Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 137

Chapter 137 - The Fourth Race

There were a number of ways Eventus knew of to communicate faster than the speed of light. Psychic energies, negative mass particles, spatial compression, spatial folding, wormholes, and the utilization of various other dimensions. Almost all of which had various problems of one type or another that made them less than useful for galactic communication.

Psychic energy based communication by its very nature couldn’t be encrypted or hidden. Negative mass particles involved firing a very tiny particle beam with no spread at moving receivers lightyears away. Spatial compression was slow unless you wanted to throw a truly ridiculous amount of energy at the problem. The math required for spatial folding exponentially increased in complexity with the distance involved. The Stargate network highlighted the various problems with wormholes about as well as anything could. And utilizing other dimensions had a multitude of separate issues depending on which dimension one attempted to send a signal through.

In the end his people had settled on the dimension the humans called subspace. It was full of energies and radiations that made sending a coherent signal through somewhat energy intensive. But it didn’t result in dimensional parasites piggybacking onto communications equipment or attract hungry energy-vores, so it was considered workable.

The subspace communications array on a gate-ship wasn’t particularly strong, only really being capable of keeping a real time signal going up to a distance of about twelve light hours. Thankfully however the Antarctic outpost was less than twelve light hours away, which meant that he could route the communications signal through the much more powerful array there without actually having to travel back to the location.

Unfortunately it seemed the Nox weren’t one of those groups who promptly picked up their phones, as he had been waiting a good twenty minutes at this point for someone on their end to acknowledge the communications signal.

“I’m really starting to see why the Asgard just stopped bothering with the Nox.” He muttered, drumming his fingers in annoyance on the control panel.

Seven minutes later a Nox face finally appeared on the holographic screen. “Hello.” The plantlike man greeted, only to tilt his head slightly in seeming confusion. “You are not grey?”

“I'm Lantean, not Asgard.” Eventus explained. “I'm just using their communication codes because I didn't have any of the ones you might have exchanged with my people.”

The Nox man tilted his head in the other direction. “The Lanteans are gone.”

“We were.” Eventus agreed, more than a little amused at the sheer bluntness of the statement. “But now we're back.”

“I suppose so.” The Nox man agreed without argument. “I will locate one to speak with you.”

With those words he walked out of frame, leaving Eventus to stare in bemusement at the now empty screen.

It took nearly five minutes for someone to return, a thin woman who looked about Eventus’s age with curly green hair that straddled the line between plant and animal.

“You’re the one authorized to talk with my people?” Eventus guessed.

“All may speak to all.” The Nix woman corrected in seeming amusement. “But it was found Lanteans respond more diplomatically to the female form than the male.”

Eventus considered that for a moment before giving a grudging nod of acknowledgement. “Fair enough.”

“I'm Eventus.” He introduced himself with a smile. “New High Councilor of the Lantean people.”

“Dyria” The Nox woman returned with a smile of her own. “Of the Nox.”

She bowed her head slightly. “It is a surprise to see your people once more living.”

Shrugging, Eventus grinned wryly at the screen. “It’s remarkably difficult for those who do not confine themselves to a single world to ever vanish for good.”

“But the wider the branch, the more its leaves catch the storm's wind.” Dyria countered smoothly.

“Leaving aside the metaphors for a moment.” Eventus digressed since he really didn’t want to spend the next few hours going back and forth in that manner. “Is your worlds Stargate active?”

“Yes.” Dyria confirmed. “But only those we wish may form a connection to it.” She tilted her head. “Do you wish to visit?”

“In time.” Eventus admitted truthfully, having always wanted to see just what the Nox actually made of their civilization. “Right now though I mostly need to warn you of a coming danger.”

“Are the machines that attempted to consume us last cycle returning?” Dyria asked, a small bit of real concern entering her voice.

“The Replicators attacked you?” Eventus worked out in surprise.

“If that is what you call the metal insects.” Dyria confirmed. “They arrived by ship and were led by a cold simulacrum of a human we once met from Earth. The life of our people was incompatible with their desires however, so they destroyed the city and left.”

That seemed oddly spiteful for the Replicators, but Eventus supposed the Carter replicant had never really been entirely stable. “Are you all right?”

“No true deaths occurred.” Dyria shook her head. “And the city has since been restored.”

 “All right.” Eventus said, trusting the Nox to know best about their own well being. “But no, those were wiped out by the humans last year using one of our old lifeforming devices.”

Which he should probably try and lock down so the Jaffa didn’t start using it as a weapon.

“This is one of our old problems.” He continued with a grimace. “A group of amoral ascended beings that call themselves the Ori whose fanatical followers are invading the galaxy in hopes of either converting or killing everyone who lives here.”

Technically there were more problems then just the Ori of course, but they were only one the Nox wouldn’t be able to just hide from.

“I’m not sure which way they would lean with your people, but their first encounter with the Asgard ended with them attempting to blow up the planet.”

The recording of that encounter had certainly been a surprise to see, but he was glad Thor had shown him, because the look on the Prior’s face from being beamed into space had been absolutely hilarious.

“The fire that comes to consume.” Dyria murmured in seeming understanding, leaving Eventus to blink owlishly at the woman.

“You already know about them?”

“Not in words.” Dyria admitted. “But the flames that have begun to lick at the edges of this galaxy can be been seen by those who have the understanding to look.”

“I’m sorry to say anything we have that might be able to see into that level of reality is currently beyond my reach.” Eventus apologized.

“You are not what you once were.” Dyria seemingly followed with the slightest tone of pity in her voice.

“Always following old paths means you never discover new ones.” Eventus told her, starting to suspect his people had gotten along rather well with the Nox given their similar attitudes to certain things.

“The one you call Janus once said something similar.” Dyria smiled. “But you need not worry, if the Ori come, they will not find us.”

Eventus took a moment to work out the likely meaning of that given the circumstances. “You’re leaving then?”

“If we must.” Dyria confirmed with a nod. “But the time where that is required has yet to arrive, and may never, though your warning is appreciated nonetheless.”

Which felt to Eventus like a nice way of saying that they wished the rest of them luck, but weren’t going to get involved themselves. Not that he had really expected anything different given everything he knew about the Nox as a species.

“On a slightly different subject, the Humans of Earth wanted me to ask if you might have helped any of the Tollan survive the Goa’uld attack on their homeworld?” 

Dyria stared at him for a moment before giving an almost cautious nod. “Lya hid those that were around her during the attack. And they later returned to our world through a temporary gate she grew. However they have since departed to a location the Tollan kept secret, and no contact has been had with us since.”

There were several things in that statement Eventus really wanted to dig into, but he also still had a half dozen other things to get through before tomorrow's meeting with the IOA, so he filed them away for later.

“I suppose that’s the most that can be hoped for given the circumstances.” He grinned wryly. “Thank you for your time. And tell Lya that Jack O’Neill said hi.”

“We will.” Dyria smiled. “Till the next time our peoples meet.”

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Author’s Notes: The Nox are kind of difficult to write because they really didn’t get a lot of screen time that wasn’t some slightly overdone morality lesson. Hopefully I'll have them figured out better by the next time they show up.