49 Chapter 49: Stargate 3

Mordan was rushing away from the planet that held the repository of knowledge that he was supposed to guard as a part of his duties assigned by the council. He was still quite agitated from his meeting with the one known as Carl. He was more than glad to get away from the person who had so easily captured him.

After millennia of not being shackled by anything, he didn't like the feeling of being held prisoner one bit.

'A flesh and blood human that has the power to affect an ascended one.' Mordan nervously worried to himself as he flew back to the metaphysical plane the council had established as council chambers. 'His appearance changes everything. I don't think the plan will be viable now. I just don't know what the council will do about this.' If he had been a flesh and blood human, he would be gnawing on his lip and convulsively rubbing his hands in worry.

Mordan soon arrived at the council chambers. To a human they would appear as nothing more than huge constructs of energy, stable but powerful. To Mordan it appeared to be a towering edifice of brilliant silver, modeled after the high technology that the Alteran people once commanded.

On the metaphysical plane that the council chambers were on, Mordan appeared to be a human like he had been so very long ago. It was an entirely unneeded foible, but the ascended that were once Alterans felt a sort of comfort in appearing in their original forms in their constructed council chambers.

Mordan nervously entered the council chambers. He looked up at the raised dais where the chairs of the seven council members loomed over him. One would almost think it was a psychological ploy by the council members to make them appear to always be sitting in a position of authority and judgment over any who came before them. But of course, the ascended were above such cheap psychological ploys.

The central council figured took charge as soon as Mordan was standing before them. "Report, Mordan. What has got you so riled up this time?"

Mordan swallowed reflexively in nervousness. "I met a human named Carl on the planet I was to guard. He took apart the building with the repository while I was on my rounds, and he's building himself some technology with it. He…he had the power to bind me." Mordan stumbled over his last words.

"Impossible!" One of the figures on the left exclaimed. "There are no flesh and blood humans with the power to affect us! It must have been a trick of some kind."

The central figure raised his hand to command silence among the council, and indicate that they would discuss it in depth after the report was heard. "Continue, Mordan. Tell us everything about your meeting with this Carl."

Mordan shifted his feet nervously where he stood, but obeyed and related his encounter with Carl to the council. After he finished his report, he fell silent, waiting for the council to tell him what to do next.

"Very well, Mordan. Go about your duties. Avoid the planet with this…Carl, on it for the time being. We will discuss and decide what to do with him."

Mordan nodded, relieved that he wasn't expected to do anything more and he could avoid Carl in the future. He hurried out of the council chambers.

The central figure of the council, sat contemplatively for a few moments. "What do you think of this Carl? What should be done with him?"

The figure that had exclaimed earlier about the impossibility of Carl having the powers described, snorted. "Mordan is obviously an idiot. That kind of power isn't possible for a flesh and blood human to possess. If it was, we would have discovered it ages ago. It's obviously some technology. Maybe something Moros, that renegade, was working on. And if he has technology like that, he's a threat. We need to dispose of him." He plainly said.

A female on the other side of the council from him scoffed. "It's always your first answer to attack. Need I remind you of our rules against interfering in the affairs of mortals? You don't have any pieces in place to act as a proxy, so you're obviously just blowing smoke, as usual. We should send someone to guide this Carl so that he's useful for our plan. With a bit of work, we can modify our plan and it will continue as before."

A third figure then spoke in a reasoning tone. "While it is clearly impossible for this person to have such powers, it wouldn't hurt to gather more information before we initiate contact again. We don't know anything about him, so how are we to manipulate him if we don't know what buttons to push? As such, we should gather more information." He finished explaining.

The other three council members didn't appear to have anything to add to what was already spoken, so the Head of the council nodded seriously to indicate he had heard and considered each argument. "I agree with Jerl. We need to know more about this Carl before we act." He addressed the council member named Jerl. "Send your information gatherers to learn more about this man. What makes him tick? What can we do to make him follow our directives? We shall revisit the topic when you have brought us more information. Either he will be of use to the plan, or he will be disposed of." The Head of the council pronounced.

The more combative minded council member snorted in disgust that he wasn't allowed to simply end the threat of Carl immediately. The more moderate council member smiled, complacent. Carl would eventually be used in her plan to help the council rid themselves of the threat of the Ori, so she was satisfied for now.

The council broke apart to continue their duties.

"Huh, guess they aren't showing up then." Carl muttered to himself when no ascended snot balls showed up for a few days after the date he'd set with Mordan to meet. "Well, it isn't like I cared about them anyway or needed their help. I just wanted to be sure they wouldn't bother or plot against me." Carl shrugged and moved on.

Over the time since he'd met Mordan, Carl had spent his time productively, and his base was shaping up quite nicely. The Petes had their fleet of hover trucks that could deliver them all over the world, and their supply chain was solid.

The Petes had a build queue that would keep them busy for some months. He had entered some plans for the Petes to build planetary defenses to protect against any enemy showing up from space. The basic planetary defenses of shields and anti-spaceship missiles would be finished within another couple of weeks.

The Petes had already built up the security building where the stargate would be housed. With the abilities of the Goa'uld and Jaffa, and the chokepoint that the stargate represented, they would not be able to get more than a few feet inside his world before they were incapacitated. And that was if he even had the Stargate active. When he wasn't using it, it was powered down and physically blocked from forming Wormholes to prevent unauthorized visitors.

Once the space defenses were in place, the Petes would start producing some more Stargates that would be on its own network, separate from the one built and left behind by the ancients. Once Carl had people to populate his planet and his city base was built up enough, he would start adding more worlds to his Empire, and he would have his own dedicated gate network for basic travel and transport around his Empire. The old gate network would be accessible on only a few worlds with a military presence to keep control of trade and traffic with worlds outside his control.

He had quite a few large plots of land dedicated to producing food for his future people. He also had many plots of land set aside to grow the various wizarding world plants that he'd gathered from the HP world, and other plots set aside for producing various plants from the ATG world for cultivation resources.

He hadn't planted the magical or profound based plants yet, since he was waiting for the delegation from the ascended council to show up before he erected his wards. Once his wards were up, the snot balls shouldn't be able to enter his world or even see what was happening there. And he didn't want them to be able to examine his defenses or special materials.

The ascended snot balls had already shown their arrogance and untrustworthiness, in Carl opinion. So he didn't want them getting any ideas of what he was capable of producing.

But now that they hadn't shown up, Carl figured it was time to set up his wards to keep the bodiless spies away. Carl made his way to the ward room he'd set up. He did a final inspection on the giant wards stones that were going to provide world wide wards. There really wasn't enough magic present in the world yet to power the wards, but that's where the Potentia came into play.

An array of seven by seven, a total of 49 Potentia, should ensure that the wards were powerful enough to keep the ascended out of his planet as the ward system got started. And the best thing about the wards Carl designed was that they weren't only defensive in nature. They would nurture the growth of the magic and profound energies on the world.

As the energy was circulated around the world, it would increase the local energy available to enable the magical and profound energy plants and animals to grow. Once the farms were running properly, the ambient magic of the plants and animals would enable a positive spiral of growing energy. The available energy on the planet would continue to grow, and reinforce the wards, ensuring that the initial Potentia powering the wards were never run dry.

Once Carl checked that everything was in place and correct, Carl powered up the massive wardstone. He shivered at the power that radiated out and expanded from the wardstone. Any ascended beings that were hanging about on the planet should have just been kicked off and given quite a headache.

Carl smirked at the thought of it. Arrogant and meddlesome pests that finally encountered something they didn't understand. It was amusing to think of their reactions. Too bad he couldn't get video of their reactions.

Once that was done, Carl made his way to his computer room and double checked via the computer that his Petes were fine and following the build queue. Nodding in satisfaction, he left the expanded original building that he'd built upon arriving on the planet.

Standing in an open space in front of the area where his future palace would be, Carl pulled out the Yamato from his pocket space. Seeing the Starcraft Battlecruiser hovering in the air in front of Carl made him grin hugely.

Back in his original world, he had been a fan of the Starcraft games, so having his own Battlecruiser was very satisfying. He wondered if this reality would have a Blizzard company that released the Starcraft and Warcraft games. It was currently the middle of October 1997, and in his original world Starcraft had been released in March 1998. It was something to check on when he got to Earth.

Carl reached out with his magical senses to the Yamato and remotely activated its teleport system to beam him onto his ship's bridge. He sat down in the command chair, which allowed him to interface with the computer. He went over the status report. All systems were online. The magical wards were active, the profound arrays running just fine. Green lights across the board, so to speak.

The sublight engines activated, bringing the Yamato up into orbit. The view screen in front showed Carl the view of his planet from space. It looked beautiful. It was especially good looking because it was his.

Bringing up the navigation computer, he set course for Earth. The interstellar hyperdrive activated, bringing the Yamato into hyperspace. An hour later, just before arriving in the solar system, Carl activated the stealth systems. They exited hyperspace, and in front of Carl was the Earth.

It had been quite some time since he'd been on his home planet, with the amount of time he's spent in his time pearl back in the ATG world. There was just a nice feeling of coming home that he felt upon arriving back at Earth after so long. No matter how amazing traveling the various realities and worlds felt, there was just something comforting about home.

Shrugging off his momentary nostalgia, Carl had his sensors scanning everything in the solar system, cataloguing the space stations, satellites, and debris in the space around Earth. He launched his own stealth satellites that would keep an eye on Earth and the solar system and send alerts to him if any threats to Earth appeared.

In orbit over Earth, he scanned for any sources of naquadah on the planet. According to the show there should be three or four Goa'uld on the planet at the current time. And chances were, there would be some naquadah sources of technology near the Goa'uld on planet.

A short time later, he looked over the list. In Washington there was a modest concentration of tools and weapons with naquadah. A ring teleportation platform, several Zat'nik'tels, a Kara'kesh, and several staff blasters. There was a Goa'uld inside a host. According to the show, that would be Setesh, who was posing as a cult leader.

He had quite a few people brainwashed with some drugs and was living a decadent life. Carl thought it was quite strange that the Goa'uld Setesh apparently wasn't trying to return to space, or conquer the planet or anything. Maybe he was on vacation?

In Mexico there was a sarcophagus with a Goa'uld in a host inside. That should be Hathor, a Goa'uld queen that had the ability to excrete pheromones that let her control the males around her.

In Egypt there was a Tel'tak buried in the sand under a small pyramid. Inside the pyramid were two stasis jars with Goa'uld inside. One of which was dead, while the other lived. That would be Isis and Osiris. Isis should be the dead one.

There was the Stargate in Colorado, where the Stargate Command was located. The dialing device for the Stargate on the other hand was in a Russian warehouse.

There was the second Stargate in Antarctica, along with the Ancient outpost. The location under Glastonbury Tor that Carl knew had some things left behind by Merlin/Moros wasn't showing up on his scans. Apparently there were some shields in place to prevent the location from being located easily.

There were various other small items and tools around the world, but overall there wasn't a lot of remnants of the Ancients or Goa'uld left on Earth. Carl wasn't that surprised since the Goa'uld had plenty of time while ruling over the planet to gather all the remnants left behind by the Ancients, as well as mine all the naquadah available.

Carl focused his scans over the Antarctic and found the female Alteran that was infected with the plague frozen in the ice.

"Well, what should I do first here?" Carl wondered aloud. "I'm just spoiled for choices, really. Why don't I roll a dice, and decide then?" After a quick roll of the dice Carl had his answer of what to do. "Well, looks like I'm going to be saving the Ancient Lady stuck in the ice. Not quite the Lady of the Lake, but she'll have to do." Carl finished with a grin.

Carl then had the computer lock onto the frozen lady, and beamed her and a chunk of ice up. He wasn't concerned about getting the plague, since he had the Clean Blooded perk from the HP world, he should be immune to diseases. He would be sure to sterilize everything to be sure the plague didn't spread though.

Leaving the bridge, Carl made his way down to Medical, where he had beamed her to. Once he entered medical, he opened his Warehouse portal and levitated the lady and her ice block behind him while going into the medical bay.

"The repository I grabbed didn't have the cure for the plague, unfortunately. The ancients had only created a cure after they left the Milky Way behind, and I don't feel like dealing with Atlantis just yet." Carl started speaking with the frozen lady. Apparently his long time alone with just his technology and Petes for company had affected him more than he realized before then.

"I'm really uncertain how you survived way back then. The ancients supposedly wiped all life from the Milky Way Galaxy to get rid of the plague, so how you survived is a mystery. Come to think of it, did the Nox survive the purge, or did they evolve after? And the ancients would have had to come back at some point to the Milky Way if they made the Four Races Alliance. Hmm, the repository didn't have those answers for me, my dear. It sounds like the snot balls censored the repositories before I got my hands on them. Something to keep in mind, that the repository, while a great deal of information, doesn't have all the answers. It's not some magical panacea."

Carl placed the ice cube on the medbay unit. He scanned her and saw that the program had a plan to thaw and heal the lady of the plague, as well as her long stay in cryogenic stasis. Unfortunately, the medbay unit couldn't help her with any lost or faded memories. It could heal her perfectly, but not help the mind with its memory connections.

"Well, maybe some Occlumency lessons would help you?" Carl wondered aloud. "Something to look into in the future, perhaps."

Carl began the program to heal the lady of the ice, and sat down as he waited for her to be healed up. It took longer than most of the healing sessions Carl had watched. But in only an hour the ancient lady was thawed and healed. She was put into sleep to let her wake up when her body felt like it.

Once he was sure she was healed, Carl cast the strongest cleansing spells he knew everywhere in his Warehouse and the medical room on his ship. He levitated the lady out of his warehouse and settled her in the medical unit of his ship. He had his ship scanning everywhere, and was assured that the plague had no chance to make a comeback.

Carl then settled down to wait for the thawed lady of the ice to wake up. While Carl waited for her to wake up, he pulled out a computer pad and started perusing the information his scans had of Earth. He soon found out that the gaming company Blizzard didn't exist here.

Thinking about how this version of Earth didn't have the same games his did, and remembering an old 80s movie "The Last Starfighter" gave Carl some ideas. He would have to flesh out the ideas a bit, and set up a company here on Earth. It would take some work, but he thought he could set it up pretty quickly.

A gasp from the bed gained Carl's attention. He saw the ancient lady was awake, and looking around. Carl put away his computer pad, and stood up. The moment he moved, the lady's eyes snapped over to Carl's.

Carl smiled, and slowly moved over to her side, keeping up an unthreatening demeanor. "Hello. Do you understand me?" Carl asked her in the Alteran language.

"Yes." She answered simply. "I understand you. Where am I? Who are you?" She continued to ask.

"Well, I'll start with who I am. My name is Carl. You are in the medical unit on my ship, the Yamato. I found you frozen in the ice on the planet below us. You were frozen for many, many years, and you were suffering from a plague." At her gasp of surprise, Carl hastened to reassure her. "It's okay, you're completely healed now of the plague. You'll be fine."

When she finally calmed down, Carl continued to question her. "Do you remember your name?"

She paused in thought, and then started looking a little panicked. "I don't remember!" She exclaimed. She curled up on the medbay unit, hugging herself.

"There, there." Carl moved over and rubbed her back in soothing circles. "You're healthy, free of the ice, and I'm here to help you." He comforted her.

It took some time, but she eventually calmed down.

"I remember some basic things. Small flashes of school, or social events. But beyond that, nothing." She eventually said.

"What do you think about using the name Alice until you remember your own name, or find one you like better?" Carl asked her.

She shrugged. "It's as good a name as any, I suppose." Alice commented.

"So, what would you like to do first, Alice?" Carl asked.

"Some food? I feel like it's been a long time since I've eaten." Alice suggested after some thought.

"Sounds good. Follow me." Carl brought Alice along to the nearest kitchen and soon had some food cooked up for her. One of the spells he'd set up was the ability to pour a mug of Root Beer from his keg in any of the kitchens on board his ship. So he made sure to serve her a mug. If his Root Beer could heal the brain damage studying demonology caused back in the BtVS world, it may help heal her mind and help recover her memories.

After the meal, Alice told Carl that she felt tired again. Carl showed her to a room next to his. He showed her the facilities and explained how to contact him through the computer if she needed anything. With a promise to explain more about what was going on when she had rested, he left her to her recuperative rest.

Carl returned to the bridge and looked over the results of the scans he'd done previously.

"Well, the plague ridden ancient lady is taken care of for now." Carl mused to himself. "So many things become easier with advanced technology. Case in point, taking care of the Goa'uld left behind on Earth." Carl then finished inputting orders to his computer and executing the orders.

The Goa'uld on the planet, aside from the larva one in Teal'c's body, were teleported into tanks on board the Yamato. Setesh, Osiris, and Hathor all got their own tanks. Isis was too far gone to revive, having died when the stasis on her jar failed. She was sent to the recycler, so to speak.

The hosts of Hathor and Setesh were sent to the medical unit on board his ship. The computer kept them in stasis while they were being scanned. After the scans were complete, Carl saw that the host of Hathor was so old that without the constant work of the Goa'uld parasite, the host body would soon die due to organ failure and shock.

Carl frowned at the report, and decided that he would have to do something about that. He sent orders to the ship's VI to set up two cloning units to create new bodies for the former host to be transferred into.

Once that was done, Carl had his ship target all the various devices that Setesh had stashed in his Washington lair where he had been posing as a cult leader and transport them into the Yamato's storage holds. He teleported up the Tel'tak from Egypt, the Sarcophagus from Mexico, and he snatched the dialing device for the Stargate from the Russian warehouse.

Carl checked once more that his guests were doing well and still asleep. With some time on his hands, Carl had the ship focus on one particular hotel in Washington D.C. that was very high end. From his worker VIs, Carl knew that many politicians used the hotel and attached restaurant for their liaisons with their mistresses, political paymasters, and other such under the table dealings.

Carl summoned his profound armor to his body and changed it to a suit appropriate for a rich player in the area. He then focused his magical senses on the hotel, and soon teleported himself to the hotel, just out of sight of anyone.

Casually strolling up to the entrance, Carl saw that his worker VIs recognized him immediately and sent notice to the manager. The manager soon met him in front of the restaurant, and they were soon seated in a private booth, with food ordered for Carl to enjoy.

"I've looked over the records, and you and all the managing VIs have been doing a good job." Carl complimented the VI, and saw some uncharacteristic behavior. The manager actually looked pleased with himself.

'Interesting.' Carl thought to himself. 'They seem to be slowly learning and evolving. When I first met them after the Monopoly Gauntlet, they didn't seem more than automatons. I wonder how long it would take them until they become self aware. And if that happens, will they continue to be bound to my properties, or will I have to find new workers in each world?'

"So just keep doing what you've been doing. Pass along my compliments to the other managers too." Carl commented just as the food arrived. He dismissed the manager to continue his duties and snacked on the food. It had only been a few hours since he ate with Alice, but he could digest food incredibly quickly when he was so inclined.

After his meal was finished, Carl pulled out his phone and called up a local law firm, Dewey, Cheetum, & Howe. It was only 9 in the morning, local time, so with a bit of wrangling, he was able to squeeze an appointment with one of their junior lawyers in one hour.

Carl was somewhat amused at just how grudging the "concession" was to even give him that much, since he was calling out of the blue with no credentials or references. The fact that they pawned him off on some subordinate didn't bother him, as long as the junior member had a good attitude and could accomplish what he wanted done.

Carl had the manager of his Hotel call up a car to drive him to the lawyer's office. While traveling to the office in the car, Carl wrote up a magical contract that he would sign with the lawyer. It basically ensured, backed by Carl's magic which was quite strong by this point, that the lawyer wouldn't betray his confidence and would work for his best interests.

Upon arriving at the lawyer's firm, Carl greeted the receptionist and was ushered to an office to wait. Carl looked around the office and made some small observations about the lawyer he was about to meet. Based on the large stacks of research and case files, his future lawyer was likely used by the other members of the firm to do their research for them, as she struggled to prove herself to the higher ups that she was ready to become a full partner.

Ms. Tera Cole finally arrived for the appointment only seven minutes late. From her slightly rushed appearance and sloppily applied makeup, Carl deduced that she had only been informed of the meeting at the last minute.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Edwards. I'm sorry for my tardiness. Traffic slowed down my commute this morning." The tall and statuesque blond greeted Carl the moment she entered his office.

Carl chuckled a bit. "It's no problem. From what I gather when I made the appointment only a short while ago I was lucky to even be given the meeting that I was." Carl noticed Ms. Cole frown slightly at hearing how her morning schedule had been thrown into disarray.

Commanding respect for one's time was a sign of just how strong a lawyer's reputation was. That she was thrown a last minute, low priority meeting told Ms. Cole just how weak her reputation was to her firm. And with all the work she put into being noticed by the higher ups in the hopes of being promoted, she was not at all happy with the evidence that she wasn't respected by her fellows.

Carl smirked a bit inside at this realization. Here was an opportunity to get a lawyer all to his own, to work on his interests, if he offered her the proper incentives.

All this ran through Carl's mind in the time it took Ms. Cole to set her things down and sit behind her desk. Carl sat in the indicated seat across from her as he watched as Ms. Cole compose herself, pull out a pad of paper to make notes, and face Carl seriously. Carl appreciated that even though she wasn't happy with her morning or colleagues, she put up a professional face to work with him.

"And what can Dewey, Cheetum, & Howe do for you, Mr. Edwards?" She inquired of Carl once she was ready.

"I find that I'm in need of a lawyer to represent my local interests here on Earth." Ms. Cole raised an eyebrow at the unusual wording. "And that lawyer needs to be strong willed and firm in representing me. In just the short time I've observed your office and yourself, I believe you have potential Ms. Cole. It would be a full time job, so you would have to pass all your other cases back to your firm, though. Are you interested?"

Ms. Cole sighed a little disappointed at how the meeting was going. Why did she always get the nutters? Was it her good looks that attracted them? She really wanted to rise to the top of her profession, but if it wasn't her bosses insinuations that she would advance more if she did so on her back, it was the clients that thought her retainer got them services she would never provide.

"Look, Mr. Edwards. I'm afraid that-" She began before Carl interrupted her.

"Ms. Cole. I can sense your rejection from here. But before you say the words and lose the opportunity of a lifetime, I believe there is one thing I need to show you that might sway you." Carl stated.

looked at Carl flatly. "And what is that?" The expectation of being sexually harassed clearly evident in her face.

Carl smiled and had the Yamato teleport the two of them and their chairs to the bridge. The flash of light distracted Ms. Cole momentarily.

"Why, that is what you need to see." Carl commented, pointed behind Ms. Cole. She turned around and froze, mouth agape as she took in the scene in front of her.

Carl admitted to himself, he enjoyed the shock that turned to awe when Ms. Cole realized she was on a ship in orbit over Earth. She absently stood up and approached the view screen and just stood there, staring. She was entranced at the scene of her home planet from space.

"I'm newly arrived in the neighborhood." Carl quietly said to Ms. Cole once her shock receded enough for her to pay attention to what he was saying. "I'm not without a substantial amount of resources though."

Carl pulled out a stack of gold bars from his pocket dimension so they were sitting right next to Ms. Cole. Almost in a trance, she reached out and tried to pick up one of the bars of gold, but found it was much heavier than she expected, which confirmed to her that it was real.

"Like I said, I have plenty of resources to retain a lawyer as she oversees my interests here on Earth. And I would expect you to eventually head your own team of lawyers, maybe even your own firm." Carl shrugged. "If that is what you want to work towards, at any rate."

"I-I…" She trailed off, looking at him searchingly. "What could you possibly want with Earth, if you've already got all this?" She waved at the gold, his ship, and the view screen.

Carl chuckled in response. "Let's sit down and discuss things for a bit then, Ms. Cole. A little bit more information should help you make your decision. Anything to drink?" Carl asked her after they sat back down.

"Just water." Ms. Cole croaked. Carl nodded and the ship teleported in a bottle of water for Ms. Cole to sip on.

"Okay, the first thing you need to know, is that we are not alone in the galaxy." Carl chuckled at the "no duh" face Ms. Cole gave him. "Yes, yes. It is obvious but needed to be said. The Milky Way galaxy is currently languishing under the despotic rule of a parasitic species called the Goa'uld."

Carl brought up a little bit of a picture show and tell on the screen to introduce the Goa'uld to Ms. Cole. She was suitably horrified to see the scans of the parasites in the host bodies, and learn that the Goa'uld were the current overlords of the galaxy.

Carl then went on to explain what the Stargates were and how the American military had a gate and were currently running missions through it to other planets to try to find allies and technology to build up their strength to fight against the Goa'uld.

"So, as you can see, the Earth is currently teetering on the edge. The SGC is struggling to stay ahead of the disaster that they created in the first place. If nothing changes, then chances are good that the Goa'uld would come here, kill a large majority of the population and enslave the rest. And at the moment, there isn't a thing the military could do about it."

Ms. Cole had a horrified look on her face for a moment, before she had a thought and looked intensely at Carl. "But, you're planning on doing something about it, aren't you? That's why you're here?"

Carl nodded in affirmation and smiled in appreciation for how quickly Ms. Cole regained her equanimity. "Indeed, yes, Ms. Cole. I've got a number of plans to counter the Goa'uld. But I'm not going to simply hand over my tech to the military to do what they want with it. And I certainly wouldn't trust most of the politicians to make the right decisions for me."

"I plan to raise my own forces that will be loyal to me to work as a sort of peacekeeping organization throughout the galaxy after I depose the Goa'uld. I plan to recruit some people here from Earth, and some from other planets."

"What I need from you, Ms. Cole, is your assistance to build up a global company that will represent me here on Earth. It will work to find worthy people to recruit for my organization while at the same time helping Earth as a whole build up their technology and eventually move into the stars. In the meantime, I'll provide protections for Earth so nothing untoward happens."

Carl watched as Ms. Cole's face showed the feelings and thoughts she cycled through.

"I'm in." She declared a moment later.

"Excellent!" Carl declared. He pulled out the contract he'd written earlier and handed it to Ms. Cole.

She took the contract and read it, frowning. "There's no way I'm signing this." Carl sighed. He needed some assurances that she would not leak his secrets. "Not without serious revision." She finished saying.

"Well, why don't you write out what you think should be there?" Carl was interested to see what she would come up with. "But first, should you not reschedule your workday?" Carl asked, providing a phone for her to call in.

"Oh, yeah. Probably." Ms. Cole smiled gratefully. She was looking forward to telling the bunch of jerks that ran Dewey, Cheetum, & Howe where they could stick it when she turns in her resignation in a couple of days.

After she rescheduled her day's appointment, Carl sat back and worked on his own plans while Ms. Cole worked out a contract on the tablet that Carl had handed her to work out her contract.

After some time, she presented her desired contract to Carl. After reading it, Carl chuckled at her daring. She certainly asked for a lot, including training in all he knew. Since this would be a magical contract that bound Carl to its terms, enforced by his own magic, there was no way he would allow himself to be bound to such ridiculous terms. He would be happy to have a normal employment contract with Ms. Cole to provide some of the benefits she looked for, but he refused to magically bind himself to such terms.

"Ms. Cole-"

"Call me Tera." She interrupted Carl. "If we're going to be working so closely together, then you can call me Tera."

Carl smiled at Tera, he could tell that she was at least somewhat attracted to him, and she was a very shapely blonde, who was quite beautiful too. But he had no intention of starting a relationship so soon.

"Tera." Carl smiled acknowledgment. "You can call me Carl then. I'm afraid I didn't quite clarify what the document I first handed you was. It wasn't the terms of your employment. It is a contract that will be magically enforced to ensure that you won't be able to spill my secrets to anyone without my consent. And yes, magic is real."

Carl brought out a fireball, shaped it into a small tree. Then had a lightning bolt shaped like a bird appear and fly around the tree before landing in its branches. He enjoyed Tera's surprised and awed expression for his little bit of showmanship, before dispelling the display.

"So, while we can negotiate the terms of your employment and what you will receive in recompense, I must insist that we first sign a magically enforced contract to ensure secrecy. If you're not willing to assuage my concerns of confidentiality, then I'm afraid we would be at an impasse."

Tera worried her lip in thought. "And what would be the result of my refusing to sign your confidentiality contract?" She asked with narrowed eyes.

Carl sighed. "Then I'm afraid I would return you unharmed to your office, but without the memories of meeting me, and would search for a different lawyer who would be willing to assuage my worries. I would be saddened to have to take that step, though." Carl admitted. He quite appreciated her boldness.

Tera thought about that for a moment, and realized that she really did have a lot to lose if she didn't sign the confidentiality contract. The idea of not even remembering what she had learned here wasn't a good feeling. Going back to the seemingly small world and horrible conditions of being a junior lawyer at her firm was not appealing in the least.

Tera then made the decision to sign the confidentiality contract. Afterwards, Carl and Tera worked on exactly what her payment would be. Since Tera didn't know what exactly Carl could do, he threw in a few helpful suggestions for benefits that she wouldn't have known to ask for. Some personal protection devices, like an energy shield built with technology a mind protection magical amulet, and some profound armor that Carl crafted.

She would also receive the opening of her of her profound veins as payment. Carl didn't plan to hand out the Heavenly God's Spiritual Veins (opening all the profound entrances) to just anyone. Opening an entrance or two would be rewards for those in his organization who did exemplary work who earned rewards. Tera would also receive some low level cultivation techniques and a certain amount of cultivation resources per year. It wouldn't do for his people to not be able to defend themselves.

Carl found that he wasn't too bothered with introducing profound cultivation, ki, or magic to the worlds he traveled to. There was no way that the people he trained could get more powerful than him in a short 10 years, so he didn't feel much threat. And with a bit of work to ensure loyalty among his people, there really wasn't a whole lot for him to worry about.

Once both sides were satisfied with the terms of employment, Carl returned with Tera to her office. Carl provided an account number that was courtesy of Uncle Pennybags so Tera could pull the needed funds to start establishing his company, buy the facilities, and work on hiring employees.

"Oh, and Tera?" Carl paused before exiting her office once they were done. "If you have any talented or ambitious friends that would like to get in on the ground floor of this company, do give them a call. We can always use more talented people. If you recommend them, I'll seriously consider bringing them in all the way. Who knows, you may even get a bonus for recruitment."

Carl was amused to see the calculating look in Tera's eyes. "Until the weekend then, where we will take care of the time consuming part of your payment." Carl commented before leaving.

On the weekend he planned to induce Tera's profound veins and give her some training. He may also include her close associates, if they were interesting and trustworthy people. He also had plans to include Alice and the two people in his ship who, until recently, were hosts for the Goa'uld if they decided they were interested in joining Carl.

If anyone would appreciate the chance to live free and act as a force to throw down the Goa'uld, Carl imagined it was those who were imprisoned in their own bodies for so long. Just as long as they didn't pick up any habits or proclivities from the Goa'uld. Stockholm syndrome was a thing, and just because they were a victim of the Goa'uld, it didn't automatically make them a good person. So Carl would judge them on a case by case basis.

After taking the car back to his hotel, Carl returned back to the Yamato and checked on his guests. They were still sleeping, recovering their minds and bodies from their ordeals. Carl settled down to wait, continuing his work of making plans, blueprints, and build orders for his army of Petes back on his planet. One of these days he was going to have to designate a name for his new world.