Ch 55 Stargate 9

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Carl was sitting on the bridge of the Yamato, looking at the view screen that was showing a view of the planet Heliopolis. This was the planet where the Alliance of Four Great Races had a little building as a memorial for where they ratified their treaty.

The Alterans, the Asgard, the Nox, and the Furlings many years ago had created an alliance that would have each race help the others keep the peace in their home galaxies. If a problem occurred that one race alone couldn't fix, the others would step in and help.

Now that Carl had the repository of knowledge of the Alterans, he knew that the Furlings were an avian humanoid species who had gone missing years ago. Carl hadn't found any traces of them in the Milky Way galaxy. But that didn't mean they weren't still out there somewhere. And maybe the Furlings took a page out of the ancient Alteran's playbook and escaped from their original galaxy to set up shop in a new galaxy somewhere far away.

But today Carl wasn't here at Heliopolis for the Furlings. He reached out with his magic and had the Yamato's computer send a message to the Asgard, who he wanted to meet today.

Only 20 minutes passed before a ship of the Asgard arrived near where the Yamato was in orbit. Carl saw he was being hailed, so he opened up communications. He saw one of the grey genderless aliens that were what the Asgard had devolved to because of their cloning problems.

"Greetings. I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet." The grey alien greeted Carl in his atonal voice.

"Greetings, Thor. I am Carl Edwards, Leader of the Fire Crow Organization." Carl introduced himself back.

"You used the frequency of the Alterans. But you are not in an Alteran ship. What relation do you have with them?" Thor inquired.

"Nope, I'm not Alteran. My organization is a mix of Human, Jaffa, former Tok'ra, and me." Carl began.

"What do you mean by former Tok'ra?" Thor interrupted. "How are they no longer Tok'ra?"

"Oh, they chose to transfer their consciousness to cloned human bodies, so they are no longer the parasitic cousins of the Goa'uld." Carl answered with a grin, knowing that Thor would be interested in his answer because of his own people's problems with their cloning technology.

"I see." Thor was good at the poker face, Carl noticed. He also didn't immediately jump to ask Carl about the cloning issue, which said that he had good willpower and control over himself.

"I called today to meet you and begin talks about allying, or at least opening up friendly relations between my growing organization and your people Thor." Carl jumped right in to why he was contacting the Asgard. He saw no real reason to beat around the bush with Thor.

"I'm afraid we cannot offer much aid in this Galaxy. We have a treaty with the System Lords limiting what each of us can do in regard to the protected systems. And we do have certain issues that we are preoccupied with dealing with ourselves." Thor stated clearly.

Carl smiled to himself at the bluntness and honesty of Thor. He liked the guy already. "Yeah, I know of two of those problems. The Replicators and your cloning problem." Carl decided that if Thor was going to be blunt and honest, he would too. "I think I can help your people with those problems. You see, I found a repository database left behind by the Alterans, and managed to download the thing safely. I wouldn't mind putting some of my people together with your people to figure out how to fix your cloning problem. And I believe I can do something about your replicator problem soon. From the information I have gathered, the replicators were a leftover Alteran technology that someone messed around with the base code, causing them to become what they are now. I've already got some ideas of how to take care of them."

Thor blinked, speechless for a few moments. Thor was used to all the other species asking them for help, not offering help. But the feelings of hope bubbling up were a welcome sensation. He hoped this Carl Edwards could deliver on his words.

"We would be in your debt, Carl Edwards." Thor finally offered.

Carl nodded. "Well, you're good people and would make good friends, from what I've gathered. It would be my honor to aid you. I'll send you some coordinates to our facility if you want to send a couple of scientists there to work with my people on the cloning issue while we work on getting rid of the Replicators."

"That would be agreeable," Thor said. "Would you like to join me so we can talk while we travel back to the Ida Galaxy?"

Carl nodded. "That sounds good. Go ahead and beam me over." Carl had his computer allow the beam over. Soon enough Thor had sent out his messages to his people, and they were underway to Thor's home Galaxy, which only took a couple of hours to make the long-distance trip between galaxies.

"Speedy ship you've got here, Thor." Carl commented. The Yamato was hanging out nearby in stealth, in case of emergency. Of course, he could always survive the vacuum of space for a time, or use his Profound Ark, even if it wasn't anywhere near as quick as the Yamato.

"Indeed. It is a top-of-the-line Bilskirnir Class." Thor mentioned.

They continued chatting about various things on the trip to the Asgard home world, Othala. Upon arrival, Carl noticed that there were a few Ascended beings hanging around the homeworld of the Asgard. Carl frowned to himself in disgust at seeing the snot balls there.

The fact that Ascended was there meant that they knew about the various problems that the Asgard were facing, like the Replicators. They knew that the technology they had left behind had been perverted and was a great danger to Asgard and all life in the nearby galaxies.

The Asgard was one of the Alteran's friends and allies by treaty. In Carl's mind, that treaty between the species didn't suddenly become null and void just because some of the Alterans ascended to a higher plane. They were still alive, so the agreement was still in place.

But the snot balls didn't care enough to get off their asses and fix the problems they had left behind for their allies to deal with. This showed Carl their poor moral character, that the moment they gained a bit of power they suddenly didn't care about the problems of "lesser" beings.

It was the same attitude they displayed about the Asurans over in the Pegasus galaxy. The Asurans were Human Form Robots made from nanotechnology that were programmed to feel the emotion of hate so that they would apparently have motivation to fight the Wraith.

The old Alterans had built the Asurans to fight the Wraith since the Alterans were proving incapable of defeating the Wraith. After building the Asurans, the Alterans eventually decided to scrap the program and half-heartedly destroyed the Asurans. And yet the Alterans failed to destroy or reprogram all of the Asurans, allowing one to go free and rebuild their race that could only feel the emotion of hate.

And they were able to grow as a robotic species, with more than half of them completely gripped by the hatred programmed into them. Carl just thought it was incredibly dangerous to build a species that could only feel hate. Even if they had succeeded in destroying the Wraith, they would have been a constant danger to everything around them. And the Alterans were the ones who didn't clean up the mess they left behind.

The Wraith in the Pegasus Galaxy was another danger that the Alterans left behind when ascending. They were a species of humanoid-bug vampires that fed on human life force. As a result of the Alterans not being decisive while dealing with the danger, the Wraith had a chance to use the Alteran's own technology to clone themselves into a giant problem that was a threat to the entire Pegasus Galaxy, even driving the Alterans to the point of destruction.

According to the show, at least some of the Asurans had made the decision that in order to follow the hatred programmed into them, they would kill off the Wraith's food supply. This meant they were all set to unleash genocide on the population of humans in the Pegasus galaxy.

That was a horrible example of just what kind of problems the ascended Alterans were ignoring with their policy to not interfere in the affairs of those they considered lesser beings.

Those were just a couple of problems that the Alterans had created and then ignored when they ascended. They showed that they weren't willing to fix it now that they had the power to do so after ascending.

That kind of attitude just pissed Carl off something fierce. He wasn't going to let them go around manipulating things while not actually helping out. Carl reached out with his magic and trapped the three Ascended beings that were present on the planet. He made sure to layer the spells so that they wouldn't be able to struggle free anytime soon.

He then grabbed one of them and pulled it to him, making it visible to Thor.

Carl could feel the strain of holding three of the snot balls in place. While his magic had grown greatly over the years, holding three of the ascended at once was very difficult. Carl sent some instructions mentally to his ship. The Yamato boosted the power of Carl's spell matrix, making sure that the three snot balls were well and truly trapped.

Meanwhile, Thor was wondering just what was going on, and if it was a mistake to bring Carl back to his planet as he watched Carl's actions. He was unsure just what the glowing ball that Carl pulled out was, but he knew that it took a lot of energy for Carl to do what he had done. His ship's telemetry had provided Thor with data on just how much power was used.

Carl then pulled out of his pocket dimension a special trunk that he had been working on. He had created a rune scheme that would act as a jail for the ascended beings. He activated it and the two ascended being that he wasn't about to interrogate were sucked up like it was a Ghostbusters trap. Carl smirked at the ghost trap/jail cell that was powered by an array of 100 Potentia. Those snot balls weren't going anywhere.

"What is that, Carl Edwards?" Thor finally inquired when Carl was finished with his actions. Thor was looking at the glowing thing that Carl was holding.

"This, my friend." Carl began with a feral smile as he shook the ascended being. "Is what is known as an Ascended. There were a number of Alteran people who were able to shed their mortal bodies and become beings of pure energy that ascended to a higher dimension. They sit up there watching and manipulating events, but not really helping the people down here." Carl explained to a frowning Thor.

Thor was obviously quick to pick up on the implications of there being Alterans present on their planet but unwilling to help the Asgard with a problem left behind by the Alterans technology. But Carl decided to lay it out for Thor anyway.

"The way I see it, since they were Alterans and they were in a treaty with your people, they should have come forward to help you deal with the Replicators since the Replicators was a remnant of their own technology. As higher dimensional energy beings, they certainly have the ability to help your people. Instead, I find them hanging about here doing nothing to help you while you fight a losing battle. They were just sitting there, watching and spying. So you can see why I don't have a high opinion of them." Carl concluded.

Thor then turned to the ball of light that Carl was holding. Carl allowed the ball of energy to assume a human form to make it easier to communicate.

"Is this true? Are you of the Alteran race?" Thor inquired. Most people wouldn't have heard the undercurrent of intense anger in Thor's voice. Carl wasn't like most people.

The ascended being, now looking like a brown-haired short man with a weak chin, flinched under Thor's intense gaze. He too knew all about the Asgard and how they didn't show overt emotions. But for those who could understand, the hidden anger was actually scarier than if Thor were to rant and rave.

"You have to understand. There are rules! There are Laws that prevent us from interfering with the lower plain." The ascended being almost whined while trying to justify his people's inaction. "We can't interfere with undeveloped peoples, we'll be punished. You must let me go!" The being then turned on Carl. "Or else the council will punish you!"

"Ah, there we go. What an interesting statement. How can the council punish me if they really follow the rules of not interfering?" Carl's question seemed to stump the ascended being for a bit. "Won't really help out the lower beings, but don't have any problem interfering if it suits your purpose, huh?"

Thor frowned at the being and then looked at Carl. "What will you do with the being, Carl Edwards?"

"I thought I'd stuff it in this little jail cell for a while. Why, did you have something in mind, Thor?"

"Perhaps. But it is something we should discuss later after the threat of the Replicators is addressed. Then we can address how the Alteran people have abandoned their responsibilities under the treaty, and what to do about it."

Carl nodded in agreement. "Sounds like a plan." He then stuffed the ascended into the jail cell with the other ascended. "I've got a protection system that I could set up on your home world to keep any more of them from dropping in uninvited if you're interested." Carl offered Thor.

"That would be appreciated, Carl Edwards." Thor nodded.

"Sure, it should take my ship only a couple of hours to finish building it. I'll also have the documentation on how it works sent to you." Carl sent some mental orders to the Yamato to send the basic information of the ward scheme to Thor's ship, as well as having it begin building the ward scheme. Carl had plenty of Potentia or ZPMs in storage to power the wards, so he could have it installed soon.

After the two of them teleported down to the surface, Carl had the Asgard create a building where he could set up the ward scheme to protect their planet from intrusion by ascended beings. After a few hours, when the wards were activated, the Asgard scientists who were monitoring the process were flabbergasted by the readings they were getting from the ward scheme.

Carl smirked a bit at seeing their excitement. He enjoyed their reaction. It was always good to see people who were so excited to learn something new and were enthusiastic about it.

Well, they were enthusiastic for Asgardians at any rate.

He then joined the Asgard Council and offered his plan on how to take care of the Replicators. The Asgard were reluctant to implement Carl's plan at first because the plan Carl made was considered very dangerous for Carl. It called for him to sit on an empty planet while setting up a Beacon to draw all the Replicators to him, before taking them out with a specific program that would shut them down.

The Asgard wasn't convinced that it wasn't a suicide attempt for Carl to be sitting in the middle of such a large swarm of Replicators.

After a few hours of debate, Carl finally got the Asgard to agree to the plan. Carl could have just flown himself to the Ida Galaxy and done it on his own, but he thought the Asgard deserved to at least be part of the process and to see their enemy defeated. It was only polite.

A short time later, Carl found himself on a desert planet many light-years away from the Asgard. He spent some time setting up his defenses. He would wait until all the Replicators showed up before taking action, which meant he needed to keep himself and the Beacon from being swarmed until he was ready.

Now that Carl thought about it, it really felt similar to some Starcraft levels he had played back in the day, trying to destroy the Zerg by using a beacon to draw them in. Carl chuckled a bit at how he now got to live a video game.

After that little diversionary thought, Carl got back to work. A couple of hours later, Carl had set up the wards and arrays that would keep all the Replicators and their weapons from coming in and ruining his day.

"Okay, Thor. My defenses are ready. I'm activating the Beacon." Carl reported over the communicator.

"Acknowledged, Carl Edwards. We are standing by and monitoring the situation." Thor responded.

Carl then looked over at the comically large red button that would activate the beacon. He smirked a bit at the unnecessary little prop that Carl had built for fun, before he pressed the two-foot wide button.

The 10-foot-tall beacon powered up. Arcs of lightning ran up and down the beacon as various parts came alive with a deep blue glow. A loud hum reverberated through the air.

"They definitely notice the signal," Thor reported almost immediately. "They are already making their way to your location."

Carl chuckled a bit. If his senses weren't as good as they were he wouldn't have heard Thor's report over the loud humming of the beacon. Carl then made an adjustment and the humming sound lessened by 4/5ths, becoming just a background hum. The beacon continued working just fine without the added sound or light effects, but Carl felt the need for a bit of showmanship.

"Sounds good, Thor. Let me know when you think I've got them all." Carl offered before taking a seat on a conjured recliner and began reading some reports from his people. He had pulled the Yamato into his pocket dimension by this time because he didn't want to give the Replicators any chance, no matter how small, to get a taste of the tech on his ship. That would be exceedingly dangerous if they got any more advanced than they already were.

Over the next few days, Carl watched as the Replicators made their way down to the planet. Some of them had taken over some of the Asgard ships in their war with the Asgard so they were the first to arrive on the planet. The Asgard ships that they took over landed close by and the robot spiderlike Replicators came pouring out of the holds to surround Carl's defensive ward setup. Then the very ship looked like it was disintegrating. The ship itself was made up of Replicators. Every single one of them came for the beacon and made their way over to try to reach it.

But there was an invisible force field that they couldn't get past. They were continually moving around, trying to find an opening in the defenses to finally reach the beacon. The Replicators would occasionally combine into various weapons to fire on the shield, but the shield held fast.

As the days passed, and more and more ships arrived, the depth at which the Replicators were piled up outside his barrier continued to rise. Soon enough it covered the entire dome. The replicators tried to dig under the barrier but found that his perfect sphere of protection just floated in place, not bothered by the lack of ground under it.

After the third day, the sphere was completely covered by the Replicators, and Carl could see nothing outside his sphere but the shifting limbs and bodies of the mechanical plague that existed solely to replicate and eradicate anything that threatened them. The damage to their base code ensured they were untamable.

If Carl were one to have a phobia, he figured the mechanical spiderlike creatures would be it. Looking at the ever-restless mass of Replicators, Carl was happy he had his shield up. Some things just didn't need to be experienced, and having mechanical spiders crawling all over him rated up there in his top 10.

On the first day, Carl had tried to interface with the first ones that showed up, but he found that whenever he tried to reprogram one of the spiderlike robots, once he was successful every Replicator surrounding it tore it apart before it could convert any other Replicator. Once torn apart and destroyed, the materials were used to build a replacement replicator.

Obviously, a protracted battle where Carl would attempt to control the Replicators would take a long time and be annoying. And if the battle for control distracted the Replicators from the beacon too much, or took too long taking them out, he was afraid they would adjust their base code and start ignoring the beacon. With the sheer mass of Replicators here, they would be much smarter than a single Replicator alone, by a huge amount.

So Carl left them alone after that, rather than provoking the Replicators to adjust themselves.

'Good it wasn't my plan to take over control of the replicators.' Carl thought. 'If it had been, I would have been screwed at this point.'

He had just been a bit curious, so he had played with the one Replicator, just to see how hard it would have been.

Carl continued to watch the growing mass of spiderlike robots. Some of the later arriving Replicators were obviously of inferior technology and materials compared to the ones created from the Asgard ships.

'That must have been a nightmare for the Asgard. Every ship they lost strengthened the Replicators while weakening them. So difficult to confront an enemy that adapted and assimilated your best tech.' Carl shook his head.

Finally, after the fifth day, Carl got a message from Thor: All the Replicators had arrived.

Carl stood up from his chair. He already had the high-powered transmitter and self-destruct code ready to go. This was a good thing, since he had noticed with his profound senses that the Replicators were trying to create something to breach Carl's wards, and he didn't want to see if it would work, not with him in the middle of it.

What if they created something like a black hole? Was he tough enough to survive that? Carl didn't want to find out anytime soon.

He activated the command signal that was still active in the Replicator's programming, and all the replicators suddenly fell apart, turning into metal bits and dust-like nanoparticles.

Carl smiled at the success of the plan. But since he didn't want to take any chances, Carl pulled out the Blue Orchid, his goblin blade / profound weapon, and started channeling his profound energy through it. Calling up his Golden Crow fires, he started creating a vortex of fire just outside the barrier, stoking the flames hotter and hotter.

He himself was fine, not bothered by the heat or fire at all. The inferno of flame became a giant tornado. With his talent in the Wind element, he also created a suction effect, pulling all the metal from the Replicators into the inferno of his tornado that as hotter than the sun.

He watched as the metal left behind by the Replicators turned to liquid, and very nearly sublimated. The huge mass of metal eventually turned his tornado into a huge molten metal whirlpool. When he was sure that all the Replicators had been melted down and had no possibility of coming back or being reassembled, Carl directed the molten metal down and into huge blocks of metal. He began working on siphoning the heat out of the metal to solidify the huge blocks.

Looking around, Carl found that for miles around the ground was burned and glassed. Absolutely nothing would be able to grow there for many years without great effort to add soil back to the area. Carl spread his senses out and could sense absolutely no Replicator presence. He pulled the Yamato out of his pocket dimension and had his ship do some scans.

When even the scans from his ship came back clean of Replicator's presence, Carl sighed in relief. He then put the metal that used to be the Replicators into his pocket dimension. He could drop it off for the Petes later to build some more ships.

Even though a small voice in the back of his mind kept saying that, depending on the genre of the story, it was possible for the Replicators to still be capable of making a comeback, Carl decided to trust in his skills, senses, and technology.

While the threat of out-of-control nanotech was very scary, there was a point where the paranoid fear was too detrimental and needed to be cut off.

If the Replicators did make a comeback, he would just keep destroying them until they didn't reappear anymore. There was no real need to give into baseless fears about future possibilities. Carl decided to just enjoy the win and move on.

"Thor, buddy. It looks like the operation was a complete success." Carl called the Supreme Commander of the Asgard to give him the good news.

"That is what our sensors are informing us as well. You have the gratitude of the Asgard People, Carl Edwards." Thor solemnly stated.

"I'm glad to help your people, Thor. Mind coming by and giving me a ride back home? I've got some things to do when I get back, and we can talk some more on the way. From what I hear, our people have pretty much got your cloning problem licked already. So without the Replicators around, you guys should be able to focus on healing up your race." Carl wanted to take the chance to speak with Thor about what they should do with the ascended beings that used to be Alterans.

"Indeed, Carl Edwards. I look forward to that." Carl smiled at the amount of emotion that Thor kept hidden under that deadpan delivery.

Now that Carl had manipulated the Stargate program to be shut down back on Earth and have the reopening bogged down in multiple negotiations so they wouldn't be blundering around and causing the Goa'uld to actually focus on Earth, Carl knew that a lot of the worlds weren't being visited by the SG-1 team that would have been.

And the funny thing was that the shutdown of the SGC program actually, in the long run, made the SG1 team much more capable.

Now that the former members of the SG-1 teams had their own ships and powers, they were much more active than when they were a part of the SGC.

There was nothing stopping them from getting together and visiting some of the worlds they would have through the program. They were a very disparate group of people who seemed to have found a deep friendship with each other in the midst of the excitement of exploring the unknown.

Carl was pleased to see that they continued to maintain their friendship with each other and work together as they continued making friends and recruiting people.

Besides, for the former SG-1 team, continuing their efforts seemed to be a good way to metaphorically flip off Kinsey for ruining the Stargate program.

Carl was very amused to see that they occasionally sent emails and pics to Kinsey to show that he couldn't stop them. That Kinsey lost, they won, and that friendship was more magical than corporate greed, or some such sentiment.

Kinsey still didn't seem to get that point, as he was often heard to be grinding his teeth in frustration.

Carl didn't have any problem with the former SG-1 team doing some exploration and making friends in their spare time from their duties in the FCO. They worked hard in all aspects of their lives, and Carl could appreciate them doing what they liked to do for fun. And now that they had more resources and their own ships, they were more able to help the locals they ran into in their travels than they were able to while part of the SGC.

Besides simply enjoying their work/hobby, now that they didn't have politicos always yelling in their ears about stealing tech from their new friends, the exploring part was even more fun to do.

So Carl learned through reading the reports that the former SG-1 team had run across a group of terrorist Reetou that had a serious hatred for the Goa'uld. The Reetou were a group of aliens that were slightly out of phase with everyone else, so they were invisible and couldn't talk with humans through normal means.

No one was sure just why they were so mad at the Goa'uld, but their solution was to kill all the humans. That way the Goa'uld wouldn't have any hosts to inhabit.

Carl just sighed. What a bunch of assholes. 'If you've got a problem with the Goa'uld, attack the freaking Goa'uld, don't kill everyone around them.' Carl thought. 'What is it with extremists that seem to have genocide as their default mode?'

The team had their Profound Senses that let them "see" the Reetou, and their technology to assist them to be able to communicate with the more moderate Reetou and learn about the split amongst them. They were able to target and kill off the terrorists while setting up relations with the more decent ones.

Carl's people even made some armbands to sync the Reetou's phasing so they could interact with humans, and the moderate faction actually joined Carl's Empire, happy to be under his protection from the Goa'uld. He had no idea if they could learn to utilize Ki or Profound Energy yet. It would take some work the next time he ran a time dilation Basic Training to discover how they differed from humans.

Over the next few months before the FCO's next operation against the System Lords, Carl's people were building larger, and more intimidating, ships in the same style as the Starcraft Battlecruisers. They were training crews that knew how to utilize the technology, how to fly and how to fight with their ships.

In addition to the large Battlecruisers that would directly take on the Goa'uld Hat'ak, Carl's people also designed and built Valkyrie fighter craft to counter the Goa'uld Death Gliders and Al'kesh bombers.

While Carl would like to capture and free as many Jaffa as he could while taking over the System Lord's territory, he was more concerned that his Army could end the threat of armed ships fast if the fanatic Jaffa were going to do suicide runs on Carl's people or on civilian populations.

So while his plans included attempting to board and take over the Hat'aks, if that didn't happen then Carl wouldn't be too disappointed.

Carl had never planned to rely solely on his disciple's ships that were too small to properly intimidate the enemy. The small gate ships that packed a big punch that Carl gifted his students were always meant as personal transport and support of the main army in tough situations.

So he was pleased to see the results of his people expanding on what the unenhanced military members could use in future campaigns. The larger ships that didn't rely on pocket dimensions and magical shenanigans were perfect for the normal soldiers in his army to use in the campaigns.

By March of 1999, Carl's Organization had built up its infrastructure and solidified its people's education and logistics. They were ready to continue expanding. And the next target was Apophis. The clone Apophis, that is. Carl still had the original in prison.

Carl had pulled all the information from Apophis about his forces, where Carl could find the clones and clone facilities, and any other relevant information on taking over the territory.

So this time, Carl let his disciples and Army leadership plan and execute the takeover of Apophis' 33 planets. Carl made himself available for backup if they needed him anywhere. It was going to be a busy time for them, and a big operation. So far, they only had 16 planets, so adding on 33 more would be a big jump. Getting everything squared away after the operation would take a lot of work.

But everyone was excited to get started. Especially those who had suffered under Goa'uld rule were eager to get some payback.

Carl watched the operation being carried out from the bridge of the Lancer, one of the enlarged Battlecruiser ships that was in charge of taking Apophis' main planet. He was on hand just in case something unexpected happened.

Despite all their intelligence and technology, the Fire Crow Organization still had limited numbers at this time. And they couldn't exactly expect the enemy to be accommodating and not do crazy things in the heat of combat.

So when a situation developed that had no one nearby to respond to it, Carl jumped in to stop a Jaffa fanatic from piloting his Hat'ak into a suicide dive onto one of their own cities, intending to deny the people and technology from falling into enemy hands.

Once Carl saw the situation, he simply apparated to the planet in front of the Hat'ak and burned the ship to molten metal, dropping the resultant mess of metal into his pocket dimension for later.

While he would have liked to take the Jaffa on board prisoner, he'd prefer to keep the civilian city below him alive rather than let both the Jaffa and the civilians die. It happened so quickly, he could only make the decision in the heat of the moment to kill all those Jaffa onboard to protect the civilians.

Carl once more scoffed in his mind, greatly disliking the actions of fanatics who would rather destroy everything than accept that they didn't get their way. Especially when they were basically fighting to remain slaves, it just blew his mind.

Carl returned to the Lancer after dealing with the Hat'ak, and continued looking over the battle reports. He studiously ignored the looks of awe that were being thrown his way by the various bridge officers who had a good view of Carl's action of personally melting a Hat'ak.

While the people Carl had recruited had heard of Carl's powers, this was the first time they saw it. It definitely made an impression on them.

The rest of the battle went well. Carl's students who were spread around the battlefield kept things under control, and his regular army personnel were professional and efficient.

The ship that Carl destroyed wasn't the only Hat'ak that was destroyed in the short war, but destroying it had averted the largest disaster that would have resulted in a massive death toll. Most of the others simply chose to self-destruct in space, attempting to take the enemy with them.

In the aftermath of a successful but bloody campaign, Carl reviewed the number of deaths and injuries of his troops. They had lost 83 men due to the actions of the fanatic Jaffa that caused the self-destruction of their ships, or who turned suicide bomber.

Looking at those numbers of his own people who died made Carl grit his teeth in anger, and looking around at his students and the army officers, he could see they too felt grief and anger over their losses.

And while the numbers of deaths was statistically small, it still didn't feel good to lose anyone. Especially when they had such advanced tech compared to their enemy, there was no real excuse to be losing so many.

As a result of their losses, everyone in Carl's organization spent many hours over the next few weeks reviewing the tactics that they had used, and fine tuning them. They designed more technologies and scheduled more training so that they wouldn't suffer such casualties in the future. They wouldn't be taken by surprise anymore by the fanatic Jaffa that would destroy everything to prevent being taken prisoner. And they would have the proper equipment to finish the battle faster and with fewer casualties.

Meanwhile, Carl's logistics and management personnel continued to educate and assimilate the people and planets that they had taken control of while the HFRs Apophis and Moloc kept up the charade to the other System Lords that they were still in charge. That way the rest of the System Lords wouldn't band together and assault Carl's growing Empire before they were ready.

While Carl would win a war against the Goa'uld, simply due to the huge disparity in technology of the two sides, it would end up being a very bloody war, and the collapse of order would let chaos, war, and death to come to so many populated planets. It was something Carl wanted to avoid. There were so many civilians who would suffer and die if that happened. So Carl was determined to take the conquest a bit at a time in as orderly a manner as war allowed.

George Hammond looked down at the fishing pole he was holding and sighed. He'd been sitting here for a good hour and not one fish had bit his bait. Feeling incredibly bored, he looked around the lake, seeing that he was the only one there that was trying to fish. The occasional boater would drive by, having fun, by the sounds of it.

George sighed once more. He was still riled up from having had his command and decision-making questioned in the insulting manner that politicians seemed to always have and forcefully retired.

It wasn't being retired, per se, that bothered him. Before the Stargate program had been started up he had been on the verge of retiring anyway. He was more than ready to get out of the politics and enjoy the time with his grandchildren. Or spend his time picking up old hobbies that he had left behind when he got too busy with his command.

But then the Stargate had happened, and he had gotten stuck with that mess. It was something that needed doing, what with the Goa'uld out there looking to enslave or kill the human race, which is why he had deferred retirement and accepted the command once he knew what was at stake. He had found a calling that needed doing.

But now, with what Kinsey had done to undermine him, his command had been torn out from under him in a most insulting manner. George was just thankful that the vision Daniel Jackson had of Earth being invaded by Apophis didn't come true. That would have been a nightmare.

But once the dust settled, with his calling and command taken from him so suddenly, he had been looking for something to fill his time. For some reason, he'd thought back to all the times that Jack had talked about his fishing hobby, and thought he would give it a try.

George looked down at his fishing pole once more and sighed.

He was seriously not enjoying himself. He didn't know how Jack could enjoy it and talk it up so much. George reeled in his line and began packing his fishing equipment up. Since he wasn't enjoying himself, he decided he would try a different hobby.

"Hey there, George. Fancy meeting you here." Just as George was about to leave, he heard a familiar voice cheerily greet him.

Looking over at the voice, he saw Jack O'Neill standing there, smiling his stupid grin. While he was a bit surprised to see O'Neill out and about after having gotten in trouble for disobeying orders, George was pleased to see him, apparently free and clear.

"Jack." George greeted cordially. "You're looking good. I heard about the deal you made while separating. How are the people you're working for now?" George asked while critically observing Jack's reaction, he was able to catch the feral smile on Jack's face but had no idea what motivated the sentiment or expression.

"Oh, they're great sir." Jack offered. "In fact, there's nowhere I'd rather be."

George just hummed in acknowledgment, thinking about what that could mean.

"In fact, I've been authorized to pitch a job offer your way, sir." Jack offered after a moment. "The benefits package is great. Care to listen to the spiel? We could use some men of your caliber."

Normally George would have declined, especially after having his last command taken away from him. Even just a week ago he had been thinking it was for the best that he put all that behind him. But that was before he went on a fishing trip and was just so incredibly bored out of his mind.

"Okay, I'll listen to the pitch." George found himself saying, interested despite himself in finding out just who these people were who took away his best team. And just what Jack had been doing that made him so excited.

George then got in his car and followed Jack's truck to a nearby resort. After parking, he followed Jack to a conference room that had been reserved. As soon as the door closed, a while light flashed in George's sight, and he found himself elsewhere. In front of him was a view screen showing the Earth from orbit. Next to him Jack was grinning hugely. But it was a Jack that looked very different from before. He looked younger and much fitter than he was before.

George worked hard to tamp his immediate indignant reaction down. Judging from how he had been teleported here, Jack's employers had access to some impressive technology. And judging by how Jack looked younger and fitter, they had a damned fine health package. It would be the smart thing to hear them out.

"I'm sure you've got a lot of questions sir. Let me start with telling about how we got recruited…" Jack began telling George everything. From the advanced tech, the health and youth regeneration, the training, taking on the Goa'uld, everything. "…and we're desperately in need of every good man with the right skills that we can get. Which is why we suggested you and quite a few other retired military should be recruited. So, interested?"

George looked down on the Earth, thinking over the offer. So, he finally knew why the invasion predicted by Daniel Jackson didn't materialize. These people who employed Jack had stopped it cold. That was something amazing, and needed at just the right moment. From what Jackson had said, even nuclear missiles had no chance of getting through the Goa'uld's shields.

While looking down on Earth, George realized there really wasn't any need to think about it anymore. He had made his entire adult life about duty to his country. This was just one or two steps higher, but it would keep his family on Earth safe.

"What do you think about recruiting a retired nurse along with me?" George asked.

"The wife, sir?" Jack clarified. At George's nod, Jack broke into a smile. "We would love to have more medical personnel!"

"Good. Mary would never forgive me if I went off and got younger and didn't include her." George stated to Jack's amusement.

Carl sat at the head of the enormous banquet hall in the massive facility that had been built up over several sessions of time dilation in the Time Pearl. He wore a faint grin on his face as he watched his students' party.

Alice sat down next to Carl, leaning against his right shoulder. Carl enjoyed the sensation and closeness of his girl as he smiled warmly down at her.

"Enjoying yourself, dear?" Alice asked as she placed her head on his shoulder and looked out at the hall.

"Of course he is." Tera proclaimed as she seated herself on Carl's left, also molding her body to his. "With this training session over he can get back to playing hooky while the rest of us work."

Carl chuckled in amusement at his two girls' banter. "What can I say? I take training seriously, but conquering Goa'uld territory is just fun. I'm thinking of taking over Sokar's prison hell planet and converting it into a giant hot springs resort. What do you think?"

"That sounds like a sinfully decadent idea. You should make it happen." Tera urged him, while Alice giggled at the idea, completely agreeing with Tera that it should happen.

To the former Alteran, the idea of shaping an entire world into a hot springs resort wasn't impossible, but it was something her old people would never have thought of doing. They were just so…staid, boring, and not creative at all.

The various cultures that existed on Earth were something that was precious. The incredibly diverse use of their imagination to create intriguing fantasy worlds and possibilities had a high value that increased the standards of living. The Alterans had never dealt with "what if". They had only focused on scientific facts. And as interesting and engaging as it was, it seemed to leave a void in their culture that left them…pedestrian.

As a result, Alice had been loving her new life with her paramour Carl and her sister's wife. They made her life worth living, especially after being abandoned by her own people for something her parents had done before she could even walk.

"I would love to see the results of that project." Alice almost purred in Carl's ear. "I'm sure we can find a suitable reward for such a big present."

Carl smirked and planted a kiss on each of his lovers. "Then we shall add it to the plans." Carl stated. He was already thinking of ways to add to the creativity of the bath house planet. There was that movie Spirited Away that could make up one theme in a portion of the planet.

Maybe he could set up a contest for the gamers on Earth to see who could use the Virtual Reality world to design the most creative hot springs design. Then he would have the Petes create it.

Carl pitched the idea to Alice and Tera, and the two ladies seemed to love the idea. They too couldn't wait to see what crazy designs came from such an open-ended competition. And who knows, they could include as a prize the opportunity for the designers on Earth to be recruited and see their designs come to fruition in real life. If nothing else, that should encourage them to keep designing and creating things for his Empire.

The party lasted late into the night, as the over 500 students of Carl fully enjoyed the last party in the Time Pearl before they returned to the regular galaxy. Once they were back, they would either pick back up their duties or be assigned new duties as leaders in the Fire Crow Organization.

This was going to be the last time dilation training that Carl would run for at least a year, maybe two. Carl felt that he finally had a decently sized core of powerful and talented individuals to whom he could delegate the daily running and military operations of his organization. For the most part from now on, his students and disciples would be training their own subordinates in a similar way to how Carl had been training them.

So within the next couple of years, Carl could expect his military forces to all be at least working on attaining the Disciple class with regard to their body training. Even though they wouldn't have the benefit of all the pills and personal guidance of Carl, the military had already been seeing improvements in the several months they had of training.

With the great numbers of people that his students were training, as well as their other duties, it wasn't a surprise that they hadn't advanced as quickly as Carl's own students had, let alone Carl when he was one of three students that a group of six Masters had focused on.

Another bottleneck in training up the various members of his Organization was the sheer number of people versus the amount of resources available to make medicines and cultivation resources. Carl just couldn't supply the needed supplements for everyone from his Farms, so their progress was very slow.

Carl had already designed and organized massive farms on his planets that he entrusted to dozens of his students to manage that would eventually turn into a sustaining production of cultivation resources. The system of production of cultivation resources distribution had already been hashed out, but it would take years, decades, and even centuries in some cases, to start producing the needed resources. Those herbs needed a lot of time to absorb the energy needed to attain the level of medical efficacy needed for the recipes.

He knew that the ten years he had in the Jump world wouldn't allow his Empire to get to the stable point he envisioned, but he was hopeful that at some point in the future he could somehow gather everything together that he was leaving behind on each world jump.

Carl knew it was a very faint hope and dream, and that it likely wouldn't come to pass anytime soon. But he still felt like it was a goal worth striving for. Something that he could build himself, that wasn't just handed to him.

Carl shrugged internally and returned his full attention to his girls and the party, determined to enjoy every bit of time he had with his cherished ones before he had to leave for another world.