Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 72

Chapter 72 - From Here To There

By the time Eventus had finished up with Daniel and Vala it had been late enough that it was clear he wouldn’t be meeting with the IOA that day. Not exactly the biggest of surprises given what he remembered about how human politics tended to work.

So he’d ended up spending the night in what General Landry had assured the Lantean was their highest level VIP quarters.

The bed had been slightly lumpy in the way Eventus vaguely remembered non-foam mattresses tended to be, the furnishings had been sturdy but generic, the water pressure low, and the television lacking any outside connection or dvds.

On the up side he'd gotten his first full night's sleep in two weeks and had orange juice, crispy bacon, and an egg, cheese, and pepperoni omelet for breakfast. So all things considered he was in a pretty good mood and looking forward to the amusement that would likely ensue when he talked to the IOA's representatives.

“Please can I come with.” Rayla begged as Eventus slightly adjusted the off-white suit he had synthesized so it properly covered the pair of personal shield emitters.

He had made sure to free Rayla from her temporary incarceration shortly after breakfast, and the General had been nice enough to assign her the guest room across from his own. Which was why the elf was currently sitting on his bed, kicking her legs in boredom, and begging him to take her along to meet the IOA.

“To New York? No.”

Technically he didn't even really want to go to New York himself, but that was where the IOA's representatives were currently gathered, so since he didn't want to wait that was where he would go to meet them.

“But this place is boring.” Rayla whined. “It’s just gray walls and soldiers.”

“You should have considered that before you snuck through the stargate.” Eventus returned, figuring this would be a good lesson for the elf about looking before she leaped.

“Anyways.” He continued as he motioned over to the spare interface pad sitting on the desk that he had pulled out of the jumper. “If you're that bored you can always start going over all the supplementary material you should be catching up on.”

“What kind?” Rayla inquired with a suspicious glance to the pad.

“The space magic kind.” Eventus answered with a smirk, pretty sure the first four years of beginners lessons on that would keep her at least marginally out of the rest of the base’s hair while he was gone.

Rayle pursed her lips in thought for a moment before giving a cautious nod. “Your bribe is accepted.”

“It’s not a…” Eventus began to correct, only to frown as the realization hit that yes, it could technically be considered a bribe. “Okay yes, it’s a bribe, so don’t burn down the SGC while I’m gone.”

“I have yet to figure out how to throw fireballs.” Raine returned primly as she hopped off the bed and walked over to grab the interface pad.

“And unless you want to spend several decades contemplating your own existence you likely never will." Eventus said, grabbing his own interface and hooking it onto his belt before heading to the door.

Exiting the room, he gave a nod to the pair of soldiers on watch before shooting a wry grin at the General who by his relaxed posture looked to have been patiently waiting for him for at least a little while.

“Nice suit.” General Landry offered in amusement.

“Thank you.” Eventus returned with a smile. “I designed it via pattern analysis of current Earth styles using various media your people brought along to Atlantis.”

It had been a toss up between the suit and a much more colorful Hawaiian style shirt. As tempted as he had been to go with the other though, in the end he'd decided it would send the entirely wrong sort of message.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why white?” Landry inquired idly as they began walking down the hall.

“Technically it’s not white.” Eventus explained, mildly amused that Landry of all people would be the first to actually ask about that. “It just looks that way to your people’s eyes because you're mostly trichromatic and can’t see as far into the infrared and ultraviolet ends of the light spectrum as my people.”

“Huh.” Landry muttered, stopping in front of the elevator to press the call button. “Sorry again about the meeting switch up.”

“Don't worry.” Eventus assured the man as the doors opened and they walked into the conveyance. “It's not the first time I've dealt with last minute changes like this. And given your use of Asgard transport technology to save travel time it's not really that much of a personal inconvenience.”

Silence filled the cab as Landry pushed one of the buttons and it began to move. 

“Gotta admit.” General Landry put forward after a moment. “I'm still kind of surprised you're going along with this.”

“Why is that?” Eventus asked in honest confusion.

“Nobody ever wants to deal with them.” Landry returned with an exasperated shake of his head. “The Jaffa only ever want to talk to people who are military or former military, the Tok’ra don’t really talk period, the Asgard find our politicians annoying, and the Hebridians always want our people to come to them.”

That was kind of depressing to hear said out loud, and it was made somewhat worse by the fact that Eventus knew with absolute certainty that his own people would have been the same kind of extraordinarily difficult to deal with ally if it was almost anyone but him sitting in the High Councilor’s seat.

The elevator came to a stop and the door opened revealing the somewhat more busy looking ground floor level of the Cheyenne Mountain base. 

“Statistically speaking there’s probably at least one member of the Aurora’s crew who would be excited at the chance to take an ambassadorial position on your planet.” Eventus offered as Landry led them through a large vault like door and turned left to a square of ground that looked like it had been sectioned off with caution tape.

“Would be interesting to see.” Landry said, offering Eventus a small keyfab like device before motioning for the Lantean to step into the square.

“It’s a transponder.” He explained upon seeing the confused look Eventus was shooting the device. “The Prometheus’s targeting sensors aren’t as good as those on the Daedalus, so we need those to lock on to people.”

Eventus vaguely remembered something about that, so he gave the man an amused grin before accepting the device and walking into the square. “And the tape square?”

“Designated position for transport at the outside edge of the SGC’s jamming field.” Landry returned with a grin.

“Fair enough.” Eventus agreed as he was engulfed in a flash of light.

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Author’s Notes: Next chapter, Eventus deals with the IOA and has lunch.