Chapter 14: Terra Atlantus

The two of them materialized in between the rings of the Ring Transporter platform on the bottom of the freshly created tunnel.

"So that's what it looks like if this place isn't surrounded by lava and fire," Pansy said as she looked around the icy outpost.

It really looked like Praclarush Taonas, just a slight bit bigger. Besides the same equipment, like the drone weapon platform and the control chair, there were a few more pieces of technology here. After all, Terra Atlantus was once one of the capital worlds of the ancient race. It also had stasis chambers in this outpost, for example. This outpost was once the landing spot for the legendary city of Atlantis while it stayed on Earth, or Terra.

Atlantis is one of the many city ships the Ancient Race used before they ascended into the higher planes of existence. Although it is only one of many, it was the first of its kind and their last major bastion on the mortal plane.

This legendary city survived during the 100-year War against the Wraith, a powerful race of space vampires evolved out of the Ancients and a life-eating bug, a siege against countless of their Hive Ships. They only retreated from Atlantis when they saw no longer a way out, sinking their last functional city ship under the ocean of their then-capital planet called Lantea in the Pegasus Galaxy, hiding it from the Wraith.

Legends of the sunken city of Atlantis spread on Earth once the remaining ancients returned to the planet, to their last functional outpost in the Milky Way Galaxy, Terra Atlantus. This is the exact outpost. Meanwhile, the legendary City of Atlantis was still out there, sleeping on the ocean floor in the Pegasus Galaxy, waiting for the Ancients or their descendants to return there.

"Yes, this is Terra Atlantis. The last outpost our ancestors, the Ancients, inhabited before their ascension," Harry said as he walked through the corridor, passing the stasis capsules towards the control chair.

"And from here, we will be building up our empire, my king."Once again taking our rightful place in the galaxy," Pansy nodded as she followed him, the Goa'uld influence shining through.

"We will." Harry nodded as he arrived at the chair. He touched the floor in one of the corners of the Control Chair Pedestal, opening the Potentia Slot, removing the old one, and placing the Potentia from Teonas into it. Once Harry pushed the power source completely into the slot, the outpost began to light up, originating from the chair. "Welcome to Terra Atlantus, our first step into the universe!"

Pansy watched in awe as the outpost was now illuminated, fully visible to them. "It's beautiful. This is the legacy of our ancestors."

"It is," Harry said as he sat down into the control chair, making it light up as he interfaced with the outpost systems through the neural link. "Hmm, it's as I feared. The network of communication and social satellites is completely gone, but on the bright side, the outpost is fully functional."

"What does it mean?" Pansy asked.

"That every system of the outpost is working, from communication and sensors to stasis pods, shields, and drones," Harry replied cheekily.

"You know what I mean?" Pansy pouted as she punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"No satellite network means that we are completely blind to what is going on in the galaxy. Before the Ancients left the galaxy, they had a network of satellites monitoring the whole galaxy, but this was millions of years ago. Without regular maintenance, they are completely gone. But at least we can see what is going on on Earth; the short-range sensors are still working," Harry explained.

"Oh, I see. Aren't we already able to monitor the planet with the sensor array at home?" After all, Harry spent a whole morning building that device.

"Not really. It is just able to scan for energy signatures and concentrations of specific materials. The short-range sensor in this outpost is on a completely different level. This outpost was meant to defend and observe this whole planet. For information about the Milky Way Galaxy, it relied on its communication with the Ancient Satellite Network. But it has sensors to precisely monitor the whole planet, scanning for different lifeforms, energy signatures, metals and minerals, geological structure, and more. It can even interface with any computer system on the planet, which will be quite useful to check the other Stargate out," Harry explained while checking a few more system functionalities. "So we won't be caught off guard, at least on Earth."

"Useful. Speaking of Stargate, Where is the one from this outpost?" Looking around, she couldn't find it.

"It was located a few meters away from here. But the glacial drift moved it a few kilometers in that direction. To be exact, it is here," Harry said, pulling up a HUD above the chair, showing Earth, their location, and the location of the Antarctica Stargate.

"We will need to get it. Will it even work with another Stargate around?" she asked.

"Yes, but first, we need to unbury it; it's also under the ice. Under normal circumstances, it will be a bit troublesome to use with a second Stargate on the Planet. But there is a way around that particular problem." He had already considered the problem of the second Stargate. "We will assign it a unique 9-symbol address."

"Nine Symbols? Is that even possible?" She had no idea what he meant, being only aware of the standard functionality of the Stargate.

"Oh, right; you only have the knowledge of the Goa'uld. Since the very first Stargate, they have been designed with two different modes of operation. The standard mode is programmed to work based on interstellar coordinates: seven symbols for interstellar travel, eight for intergalactic. Symbols one to six determine the destination based on six points in space; the seventh one is either the point of origin or a length variable to target another galaxy. In the case of an eight-symbol address, the eighth one is the point of origin. That's why there can only be one active Stargate at the location of one address; otherwise, the system won't know which one to connect to." Was the basic explanation he gave her.

"Are there stargates in other galaxies?" She asked.

"Yes, in many. Although only a handful of them have such a big Stargate network like in the Milky Way, The energy requirements for intergalactic stargate connections are much bigger. That's why the Goa'uld haven't discovered it yet, or they would have spread even further." He replied, understanding what she meant.

"Okay, understandable. But that doesn't explain how a second gate on the same planet would work," Pansy pointed out.

"That's what the alternative mode of operation on a Stargate is for. With a slight modification to the Gate's Control Crystal, I can assign it a unique 9-symbol address. With that, we can have our own working Stargate and don't need to fear that it will interfere with the other one. That way, we won't need to fear that someone will dial in here while trying to reach Earth, of course, as long as we keep the address a secret." Revealing the secret behind the Gate Address of the Destiny, the Ship of the Ancients has been traveling for a million years towards the edge of the universe.

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