"The Goa'uld took the ring technology from the Ancients as they did so many other things. Why bother researching and developing your own tech when you can steal it or adapt it," Naseem said to Gavan.

"I can try, Major but I think it would be easier from some sort of central hub unless every ring in every location can get to every other ring in which case it might be as simply as interfacing with one ring. Let me see what I can find out."

She stepped out of the control room and over to the nearest ring, raised her <i>Kara'Tesh</i> and reached out to the ring without activating it but to see what she could learn from it through her ribbon device.

In reply to Naseem Ansari--Hecate (msg # 14):

OOC: Nearest Ring?  I thought the only Ring that the Kara'Tesh ever "detected" was the one we found in the "Commander's Quarters", down below?  Oh.  Wait.  Okay, I just remembered that, actually, that was the only location where Kaspar had asked Naseem, specifically, to try and interface her Kara'Tesh with anything other than a Door--plus, we just watched a vid of the (apparent) Base Commander leaving by way of the Ring Transporter we found down there (I think--it was the Ring down there, and not somewhere else, wasn't it?).  It was probably the last Ring to be used--and it would have sent him off-base, to a waiting evacuation ship--so it's probably just held a residual charge, or something.  Okay, never mind ^_^

---

^{COMM START>>>} "Sarah is correct, Lucky." Kaspar adds, keying his mic again, "She's gotten into the computer records.  They took their time and cleared the base of all critical supplies, before shutting down and putting the facility into standby mode."

     "They may have hoped to come back, but they took what they needed, in case they couldn't.  Keep that in mind as you investigate these chambers--take note of anything that doesn't look like the result of an orderly evacuation."

     "Meanwhile, Sarah has also got us a floorplan, and it appears there are defensive weapon stations, as well as a hangar located here--so we have that to look forward to.  We're working on moving between levels, now.  So, finish your exploration of the chambers off this promenade, then come back here, to the computer center.  According to the floorplan, there should be a Base Library, around here."

     "Not that I'm expecting we'll be fortunate enough to find actual books, of course, but a library of any kind is still a database.  Gorski, Out." ^{<<<COMM ENDS}

     Kaspar turns to Naseem, "Excellent, Naseem.  Please let us know what you and Hecate discover."

     To Gavin, Kaspar adds, "I was actually guessing about a Ring Transporter network, here.  It just seemed...likely...since we aren't finding anything like stairs or elevators to allow movement between the floors of this base.  And if, as Naseem just said, the Goa'uld originally stole the Ring Transporter technology from The Ancients--and we are operating on the assumption that the Alterants might be either a later, or even an earlier, faction of the Ancients--then couldn't it be a possibility that the Ring Transporters located here could be a different version than the ones in use by The Ancients, when the Goa'uld stole the tech?"

     Kaspar suddenly frowns in thought,

     "Which makes me wonder....all those centuries ago, did the Goa'uld Ra know that the Alterants were here, in this star cluster?  Did Ra exile the defeated Goa'uld Lords out here because he thought it was empty of civilization?  Or did he know there was some kind of Ancient presence out here, so he sent the exiles here, without any real support, to wreak havoc before the Ancients--that is, the Alterants--finished them off?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:35, Mon 18 May 2020.

"You may be right, Major," Freyda responded. "The Ancients came after the Alterants, so it is possible that the Ancients did not bother using a more sophisticated ring transport system. Even if they did, the Goa'uld probably could not detect the lateral connections. We can only speculate."

"The Asgard have never discovered any lateral ring system... until now. I am not even sure it ever occurred to us that it was a possibility. You are also correct, Gavan, that we do not use a ring transporter system. We developed our transporters before we encountered the Goa'uld. We saw no reason to take a step backwards."

"The information that the SG-X teams have uncovered out here in the cluster suggests that the Alterants may have known that the Goa'uld were out here. Remember, they went about converting all species out here that were suitable hosts for the Goa'uld into one that was poisonous to them."

"It may also have been a preemptive program."

After hearing Kaspar's message, Hilda walked out of the infirmary and back into the corridor, where she regarded the next and final door. Then she looked across to Lucky with a grin. 'I have a new guess – the next room is a library.'

"Copy that Major. We'll let you know if we find one."  Lucky replied, then gave Hilda a bit of a scowl, "And here I thought shield maiden was an honourable title, yet you want to cheat our bet?" He laughed, obviously teasing. "Open sesame, and pray it isn't a bunch of heavy books they want us to lump back to Stargate command."

'An honourable shield maiden seizes any chance to win!' Hilda returned with a boisterous laugh, enjoying the banter with a fellow warrior. She went to the door and tried to open it, while saying to Lucky 'Pray it isn't more heavy runestones.'

Having already discovered the concept of variable frequencies on the doors with her kara'kesh, Naseem/Hecate finds it isn't quite the impossible task of tapping into the rings as it appeared.

She can't determine if there's some sort of master ring, which she presumes is the control room, and she doesn't know how many 'frequencies' there are, though, again, she presumes there are at least 21, by the room count.

She's partially handicapped by not knowing how many POSSIBLE frequencies there are. If it's working on the scale she thinks it is, then there could be several thousand frequencies.

It's going to take her several minutes of trial and error since she can't (at the moment) visit each location.

Like with the doors, she can register the control room's ring gate. From there, it's about finding a resonance with the others. Hecate doesn't know of any Goa'uld or Tok'ra ring gates that were ever built that close to each other, let alone interlinked in some way.

After a few minutes, she is able to activate the control room ring gate--she just doesn't know where it goes!



Hilda opens the door to what is supposed to be the last room on this side of the balcony. It is, indeed, a library as she knows it. There are several plush lounge chairs in the room with an end table and lamp between each pair, two desks with a chair at it, and both end walls are covered in shelves with books and knickknacks on them.

On the side walls, an assortment of art hangs on them... at least what is colloquially known as 'wall art'. One piece appears to be a sunset (or possibly a sunrise) of some alien world... since there are two suns. Another looks like a black square shield with a strange red symbol on it. There's also a pair of crossed swords in the center of back wall, but they are very elaborate and fancy swords. They look rather impractical. Another piece is some type of ceremonial mask.

There are around 500 books on the shelves--a rough estimate. Tall ones, small ones, thick ones, thin ones, red ones, blue ones, wooden ones, stone ones. One shelf appears to hold a dozen stone tablets. Another shelf is piled up with scrolls.

Stepping inside, Hilda surveyed the library and its artworks. If she hadn't been a primitive Cimmerian, she might've been more impressed at this repository of Ancient knowledge. Still, she understood what a treasure trove this would be to wise ones like Daniel Jackson and Kaspar Gorski. She saw stone tablets, she saw scrolls, she saw bound books; since she was used to the first two, it was all books to her. 'Hilda to Kaspar and Sarah. We have found the library,' she radioed back to the team, 'There are books here... Just a few.' she reported, understating the find with a mischievous look to Lucky. She wanted to see their faces...

But since she still couldn't read very well, and this language not at all, and because she was a warrior at heart, Hilda instead crossed the room to examine the swords and shield. And naturally she'd try to take a sword down...

In reply to Hilda (msg # 21):

^{COMM START>>>} "Hilda to Kaspar and Sarah. We have found the library," Hilda's voice suddenly speaks from the active radios in the Control Room, "There are books here... Just a few." ^{<<<COMM ENDS}

     Kaspar's eyebrows rise up, "Well, that's unexpected!" he says, looking around at the others in the Control Room, "Both that they found actual books, as well as the fact that the Alterans left them behind.  As if they didn't think they'd be gone for very long."

     Kaspar shrugs, as he reaches for his microphone,

^{COMM START>>>} "Roger that, Hilda.  I'm on my way to you.  Kaspar Out." ^{<<<COMM END}

     Before he leaves, Kaspar looks to Sarah,

     "Sarah, do you want to stay and continue working with the com...sorry!  It's going to take me a while to stop calling it that.  Anyway, do you want to come and examine the library, or do you want to continue working with Eevee, here.  All of you are making such excellent progress, I'd hate to interrupt, but I thought I should offer, before I go get lost in those books, myself." Kaspar finishes with a smile.

Going over to the swords and shield, Hilda vaguely recalls someone telling her that only old European castles and rich American estates tend to have authentic swords and shields displayed on the walls... the shields mostly because of their heraldic significance and the swords because they were supposedly used by some important or historic long-dead person.

Most of the rest are either fakes, frauds, or modern replicas. It's a toss up whether the modern replicas are better or worse than the originals.

With the shield in the way, she has some difficulty taking the sword down until she realizes that the swords are placed in scabbards which are hidden by the shield. It is peace-bonded to the scabbard, though, but once she disengages the clasp, the sword pulls out easily... almost.

It takes a bit of finesse, which she finds strange and impractical, even though the reason is obvious once she has the sword all the way out and can see it.

The end is slightly wider than the rest of the blade, there are two pointed protrusions on each side of the blade down near the hilt, there is some fancy metalwork just at the hilt, and both sides of the cross guard kind of look like forward pointing claws.

The sword feels a bit lighter than she'd expect a sword of that size and shape to weigh, but not so much that she couldn't wield it.

The second sword has a different hilt, and has a blue tinge to it, but she hasn't pulled that one out yet.

Curiously, Hilda gave the oddly shaped sword a few practice swings and thrusts, trying to get a feel for its weight and balance and the tactics needed to make best use of it. 'Hmm. It seems better for slashing, not stabbing. Maybe these pointy bits will catch and turn aside an enemy's blade. But I don't think it will last long in a real battle, and nor will a warrior swinging it.' she said disdainfully. She put it down, and tried to release and draw the second sword...

"Good news, bad new time. The good news is I've found the control room gates. The other good news is I think there are at least 21 different frequencies. The bad news is the possible combination of destinations with rings that are multi-directional is in the many thousands so unless one of us finds a network map we're going to have to explore."

She let the rings drop into place in the control room before taking out a small drone from her backpack. "Let's see where you go, shall we?"

Once she had the drone ready and A/V synced to her tablet she sent the rings back wherever they were inclined to go.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:59, Sat 06 June 2020.

"I think they're only props for decorating." Lucas said as he pulled a book that grabbed his attention from the shelf and opened the cover. He did not expect to read any of  the bright coloured covered book, but hoped for some illustrations to hint what it was written about. "I hope we don't get stuck standing watch while the smart people have to read through all of these." He could not help it sounded a bit like a whine as he said it. "You know I heard some rumblings around command about wanting an offworld safe haven. Wouldn't a place like this be perfect, once we figured out how to modify the doors so we can all open them. And put in more stairwells or elevators."

In reply to Lucas Wheeler (msg # 26):

[Library Chamber, Abandoned Alteran Lunar Facility]

     "And I plan to recommend exactly that, to General Hammond." Kaspar says, catching the tail-end of Lucky's comment, as he walks into the library and looks around excitedly.

     "Of course, we'll have to acquire another Stargate, before we can do so.  I wouldn't want to take the 'gate off of the Ha'tak--the trip back to Earth would be excruciatingly long, without being able to occasionally get off the ship, via that 'gate.  Maybe we can make an arrangement with the First People to dig up their Gate and let us use it, up here?"

     Kaspar shrugs as he, like Lucky, walks over and gently takes down a book from a shelf and carefully opens it,

     "I'll leave that problem for the General, and the Diplomatic Team to resolve.  We have to finish surveying this base, first, to make sure there are no booby traps left behind."

     Kaspar looks up from the book to Lucky and Hilda,

     "Sarah opened a computer record that shows that the Alterans evacuated this facility over concerns that the Goa'uld might come here.  Therefore we should assume that they may have left traps for the Goa'uld.  I certainly would have."

As Old Man Kaspar came into the library, Hilda turned to see his reaction to the trove of books. It wasn't quite all that she'd planned for. 'Is this enough books for you, Old Man?' she teased.

Then she listened with surprise and worry at his warning. She'd heard that word before, but in a different sense. 'Booby traps?' she repeated, folding her arms guardedly over a proud Nordic bust. 'What kind of traps?'

Lucas tried as Hilda spoke and guarded herself

He really did

And his composure held for nearly three seconds as he put the book back in place.The grin he was fighting to contain had completely won out as he looked at Major Gorski, "I... I got nothing to compete with that without getting myself in trouble."

He bowed slightly to Hilda before stepping out of the room so he could let go and burst out laughing despite his hand over his mouth to contain it.

[Library Chamber, Abandoned Alteran Lunar Facility]


     Kaspar, having turned his attention back to the alien book he's holding, is slowly turning the pages, completely entranced by the alien glyphs upon them.  He doesn't even seem to notice Lucky leave the room.

     "Hmm?  Oh, yes, Booby Traps..." Kaspar says in a distracted tone, without looking up from the book, "Uh...English word 'Boob', meaning 'Fool or Idiot'...been used for hundreds of years....from the Roman 'balbus'...means 'Stammering'...Romans thought stammering was a sign of idiocy, you see...."

     Kaspar pauses as he flips a page,

     " 'Booby' is also the name of a tropical bird....when first encountered it showed no fear of Men...it could be captured by hand quite easily....early sailors and explorers thought this bird quite stupid....they called it a Booby Bird."

     Another pause to turn a page,

     "Booby Traps used to meant a prank....simple trick played upon someone for laughs....wasn't until...um...the Twentieth Century....sometime during World War One, I believe....Booby Traps gained the darker, more lethal meaning....usually involving hidden explosives...."

     Having reached the end of the book, Kaspar closes it and looks up, speaking,

     "I'm sorry, Lucky, you're having trouble with....oh." Kaspar stops, when he sees that Lucky isn't there, anymore.

Well, that cleared up everything. And also absolutely nothing. Hilda was just left with more questions. She looked downward, and left her fingers tucked in her arm-pits until it was safe. She did, after all, have more to protect that Sarah and Naseem. Not that she was judging; no, she'd be more than happy to compare someday. 'Já, but what does that have to do with the brjóstin? Why would you Tau'ri name them after fools or birds or traps anyway? And which one traps the Goa'uld?' she demanded.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 31):

     "Brjóstin?" Kaspar asks, puzzled--at first not recognizing the word--then, "Oh!"

     "Oh, um, well, you see, Hilda," Kaspar starts, his voice sliding into his pedantic 'Professor'-mode, "this is an example of how--despite protestations to the contrary, by it's native speakers--the Tau'ri Language called 'English' is one of the most complicated languages to be found on the planet.  Because it is filled with contradictions like this one."

     "What we have here is called a homonym; that's where two different words are spelled the same and even pronounced the same, but they have two different meanings!  In this case it's 'Boob'."

     "One meaning for 'Boob' is a Fool, or related to foolish or stupid things.  While the other meaning of 'Boob', or 'Boobies', is related to the female breast.  The origin of this meaning is still pretty much up in the air, and hotly debated.  The two most accepted theories are that the word has either evolved out of the gleeful expression of 'buh-buh' by an infant upon seeing a breast at feeding time, or that it may come from the Yiddish word for 'Grandmother', which is b-u-b-b-i-e, but to many English-speakers, sounds to be pronounced 'booby'."

     "Whatever the origin for 'boob' as the female breast is," Kaspar says with a shrub, as he puts the alien book he'd been holding back on the shelf he'd taken it from, "One of its first appearances in that usage was in erotic literature around the turn of the Twentieth Century.  Most notably in a novel titled 'Tropic of Cancer', and other works, by an American author named Henry Miller."

     Kaspar turns and smiles at Hilda,

     "For the time period, in America, Miller was quite provocative--though I think, as a Cimmerian, you might find his observations of Depression-Era America to be, well, stupid--I feel that you would find his sense of humor quite funny, Hilda."

Hilda just looked long and questioningly at Kaspar after this explanation, but then decided it was safe to lower her arms. 'I think I'll be quite confused first.' she said  at last. She decided, and not for the first time, that the Tau'ri were strange and bewildering.

'Okay, if they are to trap Goa'uld boobies, and not brjóstin, how would these traps work? Because we've been touching everything and going everywhere since we arrived, and have found nothing dangerous since the valkyrja when we came in the hall, and something made you all argue.'
This message was last edited by the player at 09:06, Thu 11 June 2020.

Naseem soon discovers that the drone is directly below her, presumably in the living quarters of the base leader. That would seem to make sense as a 'default' setting for the ring gate. In fact, she's now not sure if there is a single ring gate or multiple ring gates. While it makes sense that each of the 13 living quarters would have its own separate ring gate, the fact that they can go laterally would seem to make the need for that unnecessary.


The book that Lucky had been looking through appeared to have been made of wood. The cover was a thick slab of wood while the pages were thin veneers of wood. The wood itself had a purplish tinge to it.

Sadly, there were no pictures, but there were a few drawings of strange creatures. The symbols that seemed to comprise a language did not look familiar to him at all. However, they appear to have been written at a diagonal across the page, presumably starting at the lower right corner, then continuing from lower bottom diagonally up to the right edge. The pages only had writing on one side, and the writing didn't always go all the way up to the top.



Hilda had no problem pulling down the second sword once the shield was removed by rotating it a quarter turn to the left. She could now see the hooks that held the sword in place. It made pulling it off tricky only because of the shape of the blade.

It was somewhat like the other one, but while clearly different, appeared to have been made by the same sword-smith.


The book that Kaspar pulled off the shelf looked like wood, but when he held in his hands, he realized it was actually metal... and rather heavy. The cover and spine had been finely etched to give a wood grain effect, and had then been stained in some way. He had no idea what the metal was, though. The pages are also made of thin sheets of red metal, with the consistency of heavy aluminum foil, though Kaspar does get the impression that the pages wouldn't be that easy to rip.

Like Lucky's book, there were no pictures, not even any drawings or diagrams, but the monochromatic script has a vaguely familiar resemblance to Egyptian hieroglyphs, though only a few of the symbols are familiar. It, too, appears to be written in columns, but goes down the first column and up the next column, etc. There are always 5 columns per page (written on both sides). Somewhat oddly, all the pages but the last one have all 5 columns filled. The last page only has 3 1/2 columns.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:20, Wed 10 June 2020.

Having overhead the talk about traps, Freyda approaches the library with caution. Just as the Asgard had set traps that affected only Goa'uld, it seemed likely that the Alterans would have done something similar, but she wasn't taking any chances.

"Any traps set for the Goa'uld would only target the Goa'uld, but I cannot say for certain that they would not affect a Tok'ra as well," Freyda informs the others.

"In any case, any trap that affected a Goa'uld would most likely be a ring gate that transported them to some type of holding cell, though, since we know so little about the ones that occupied this facility, it could very well have transported them out into space. Not even a Goa'uld could survive that."

"The other possibility is a chemical substance that would be fatal only to Goa'uld. Depending on how sophisticated the substance is, it might not affect Tok'ra, but I would not expect that to be the case."

She floated into the room and examined the books as well.

"How is this possible?!" she exclaimed at one point. "Some of these are Asgardian tomes from 14,000 years ago!"

Sarah continues to tinker on the computer - at present 'in the zone' and most oblivious to what the others are doing.

Hilda put the sword back in its scabbard, and the scabbard back on its hook. They might be finer and fancier than her father's sword, but it would not break when guarding against a Jaffa's staff.

'That is what Thor's Hammer did – take the Goa'uld away to the Hall of Mjolnir.' she remarked to Lady Freyda as she came in. 'Would the Ancients do the same as the Asgard?'

Seeing Freyda's interest in the books, Hilda whisked the most familiar of them – a heavy runestone – off a shelf and showed her. 'Já, look! How would the Ancients have Asgard books?'

"I does not seem likely, does it, Hilda?" Freyda replies. "On the other hand, we have yet to see any indication that the Alterants would kill other beings. Take, for instance, the Guardian when we came in. It subtly altered our minds. And they've created species out here that are poisonous to the Goa'uld rather than a virus that would spread and kill them."

"It does not seem as if it is in the mindset of the Alterants to destroy life, only to prevent it from destroying others."

"I would not dismiss those swords so readily. They look like they might be made of trinium, though probably a trinium alloy to give them more weight."

"The Asgard phased out books about 10,000 years ago, converting all data into digital form. It took a thousand years for all Asgard to come around to that way of thinking, coinciding with our evolution."

"It would be hard to tell if these books were replicas or originals, but preserving them for this long is truly amazing."