they didn’t follow through with their end of the bargain he might just release those videos to their planet's public.

“You have been recording?” Carl asked in alarm.

“Of course.” Eventus confirmed with a smile. “It’s standard procedure with my people to record all official diplomatic meetings so those of my people who wish can review the effectiveness of those holding leadership positions.”

Not that many ever did unless it was a truly historic event like their first contact with a non-human species.

“Yes, well.” Carl continued awkwardly. “It was assumed there would be a formal document signing, at which point it was hoped you could transfer the files to a series of secure laptops that were provided to us by our governments for this purpose.”

Eventus’s shoulders slumped at the knowledge that this was probably going to be an all day event.

“If it helps,” Xiaoyi chimed in, looking very much like she was holding back a chuckle. “We’re also going to be inviting you to a celebratory dinner afterwards.”

Those words all but confirmed his fears, though surprisingly the thought of a fancy dinner at the end of things did make Eventus feel slightly better about the whole idea.

“All right, bring out the paperwork.”

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Exiting the dining hall in a surprisingly good mood since he’d just spent the better part of a day dealing with politicians, Eventus gave a farewell wave to the guards flanking the doorway as he began to make his way through the halls to the elevator that would take him up to the helipad where he’d parked his hidden jumper.

Surprisingly there already seemed to be someone waiting at the elevator when he arrived, a short dark skinned woman with long braided hair in a well cut blue silk business suit.

“Going up?” Eventus asked for politeness’s sake as he pushed the call button.

“No.” The woman said, her tone reverberating in a recognizable way that made the hackles on the back of Eventus’s neck instantly stand up on end.

“Eventus of Ancients,” She continued, the sudden flash of a bio-luminescent glow in her eyes confirming things completely. “I am Yami of the Goa'uld.” 

Suddenly dropping to her knees, she bowed her head briefly before staring up at him with an almost pleading look in her eyes. “My people are being hunted to extinction by those our former leaders wronged. I wish to surrender myself to you in hopes of fair judgement and sanctuary.”

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Author's Notes: Cackles evilly 

That ending has been in my head since I first worked out the details of how Eventus's first encounter with the Goa'uld might go so I'm glad to finally reach it.