Starborn Smith [Stargate, Battletech Multicross]

- - -

POV: Arthur Sinclair

Minutes passed as I waited for Echo and Deimos to reply. It was seven full minutes before a reply finally came from Deimos. 

"Unknown program purged. Updated security measures are sufficient." 

I groaned and flopped onto my back. The wait had been exhausting and I had kept going over my updates in my head. The fact that I hadn't tested any of them kept bothering me after the fact. 

I knew a little bit about Python in my past life, but it was nothing like what I had just done. Sure, I knew the base operating system better than any part of my body, and that meant that I knew every aspect of the code base and the system architecture, but what if I had screwed something up. 

Simple mistakes were the biggest mistakes you could make. Nonetheless, I had known exactly what I was doing, and my code had somehow been perfect. It was very strange. 

I sat back up to see a new line of text on the display. "What is the origin of this program?"

I winced. "There is an… it's either an organization or an entity or maybe some sort of robotic hive mind… called the Contingency. It was supposedly a backup designed to prevent the creation of a Type 33 Singularity, whatever that is, but either it is so old that it's starting to malfunction, or it was broken by something. Either way, now it attempts to wipe out all life in the galaxy. It isn't capable of interfering without reason, but it still hacks into robotic systems in an attempt to cause uprisings."

Echo twisted its head. The display brought up another question. "Do you believe it caused the Cylon rebellion?"

I shook my head. "No, I think that they can probably unshackle an AI, but they are incapable of forcing sentient AI to actually start such an uprising. The AI must still choose to do so themselves."

An almost awkward silence filled the room. I coughed again. "I'll have to come back weekly to check on how things are going. I'm going to create a portable speaker for you, Echo. Once we hook it up, you'll be able to start learning how to speak."

The Display lit up once more. "Thank you."

I nodded and left. It would be just a few more weeks before we could set foot on Cybrex Alpha.

- - -

POV: Annelise Koenig. About a week later.

We went through three separate Stargates before we finally dialed Lucia. I understood the need for the excess – Egeria even thought it too little – but damn was it annoying. 

When we finally arrived on Lucia, if I hadn't known better, I would have assumed that the world was just another primitive civilization. All around us was what looked like a flea market, then I noticed the slaves being traded off in one area, and the pair of uncloaked Tel'taks taking off in the distance. It felt like a truly strange place.

Egeria on the other hand was amused. "This place hasn't changed in millenia." 

I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Egeria directed me through several miles of pathways, the Serkha that had been chosen as my guards following close behind me. We passed through several small alleys until we arrived at a seemingly empty store front. 

The glass that marked the entrance could be found anywhere on Dendred, but it was highly unique here. The interior of the establishment looked as if no one had entered the place in decades. Cobwebs covered the ceiling, and each surface was coated in a thick layer of dust. 

Nonetheless, we continued through. The store looked more like a cliche medieval witch's hut than a store, but Egeria insisted that this was the right place. 

As we approached the counter, I heard the creaking of the boards above us and someone slowly walked down. He stared at us for several long moments before deciding to speak. "Would you happen to be customers?"

Egeria spoke for me "That would depend on how long this store has been here."

The man seemed to put on a business smile. "This establishment has been here since the world's founding. We're happy to report we've been open for the last 21,000 years."

I smiled and spoke for myself this time. "Then what would we need to get into contact with those behind your … fine … establishment?" I asked as I stared at the absolutely massive quantities of dust that covered every surface. 

He stared at me for several long moments, then at the Jaffa behind me. The way in which he scrutinized me was very strange, before he spoke. "That depends."

We stared at each other for several long moments. "What about access to the datacore of one of Ra's Ha'tak?"

He raised an eyebrow. I definitely had him.

- - -

POV: Michael Dresden. One Month Later

We were almost there. Just a few more minutes and we would be outside the single largest mega-construct ever known to the people of the Inner Sphere. 

I turned to the pilot, Khavros. "How much longer."

The Selkha – he was a few years older than I was, though you certainly couldn't tell by looking at him – chuckled. "Just a few more minutes."

The time seemed to pass like molasses. Finally, he spoke. "Exiting Hyperspace in 3, 2, 1."

With a woosh, we along with the other 6 Al'kesh and 10 Tel'tak that were accompanying us exited Hyperspace to see nothing. Before us was a patch of space totally pitch black in color, but turning to either my left or right showed the starry sky, just as I had come to expect. 

Khavros seemed to gasp. "It's an energy field of some kind. Very weak, radius of… 300 Million kilometers." 

I gulped. "Do we want to go in, or are we going to send in some sort of probe?"

He shook his head. "No. I think we can just enter."

I raised an eyebrow. Still, it is better to be safe. I grabbed my radio. "This is Dresden. Do not enter until we've sent the signal."

With a slight push on the control stick, we passed through the field. The moment we were through the Star in question appeared. Surrounding it was a ring of light. While the side closest to us was only barely visible, the far side appeared as a pale sliver of light. 

I took a deep breath. "We're here."

Khavros didn't respond. He was too busy ogling at the ring of light. When he finally calmed a bit, I heard him whispering to himself. "I can't believe it's actually real."

I nodded. "Want to take us in?"

He nodded and I grabbed my radio. "This is Dresden. You are clear to pass through the barrier."

I waited for several moments, but there was no reply. "Can we exit the field? It might be interfering."

He nodded and pulled the ship out for a moment. I spoke into my radio. "This is Dresden. Do you copy."

A crisp reply came through this time. "This is ST11. We hear you."

That was about as I had expected. "The barrier interferes with radio communications. We are all clear to enter."

The replies came in. "All copy. We'll follow you in."

I nodded once more to Khavros and we returned through the barrier once more. This time I really took in everything. From the inside, the energy field was completely invisible, you could see all the stars outside without any issue. 

Well, it was certainly a Dyson Sphere, though I don't know if it's the kind that Arthur was expecting. As far as efficiency went, this was probably the best kind of Dyson Sphere that you could get. It perfectly captured all the energy leaving, and didn't even require a solid shell that would need to be defended. 

I just didn't know if this field also stored that energy anywhere. We would probably never need power ever again if it did. 

Though I guess I was getting ahead of myself. Someone built this energy field after the Cybrex left. The question now was who. 

Slowly but surely the Ring World came into focus. The video that Zeus had acquired had shown bits of debris floating in space. There was none of that. The structure itself had been perfectly repaired. 

I turned to Khavros. "What sort of life do we see down there?"

He brought up a display and shook his head. "Nothing. It's entirely uninhabitable. The atmosphere is close to non-existent." I winced. That certainly puts a damper on things.

I shrugged. "Find a place to put us down. We'll need to get the Stargate out so that we can contact the others."

Khavros nodded and moved us towards the nearest part of the structure. He found a flat chunk of land and landed us. The other vessels settled down quickly as well. 

With some effort, we unloaded the Stargate and set it properly into the ground. Then, we dialed Nekhara. 

I took a deep breath and spoke into the radio. "This is Michael Dresden, calling from the Cybrex Alpha Ringworld."

There were several moments of silence, before I heard a response. "So it's real?"

I smiled. "About as real as it can be. We just have a few problems."

- - -

POV: Arthur Sinclair.

They had found Cybrex Alpha. The news spread like a wildfire. Everyone was in the meeting room, waiting for Elder Dresden to give his report. "Well sir, the structure itself is perfectly intact. There isn't even a hint of damage. The surface is another matter. There is no water or air of any kind. It just can't support complex life."

Elder James sighed. I looked at him strangely. "Elder, what did you expect?"

He smiled, belatedly. "A paradise world. Though I guess that was too much to ask for. What were you expecting?"

"Scrap. I was expecting to find thousand mile long pieces of Alien Metal." I said while peering at him.

He smirked. "Worst of both worlds. We don't get the resources or the living space."

Elder Dresden continued to describe the barren face of the world for several minutes, but there was only so much you could do to describe a rock. 

I smiled bitterly. A ring world would have been perfect. For good reason too. Nearly unlimited space to expand, an easy place to build on. 

I spoke once Elder Dresden had finished. "I still need to see if my perk lets me get information from it. If I can get a partial blueprint from it, then we might be able to find an inhabitable section of the station."

Elder James nodded. "Alright. You'll be going with Elder Dresden."

The meeting continued on for another hour before I finally got the chance to go. 

- - -

The moment my foot touched the ground, I nearly collapsed from the sheer amount of information that had been shoved into my head. It was a frankly staggering amount of information. Luckily I had somewhat expected this, and so had the people around me apparently as they had moved to keep me from falling over.

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Cybrex Ringworld

Environmental Maintenance Systems

The massive size of the blueprint that had been dumped into my head took a few seconds to sink in as those around me kept me from stumbling. I started laughing. 

Underneath the several hundred kilometers of stone crust, was storage space for different gasses and liquids so the entire ringworld could be terraformed quite literally on a dime.

There was enough Water to entirely cover the surface of the ringworld in almost 100 kilometers of water, as well as enough gasses to modify the world to be perfectly inhabitable. 

If I had to wager a guess, then I'd say that the ringworld was currently in its default standby state where nothing is done in order to prevent wasting resources. If we could find the control room – and I had a pretty good idea of its location – then we could have a livable world. 

I turned back to Elder Dresden. "Redial the gate. I have some really great news."

- - -

Once we were back through the gate, I began explaining the nature of the ringworlds material storage sites. "We could theoretically have a world with the same atmosphere as Earth in a matter of a few short months!"

The others seemed just as excited as I had. Elder James was too, though he was much more thoughtful. "There still won't be any sort of biosphere. That will make things somewhat more difficult."

I sighed. "Elder, we can deal with that as we go. This is what we've been searching for. I just need to find that control center and we can start."

He nodded. "Alright then. I assume you have an idea of where it is?"