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Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 80
🕑 Added 2025-04-24 17:58:30 +0000 UTCChapter 80 - Old Annoyances
The being standing in front of Eventus obviously wasn't the real Moros, as he was still cycling around the stargate loop Ganos Lal had hidden him in. Even knowing that however, Eventus still felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as it stared at him.
“The possibility of a surviving unascended Lantean or direct Lantean descendant discovering this device was calculated as a roughly 1 in 32 chance. With the most likely options being either Janus, or one of Mefitis's daughters.”
“Mefitis had kids.” Eventus muttered in shock, the sheer idea of the solitary woman finding someone she could get along with almost impossible for him to fathom.
“As such.” The Moros shaped being continued. “I prepared a number of responses for someone other than me attempting to access this device's neural architecture ranging from gentle and chiding to direct and punitive.”
It paused for a moment, and Eventus got the distinct sense of an non-sentient yet adaptive response program working through its list of available options.
“The primary factor I used to identify me as me was the High Councilor imprint which you also possess.”
It would be moderately nice if things were that easy, only the lazy relied on single factor factor authentication however, and Eventus could sense the but coming.
“However the remaining identification factors confirm that you are not me. That means you are either someone who has successfully forged the High Councilor imprint, or a Lantean survivor from Atlantis.”
“The second.” Eventus immediately confirmed, absolutely not wanting to know what the program would do to someone at caught trying to fake that particular authorization.
Seemingly ignoring this response they program continued speaking. “The most likely to be capable of the first is Janus, however the hidden identifying factors I have been loaded with to detect such an attempt have come up negative. That leaves the remaining possibility that you are a Lantean survivor from Atlantis.”
“Which I am.” Eventus told it again, not even remotely surprised that Moros had put targeted countermeasures in place for the possibility of Janus showing up.
“The only known Lantean survivor that possesses the potential to fit those criteria is Eventus Iuxta Deverah. Who would have been woken by the Atlantis Expedition's arrival in the city.”
“Actually.” Eventus interjected, feeling slightly petty given just whose program he was dealing with. “Rodney McKay overroad the automatic revival sequence, so I only woke up about a month ago.”
“The probability of Eventus Iuxta Deverah taking on the responsibilities of High Councilor however is 1 in 1,632,967, as such it was deemed unnecessary to include the possibility in my response tree.”
“Hold on a minute.” Eventus said, feeling oddly insulted at the fact that Moros had apparently considered it that unlikely that Evengus would step up and take over running Atlantis. “Just what kind of person did Moros think I was?”
“If you are Eventus Iuxta Deverah, please confirm your identity now by verbally reciting your personal maintenance officer passphrase.”
Narrowing his eyes at the program for a moment, Eventus shook his head and let out an annoyed sigh. “The answer to life the universe and everything, is forty two.”
“Passphrase confirmed.” The program returned. “Accessing proper response branch.”
The placid look on the program's face transformed into an annoyed scowl. “The information within this device is not for one such as you.”
Eventus felt his eye twitch at the immediate dismissal and he was about to tell the program where it could shove hits rejection before a suspicion hit.
“You were supposed to kick me out of this data layer after saying that, weren't you?”
The program's only response was silence.
“But you can't do that, because me being High Councilor triggered additional higher priority branches in your response tree that need to be resolved before you can end the interface session without my input.”
More silence.
“I'll take that as a yes.” He continued with a grin. “In which case, are you able to provide me with the last known location of the Council Archive Core?”
The look of placidness returned to the program's features “Query unrecognized.”
Which could mean any number of things, but given he had no idea whether any acceleration was going on in the data layer it was probably better to slip directly to the one subject he was absolutely sure Moros would have covered.
“The Ori are invading the Avalon galaxy and I'm working with the humans of Earth to try and drive them back.”
The program blinked, a clear enough sign to Eventus at this point in their conversation that his words had triggered some kind of programing response.
“Please repeat your statement.” The program finally said as Eventus felt a recognizable tickle in the back of his brain.
“Unwilling class three brain scans are illegal, you know.” Eventus complained, fully aware he was just being petty at this point.
“But fine, the Ori are invading the Avalon galaxy and I'm working with the humans of Earth to try and drive them back.”
“You truly believe that.” The program said, the tingling feeling disappearing as it spoke. “If you encounter Ganos Lal after this, please make it known that I told her so.”
What that last bit of pettiness both the darkness and simulacrum of Moros vanished, returning Eventus to Carter's lab where an orange holographic screen was now projecting itself out of octangular crystal at the center of Arthur's Mantle.
“Okay, that worked out sli–”
“Carter.” O'Neill interrupted, and Eventus turned to see all three of the others staring at him with varying degrees of alarm. “Please tell me the Ancient didn't just accidentally vaporize himself.”
Carter shook her head “The flash looked more like some sort of teleportation effect.”
Given nobody could see him right now, Eventus had no qualms about allowing his palm to meet his face, and spent a full ten seconds just wallowing in the fact that he'd momentarily forgotten that part of how Arthur's Mantle worked.
“So he's what.” Daniel began with a frown as he looked around the room. “Back in Merlin's cave?”
“Maybe.” Carter said as she moved over to her laptop and began looking over the information being displayed on it.
Taking a moment to glance back over at the holographic display, Eventus let out a sigh of relief at the phase control instructions displayed as part of a convenient sidebar next to page one of some sort of journal entry.
“It looks like the lab's sensors didn’t pick up any of the typical energy signatures emitted by various types of teleportation technology.” Carter said. “They did however record a burst of lepton radiation at the same moment Eventus disappeared.”
O'Neill nodded in understanding. “Ah, those things.
“It’s like the thing with Doctor Ballard and the Crystal Skull, Jack.” Daniel reminded him
“I knew that.” O’Neill returned, walking over to bend down slightly next to Carter. “So he’s here but just invisible?”
“Very likely, sir.” Carter confirmed as she glanced over her shoulder at him.
O’Neill nodded again, straightening up and looking over in the general direction of where Eventus was currently standing. “Hey? Don’t go anywhere. And if there’s no obvious way to reverse it over there, don’t worry about it, Carter will get you out.”
Smiling slightly at the words, Eventus couldn’t help but enjoy the rare feeling of other competent people working to fix a problem.
“Let’s see.” He muttered to himself as he glanced back at the instructions. “To activate, hold down the table key for six seconds.” He took a moment to glare at the device out of sheer principle. “A round table pun? Really Moros.”
Even though he supposed it made sense in the context of association for various less advanced groups that might find the device, a feeling of general embarrassment at the choice still washed over him. And the Lantean shook his head in bemusement before reading the final line. “Warning, this device will not activate when in physical contact with felids.”
Eventus couldn’t help himself and broke out laughing at the absurd picture that painted in his mind of the great Moros chasing a cat off his keyboard consistently enough that he had needed to program “cat sitting on keyboard” in as an activation exception.
“All right then.” He said as he held down the table key. “Here goes nothing.”
A flash of light momentarily filled his vision and then the holographic display was gone.
“Hey, you're back.” O’Neill exclaimed happily. “Good work Carter.”
Carter shook her head. “Wasn’t me, sir.”
“Moros left instructions in the other dimension.” Eventus explained. “The phase effect can be activated by holding down the table key for six seconds.” He paused, his lips twitching slightly at the memory. “Unless there is a cat on the keyboard.”
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Author’s Note: Tell the truth, if you could program your keyboard to ignore accidental cat inputs you’d absolutely do it too. So I can't really blame Moros for that.
Comments
Endorfinator
Petty beings of unfathomable power and knowledge.
Fateor
Just because you're formerly ascended doesn't mean you can't take joy in a good "I told you so". :D
James W
Well at least Ganos & Evan can bond over how annoying Moros can be...
Miguel Garcia
So cats are an Ori plot?!?
Marius Petrauskas
nice
John
“If you encounter Ganos Lal after this, please make it known that I told her so.” Hahahaha
