Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 134

Chapter 134 - Asgard Meetings

It hadn’t taken long for Thor to go over the various files, after which General O’Neill had escorted the pair of them to the IOA meeting room where the entire leadership council had already been gathered in wait.

Briefly glancing between Eventus and the IOA representatives, Thor at last gave a grudging nod. “Despite my misgivings about some of the technology being offered, I can confirm that each will operate to the exact specifications described in the list Eventus provided you.”

“They need some way to fight the Ori.” Eventus pointed out dryly. “And it’s not like phasic plasma canons will make them any more able to destroy the planet then their naquadah enhanced fission weapons already do.”

Carl Strom coughed into his fist as a few of the other representatives exchanged awkward glances. “Yes, well, thank you Commander Thor.”

“Supreme Commander.” Thor corrected.

“Right.” Carl winced. “You have my apologies, I keep forgetting your people don’t shorten military titles like we do."

“Indeed.” Thor agreed drolly.

“Before we break for the night.” Carl continued awkwardly. “Is there any additional advice you might be able to offer about the trade deal?”

“Yes.” Thor said, waiting nearly a full minute after saying that before continuing. “The technology being offered to you here is not conducive to your long term goal of keeping your Stargate program a secret from the general public of your world.”

“Oh, they know.” Eventus admitted to him. “Their Geopolitics and environmental issues are at a point however where they can’t afford to say no to it given how reasonable I’m being with what I’m asking in exchange.”

Carl sighed. “We can conclude negotiations tomorrow, thank you for your time, Supreme Commander.”

As much as Eventus would have liked to get this whole issue concluded today, he was willing to admit that the local time edging on nine pm meant such negotiations would be better served tomorrow.

He turned to Thor. “Do you mi–”

The flash of a translocation beam engulfed him before he could finish, and when the light resolved he could see they were now both aboard what he guessed from the hightech furnishings was Thor’s orbiting ship.

“--nd if… All right then.”

“You mentioned a wish to discuss important matters in private before I left.” Thor said simply as he walked over to take a seat in the high backed command chair. “So I moved us to the bridge of my–”

An almost musical chime echoed out as the door at the far end of the bridge opened, and Thor gave a visible flinch when a more normal looking Asgard walked through. 

“I see.” Sif muttered unhappily as her eyes momentarily flicked to Eventus before returning to Thor. “What disaster awaits us now?”

“I do not know. “ Thor admitted with a barely noticeable tinge of annoyance in his tone. “We had yet to begin discussing matters.”

“It’s actually several different potential disasters.” Eventus confessed, not seeing any reason to hold back now that they were away from the humans. “Mind, it was only two and a half when I first called you, but things kind of got worse in an unexpected way after that.”

Thor let out a deep sigh.

“You will find me unsurprised.” Sif offered, walking over to stand in front of one of the control consoles where she began to work on something.

“Sif is here to monitor me for potential personality abnormalities.” Thor offered. “If you wish, we can go to a side room to discuss the issues.”

“It’s all right.” Eventus waved off. “None of it is really secret, but several of the things are problems that need to be dealt with in somewhat specific ways that the humans might not exactly approve of.”

“I see.” Thor mused. 

He motioned to an empty spot across from him. “Do you wish a chair?”

“Might as well.” Eventus nodded. 

A sudden flash of light, and an appropriately sized chair somewhat similar in design to Thor's own appeared in the previously indicated spot.

Eventus frowned in sudden realization of just what that effortless seeming action suggested.

“A direct subspace link between your new body and the ship?”

“Yes.” Thor confirmed as Eventus sat down in the surprisingly comfortable chair. “Do not be concerned though, it utilizes a type of pair bonded quantum encryption key that even the Replicators were unable to break.”

That was security overkill to a level Eventus could respect, so he decided to move on to the actual issues. “Starting with the least immediate of the issues, through sheer chance I was able to locate Janus.”

Thor twitched. “Does this involve the dimensional weak point where one of the ninth planet's moons used to reside?”

“No.” Eventus winced. “That was an old dimensional research station that had become infested by extra-planar lifeforms. It was safely disposed of though, and the residual weak point should dissipate fully within three to seven years.”

Thor muttered something under his breath in a language Eventus guessed was Asgard.

“I found Janus in a secret facility on Earth's moon, in stasis, with self induced brain damage that is very likely to drive him psychotic.”

Several more words in Asgard were voiced by Thor in a tone that left Eventus pretty sure that they would have translated to some rather inventive swearing if he knew the language.

“It's a fixed stasis unit though, so I was hoping you could help me transport him back to Atlantis without waking up for proper care and treatment.”

“Given the alternative, it is doubtful the High Council would have any objection to providing such assistance.” Thor sighed, only to frown slightly in a way Eventus was coming to recognize as worry. “If Janus is the least immediate of the issues, what is the most?”

It was Eventus's turn to sigh. “Did my people ever mention anything about the Asuran project to you?”

“They did not.” Thor shook his head.

“I figured as much.” Eventus muttered, more than a little annoyed with his people for the sheer lack of warnings they left behind for their allies. “The Asuran project was an attempt to fight the Wraith using self-replicating nanites.”

The sudden sound of screeching metal echoed out across the bridge as Thor crumpled one of the armrests of his chair.

“A justifiable emotional reaction.” Sif interjected as the Supreme Commander slowly disentangled his fingers from the bent metal. “Though it does suggest we should install a toggleable strength governor on the body to prevent similar accidents in the future.”

“You created Replicators?” Thor finally got out, seemingly ignoring Sif's comment to focus on the issues at hand.

“Yes.” Eventus confessed awkwardly. “But not like the ones your people fought.” He frowned. “Though not for lack of trying on our part since a controllable version of that was sort of what the original project was trying for.”

In hindsight it really was amazing how badly they'd screwed that one up.

“Instead of that however the collections gathered together into separate sapient groupings and took on human form. At which point they informed us they didn't want to be programing bound murder machines whose only purpose in life was to replicate and destroy the Wraith.”

The look Thor was giving him now carried extreme levels of judgement.

“I know.” Eventus acknowledged with a self pitying shake of his head. “Only we could screw up so badly that our attempt to create automated self assembling weapons resulted in sapient beings who really didn't want to fight.”

The juxtaposition of that with the Replicators origins felt almost intentional.

“Given our extreme prohibition on digital life that didn't go over well, so the issue of what to do with the Asurans was put to a vote, and the vast majority decided on destroying them.”

Which was only saved from being the stupidest choice possible by his recently gained knowledge that the High Council actually had explored the idea of removing the Asurans attack command. Only to decide it was unfeasible given the high likelihood of such an act showing the Asurans how to alter their own base code.

“I have reason to believe that destruction was incomplete, and in the ten thousand years since they have rebuilt to an unknown degree.”

“Then you wish for our assistance in destroying them.” Thor surmised.

Eventus made a so-so motion with one of his hands. “The humans have a saying, speak softly but carry a big stick. Given how much help they could be against the Ori and Wraith I'm hoping they might be able to be reasoned with, but if not a planetary wide disruption wave should be able to wipe them out.”

“You believe they can be reasoned with?” Thor asked skeptically.

“Their base code prevents them from taking action against my people.” Eventus explained. “So I believe that in the ideals of respecting non-murderous sentient life in all forms it may take, that I should at least make the attempt.”

He would probably have been more cautious with the situation if he didn’t have good reason to believe the Asuran’s both could be talked to, and had yet to overcome their base code restrictions. 

“An unusual specification.” Thor mused.

Eventus shrugged. “We're under new leadership. And it was generally agreed upon by them that our past ways of doing things were irrevocably flawed.”

Thor's lips twitched.

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Author’s Notes: You have to feel a bit bad for Thor, he just wants to work on planetary rebuilding in peace and instead he has to deal with the many many fuck ups the Ancients left behind. Kind of a kindred spirit to Eventus when you think about it.