In reply to Hilda (msg # 774):

As an Anthropologist, Kaspar couldn't agree more with Hilda.

"Oh, yes, show us more of this delightful city, my dear. Please!" he responds to their guide.

"Then please follow me," Asherrra replies as she heads off.

She starts taking you down the streets. None of them are paved; they are all packed dirt. There are numerous small flower gardens planted along the street, also with a lot of hanging pots with flowers in them.

Other than the outside wall and the central building, none of the streets are straight and none of the structures have that sort of angular architecture to them. The streets appear to ramble in arcs and curves, merging with cross streets here and there, but there are no right or left angle turns.

It's unclear if the streets wend their way among the buildings or the buildings were added where there was a space allowed by the road. In the end, you probably come to the conclusion that it's a bit of both.

Each individual building is one or two stories tall, with decks or porches on the roofs. From time to time you see one of the First climb up the outside of a building to the upper level deck, thus explaining the ladder-like decorations on the sides of the building.

There are some colors on the buildings, mostly trim, but a few have decorations painted on the walls. None of the buildings have been completely painted, though. All the colors on the buildings are an assortment of pastel shades.

The adults don't seem to be concerned about your presence, but the kits all come out and stare at the strangers. Their parents don't seem to be concerned about this behavior.

Asherrra leads you to an area she calls a 'craftworks'.

"We don't live in the workshops any more, though, apparently--or so the historians tell us--once upon a time that was the normal method. Unfortunately, none of them can say why that changed. Perhaps it had to do with the smells and sounds... and the chemicals, none of which are good for the kits to be around."

"This craftworks has pottery-makers, candle-makers, basket-weavers and a few of the smaller woodworkers."

Even as she shows you the individual shops, which are grouped around a central courtyard, you see half a dozen cat-folk approach. They are all carrying bundles of reeds. One of them drops his bundle, climbs up to roof and then lowers a rope with a hook on it. One by one the bundles are hauled up to the roof. As each bundle is pulled up, that cat-folk climbs up. As near as you can tell, the reeds are being laid out on the roof to dry.

In the pottery-makers shops, they have powered pottery wheels, as well as foot-driven ones. They also seem to have powered kilns as there is no sign of coal or other fuel.

Likewise, when you get to the woodworkers' shops, they have powered lathes and rather sophisticated carving tools. They make some dishes, some utensils, candleholders, and some toys.

The candle-makers appear to have a powered heating bin for melting the wax. About half the candles that they make are very fancy and decorative; the other half seem to be merely functional.

The basket-weavers seem to have some sort of steam press that they use for shaping the reeds when necessary.

There is no advance manufacturing going on here, just some high-tech tools to make the handwork easier.

On their tour of the city, Hilda gazed around interestedly, recognising some aspects of the cat-folk's lives and crafts from her world, while others were more marvellous, like the powered devices and the great city itself, all so beautiful. It was all more advanced than anything on Cimmeria, but in a way she recognised and could learn from. So far, this seemed a peaceful and productive community, but Hilda, raised a farmer, recognised what was missing from the tour, what she could most learn from. 'Where are your farms? I'd like to see how you grow crops and raise animals.' She'd seen only forest around this city, at least on the side they'd approached from. The mountain-top city didn't seem to offer much flat space for fields to feed all these people – nor did the land around the Ring of Stars of Cimmeria, for that matter.

"We are getting to that," Asherrra replies, "but you have already seen some of that."

She gestures around at the various potted plants growing on balconies, roofs and even walls.

"We grow individual crops for the most part. Only crops like quinoa, spelt and kamut are grown in small gardens here in the city. Each court is responsible for growing its own. That way, everyone shares in the work, no one is dependent on others and no one is burdened with the task of gardening all the time."

"Animals are raised the same way, but we also hunt."

She leads you to another group of buildings clustered around a central courtyard, and then behind it. There you can see a small fenced in area where there are some chicken-like animals, and a small field where some kind of grass is growing.

"We currently have 50 such courts, and there is sufficient area within the city walls for another 20. Some of us are concerned that we will run out of space, but the Elders insist that the Alterans anticipated this. They claim that by the time we fill up the last acre, we will be ready to grow beyond the walls of the city."

In reply to Asherrra (msg # 778):

"Fascinating." Kaspar responds, "So, then, your society lives in accordance with a growth plan set down for you by an outside group - the Alterans? Tell me, by the plan set down, do you regulate your birth rates in accordance with the available food supply, or are you regulating your food supply in accordance with population growth or loss?"

As he finishes his question, Kaspar's gaze happens to fall upon Freyda, the Asgard, and another question suddenly pops into his mind.  Before Asherra can answer his first question, he blurts out another.

"Also, Asherrra - and I hope I do not offend you by asking this - but, as you have already said, yourself, that your people were genetically elevated by the Alterans, may I ask, have your people experienced any significant genetic drift, over the years, or are you all still running true to form?"

"While this 'plan' was given to us by the Alterans," Asherrra answers Kaspar, "there is nothing that forces us to abide by it. We have free will, and follow it by common sense and intelligence."

"Our growth as a clan is not dictated by anyone. When the Alterans created this city, they made allowances for expansion. If we have more mouths to feed, we raise more crops and hunt a bit more often."

"This 'genetic drift' of which you speak, if I understand what you are asking, has happened in only a small degree. We grow a bit taller now than we did in the beginning, we are sturdier. Our litters are smaller now, but not excessively so. We do not know if this was something that the Alterans did to us that has gradually happened over the centuries, but it is a good thing."

Hilda peered wonderingly at the potted crops around her, at the windows and even roofs of the houses. 'These are your crops? How do you keep them all watered all the time? Surely you can't rely on rain for your food-plants like this – half will lie in the rain-shadow of the houses and walls.' She realised her people didn't have the building skills for such houses, and no patience for little pots and troughs by every window. But who needed the house? They already had the mountains, too steep for big farms or many farms. But maybe big troughs could be dug into the side, stepped terraces, with farms all the way down...

At the mention of hunting, Hilda commented 'Yes, I saw your prints on the trail.'

The following discussion on birth rates and genetic drift didn't mean much to her, only that regulated breeding didn't sound that much fun.

"We have cisterns on most of the buildings to catch the water when it rains, and then we use a drip system to keep many of the plants watered," Asherrra replies to Hilda.

"The rest of the plants on windows and benches we water by hand. There are those of us that tend to the plants, others that work in the shops, others that teach, and those that hunt. We alternate many responsibilities so that we don't grow complacent."

At that moment, a chime sounds.

"The Elders are ready to see you know. If you'll follow me..."


She leads you to the central building, which looks like a fortress unto itself. As you near it, you realize that it is not the stone building it appears to be, but made of metal.

You are led through a doorway and down a hallway, past several side hallways, through another doorway into a large chamber. The ceiling goes all the way up to the top of the building and ends in a large skylight. There is a slightly raised dais across the room, with a dozen chairs. In each chair sits a catfolk.

Asherrra steps forward, bows slightly to the Elders, and says:

"These are the Tau'ri that seek an audience with you, o' Great Ones."

Hilda advanced carefully through the catfolk's longhouse, wary of ambush and betrayal at even this late stage. After all, in the city outside, they might yet fight their way out. Now were they trapped inside a metal building, around many rooms and corridors, where murder might happen in secret.

But, so far, no ambushing. They'd come to the chief's hall, it seemed, though with a dozen chairs, she couldn't say who was in charge. Hilda was good with words, but to rhyme or seduce or insult. In diplomacy, not so much. She waited for one of the others to speak and make pleasantries.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 783):

Kaspar steps forward to stand beside Asherrra, removing his helmet and placing it under his left arm, as he does.

Coming to a halt beside their cat-woman guide, Kaspar snaps to attention with a slight rattle from his gear, and then bows towards the collected Elders.

"Elders of The First City, thank you for seeing us. My name is Major Kaspar Radoslaw Gorski, I am the leader of this team of explorers..." Kaspar gestures with his right hand back at the Team.

"We are part of an organization called Stargate Command, headquartered on my homeworld, which we call Earth; sometimes we call it Terra. Along with other races in our neighborhood of the galaxy..." again Kaspar gestures back at the Team, but mostly at Freyda and Vasandra - the obvious 'non'-Humans, "...we explore the many worlds connected by the Stargate...what you call the Astria Porta."

"Allow me to make known to you..." Kaspar turns and indicates each person with a wave of his right hand,

"Staff Sergeant Rajip Mojdar - a fellow soldier, and another Tau'ri from Terra."

"Hilda Eriksdóttir - Warrior maiden and Scout from a world called Cimmeria."

"Gavin - a Scientist and Explorer from the world of Tollana."

"Captain Vasandra Tourmaline - Starship Pilot and Explorer from the world of Ta-Netjer."

"And Freyda of the Asgard - Scientist, Geneticist, and Explorer from the ancient Realm of Asgard."

Kaspar turns back to the Elders,

"I must also add that we of Stargate Command also oppose the Goa'uld, and seek to thwart them whenever we encounter them."

"I am very much afraid that we engaged in actions against the Goa'uld, over at the crashed Ha'tak, before we were aware of your presence on this planet. I fear we may have inadvertently brought the anger of the Goa'uld down upon you. For this I am truly sorry, for that was not our wish."


OOC: if your thinking Kaspar is acting a little "German" (specifically, acting "Prussian") - he is ^_^ First Silesia was part of Moravia, then Poland for a while, then Bohemia, then back to Poland, then the Holy Roman Empire and Austria, then taken by Prussia, which became the German Empire, which became the Weimar Republic, which became, y'know...The Reich. In fact, some Nazi troops had to march through Silesia to get to the Sudetenland. So Silesia has as large a German cultural influence as it does Polish, or even Czech.

Thus endeth the lesson ^_^

Plus remember he spent 20 years hanging around with dour Russians.

Hilda raised a hand in friendly greeting when her name was declared. She was mildly annoyed, though, not at the mispronunciation of her name (which she'd come to accept and use herself) but at the omission of her ranks and titles and descriptive phrases (most of which she'd created herself anyway). But she'd lost the initiative there, and they'd probably be empty words to these catfolk. Kaspar had told everything; Hildr waited to hear their response.

"I am Rrrenrrratha," one of the Elders says, one of the females. The Elders seem to be divided 7 females and 5 males.

"You are welcome to the hospitality of the First City."

"For the moment, I will refrain from introducing the rest of the Elders to you, as you would have trouble pronouncing many of their names."

"So, you have come to the First City to apologize for... annoying the Goa'uld? That seems like a good thing to do. Would that we dared to do the same. We were mighty hunters once, less so now, but we were never warriors. That may be changing."

"More and more often, we discuss... 'annoying' the Goa'uld ourselves. We wish to drive them off of the planet... this planet, our planet. As long as there is naquadah here, I fear they shall continue to come here to mine it."

"We do not believe our Alteran defenses can be extended to protect the entire planet. So that is why we continue discussions. We have yet to arrive at a solution."

"Would you please tell us how you angered the Goa'uld? Perhaps we can use the same technique."

'We shot at them with our thunder-weapons and their own ma'tok staffs until they died or ran away.' Hilda boasted proudly, speaking Goa'uld still. 'Have you weapons of your own?' She was glad to hear these catfolk would fight – they had courage after all – even if they would only fight like cats.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 787):

"True." Kaspar nods in agreement with Hilda's statement, "It is not uncommon for members of our alliance to engage in combat with the Goa'uld and their servants. It is unfortunate, but often unavoidable. However, we are aware than many Jaffa serve the Goa'uld unwillingly, and so we also make efforts to aid these Jaffa to achieve their freedom from the Goa'uld."

"However, in our case, here on your world, we not only engaged in combat with the Goa'uld, but we...well...in an effort to prevent the Goa'uld from summoning any assistance, we...we disabled the Stargate. Uh, the Astria Porta, that is."

"In retrospect, that may not have been a good idea." Kaspar frowns, "If they are desperate enough, the Goa'uld may follow us here and attack your city in order to get the parts of the Star -- I mean the Astria Porta, that we took with us."

"We are not a... violent species, even though our ancestors were," Rrrenrrratha says.

"You are safe here in the First City. The Goa'uld have never been able to penetrate our defenses. If a Goa'uld comes within one mile, our sensors will detect them and initiate defensive phase one."

"The Goa'uld would enslave us at best, and kill us at worst, if for no other reason than that we cannot be used as hosts. Our training programs are slowly taking us to a point where we will be able to confront them directly. We do not fear them, for they cannot take from us what we don't have. Alas, no Goa'uld would ever... could ever believe that we do not know how all this technology works. We did not create it, and we do not have anyone with the knowledge to build it, or even repair it if it should malfunction."

"Knowing what you now know, I ask you again: what is there that you wish from us?"

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 789):

"That is a two-part answer, Elder." Kaspar answers, "We, my Team and I, both need and appreciate the safe haven you've offered us. However, our next immediate need will be to figure out a way for us to gain access to the Astria Porta before the Goa'uld can either repair it or remove it. For that we may ask some further assistance of you and your people."

"But in the longer run, the organization we represent - Star Gate Command - is an alliance of peoples that oppose the Goa'uld, as I have mentioned. We are always seeking more allies in this campaign. We offer trade and defensive assistance, and only ask in return for whatever any potential ally might be willing to offer. Simply as an example, your city, here, has defenses left by the Altarans, which have repulsed the Goa'uld for as long as you can remember. I am sure that the technology specialists at the SGC would like to study those devices. Simply study, of course! We would not want to deprive you of your defenses!"

"But if we could come to understand those devices, possibly even determine how to replicate them, it would be an advantage against the Goa'uld that would benefit the entire galaxy."

Kaspar pauses, as a thought suddenly occurs to him.

"Excuse me, Elders, for changing the subject, but a thought has just now occurred to me - may I ask, how long has that ha'tack pyramid ship lain crashed, outside your city?"

It was all Hilda could do not to snort in derision at that, remembering how SG-1 had broken Thor's Hammer, allowing the ettins to march right in and invade her world. As it was, her lip curled, but she kept her eyes downward.

She remained quiet as Kaspar played the speaker, having little to add to such politics. But she realised she could offer something to sweeten the deal. Talk of war and alliance, sharing their valuable defences with aliens – these things might spook the catfolk. But there were softer, simpler ways of making friends; trade was more reliable in the long run. 'My people meanwhile would be interested in trade: your food and to learn the ways you farm it, in exchange for lumber, metal, ores, gems, horses, whatever you need.' Stargate Command sought only weapons and defenses and high technology, but such things were beyond the grasp of the Cimmerians. Hilda had an eye for more practical benefits: farming techniques that would make her people more prosperous, help them to flourish, and one day learn that high technology.

"We are reluctant to let you examine the machineries lest you damage them in some way," the Elder replies to Kaspar, "but we will think on it."

"As for the ha'tak, it crashed here only 3 days ago. We saw the Jaffa exit the ship, but they were wise enough to stay away from here."


She then turns to Hilda.

"Your offer of trade is very generous. We, too, would be interested in trading with your people... Cimmerians, I believe Kaspar identified them as."

"I am not sure how this could take place, though. We buried our Astria Porta a thousand years ago so that the Goa'uld would not come through it. We had nowhere else to go, so we did not need it."

"Perhaps, though, it is time for us to take our first steps out into the stars. We will consider raising the Astria Porta once more."

"Since you say that there is an Astria Porta on the ha'tak, it seems likely that the Goa'uld were bringing another one here, hopefully only to transfer the naquadah."

"Asherrra seems eager... curious... to learn more of the Tau'ri, so perhaps I shall send her with you... if that is acceptable... as our envoy."

'Yes, my people are known as Cimmerians... Well, if you do raise the Ring of Stars – the Astria Porta – then you may seek me out and we can negotiate.' she offered. As weird as she found the catfolk, she recognised the benefits to such an arrangement. Even if the catfolk never came, the offer would help them here.

But she was surprised to hear that Asherrra wanted to tag along, and looked to her team for their reactions.

Kaspar nods in agreement, "As you say, Elders, such things are for future thoughts. Star Gate Command has specially trained diplomats who's job it is to formalize relations with the friendly peoples we meet."





"Excellent! I think we can all consider this a successful First Contact...except for the whole 'we pissed off the invading Goa'uld' -thing." Kaspar exclaims, "As for Asherra spending more time with us, I think that should be okay."

Kaspar looks up/out a window to note the time of day, "As it's almost mid-day, would you mind if my Team and I retire for a mid-day meal? We can continue talking later, if you wish."

In reply to Kaspar Radoslaw Gorski (msg # 794):

So, with the (apparent) approval of the Council of Elders, Kaspar asks Asherrra to lead the Team to someplace where they can have a mid-day meal in private. If quarters have been set aside for them, somewhere, that would do fine.

"Thank you, Asherra, this place will do fine." Kaspar says to their guide, "Now, I'm afraid I must ask you to leave us for a short time - it's a Tau'ri thing. The act of eating is a very private act which we only share with those we have known for a long time. I'm sure that that time will come quickly, with you, as you spend time with us. But for now..."

Once Asherrra is gone, and doors and windows have been checked, Kaspar walks over to where he'd dropped his gear and digs out his pipe and tobacco pouch.

"Alright folks, smoke 'em if you got 'em." Kaspar takes a moment to load, tamp, then get his pipe going.

"So. Thoughts?" he asks, looking around at the Team.

The Elders have no objection to you going to lunch, as they were going to discuss the issues of trade and how that might happen.

Asherrra leads you off to a section of the Great Building where you can eat in private. If you need them as quarters, they are available--three connecting rooms. It appears as if they are in use by cat-folk but none are there now.

There are bowls of fruit on the tables.

'I have not heard of this custom.' Hilda was complaining, feeling rather puzzled by Kaspar's claims of a need to eat in private. No one had even told her about it. She frowned heavily as the implications grew. 'Do we not break it every time we go to the Mess? ...Have I offended anyone by eating there?' she worried. She flopped into a chair, sighing sadly 'No wonder I cannot find a Tau'ri woman. They must be turned off by my eating habits.'

She took a fruit-like fruit from the bowl, but hesitated 'May I eat this in front of you?'
This message was last edited by the player at 08:53, Fri 26 Aug 2016.

"Hilda. I believe the Major is engaging in a deception, in order to ensure our privacy to discuss matters." Freyda cocked her head to one side and blinked slowly apparently considering something. "Major. I would ask. For what purpose is this device?" She gestures at the pipe. "My instruments indicate that the substance you are burning has certain addictive properties and may not be conducive your continued health."

'Oh... The goddess is wise.' Hilda complimented, bowing to Freyda. She took a bite of the fruit, finding a strong but sweet taste. Around a mouthful, she went 'But why not just ask to be alone? They should understand.'

She gestured her fruit-holding hand at the pipe. 'Yes, and why do you not share?' she asked impishly. 'You say "smoke them if you have got them" but I do not "got them".'