- - -
POV: Eamon Thorne. Unnamed system in former Baol/Grunur space.
As we dropped out of hyperspace, the pilot immediately activated the radio and spoke. "BES-1 to BES-3. You called for us?"
There was a moment of silence before the reply came. "Yeah. We think we've detected a ship in the atmosphere of this gas giant."
I raised an eyebrow and turned to the co-pilot. "Start scanning. I want to see what they're seeing."
The pilot reactivated the radio and spoke. "Understood. We're scanning. We'll let you know what we find."
The gas giant itself was about twice the mass of Jupiter, and very similar in appearance. There was really nothing all that unique about the planet. So, over the course of the next two hours, we scanned the upper atmosphere of the gas giant. Just as stated, we found some odd ion trails in the upper atmosphere; the only explanation we could come up with was that there was some sort of vessel. Despite this, we could find nothing to indicate the presence of any ship.
It was only after three hours of trying to trace the ion trails that the thought of searching for organic signatures flitted through my head. The instant the ping returned, I immediately understood what was going on. Patting the pilot on the shoulder, I nodded to him. "Take us back to base. I have a report to make."
- - -
POV: Arthur Sinclair.
I stared intently at the video that Eamon played on the screen. He paused the video as it centered on the subject of this meeting. "We discovered this creature swimming in the upper atmosphere of this gas giant. As soon as we had visual contact, I returned to give this report."
To my left, the astrocreator stared intently. "Fascinating. I have never seen a space amoeba on its own before. Were there any signs of the mother nearby?"
Eamon simply shrugged in response. "We haven't completed a full scan of the system yet, but we don't believe so, though it is possible such a creature has hidden in orbit around one of the inner planets."
Narrowing my eyes, I interrupted. "I believe this is very similar to one anomaly that is discovered in Stellaris." I took a moment to find a particular file. "The Lost Amoeba event, if my memory is correct."
Arriston at the head of the table raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying it might be possible to raise this creature into an ally?"
With a shrug, I responded. "I'm just pointing out the similarities, though I personally find that to be likely." Once more, I turned my attention to Azaryn. "I believe it takes an amoeba about a year to reach maturity. We'll get a good idea of what's going on during that time."
Azaryn seemed deep in thought. "My people never studied spaceborne lifeforms, at least not in depth. The chance to watch such a creature grow to adulthood is one that I am quite interested in."
Arriston looked back and forth between the two of us. "Alright. I'm giving you permission to retrieve the creature." He turned to Eamon. "Support them for the duration of this mission."
Eamon simply nodded in response and began packing up his equipment. I did the same.
- - -
Unnamed system in former Baol/Grunur space.
I stared out the windows at the marvelous creature floating along before the Al'kesh. The ship was still cloaked to prevent us from spooking the creature. We had been following it for a few minutes now just to get some understanding of how it acted in the wild before we tried to take it.
Azaryn was staring out the screen, enthralled by the creature. "Fascinating. I wonder how it evolved to live so seamlessly in space."
I smiled but shrugged lightly. "It could be artificial. Unless we decide to dissect the thing, I doubt we'll know within the next few years."
Azaryn gave me a dirty look as soon as she heard my words, but soon turned back out the window. "Can you detect anything from it?"
It took me a few moments to understand what she was saying. "I haven't tried. Let's see." With a deep breath, I felt my senses sharpen on the amoeba. Slowly but surely, I felt the whispers become clearer as my mind focused just on the voice of my target.
The first thing that hit me was how incredibly strong and clear the creature's emotions were, even from the several hundred meters that separated us. They were clearly either very strong mentally, or perhaps partially psychic. It didn't have any complex thoughts that I could distinguish, so it clearly wasn't sentient, but it certainly didn't have the mind of a small animal either. It was lonely and scared, but most obvious was an almost desperate hunger.
I pulled my mind away and winced. "I think it's been abandoned here. It's desperately searching for something to eat, but it can't find anything."
I turned to Azaryn. "Do you know what they eat?"
She smiled and nodded in response. "Just energy. They can feed off the ambient energy produced by most energy shields. I'm fairly confident that just approaching it will allow it to siphon energy from the ship for itself."
I nodded and turned to the ship's pilot. "Well, do you want to do the honors?"
He smiled and with a cheery look replied. "Deactivating cloak." Outside the ship, the juvenile space amoeba immediately zoomed into the distance. I narrowed my eyes at the creature and noticed that its fear had jumped through the roof.
With a cough, I smiled. "Okay, maybe it wasn't such a great idea to just decloak right beside the poor thing." I turned back to the pilot. "Let's try following it from above. Let's see what we can do."
Maintaining a distance from the creature, we followed it for the next several minutes, but I could feel the creature's fear continue to rise the longer we followed it. "Stop. Pull back. This isn't working."
The pilot raised an eyebrow, but he still did as I asked. Azaryn frowned. "We can't just follow the creature. All that does is frighten the poor thing."
I tapped my arm as I considered what was happening. "Is it possible that it fears the energy signature of Goa'uld ships?"
That seemed to catch Azaryn off guard for a moment, but she considered it. "I'd say that's a possibility. If the Goa'uld killed the creatures any time they saw them, I could see them specifically avoiding Goa'uld ships. It would be an effective survival strategy."
I pursed my lips. "Then we need to keep the Goa'uld ships hidden, and we need an energy source that isn't Goa'uld, at least until we can convince it not to run away on sight."
I was quiet for a moment before I chuckled. "We have the puddle jumpers. Those fit all the requirements."
Azaryn raised an eyebrow. "I suppose it would. Though I must point out that you are just speculating here. From the amoeba's point of view, we are strange creatures that ambushed it and then followed it for several minutes. It might very well believe we are a hostile predator."
I pursed my lips. My mind instantly ran back over the blueprint of the puddle jumper's power systems. Immediately, I wheeled around and looked at the copilot. "Show me the energy readings we got from the Amoeba."
A second later, I was looking at the readings. It took me a minute, but I quickly had the data transferred over to my flexi. "I can retool the power systems to release this signature, and then use the cloak to hide all other sensor readings. With any luck, the jumper will look exactly like another space amoeba."
Azaryn just nodded back at me, and I turned back to the pilot. "Take us back. I've egotta pick something up."
- - -
Back on Kaelastrum, I spent an hour to acquire the permissions needed to take one of the puddle jumpers out into the field. It was only after I assured everyone involved that the thing would not explode that I was allowed to go grab the ship.
I rushed over to the Hangars and into one of the puddle jumpers. We had barely had them for four days now, and we had barely done initial flight tests. Slightly Overweight saw me entering the hangar and gently floated over. "Arthur? Were you not busy with something else?"
I chuckled. "I am borrowing one of the jumpers for a little project." It bobbed up and down for a few moments before performing a sort-of-shrug where it lifted all of its tentacles straight upwards for a moment. "Alright. How can I help?"
I smiled mischievously and handed him my flexi before walking past it and entering the command room. "I need to reconfigure the power systems to produce those frequencies."
Slightly Overweight immediately got to work disconnecting the power cable in the center of the jumper; he then pulled down several of the overhead computing boxes and began performing maintenance. I read his response on my flexi. "The jumper will still produce the other signatures that are normal for a metallic craft."
I nodded in response. "Which is why I'll reconfigure the cloak to hide the ship's primary signature, but allow the artificial ones to get through."
I sat down in the pilot's seat, and I felt the ship activate around me. It had been clear that I had the Ancient Technology Activation (ATA) Gene, as it was referred to in Stargate: Atlantis, since the moment the jumper had first been powered up. The ship seemed to react to my very whims; it was utterly unlike anything I had experienced before.
When I had first touched the jumper controls, I had absolutely no problem getting the ship to hover just a few centimeters above the ground. Meanwhile, anyone else who tried failed to do even that.
Part of it was that I knew exactly how to operate the ship due to the user manual being stuffed into my brain along with the schematics for the neural interface, but there was definitely more to it.
With a whirring, the rear hatch pulled shut and sealed. With a simple force applied to the controls, the ship took off vertically and rotated 180 degrees around its central axis to face the exit. The doorway to this hangar was wide open, and the tunnel leading out of the mountainside had been cleared for my use.
With almost unnatural ease, the ship floated straight down the large tunnel and out into the open. I gave a command to the ship's cloak, and it activated, but not in full. Instead, it only blocked a particular set of emissions. The ease with which the ship could be operated was incredible.
I grabbed my radio. "This is Puddle Jumper to DHD Control. Is there an expected wormhole within the next 5 minutes?"
There was a moment of silence. "Negative, puddle jumper. Where do you need me to dial?"
I smirked and replied. "Don't worry, I'll dial it on my end." As I spoke, I began inputting the coordinates. "Have the entry site cleared. I'll be coming in from above."
As the last of the symbols were entered, I slowly lowered myself towards the gate. Then, I lined up the jumper and jumped into the puddle. Once on the other side, I flew the jumper into the cargo bay of the Al'kesh and we once more returned to hyperspace.
I used the short travel time to get changed into a space suit – standard procedure when operating an unfamiliar ship – and to grab something to eat. The crew of the Al'kesh already knew the plan, so once we exited hyperspace near the planet, I flew out the cargo hold and the Al'kesh once more cloaked.
Slightly Overweight floated behind the copilot's chair. He whistled loudly, and the jumper automatically translated his words and displayed them for me to read. "The power systems have been recalibrated to your specifications."
I nodded and started scanning the gas giant for any signs of the space amoeba. The creature found us before we found it. Suddenly, it came up from below the jumper and started circling. Almost immediately, the ship informed me we were suffering from a not insignificant power draw.
In fact, it was a lot more than I was expecting. I quickly activated my radio. "This is Arthur. It looks like the jumper is going to be drained. You might have to come by and grab us. I'll keep you informed. Just be aware."
For almost ten minutes, the amoeba circled around the jumper, and unfortunately during that entire time, it didn't appear to be interested in letting us get away with any power. I let out a sigh and activated the radio. "Yeah. You guys are going to have to come save us. Make sure to decloak at a distance and let the Amoeba see you approaching."
The confirmation came in, and I sealed my spacesuit for a worst-case scenario. Then, I turned my attention to the amoeba's emotions. Unfortunately, as the Al'kesh came within a few hundred kilometers, the space amoeba noticed, and I felt its fear spike, but its hunger overwhelmed its fear and it continued to feed. I activated my radio. "Stop. If you get any closer, you'll scare it away."
The Al'kesh pilot confirmed and brought his ship to a stop. It didn't come any closer, and the Amoeba continued to feed, but was still very frightened. With pursed lips, I sighed and stood up. Slightly Overweight whistled at me in confusion. "What are you doing?"
I looked back at it for a moment. "I'm going out to introduce myself." As I shut the doors to the front section of the jumper, I commanded the oxygen in the rear bay to be carefully voided. Slowly but surely, the rear hatch opened up, and I used my EVA pack to let myself out.
The amoeba almost seemed to ignore me, but at this distance I could feel its emotions focus on me. Some surprise and curiosity, though it was still mostly focused on feeding from the jumpers rapidly draining power and keeping its attention on the Al'kesh.
Carefully, I brought myself just barely close enough to touch the creature. I smiled to myself; I was trying to do the same thing Spock had done in Star Trek IV. I placed my hand on the Amoeba's carapace and felt its thoughts. They were much clearer this close, and I had no doubt that if I felt like losing a hand, I could probably get an even better connection if I removed my glove.
Just from being this close, I was fairly sure that the amoeba was at least partially psionic in nature; attempting to show it my own emotions was significantly easier than with humans or even Slightly Overweight, and as I carefully showed it emotions of friendship, family, and more food – that last one was particularly effective – the Amoeba seemed to finally lower its guard a bit. I pulled back and spoke into my radio. "Alright, approach, slowly."
I felt the Al'kesh crawl forward towards us and the Amoeba. It was still wary, but significantly less so than before. The ship closed within visual range, and the Amoeba turned its attention away from the jumper and instead over to the Al'kesh, to immediately start feeding again. Carefully, I maneuvered myself into the jumper and closed the hatch.
There was just barely enough power to flip the thing around and land in the Al'kesh cargo bay. I let out a deep sigh of relief, just as the Celestial Forge threw a notification into my head.
Special Achievement: It Followed Me Home
Perk 'Endless bag of nether warts' missed due to insufficient points.
(Available Points: 0, Required Points: 200, Points Doubled, New Point Total: 100)