Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 36

Chapter 36 - Lost Men

The Aurora had been lost around the outer edge of the galaxy, a trip that had taken them a little over seven hours since he hadn't wanted to push the Enterprise's hyperdrive too hard with the fact it had just been fixed and they were soon going to have to tow multiple vessels through hyperspace travel.

Exiting the hyperspace window, Eventus let out a sigh of relief when the sensors showed a distinct lack of any Wraith vessels in the vicinity.

“Wow.” Lorne muttered in awe as he stared at the wreck being displayed on various screens across the bridge. “ How is that even still intact?”

“An extraordinarily large amount of compartmentalization.” McKay answered as he studied the sensor returns. “I'm not seeing anything here that would suggest survivors.”

“Emergency stasis pods are shielded.” Eventus explained as he maneuvered the Enterprise into a mirror position under the Aurora. “Switch to subspace band Z-12 and you should be able to see through it.”

“That did it.” McKay confirmed a moment later. “I've got… One hundred ninety two life signs.”

A bit lower than Eventus had hoped, but the ship was missing a good thirty percent of its superstructure so he supposed it was a credit to the design that there were any survivors at all.

He felt a sudden probing from one of the Aurora's tertiary transmissions systems through his link with the Enterprise's systems and let a small smile grace his lips.

“It looks like we're about to have a visitor.” He warned the others on the bridge moments before the security handshake cleared and access was granted to the Enterprise's holographic systems.

The somewhat bedraggled form of Captain Herius shimmered into view, a look of profound relief on the simulated representation of his face. “You can not know how relieved we are to see you, Enterprise. When we checked the chronometers after the recall signal brought the ship out of deep sleep and found it had been over ten thousand cycles, we were afraid the worst might have happened.”

Eventus visibly winced at that, fully aware the ship's internal sensors would relay the expression to the virtual layer Herius's mind was currently inhabiting. 

“I'm sorry to confirm the Wraith won, Captain Herius.” He said, forwarding what records he could to the other ship about how things had gone after their loss. “A general retreat back to Avalon was issued and carried out on 37.676.45 P. At which point a combination of population fragmentation and mass ascension occured. I was left behind on Atlantis due to ab act of Janus during this time and then woken up by descendant return. Since then I have begun standard reclamation procedures for any remaining assets in the galaxy.”

“I see.” Herius offered, frowning in thought as he processed that while the humans on the bridge shot Eventus odd looks. “Then my crew can be restored?”

“Slowly.” Eventus confirmed with a nod, the limits of both the system and available medical specialists meaning it couldn't be anything but. “Are any of your ship's crew under the Loregrin limit for a full medical course?”

Which was what his people had called the limit after which someone's brain began shutting down. Supposedly named after the first Lantean to map out said limit by accidentally killing themselves.

“No.” Herius confessed with a grimace. “It's only been five years since they were run through the Explorer operation course, and our medical officers for that were limited to emergency trauma treatment.”

Something that Eventus knew had made perfect sense at the time since the abundance of stasis-pods meant anyone suffering from something more severe could have just been frozen till the ship could get them back to a properly staffed medical facility.

“We will be towing the Aurora to the Taranis drydock for repairs.” Eventus told him. “Then systems there were semi-networked under emergency provision Virel-8, so your crew should be able to use the virtual layer to access the systems and conduct actual repairs.”

That Virel-8 had only passed in the last decade of the war did a good job of outlining just how much of a threat his people had considered computer controllable self replication. And how desperate they had been when they began the Asuran program.

“For the regenerative treatments however, ten pods should be a workable start. I'll leave the decision on which members of your crew you want to begin with up to you.”

Mainly because he didn't know anything about the crew outside of their service record.

“I'll put it to a vote.” Herius said with a nod. “After disallowing my own name.”

“I'll leave you to it then captain.” Eventus returned, shooting him a brief melancholy smile. “Access to Enterprise's holographic projectors will remain open until arrival to Taranis. Just warn your crew to be a bit circumspect with mine, they're from Terra and as young as they look.”

“Understood.” Herius confirmed with a wry grin before his hologram disappeared.

A moment of silence passed on the bridge before Lorne spoke up. “He seemed nice.”

“Used to be a gravball coach on Cellen Tor.” Eventus offered, running a full structural analysis of the Aurora to lockdown the best anchor points for the tow emitters to lock on to. “He was offered a captaincy because of his experience in team tactics and zero-gravity movement.”

That had been shortly after the first Wraith ambushes had wiped out a near seventy percent of the original Lantean Explorer class fleet and they’d needed anyone with command ability and a willingness to use it to fill in various posts on new ships.

“So that’s it?” McKay suddenly interjected as he looked skeptically between Eventus and the main display showing the belly of the Aurora floating below them. “What did you even need my team here for?”

“The Navis.” Eventus explained, since it was a moderately fair question all things considered. “Since Taranis only has a single Explorer sized drydock and the damage was relatively limited we’re going to be towing that ship directly back to the Lantea system. And I figured you’d want to get repairs started while transport was occurring instead of waiting the few days it will probably take us to get back.”

He also hadn’t known whether any of the Aurora’s outgoing virtual layer transmission systems were still operational and had wanted McKay’s team around to work on fixing those if it had turned out they weren’t.

“Also I kind of figured you’d want a chance to probe the engineering expertise of various people who have spent years working specifically on the ship class.” He continued with a teasing lilt. “Because I’m pretty sure at least some of the Aurora’s crew is going to want to talk to you given you’re the only source of information about what happened to our people after they returned to Avalon.”

“Major Lorne in particular since he’s distantly related to captain Herius.” He finished with an amused glance over to the now dumbfounded man.

“I’m what?” Lorne finally got out.

“Surprised me too.” Eventus confessed with a shrug, only having really done it because he’d wanted to see if they were related to any of his own team. “But I ran a comparative check on the various gene holders. You’re descended from Herius’s younger sister Corriel, she specialized in architectural design. Shepherd is descended from Ikaros, one of Janus’s old apprentices. Beckett is descended from Elphame, a botanical engineering specialist. And to my absolute surprise, McKay is descended from Minerva, the woman who designed various shipyards and construction facilities used in the war.”

“Ha!” McKay laughed, grinning as he shook a finger at Lorne. “I win.”

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Author’s Notes: She also accidentally turned a planet into cubes once, but it’s probably for the best not to mention that to McKay lest he think he needs to outdo it.