Post by mal on Aug 3, 2013 20:47:39 GMT -5
Maxwell sat in his office, his hat and duster jacket both tossed carelessly over pegs on the wall. A plasma tv was opposite his desk, with Pale Rider playing silently, muted while he worked. On the corner of his desk his ipad sat in it's charger/mount and fed his music selections into a small speaker on his desk ... barely audible. Currently it was winding through his collection of Ozzie ballads.
The vacation had been good. But now, back to work. First review the worlds of interest that they'd found.
1001 Abydos - at the time of their visit controlled by Ra. They'd instigated a conflict between him and the Goa'ould goddess Diana. Ra was presumed dead. It was here they'd discovered an ancient burial chamber with hundreds of gate addresses. The golden tablets containing the information was removed and since then the planet had been considered a red zone/off limits.
1002 Smirka - the Mongol world. Poor in minerals and agriculture, but they'd established good relations with the local people. Luckily, the Goa'ould warlord Raiden had been gone for centuries. In his absence, the mongols had all but exterminated the other human cultures on the planet, including the once favored Japanese.
1003 Ci'Ti - a water world, with a long exiled inhabitant. The mad creature had provided abundant information on the Goa'ould. A tiny percentage of the information may even have been based on a semblance of fact.
1004 The Barrens - a mars like world, with sandy soil rich in iron oxide. Only simple desert life had been discovered.
1005 Stripmine - a hellhole planet, void of life and strip mined by alien technology. Breathing without filters is NOT recommended.
1006 Harlan's Ship - not a world but a mad android's ruined vessel. Considered a red zone due to the being's mental instability.
1007 Inquisition - An advanced world of religious zealots. Having simple FTL, they were currently at war with three other systems. Yet another red zone.
1008 Mindscape - a world devastated by war. Descendents of the survivors spend their existence from birth to death in VR while waiting the eventual recovery of the world's biosphere to normal levels. Friendly relations have been established with the android guardians of the sleepers. The recruit Vector serves as their liason with Alternity Inc.
One of their alien recruits had shot the android Vector just as they were leaving 1008, and took his head back to Earth, along with it's powerful positronic brain. Unbeknownst to her, it also had a communications array. After weeks the android had analyzed the communication modes of the locals, and monitored tansmissions. It determined the humans bore the androids and their wards no ill will, and Vector revealed itself to the Earthlings. Vector eventually regained a functional body - and has been serving to aid Alternity Inc ever since. It has, however, been forbidden to reveal any advanced technology to the humans - at least for the time being.
--
Maxwell skimmed through the rest of the reports. Nothing in the three weeks he'd been gone. Apparently they'd been revamping security since the Vector incident. A shame. That alien smuggler had been heartbreakingly beautiful. WAY out of his league though, so probably no loss. He wondered where she'd snuck off to. She'd disappeared while on the next away mission.