Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 58

Chapter 58 - First Ultimatums

After handing the sleeping Rayla off to an oddly relieved looking Teyla, Eventus had split from Sheppard to head back to Doctor Weir’s office so he could give the necessary warning to the woman before returning to his quarters to pass out.

“I’m going to need to visit Earth.” He began without preamble as he stepped into her office.

Weir looked up from her laptop and raised a single eyebrow at him. “Dare I ask why?”

“I have several years of vacation days accrued that I was hoping to use.” Eventus joked as he walked over and plopped down on the couch again.

The stare Weir shot him was anything but amused, and the silence stretched on for nearly a full minute before Eventus let out a sigh.

“I need to investigate the outpost records, check for any other remaining facilities in the solar system, try and locate Janus, and meet with your world leaders to discuss a number of issues including the potential transfer of certain technologies.”

“I can certainly forward your request to the IOA.” Weir returned with a nod.

“When you do tell them I'll need to bring a Jumper along.” Eventus added in, knowing any remaining automated systems would be unlikely to respond without the complicated handshake protocols their ships could generate.

Weir winced. “That may be difficult. Earth's Stargate is kept in an underground military facility.”

Which Eventus knew had a direct pathway from the Stargate to the surface, though only because he remembered that had been a plot point in an episode.

“That would be unfortunate.” He said, making sure to meet her gaze with his own to show just how serious he was. “Because the only other option I would have in the case of a refusal, is to travel to Earth in the Enterprise.”

The muscles in Weir's shoulders visibly tensed, a sure enough sigh she at least suspected where Eventus was going with that particular suggestion.

“Any remaining facilities in the solar system would likely be hidden.” He explained in a tone that made it quite clear he knew exactly what he was threatening to do. “So barring accidental discovery, they'll require a Lantean ship to locate and access. I'm offering to use a retrofitted Jumper to do that out of respect for your people since Jumpers are small and can be cloaked.”

Technically the Enterprise could also be cloaked by inverting its shield, but the humans didn't need to know that.

“However if your people don't want to accept that respectful compromise, the much simpler option of running a search pattern across Earth with the Enterprise will have to do.”

“So you're not giving us a choice.” Weir said, narrowing her eyes at him in a sure sign that she thought that a step too far.

“I'm giving your people every choice.” Eventus returned as he rose to his feet to glare down at her. “What I'm not letting your people do however is dictate what choices I can or cannot make. So your choices here are to accept my compromise, or accept that you're going to have to tell your people the truth of what's going on in the wider universe.”

“Which you know we can't do.” Weir countered, rising to her feet to defiantly match his glare.

“You really don't get it, do you.” Eventus muttered, shaking his head in sheer bemusement as the realization settled over him that all Weir saw was the trees in front of her. “You read the city's files and think that's it, that's who the Lanteans were.”

He crossed his arms and shook his head pityingly at her. “The truth however is that we fucked up more things then you could possibly believe. And there is an uncountable amount of technology that might be laying around your solar system that could cause horrible things to happen if you even poked it wrong.”

That wasn't even an exaggeration on this part.

“You know the fourth planet in your solar system and how it's a dead rock? That was us. About forty seven million years ago it was a fully habitable world with a population of around twenty million scattered across various research enclaves on its surface. Well, something someone built caused the formation of a dimensional fissure that stopped the planet's core, blasted the atmosphere off, and created a semi-persistent psionic field that lasted several million years and drove everyone on the planet utterly insane.”

It had also been the originating event for the maintenance corps.

He uncrossed his arms and gave a flippant wave. “Yes, it's unlikely something like that is on Earth. But so far your people have run into the plague infected supervisor we left behind to run the device that would cleanse the galaxy of said plague, a device which could have caused a zombie apocalypse if it had gone critical near a water source, a planetary control outpost, and a pair of projection stones.”

Weir opened her mouth to ask something but then seemed to think better of it.

“That last had something to do with a barber I think?” Eventus offered, vaguely recalling that being mentioned. “You'll have to ask Major Lorne, I was only half paying attention at the time since I was piloting a starship.”

“I was already been briefed on Joe.” Weir admitted as she lowered herself back down into her chair. 

“And just to be clear.” Eventus said, getting the distinct sense she wasn't talking this nearly as serious as she should now that he'd suggested the worst case was unlikely. “Janis was planning to build a secret lab on Earth's moon. So at a minimum I have to check for that since the last thing you probably want is your moon deorbiting, blowing up, generating a portal to another reality, or temporally duplicating itself.”

All of which he knew were in fact things that had happened before as a result of various Janus overseen experiments.

“And… Oh dammit…”

“What?” Weir asked in sudden suspicion.

Letting out a tired exhale, Eventus sat back down on the couch and allowed his head to thump against the wall. “I just remembered there's a classified file the Aurora brought back detailing a potential weakness of Wraith technology that I have to go over now that I’m back in the city and can actually do so.”

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Author’s Note: You know, if you didn’t want to make it so easy to extort your planet for concessions maybe you shouldn’t have made it so easy to do so.