AJW
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Robotech: The Stargate Saga
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech and Stargate characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Notes: This story is a Stargate/Robotech fusion story that is not in any way related to This Isn't Kansas and is instead set in a universe where the Stargate was never recovered from beneath the Giza Plateau in the late 1920's due to the fact that the expedition that found it was never mounted. In this reality like so many other men of his generation Professor Langford died in the trenches of the First World War. Thus, the Stargate, and its DHD, have remained undisturbed buried beneath the sands of Giza where they have remained – until now.
I have wanted to do this story for quite a while, really since my last read through of Cyclone's sadly abandoned story Closer To Home and ultimately thought what the hell might as well have a crack at it. So, without further ado let's get cracking shall we.
Story events begin towards the end of the two-year period between the Rain of Death and Khyron's uprising.
~~~///~~~
Chapter One
Zentraedi Reclamation Site L314
Giza Plateau, Egypt
5th September 2013
Colonel James Fawcett, formerly of the US Army Corps of Engineers now UEDF Army Core of Engineers, smiled as he carefully read through the latest report from the teams working outside the dense robotech alloy walls of the repurposed Zentraedi dropship that they had been using as a base for the last few months. Finally, after several months of work they had almost finished the job that they had been sent out here – to the torn up remains of the Giza Plateau – to do. The job in question was one that he, and many of his colleagues, was becoming quite familiar with.
They were here to remove a crashed Zentraedi warship – specifically a Thuverl Salan-class heavy cruiser – that had fallen to Earth in the aftermath of the Rain of Death and the battle with Dolza. The cruiser in question like so many others having been caught up in the massive reflex weapon detonation that had not only obliterated the massive asteroid that had been converted into the Zentraedi's main fleet base but created a wave of supercharged particles and plasma that had annihilated the vast majority of the Zentraedi Main Fleet. The cruiser and the others that had crashed had been at the edge of the blast area and while they had escaped utter obliteration they had still been disabled – the crew aboard this particular vessel killed – and far, far too many of them had fallen into the gravity well of the smouldering Earth.
This particular cruiser had come down over North Africa and as it came in had completely trashed the pyramids of Giza – the ancient Egyptian monuments, which had endured several millennia of Saharan sandstorms and countless generations of tomb raiders, being no match for a few million tons of super-strong alien alloy falling at hypersonic velocities – before ploughing into the rest of the Giza Plateau and ripping up the sandstone like it was water before coming to a dead halt. There it had laid leaking both gamma and hyper-ionic radiation from broken open sublight engine cores, radiation that had begun drifting towards both Cairo and the extremely fertile farmland of the Nile delta. A situation that everybody knew could not have been allowed to continue – especially as they needed all the fertile farmland they could get right now as so much had been scorched into uselessness by the quantum fires of the Rain of Death.
Hence Admiral Gloval and General Maistroff had sent them here to clean up and dispose of the wreckage before the radiation could reach either Cairo or the delta.
Using a number of adapted destroids – specifically Spartan destroids which were the easiest to customise and had fully functional hands much like on a battloid – they had gotten to work. The damaged sublight engine cores had been relatively easy to remove and transport somewhere they could be safely disposed of through a combination of disassembly and decontamination. The bigger problem they had faced was disassembling the rest of the ship due to the heavy armour and structural bracing that all warships had not to mention some of the more complex internal components like the reflex furnaces as well as safely removing the cruisers huge stockpile of anti-ship munitions.
It was the disassembly of the ship that had taken the most time. But now they had more or less finished, according to the report the last few segments of the hull were scheduled to be taken away to a foundry outside Lisbon later today where they would be melted down and recycled. After all there was nothing wrong with the metal once recycled it could be used for any number of purposes including the rebuilding of Earth's infrastructure which had naturally been very badly damaged during the Rain. He had already heard that some of the metal they'd recovered had already been recycled into a brand-new maglev track between Paris and London via a newly refurbished and upgraded – a project that had actually begun before the Rain, but which like so much else had had to briefly put on hold by the need to deal with the post-Rain global humanitarian catastrophe – Channel Tunnel.
A knock at the door brought him out of his perusal of the progress report. He looked up with a frown of confusion wondering who it was. "Come in," he called out. The door opened and Lieutenant Paulson, who looked a lot younger than his twenty-nine years, came in. "Yes lieutenant?"
"Sir we've finished loading the last of the Zentraedi ship fragments onto the trucks for transport to the airport," Paulson reported before pausing, "however when we removed the last piece, we found something buried underneath."
Oh, please let it not be an artifact from Ancient Egypt, James thought, knowing that if that was the case it would require him to fill in six ton of additional paperwork. He would also have to secure the site until the UEG to rustle up archaeologists or Egyptologists from somewhere to come and investigate. Which wouldn't be easy as so many of the world's scientists had perished during the Rain of Death as many had been based in universities that had been incinerated during the reflex cannon bombardment.
"What kind of something," he asked after a moment.
Paulson grimaced, having seen the expressions that had flashed across his CO's face. Thus, he knew what he had to say was probably not going to go down that well, hell he didn't relish saying it himself given all the additional paperwork that was about to be dumped on both their desks. "Sir it's a series of sandstone cover stones engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphics, the cover stones are approximately several meters in diameter and have to weigh a good few thousand tons," he reported, "to make matters worse there is a huge crack running across them from where the underside of the cruiser's prow was literally pressing down on them. And that's not all."
James winced. "What else," he asked knowing that the Egyptologists were not going to be that happy with that report, not that they could blame him for it as a few million tons of derelict robotech warship sitting on top of the cover stones was bound to cause significant damage. Frankly they were lucky that the whole mass hadn't been reduced to broken shards or melted by the heat of the cruisers initial impact with the desert floor.
"Sir there is something buried underneath the stones," Paulson replied, "the sensors on our Spartans are picking up a large metallic signature, two of them in fact, that does not match any material in our database, whatever it is it's definitely not from Earth."
"It's alien? How long has it been there?"
"From the depth beneath the modern desert surface I would say at least six thousand years. Sir should we attempt to recover it?"
"No but secure the area we will call in some experts to help recover whatever it is," James answered, "however I want you to run a few scans through the cover stones if you can. Forward me the results as soon as you have them."
"Understood sir."
"Dismissed lieutenant."
"Sir."
~~//~~
United Earth Defence Command
New Macross City
Three Days Later
Admiral Henry Gloval felt like he was beating his head against a brick wall as he attempted, once again, to deal with those members of the defence council and the United Earth Government who wanted to increase controls on all planet side Zentraedi – both those that were and weren't micronized. The reason that they were giving this time was the increased tensions and frustrations the aliens were exhibiting as they attempted to adapt to a life outside of constant warfare. Some of the councillors were concerned that it would lead to violence – the aliens falling back into old habits and programmed responses – others well they were simply being xenophobic assholes using any excuse to try and make trouble.
The former he could understand their concerns – especially as there were rumours of Zentraedi warlords out in the wastelands created by the Rain who were seeking to create trouble, warlords like Khyron, Azonia and someone called Zeraal – and he even shared some of them to a degree. Hell, he knew that Commander Breetai also had some concerns about the warlords – especially Zeraal who had been one of Dolza's most loyal and capable commanders, and Khyron who for all his instabilities could be very charismatic when he wanted to be – hence why they had quietly begun slipping some of Breetai's people – well ones that Khyron and Zeraal probably would not know to be loyal to Breetai and through him them – among their ranks. The latter members though, they were just arrogant small-minded people that he had little time for.
"Enough," he said looking firmly at Colonel Matthews who was one of the leading xenophobes. "The council has already decided that imposing additional restrictions and controls on the Zentraedi at this time would be counterproductive – raising the issue at every opportunity is not going to get us to change our minds."
"But sir we need to…"
"The decision has been made," Secretary Anderson, the current UEG secretary of defence who was also acting as council chairman, added firmly. "Admiral Gloval is right in his words. The issue of additional restrictions is closed for now, should the situation change, we may consider the matter again but not until then. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir," Matthews replied, glowering slightly at being foiled once again. Damn it didn't they see that they had to put some additional controls on the Zentraedi? The giants had exterminated eighty percent of the human race in minutes for goodness sakes. Were they to just let them roam free so they could plot wiping out the rest of them? Still, he knew better than to push some more now, though he glared at Gloval infuriated by his cowardice in this matter only to be pointedly ignored.
"Right moving onto the last item on today's agenda," Anderson said, shooting a warning glare at Matthews having seen the way he looked at Gloval. The other man obviously read the implicit warning as he winced. Then he turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "General Markwell I believe you have something to report?"
"Yes, as you are all aware I have a number of combat engineering crews spread out around the planet cleaning up some of the more dangerous wrecked Zentraedi vessels," the general reported, "three days ago they finished cleaning up the crashed Thuverl Salan cruiser on the Giza Plateau. As they were clearing away the last of the wreckage from the bow section, they found something underneath it."
"What kind of something," Anderson asked.
"Beneath a series of carved sandstone cover stones covered with Egyptian hieroglyphs, they discovered a large ring structure six point seven meters in diameter and a smaller vaguely mushroom shaped pedestal device. Both are engraved with strange symbols and are made from a material not found on Earth," Markwell replied. "I passed a copy of our scan data to Exedore to see if the Zentraedi could identify it from their own records."
"And we have," Exedore answered taking that as his cue to speak. "While the purpose of the ring is unknown to us the material that it and the pedestal device are made from are not. They are composed of a rare quasi-metallic element called naquada. A material with some very interesting and useful properties though its scarcity in their native galaxy has long prevented the Robotech Masters from exploiting them in anything other than a limited fashion."
"What kind of properties are we talking about, Exedore," Gloval asked curious.
"Naquada is a room temperature hyperconductor as well as an energy amplifier," Exedore replied, "whatever energy you put into it you get a hundred times as much energy out. In certain situations, and with certain materials it can also be used to generate considerable amounts of energy though not as much as a reflex furnace."
"Sounds highly useful," Matthews commented, even as he inwardly grimaced at having to talk to the micronized Zentraedi official at all. He would have much rather shot the alien bastard dead where he sat than talk to him. Unfortunately, he couldn't act on that impulse, not without signing his own death warrant anyway as he knew full well that Gloval wouldn't hesitate to have him shot or worse turn him over to Breetai so the Zentraedi could slowly crush him for killing his former advisor and still close friend.
"It is colonel," Exedore replied "though as I said its relative scarcity in our native galaxy has prevented the Robotech Masters from exploiting it as anything other than a scientific curiosity. However, I believe the material might be far more common in this galaxy."
"What do you mean?" Anderson asked curious.
"When we were searching for the SDF-1 our forces scanned numerous star systems before our finder beams locked onto this planet," Exedore explained, "in almost every case we detected signatures that indicate that naquada is likely present in system. However, since there was no protoculture signature we did not investigate any further."
"Do you know if there is any more in this system?" Gloval asked.
"I'm afraid not, once we located the SDF-1 our focus was naturally on recovering the ship and not scanning the rest of the system for resources," Exedore replied. "As you all know our mission was to recover the battlefortress and return it to the Robotech Masters not resource acquisition."
"What about the ring itself and the cover stones?" Anderson asked changing the topic slightly, "what are we doing about them?"
"The ring and the cover stones have been transported to the UEDF base on Crete. We didn't want too but intelligence indicated that at least one of the EBSIS backed Islamist militia's that are still at large in the region was heading in the direction of Giza, so we carefully moved them," Markwell replied. "We are currently attempting to find someone who can translate the hieroglyphics for us but it's slow going. Sadly, almost all the world's Egyptologists were killed during Dolza's attack or in the immediate aftermath. Finding one who is alive is proving difficult though we do have a promising lead on a former Egyptologist and anthropologist a Doctor Daniel Jackson. He is now working as a language teacher in a university in the Chilean capital Santiago.
"As for the rings some scientists from the Robotech Research Group facility in Austria, led by an astrophysicist named Samantha Carter, have arrived on the base, and are beginning to examine both it and the pedestal. They have already determined that they are some-kind of wirelessly linked mechanism."
"How so," Gloval asked, making a mental note to check up with Emil later if he knew anything about the ring. Though he was also familiar with the name Samantha Carter, the former US Air Force officer turned civilian researcher had been instrumental in helping unlock the secrets of reflex furnace technology. He would also have to check his inbox for any reports on this ring device as being the admiral of the fleet he would naturally have a copy forwarded to him.
"When they were unpacking the pedestal one of the techs inadvertently touched one of the panels," Markwell answered, "it lit up and the ring itself made a grinding noise. When they looked at it, they could see that the symbols are mounted on an inner ring that was rotating. It stopped beneath one of the chevron shaped devices spaced around the ring which made a locking motion and locking in place."
Exedore frowned. "That's strange have you compared the symbols to anything?" he asked.
"We have. They appear to be stylized representations of various constellations though why they're there we still do not know."
"Keep us appraised General," Anderson ordered.
"Of course, sir."
"Is there any other business," Anderson said glancing around to see if anyone else had something that they wished to bring before the council. There was nothing. "Then this meeting of the defence council is officially adjourned. Good evening gentlemen and ladies, I will see you all at next week's meeting."
With the official end of the meeting everyone picked up their tablet computers and stood before starting to make their way out of the room. General Markwell quickly moved to speak with Admiral Gloval before the Russian man could leave the room, thankfully Gloval seemed to realize that he wanted something, so he stood back to wait for him.
"General Markwell is there something I can help you with?" Gloval asked, "something to do with the ring?"
"Yes, sir there is," Markwell answered, "as I said in the meeting, we have located Doctor Jackson in Santiago. However, I need your help to contact him. I would send someone myself but…"
"…doing so would mean you would have to deal with General Leonard, and he would certainly want something in return and make you jump through far too many bureaucratic hoops while sending one of his own people to seek out Doctor Jackson," Gloval finished, knowing Anatole Leonard of old. Thus, he knew the power plays that he liked to get up to whenever he thought he could get away with it and being the senior UEDF officer in South America he tended to treat the region somewhat as his own personal fiefdom. Thus, he would argue and frustrate almost anyone who asked for something from him or his region – well unless that was someone like him. While Leonard would argue with Markwell, he wouldn't dare argue with him or do anything to get in his way – he knew where far too many of the other man's skeletons were buried for him to do that.
"Yes."
"Send me all the information you have on the ring and some of the images of the hieroglyphs. I'll send one of my old command crew down to Santiago to recruit Doctor Jackson," Gloval said already working out just who he would send to accomplish the mission of recruiting the former Egyptologist. While Anatole would still outrank whoever he sent he knew full well that the other man wouldn't dare do anything to interfere with them or their mission. To do so would risk a confrontation with him and that would be the last thing that Leonard would want.
"Thank you I'll make sure it's sent to you as soon as I get back to my office."
"You're welcome," Gloval replied prompting the other officer to smile, nod, and walk away to return to his office to make the appropriate arrangement. Gloval was about to leave himself when Exedore came up to him. "Yes Exedore?"
"Admiral based on the discussion that has just been had do you want me to speak with Lord Breetai," Exedore asked, "and request a more detailed scan of both the planet and the system in general?"
"To search for more of this naquada mineral?" Gloval asked, the micronized Zentraedi nodded in response. Gloval considered that for a moment, this naquada did sound like it was a highly useful material. If they could find more of it, not to mention figure out what the hell the ring and the pedestal actually did, then it could help them a lot. They wouldn't have to rely so much on the protoculture they were recovering from the wreckage of the Zentraedi main fleet to power their technology, especially the technology that was helping them with planetary regeneration like the atmospheric filtration towers and soil regenerators.
"Very well ask Breetai if he wouldn't mind doing it," he said at last. "And while we are here, has there been any word from our spies?"
"Very little at the moment otherwise I would have mentioned it during the meeting," Exedore replied. "I do know that Kazarn has successfully integrated himself with Zeraal's group and Arzen has done the same with Khyron's group. The fact that we arranged for both of them to have received training in maintenance and repair of battle mecha has helped considerably there. Beyond that we have nothing so far, beyond that there is considerable friction between Zeraal and Khyron – which does not surprise me in the least given Khyron has a less than stellar reputation among my people – though how far that goes at the moment we do not know."
"It would be advantageous if we could get them to fight one another."
"Indeed. I have forwarded what information our spies have gathered so far to your inbox."
"Thank you Exedore."
"You are most welcome. If there is nothing else Admiral, I will take my leave and contact Lord Breetai to arrange the scans."
"No there is nothing else. Good day Exedore."
"And you Admiral Gloval," Exedore replied with a polite half-bow – that among Zentraedi conveyed genuine respect for a superior – before turning and walking away. Gloval watched him go for a few moments, then sighed, and started walking back to his office he had a mission to arrange and a mountain of paperwork to get through…
…what fun.
~~//~~
Santiago
Chile
Eighteen Hours Later
Daniel Jackson felt a familiar mixture of exhaustion, frustration and humiliation pulling at him as he drove through the streets of downtown Santiago heading for the small, somewhat rundown, apartment that he had called home for over a decade now. The reason he was feeling like he wasn't due, well not entirely, to his job he actually quite enjoyed teaching young people how to speak English and a few other languages well when they wanted to learn anyway.
Which his current crop of students didn't seem to want to do. Hence why teaching them was such an exhausting, frustrating experience. Every single one of them would rather talk and gossip about the recent appearance of UEDF construction crews – which consisted of a mixture of humans, micronized and full-sized Zentraedi – that had shown up a few weeks ago and begun restoring and upgrading the cities infrastructure, which had been quite seriously damaged by the earthquakes that had followed the Rain of Death. He could understand it to a degree, learning modern international English or ancient Sumerian was nowhere near as cool as seeing giant humanoids – be they biological like the Zentraedi or technological like the engineering outfitted Spartan destroids – walking around their city.
Of course, understanding it didn't make it any less frustrating.
The humiliation though came from the fact that he was having to do this work at all. He had not spent nearly a decade becoming an archaeologist and anthropologist just to teach a bunch of teenagers with galloping acne, not to mention the usual amateur dramatics teenagers loved to indulge in, how to speak English and almost other language they had signed up to learn. No, he had done all that work to learn about the past, to piece together the mysteries of the Ancient World. He had thought, had actually known, that he had stumbled onto something amazing, something that could rewrite everything they ever thought they knew about the civilizations of the Ancient World and Egypt in particular.
And what had he got for his trouble… being laughed out of academia by conservative peers who didn't like anything that interfered with their preconceived notions of the past. He sighed wondering why it was bothering him so much today, he had had over two decades now to get used to it. Then he remembered as it was on this day all the way back in 94 that he had presented his research and findings, only to be torn to pieces by the attack dogs of the academic world.
A world that no longer really existed as he knew that so many of his former colleagues had died in or just after the Rain. Their lives snuffed out either in the quantum fires of phenomenally powerful alien energy beams or in the geological and climatic chaos that had followed as the Mother Earth writhed in agony from the assault.
Mentally he shook himself before turning down the road that led to his apartment block. He noted idly that the UEDF and Zentraedi engineers had finished clearing up the collapsed remains of a large hotel complex and had begun preparing the ground for new construction. A quick scan of the sign outside the site showed that it would soon be housing the second of the three atmospheric filtration towers that were to be built in Chile – and from there do their part in clearing up not just all the dust and debris that had been blasted into the stratosphere during the Rain but much of pollution from the industrialisation of the world – returning the atmosphere to a state of cleanliness that it had not been in for nearly two centuries.
He couldn't help but shake his head in amazement at that prospect. He was no climatologist – though he did have some passing familiarity with the science from where it had impacted global history – but even he could see how big of a job that was going to be. And if what he had heard on the talk shows was right, they would have it done within at most the next ten to fifteen years – the filters and cleaners made possible through robotechnology being just that good. Hmm maybe if the wi-fi is working in my building, for once, I'll download some papers on them from the internet, he thought as it would be a nice distraction from the inevitable marking he would soon have to be doing.
Reaching his apartment building he pulled into his normal parking bay, turned off the engine and got out. After retrieving his box of marking from the back he made his way inside.
~~//~~
Five minutes later, holding a freshly brewed mug of coffee, he had just settled down in his favourite armchair when someone knocked on his door. He looked up in surprise. Now who could that be, he thought as he put the mug down on a side table and stood up. He made his way to the door and looked through the peep hole, to see a beautiful African-American woman in a green UEDF uniform standing in the corridor. Who was she? What, was she doing here? What, did she want with him? He guessed there was only one way to find out.
He undid the locks and opened the door to see the woman still standing there, holding a briefcase that he hadn't seen, standing behind her was a dark-haired young man also dressed in UEDF uniform wearing the insignia of a veritech pilot. "May I help you," he asked politely.
"Doctor Daniel Jackson?" the woman asked seeking to confirm his identity as the man before her looked a little different to the picture she had seen of him, his hair was longer, and he was sporting a significant beard and all in all looked a bit more haggard.
"Yes," Daniel confirmed.
"My name is Major Claudia Grant from the Robotech Defence Force," she said introducing herself, "this is Captain Rick Hunter my escort and pilot. May we come in please?"
Daniel looked at them in surprise. He recognised the names now; he would have to have been living under a rock not to recognise two heroes from the war with the Zentraedi. "Sure," he said stepping aside to let the two of them enter his apartment. As soon as they were in, he closed and locked the door again. "This way."
He led them into the living room and gestured for them to sit on the couch, like most of his furniture it was somewhat moth-bitten but was still comfortable. Once they had done so he sat down in his air chair again.
"So, what does the RDF want with me?" he asked.
"We need your help," Claudia replied, "are you aware that you are one of the few people left in the world who can translate Egyptian hieroglyphs?"
"You want me to translate something for you?" Daniel asked, "why would I do that? I was laughed out of that world a long time ago."
"Maybe because doing so could help you prove that you were right all along," Claudia pointed out. Daniel blinked at that reply, he had been quietly searching for years for conclusive, undeniable proof of his theories so he could return to the academic world if only to say, 'I told you so' and to see the look on the face of that sanctimonious ass Jim Raynor when he realized he had been right. While Jim was dead now, like so many others, killed when Washington DC was incinerated by a reflex blast having proof to show to any of the survivors, who still doubted him, would be nice.
"I'm listening," he said after a moment.
Claudia nodded and began explaining about how one of the Zentraedi cruisers that had crashed to Earth after the defeat of Dolza had come down over Egypt totally destroyed the great pyramids of Giza – causing a horrified look to appear on Daniel's face at the news of such a legacy being gone forever – before crashing into the plateau where it finally stopped. How after a year or so it had begun leaking radiation from its damaged sublight engines and how that radiation had begun drifting steadily towards both Cairo and the Nile valley and how they had sent combat engineers to clear up the wreck and deal with the radiation problem.
"Thank god you stopped it," Daniel commented knowing how many people lived in the four millennia old city and how vital a farmland the Nile Delta was. "But what does this have to do with me and my theories?"
"I was just getting to that," Claudia replied. "As they finished clearing away the remains of the cruiser for recycling, they found something buried beneath it. Something that has been buried beneath the sandstone of the Giza Plateau for over six thousand years."
Daniel's eyes widened. "What!" he breathed, shocked and amazed. "What did they find?"
"They found a series of sandstone cover stone tablets circular approximately several meters in diameter, they were covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs from the Old Kingdom era. What was buried beneath them, well that is classified at the moment."
"The Old Kingdom," Daniel breathed amazed, recovering anything from Ancient Egypt was remarkable but from something so long ago, from when the great pyramids themselves were built, was even more astonishing. "I take it that it is those hieroglyphics that you wish for me to translate. Though how does that connect to my theories?"
"That's the classified part of things at the moment Doctor Jackson," Rick said calmly even as Claudia opened the briefcase she was carrying and extracted a file.
"This file contains a few images of some of the hieroglyphs," Claudia said offering it to him. Almost reverently Daniel accepted the file from her and, after a glance for permission, he opened the file and saw three of the highest quality photographs that he had ever seen. Each showed a single hieroglyph that he carefully read and translated, feeling his old passion for the subject come to the fore.
"Well, this first one says sealed, the second translates to all time and the third says Ra," he said at last, intrigued as all three were clearly part of a single statement. He gave the African-American woman an impressed look, they had given him just enough information in these images to whet his appetite to know more about what was written on the recovered cover stones. "Okay you've got me I'll come with you to translate the rest of the hieroglyphs for you," he said at last. "Though what about my job here?"
"You need not give it up," Claudia answered, "the United Earth Government and United Earth Defence Forces are quite prepared to negotiate with your employers for use of your services. I believe that the school is currently quite strapped for cash as well as having to use very antiquated technologies."
That's an understatement, Daniel thought knowing how rundown many of the buildings on the campus were becoming because the school just didn't have the financial resources to maintain them properly. Plus, the technology they had was getting increasingly antiquated with computers that barely ran even the most basic modern software because they were so old. Heck they were still using blackboards and chalk for writing in sometimes quite drafty classroom not interactive smart screens and definitely no holograms. The promise of a huge cash injection from the UEG, plus a possible massive building and tech upgrade, in exchange for a loan of him would definitely be snapped up by the school authorities.
"Alright if it can be arranged and if I know my students will be taken care of then I will not hesitate to accompany you to wherever you have the cover stones."
Claudia smiled.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and universes that I am about to mangle around and mash together for my own demented author amusement – sadly all Robotech and Stargate characters and concepts remain the property of Harmony Gold and MGM respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anyone.
Authors Notes: This story is a Stargate/Robotech fusion story that is not in any way related to This Isn't Kansas and is instead set in a universe where the Stargate was never recovered from beneath the Giza Plateau in the late 1920's due to the fact that the expedition that found it was never mounted. In this reality like so many other men of his generation Professor Langford died in the trenches of the First World War. Thus, the Stargate, and its DHD, have remained undisturbed buried beneath the sands of Giza where they have remained – until now.
I have wanted to do this story for quite a while, really since my last read through of Cyclone's sadly abandoned story Closer To Home and ultimately thought what the hell might as well have a crack at it. So, without further ado let's get cracking shall we.
Story events begin towards the end of the two-year period between the Rain of Death and Khyron's uprising.
~~~///~~~
Chapter One
Zentraedi Reclamation Site L314
Giza Plateau, Egypt
5th September 2013
Colonel James Fawcett, formerly of the US Army Corps of Engineers now UEDF Army Core of Engineers, smiled as he carefully read through the latest report from the teams working outside the dense robotech alloy walls of the repurposed Zentraedi dropship that they had been using as a base for the last few months. Finally, after several months of work they had almost finished the job that they had been sent out here – to the torn up remains of the Giza Plateau – to do. The job in question was one that he, and many of his colleagues, was becoming quite familiar with.
They were here to remove a crashed Zentraedi warship – specifically a Thuverl Salan-class heavy cruiser – that had fallen to Earth in the aftermath of the Rain of Death and the battle with Dolza. The cruiser in question like so many others having been caught up in the massive reflex weapon detonation that had not only obliterated the massive asteroid that had been converted into the Zentraedi's main fleet base but created a wave of supercharged particles and plasma that had annihilated the vast majority of the Zentraedi Main Fleet. The cruiser and the others that had crashed had been at the edge of the blast area and while they had escaped utter obliteration they had still been disabled – the crew aboard this particular vessel killed – and far, far too many of them had fallen into the gravity well of the smouldering Earth.
This particular cruiser had come down over North Africa and as it came in had completely trashed the pyramids of Giza – the ancient Egyptian monuments, which had endured several millennia of Saharan sandstorms and countless generations of tomb raiders, being no match for a few million tons of super-strong alien alloy falling at hypersonic velocities – before ploughing into the rest of the Giza Plateau and ripping up the sandstone like it was water before coming to a dead halt. There it had laid leaking both gamma and hyper-ionic radiation from broken open sublight engine cores, radiation that had begun drifting towards both Cairo and the extremely fertile farmland of the Nile delta. A situation that everybody knew could not have been allowed to continue – especially as they needed all the fertile farmland they could get right now as so much had been scorched into uselessness by the quantum fires of the Rain of Death.
Hence Admiral Gloval and General Maistroff had sent them here to clean up and dispose of the wreckage before the radiation could reach either Cairo or the delta.
Using a number of adapted destroids – specifically Spartan destroids which were the easiest to customise and had fully functional hands much like on a battloid – they had gotten to work. The damaged sublight engine cores had been relatively easy to remove and transport somewhere they could be safely disposed of through a combination of disassembly and decontamination. The bigger problem they had faced was disassembling the rest of the ship due to the heavy armour and structural bracing that all warships had not to mention some of the more complex internal components like the reflex furnaces as well as safely removing the cruisers huge stockpile of anti-ship munitions.
It was the disassembly of the ship that had taken the most time. But now they had more or less finished, according to the report the last few segments of the hull were scheduled to be taken away to a foundry outside Lisbon later today where they would be melted down and recycled. After all there was nothing wrong with the metal once recycled it could be used for any number of purposes including the rebuilding of Earth's infrastructure which had naturally been very badly damaged during the Rain. He had already heard that some of the metal they'd recovered had already been recycled into a brand-new maglev track between Paris and London via a newly refurbished and upgraded – a project that had actually begun before the Rain, but which like so much else had had to briefly put on hold by the need to deal with the post-Rain global humanitarian catastrophe – Channel Tunnel.
A knock at the door brought him out of his perusal of the progress report. He looked up with a frown of confusion wondering who it was. "Come in," he called out. The door opened and Lieutenant Paulson, who looked a lot younger than his twenty-nine years, came in. "Yes lieutenant?"
"Sir we've finished loading the last of the Zentraedi ship fragments onto the trucks for transport to the airport," Paulson reported before pausing, "however when we removed the last piece, we found something buried underneath."
Oh, please let it not be an artifact from Ancient Egypt, James thought, knowing that if that was the case it would require him to fill in six ton of additional paperwork. He would also have to secure the site until the UEG to rustle up archaeologists or Egyptologists from somewhere to come and investigate. Which wouldn't be easy as so many of the world's scientists had perished during the Rain of Death as many had been based in universities that had been incinerated during the reflex cannon bombardment.
"What kind of something," he asked after a moment.
Paulson grimaced, having seen the expressions that had flashed across his CO's face. Thus, he knew what he had to say was probably not going to go down that well, hell he didn't relish saying it himself given all the additional paperwork that was about to be dumped on both their desks. "Sir it's a series of sandstone cover stones engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphics, the cover stones are approximately several meters in diameter and have to weigh a good few thousand tons," he reported, "to make matters worse there is a huge crack running across them from where the underside of the cruiser's prow was literally pressing down on them. And that's not all."
James winced. "What else," he asked knowing that the Egyptologists were not going to be that happy with that report, not that they could blame him for it as a few million tons of derelict robotech warship sitting on top of the cover stones was bound to cause significant damage. Frankly they were lucky that the whole mass hadn't been reduced to broken shards or melted by the heat of the cruisers initial impact with the desert floor.
"Sir there is something buried underneath the stones," Paulson replied, "the sensors on our Spartans are picking up a large metallic signature, two of them in fact, that does not match any material in our database, whatever it is it's definitely not from Earth."
"It's alien? How long has it been there?"
"From the depth beneath the modern desert surface I would say at least six thousand years. Sir should we attempt to recover it?"
"No but secure the area we will call in some experts to help recover whatever it is," James answered, "however I want you to run a few scans through the cover stones if you can. Forward me the results as soon as you have them."
"Understood sir."
"Dismissed lieutenant."
"Sir."
~~//~~
United Earth Defence Command
New Macross City
Three Days Later
Admiral Henry Gloval felt like he was beating his head against a brick wall as he attempted, once again, to deal with those members of the defence council and the United Earth Government who wanted to increase controls on all planet side Zentraedi – both those that were and weren't micronized. The reason that they were giving this time was the increased tensions and frustrations the aliens were exhibiting as they attempted to adapt to a life outside of constant warfare. Some of the councillors were concerned that it would lead to violence – the aliens falling back into old habits and programmed responses – others well they were simply being xenophobic assholes using any excuse to try and make trouble.
The former he could understand their concerns – especially as there were rumours of Zentraedi warlords out in the wastelands created by the Rain who were seeking to create trouble, warlords like Khyron, Azonia and someone called Zeraal – and he even shared some of them to a degree. Hell, he knew that Commander Breetai also had some concerns about the warlords – especially Zeraal who had been one of Dolza's most loyal and capable commanders, and Khyron who for all his instabilities could be very charismatic when he wanted to be – hence why they had quietly begun slipping some of Breetai's people – well ones that Khyron and Zeraal probably would not know to be loyal to Breetai and through him them – among their ranks. The latter members though, they were just arrogant small-minded people that he had little time for.
"Enough," he said looking firmly at Colonel Matthews who was one of the leading xenophobes. "The council has already decided that imposing additional restrictions and controls on the Zentraedi at this time would be counterproductive – raising the issue at every opportunity is not going to get us to change our minds."
"But sir we need to…"
"The decision has been made," Secretary Anderson, the current UEG secretary of defence who was also acting as council chairman, added firmly. "Admiral Gloval is right in his words. The issue of additional restrictions is closed for now, should the situation change, we may consider the matter again but not until then. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir," Matthews replied, glowering slightly at being foiled once again. Damn it didn't they see that they had to put some additional controls on the Zentraedi? The giants had exterminated eighty percent of the human race in minutes for goodness sakes. Were they to just let them roam free so they could plot wiping out the rest of them? Still, he knew better than to push some more now, though he glared at Gloval infuriated by his cowardice in this matter only to be pointedly ignored.
"Right moving onto the last item on today's agenda," Anderson said, shooting a warning glare at Matthews having seen the way he looked at Gloval. The other man obviously read the implicit warning as he winced. Then he turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "General Markwell I believe you have something to report?"
"Yes, as you are all aware I have a number of combat engineering crews spread out around the planet cleaning up some of the more dangerous wrecked Zentraedi vessels," the general reported, "three days ago they finished cleaning up the crashed Thuverl Salan cruiser on the Giza Plateau. As they were clearing away the last of the wreckage from the bow section, they found something underneath it."
"What kind of something," Anderson asked.
"Beneath a series of carved sandstone cover stones covered with Egyptian hieroglyphs, they discovered a large ring structure six point seven meters in diameter and a smaller vaguely mushroom shaped pedestal device. Both are engraved with strange symbols and are made from a material not found on Earth," Markwell replied. "I passed a copy of our scan data to Exedore to see if the Zentraedi could identify it from their own records."
"And we have," Exedore answered taking that as his cue to speak. "While the purpose of the ring is unknown to us the material that it and the pedestal device are made from are not. They are composed of a rare quasi-metallic element called naquada. A material with some very interesting and useful properties though its scarcity in their native galaxy has long prevented the Robotech Masters from exploiting them in anything other than a limited fashion."
"What kind of properties are we talking about, Exedore," Gloval asked curious.
"Naquada is a room temperature hyperconductor as well as an energy amplifier," Exedore replied, "whatever energy you put into it you get a hundred times as much energy out. In certain situations, and with certain materials it can also be used to generate considerable amounts of energy though not as much as a reflex furnace."
"Sounds highly useful," Matthews commented, even as he inwardly grimaced at having to talk to the micronized Zentraedi official at all. He would have much rather shot the alien bastard dead where he sat than talk to him. Unfortunately, he couldn't act on that impulse, not without signing his own death warrant anyway as he knew full well that Gloval wouldn't hesitate to have him shot or worse turn him over to Breetai so the Zentraedi could slowly crush him for killing his former advisor and still close friend.
"It is colonel," Exedore replied "though as I said its relative scarcity in our native galaxy has prevented the Robotech Masters from exploiting it as anything other than a scientific curiosity. However, I believe the material might be far more common in this galaxy."
"What do you mean?" Anderson asked curious.
"When we were searching for the SDF-1 our forces scanned numerous star systems before our finder beams locked onto this planet," Exedore explained, "in almost every case we detected signatures that indicate that naquada is likely present in system. However, since there was no protoculture signature we did not investigate any further."
"Do you know if there is any more in this system?" Gloval asked.
"I'm afraid not, once we located the SDF-1 our focus was naturally on recovering the ship and not scanning the rest of the system for resources," Exedore replied. "As you all know our mission was to recover the battlefortress and return it to the Robotech Masters not resource acquisition."
"What about the ring itself and the cover stones?" Anderson asked changing the topic slightly, "what are we doing about them?"
"The ring and the cover stones have been transported to the UEDF base on Crete. We didn't want too but intelligence indicated that at least one of the EBSIS backed Islamist militia's that are still at large in the region was heading in the direction of Giza, so we carefully moved them," Markwell replied. "We are currently attempting to find someone who can translate the hieroglyphics for us but it's slow going. Sadly, almost all the world's Egyptologists were killed during Dolza's attack or in the immediate aftermath. Finding one who is alive is proving difficult though we do have a promising lead on a former Egyptologist and anthropologist a Doctor Daniel Jackson. He is now working as a language teacher in a university in the Chilean capital Santiago.
"As for the rings some scientists from the Robotech Research Group facility in Austria, led by an astrophysicist named Samantha Carter, have arrived on the base, and are beginning to examine both it and the pedestal. They have already determined that they are some-kind of wirelessly linked mechanism."
"How so," Gloval asked, making a mental note to check up with Emil later if he knew anything about the ring. Though he was also familiar with the name Samantha Carter, the former US Air Force officer turned civilian researcher had been instrumental in helping unlock the secrets of reflex furnace technology. He would also have to check his inbox for any reports on this ring device as being the admiral of the fleet he would naturally have a copy forwarded to him.
"When they were unpacking the pedestal one of the techs inadvertently touched one of the panels," Markwell answered, "it lit up and the ring itself made a grinding noise. When they looked at it, they could see that the symbols are mounted on an inner ring that was rotating. It stopped beneath one of the chevron shaped devices spaced around the ring which made a locking motion and locking in place."
Exedore frowned. "That's strange have you compared the symbols to anything?" he asked.
"We have. They appear to be stylized representations of various constellations though why they're there we still do not know."
"Keep us appraised General," Anderson ordered.
"Of course, sir."
"Is there any other business," Anderson said glancing around to see if anyone else had something that they wished to bring before the council. There was nothing. "Then this meeting of the defence council is officially adjourned. Good evening gentlemen and ladies, I will see you all at next week's meeting."
With the official end of the meeting everyone picked up their tablet computers and stood before starting to make their way out of the room. General Markwell quickly moved to speak with Admiral Gloval before the Russian man could leave the room, thankfully Gloval seemed to realize that he wanted something, so he stood back to wait for him.
"General Markwell is there something I can help you with?" Gloval asked, "something to do with the ring?"
"Yes, sir there is," Markwell answered, "as I said in the meeting, we have located Doctor Jackson in Santiago. However, I need your help to contact him. I would send someone myself but…"
"…doing so would mean you would have to deal with General Leonard, and he would certainly want something in return and make you jump through far too many bureaucratic hoops while sending one of his own people to seek out Doctor Jackson," Gloval finished, knowing Anatole Leonard of old. Thus, he knew the power plays that he liked to get up to whenever he thought he could get away with it and being the senior UEDF officer in South America he tended to treat the region somewhat as his own personal fiefdom. Thus, he would argue and frustrate almost anyone who asked for something from him or his region – well unless that was someone like him. While Leonard would argue with Markwell, he wouldn't dare argue with him or do anything to get in his way – he knew where far too many of the other man's skeletons were buried for him to do that.
"Yes."
"Send me all the information you have on the ring and some of the images of the hieroglyphs. I'll send one of my old command crew down to Santiago to recruit Doctor Jackson," Gloval said already working out just who he would send to accomplish the mission of recruiting the former Egyptologist. While Anatole would still outrank whoever he sent he knew full well that the other man wouldn't dare do anything to interfere with them or their mission. To do so would risk a confrontation with him and that would be the last thing that Leonard would want.
"Thank you I'll make sure it's sent to you as soon as I get back to my office."
"You're welcome," Gloval replied prompting the other officer to smile, nod, and walk away to return to his office to make the appropriate arrangement. Gloval was about to leave himself when Exedore came up to him. "Yes Exedore?"
"Admiral based on the discussion that has just been had do you want me to speak with Lord Breetai," Exedore asked, "and request a more detailed scan of both the planet and the system in general?"
"To search for more of this naquada mineral?" Gloval asked, the micronized Zentraedi nodded in response. Gloval considered that for a moment, this naquada did sound like it was a highly useful material. If they could find more of it, not to mention figure out what the hell the ring and the pedestal actually did, then it could help them a lot. They wouldn't have to rely so much on the protoculture they were recovering from the wreckage of the Zentraedi main fleet to power their technology, especially the technology that was helping them with planetary regeneration like the atmospheric filtration towers and soil regenerators.
"Very well ask Breetai if he wouldn't mind doing it," he said at last. "And while we are here, has there been any word from our spies?"
"Very little at the moment otherwise I would have mentioned it during the meeting," Exedore replied. "I do know that Kazarn has successfully integrated himself with Zeraal's group and Arzen has done the same with Khyron's group. The fact that we arranged for both of them to have received training in maintenance and repair of battle mecha has helped considerably there. Beyond that we have nothing so far, beyond that there is considerable friction between Zeraal and Khyron – which does not surprise me in the least given Khyron has a less than stellar reputation among my people – though how far that goes at the moment we do not know."
"It would be advantageous if we could get them to fight one another."
"Indeed. I have forwarded what information our spies have gathered so far to your inbox."
"Thank you Exedore."
"You are most welcome. If there is nothing else Admiral, I will take my leave and contact Lord Breetai to arrange the scans."
"No there is nothing else. Good day Exedore."
"And you Admiral Gloval," Exedore replied with a polite half-bow – that among Zentraedi conveyed genuine respect for a superior – before turning and walking away. Gloval watched him go for a few moments, then sighed, and started walking back to his office he had a mission to arrange and a mountain of paperwork to get through…
…what fun.
~~//~~
Santiago
Chile
Eighteen Hours Later
Daniel Jackson felt a familiar mixture of exhaustion, frustration and humiliation pulling at him as he drove through the streets of downtown Santiago heading for the small, somewhat rundown, apartment that he had called home for over a decade now. The reason he was feeling like he wasn't due, well not entirely, to his job he actually quite enjoyed teaching young people how to speak English and a few other languages well when they wanted to learn anyway.
Which his current crop of students didn't seem to want to do. Hence why teaching them was such an exhausting, frustrating experience. Every single one of them would rather talk and gossip about the recent appearance of UEDF construction crews – which consisted of a mixture of humans, micronized and full-sized Zentraedi – that had shown up a few weeks ago and begun restoring and upgrading the cities infrastructure, which had been quite seriously damaged by the earthquakes that had followed the Rain of Death. He could understand it to a degree, learning modern international English or ancient Sumerian was nowhere near as cool as seeing giant humanoids – be they biological like the Zentraedi or technological like the engineering outfitted Spartan destroids – walking around their city.
Of course, understanding it didn't make it any less frustrating.
The humiliation though came from the fact that he was having to do this work at all. He had not spent nearly a decade becoming an archaeologist and anthropologist just to teach a bunch of teenagers with galloping acne, not to mention the usual amateur dramatics teenagers loved to indulge in, how to speak English and almost other language they had signed up to learn. No, he had done all that work to learn about the past, to piece together the mysteries of the Ancient World. He had thought, had actually known, that he had stumbled onto something amazing, something that could rewrite everything they ever thought they knew about the civilizations of the Ancient World and Egypt in particular.
And what had he got for his trouble… being laughed out of academia by conservative peers who didn't like anything that interfered with their preconceived notions of the past. He sighed wondering why it was bothering him so much today, he had had over two decades now to get used to it. Then he remembered as it was on this day all the way back in 94 that he had presented his research and findings, only to be torn to pieces by the attack dogs of the academic world.
A world that no longer really existed as he knew that so many of his former colleagues had died in or just after the Rain. Their lives snuffed out either in the quantum fires of phenomenally powerful alien energy beams or in the geological and climatic chaos that had followed as the Mother Earth writhed in agony from the assault.
Mentally he shook himself before turning down the road that led to his apartment block. He noted idly that the UEDF and Zentraedi engineers had finished clearing up the collapsed remains of a large hotel complex and had begun preparing the ground for new construction. A quick scan of the sign outside the site showed that it would soon be housing the second of the three atmospheric filtration towers that were to be built in Chile – and from there do their part in clearing up not just all the dust and debris that had been blasted into the stratosphere during the Rain but much of pollution from the industrialisation of the world – returning the atmosphere to a state of cleanliness that it had not been in for nearly two centuries.
He couldn't help but shake his head in amazement at that prospect. He was no climatologist – though he did have some passing familiarity with the science from where it had impacted global history – but even he could see how big of a job that was going to be. And if what he had heard on the talk shows was right, they would have it done within at most the next ten to fifteen years – the filters and cleaners made possible through robotechnology being just that good. Hmm maybe if the wi-fi is working in my building, for once, I'll download some papers on them from the internet, he thought as it would be a nice distraction from the inevitable marking he would soon have to be doing.
Reaching his apartment building he pulled into his normal parking bay, turned off the engine and got out. After retrieving his box of marking from the back he made his way inside.
~~//~~
Five minutes later, holding a freshly brewed mug of coffee, he had just settled down in his favourite armchair when someone knocked on his door. He looked up in surprise. Now who could that be, he thought as he put the mug down on a side table and stood up. He made his way to the door and looked through the peep hole, to see a beautiful African-American woman in a green UEDF uniform standing in the corridor. Who was she? What, was she doing here? What, did she want with him? He guessed there was only one way to find out.
He undid the locks and opened the door to see the woman still standing there, holding a briefcase that he hadn't seen, standing behind her was a dark-haired young man also dressed in UEDF uniform wearing the insignia of a veritech pilot. "May I help you," he asked politely.
"Doctor Daniel Jackson?" the woman asked seeking to confirm his identity as the man before her looked a little different to the picture she had seen of him, his hair was longer, and he was sporting a significant beard and all in all looked a bit more haggard.
"Yes," Daniel confirmed.
"My name is Major Claudia Grant from the Robotech Defence Force," she said introducing herself, "this is Captain Rick Hunter my escort and pilot. May we come in please?"
Daniel looked at them in surprise. He recognised the names now; he would have to have been living under a rock not to recognise two heroes from the war with the Zentraedi. "Sure," he said stepping aside to let the two of them enter his apartment. As soon as they were in, he closed and locked the door again. "This way."
He led them into the living room and gestured for them to sit on the couch, like most of his furniture it was somewhat moth-bitten but was still comfortable. Once they had done so he sat down in his air chair again.
"So, what does the RDF want with me?" he asked.
"We need your help," Claudia replied, "are you aware that you are one of the few people left in the world who can translate Egyptian hieroglyphs?"
"You want me to translate something for you?" Daniel asked, "why would I do that? I was laughed out of that world a long time ago."
"Maybe because doing so could help you prove that you were right all along," Claudia pointed out. Daniel blinked at that reply, he had been quietly searching for years for conclusive, undeniable proof of his theories so he could return to the academic world if only to say, 'I told you so' and to see the look on the face of that sanctimonious ass Jim Raynor when he realized he had been right. While Jim was dead now, like so many others, killed when Washington DC was incinerated by a reflex blast having proof to show to any of the survivors, who still doubted him, would be nice.
"I'm listening," he said after a moment.
Claudia nodded and began explaining about how one of the Zentraedi cruisers that had crashed to Earth after the defeat of Dolza had come down over Egypt totally destroyed the great pyramids of Giza – causing a horrified look to appear on Daniel's face at the news of such a legacy being gone forever – before crashing into the plateau where it finally stopped. How after a year or so it had begun leaking radiation from its damaged sublight engines and how that radiation had begun drifting steadily towards both Cairo and the Nile valley and how they had sent combat engineers to clear up the wreck and deal with the radiation problem.
"Thank god you stopped it," Daniel commented knowing how many people lived in the four millennia old city and how vital a farmland the Nile Delta was. "But what does this have to do with me and my theories?"
"I was just getting to that," Claudia replied. "As they finished clearing away the remains of the cruiser for recycling, they found something buried beneath it. Something that has been buried beneath the sandstone of the Giza Plateau for over six thousand years."
Daniel's eyes widened. "What!" he breathed, shocked and amazed. "What did they find?"
"They found a series of sandstone cover stone tablets circular approximately several meters in diameter, they were covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs from the Old Kingdom era. What was buried beneath them, well that is classified at the moment."
"The Old Kingdom," Daniel breathed amazed, recovering anything from Ancient Egypt was remarkable but from something so long ago, from when the great pyramids themselves were built, was even more astonishing. "I take it that it is those hieroglyphics that you wish for me to translate. Though how does that connect to my theories?"
"That's the classified part of things at the moment Doctor Jackson," Rick said calmly even as Claudia opened the briefcase she was carrying and extracted a file.
"This file contains a few images of some of the hieroglyphs," Claudia said offering it to him. Almost reverently Daniel accepted the file from her and, after a glance for permission, he opened the file and saw three of the highest quality photographs that he had ever seen. Each showed a single hieroglyph that he carefully read and translated, feeling his old passion for the subject come to the fore.
"Well, this first one says sealed, the second translates to all time and the third says Ra," he said at last, intrigued as all three were clearly part of a single statement. He gave the African-American woman an impressed look, they had given him just enough information in these images to whet his appetite to know more about what was written on the recovered cover stones. "Okay you've got me I'll come with you to translate the rest of the hieroglyphs for you," he said at last. "Though what about my job here?"
"You need not give it up," Claudia answered, "the United Earth Government and United Earth Defence Forces are quite prepared to negotiate with your employers for use of your services. I believe that the school is currently quite strapped for cash as well as having to use very antiquated technologies."
That's an understatement, Daniel thought knowing how rundown many of the buildings on the campus were becoming because the school just didn't have the financial resources to maintain them properly. Plus, the technology they had was getting increasingly antiquated with computers that barely ran even the most basic modern software because they were so old. Heck they were still using blackboards and chalk for writing in sometimes quite drafty classroom not interactive smart screens and definitely no holograms. The promise of a huge cash injection from the UEG, plus a possible massive building and tech upgrade, in exchange for a loan of him would definitely be snapped up by the school authorities.
"Alright if it can be arranged and if I know my students will be taken care of then I will not hesitate to accompany you to wherever you have the cover stones."
Claudia smiled.