Harry willed his chair to return to a normal upright position as he released his control over his core and slowly the glow that had enveloped him for the past couple of hours faded away.
Standing up he muttered as he watched the last display show an immense fire engulf two lights years from the center of the Wraith occupied system, reducing every thing in to its component atoms.
Freyr and Opher looked at each other as they watched one ship simply destroy an entire system with two shots.
Motioning with his hand towards the steps down, "Shall we move to a less lofty level?" Harry told them.
As they walked down the steps, "I want to thank you two for coming to our aid in the rescue of the children." Harry said as they rounded the steps to the first level and walked to the steps leading to the embarkation deck.
"I know that the Nox are a peaceful people and hope the violence you have witnessed today has not duly distressed you Opher." Harry told him as he made his way to the gate console.
"It was slightly unsettling to watch, but at the same time gratifying to know that the Alliance once again is well protected." Opher said softly.
Inclining his head in acknowledgement Harry came up behind Steven and placed his hand on the communication panel.
"Theta shift report to duty stations." He announced city wide before clapping Steven on the shoulder.
"Well done Steven, when your replacement gets here get a hot meal and relax." Harry told him before continuing towards his working platform and Remus and the seated Earth Ambassador.
Remus conjured up a steaming cup of hot chocolate infused with a restorative and handed it to Harry as soon as he made it to the platform.
"Thanks Remus." Harry said as he made for his chair.
Aloria who was transporting large amounts of food to the area behind the gates diverted some of it and included some of the Nox and Asgard favorites to the table in front of Harry.
Spotting General O'Neill and Teal'C making their way to the platform Harry told them. "Gentleman help your self to some hot food."
After everyone had fixed a plate and or beverage Harry asked. "Aloria details please?"
"Of course Lord Commander." Aloria's voice came from the table.
"Of the one hundred Earth soldiers, thirty five of them sustained injuries requiring a healer. Of those, six will require extended stays for re-growth treatments to repair lost limbs."
General O'Neill winced at that knowing it would not be pleasant when he informed the pentagon what had happened.
"They should be back to pre battle condition in three days. With the rest being discharged from healer care by dinner. The healers request that all Earth force personal be afforded guest accommodations and returned to Earth in the morning after a good nights rest." Aloria said shocking General O'Neill.
"This works out to the benefit of Colonel Carter and Daniel Jackson, seeing as the Tyaes and Bololarys will take six hours to get home, there is no need for speed on the return trip and it gives those in hibernation a chance to be brought out of it before getting here."
"Of our own forces nine were seriously wounded which will require several days worth of healing and the rest all require healer intervention as they refused to leave their positions until the recall order was broadcast." Aloria continued.
"Unicorn and Horntail cadre units suffered no loss or damage and are currently en-route back aboard the Tyaes." Aloria finished reporting.
"And of those we rescued?" Harry asked as he refilled his plate again.
"Initial reports back from the Nox healers on the Tyaes indicate that the four hundred plus members of the healer staff of the Cyrorar in hibernation should make a full recovery as they have slowed down the reactivation to safer levels now that they have more than enough power to be able to use the input controls.
Of the stasis pods we recovered, a total of thirty were in danger of failing and are in med bay seven after being stabilized and awaiting release.
Of the total, ten percent of them had only one occupant, while thirty percent had two.
Of the remaining another forty percent had three occupants while the last twenty percent held ten infants each.
A total of Twenty four thousand and five hundred children." Aloria gave the statistics to Harry causing him to drop his fork in shock.
"I have examined the hastily done modification and come to the conclusion that only extreme desperation would cause one to even consider the modifications they employed." Aloria softly told them.
Letting his head rest in his hands, Harry groaned then asked. "How long can they safely stay in stasis while we try to figure out what to do?"
"If we bring out of stasis the oldest children within a week, that's twenty five hundred children, we should be able to release the others over the next two weeks." Aloria answered.
Trying not to snap at her as he more than likely did not make it clear as tired as he was. "Aloria I need to be able to leave them IN stasis as long as possible, we do not have the means to care for fifteen thousand infants right now." Harry said very slowly.
"Sorry Harry, To answer your question, they might be safe for another year or more than likely seeing the modifications were done in haste they might last only another week." Aloria apologized.
Food forgotten for the moment Harry leaned back in his chair eyes closed, knowing the children had to be released from stasis as soon as possible, but at a loss of how they would be able to take care of that many.
Placing his hand on the raised panel on the table to his right Harry let his mind merge with the system seeking a solution.
A few tears started to leak from his eyes as he thought of how many of the infants they more than likely would lose, as they just did not have enough people to care for them.
General O'Neill watched as images began to flash rapidly before Harry before they sped up to a level to fast to follow, though the ones in the beginning seemed to be about babies. Then to his shock he watched tears start to fall from Harry's closed eyes.
Figuring there was bad news concerning the kids rescued General O'Neill had to ask. "What's wrong? Is something wrong with the Stasis chambers?"
Harry deep in thought as he searched for answers did not hear the question so Aloria answered for him. "General O'Neill the pods are unstable because of the modifications made to them. Right this minutes the children are safe, but the only way to make sure they stay that way and we don't lose any, is to bring them all out of stasis now."
"We just don't have the resources at the moment to take care of a whole colonies infant population, fifteen thousand infants is just to much for even us to handle in one go, not to mention the other children." Aloria said in a soft pain filled voice.
Harry found no answers in the miraculous technology archives of his legendary people. Before now there seemed to be no problem that he could not solve by just looking it up.
Since the children had been in stasis for so long they could not bring them out of stasis and place them in more advanced chambers, hell they could not even place them in hibernation units either.
Letting the tears fall freely now he sobbed before shifting to the Alpha Farm to be with the children.
XXXX
"What just happened?" General O'Neill asked slowly pointing to where Harry used to be sitting.
"Aloria?" Remus questioned.
"Harry is exhausted and his emotions are running high so he is not thinking as clearly as he could." Aloria said before her voice got quiet. "Plus, for the first time, the repository of knowledge has failed to solve his problems."
"How to handle over twenty four thousand children most of them babies." Remus whispered in shock.
Lya rushed to the platform and asked. "Opher what has happened now, the emotional pain coming from over here has overwhelmed some of the more sensitive mind healers?"
Standing up straight she looked around in confusion. "The pain has diminished greatly now."
"It was Harry." Remus told her as he to started to wallow a little in anguish.
"Can we help out?" Joe asked. "Is there any reason we can not get a lot of volunteers to take in some of the infants."
Looking over at Remus. "I mean if we plan to be part of the Alliance we should help out as much as we can. It is fair after all with all the help you are about to give us."
Remus contemplated the offer and tried to find a way to make it work but failed. "I appreciate the offer, I really do But Alteran children are born with the ability to manipulate the energy and matter around them. For a lack of a better word in English, Magic."
"I see no way that your people would be able to handle one of our infants and control their abilities so that they or you are not injured." Remus said slowly the little hope that started, died.
"Add in that the children need the emotional projections of love and support that you would be unable to provide to help them learn control their powers." Aloria told him, before thinking it could be taken as an insult. "No offense or belittlement meant."
"None taken." Joe sighed.
"While not a race with a large populace, can we not find volunteers Opher, which could team up with some of the Earth people so that what can not be accomplished alone could be accomplished together?" Lya asked.
"While the Asgard would also be willing to help I am afraid that we are unsuited to the needs of small children. And would not be able to provide the emotional support needed for their development." Freyr told them.
Molly who had been standing off to one side out of sight, wanting to hear if her two boys were all right, decided that this conversation needed a mothers touch.
Walking onto the platform she stood near Harry's chair refusing to sit down in it, but better able to meet every ones eyes this way.
Choosing her words carefully so as to not give away to much information to the Earth Ambassador Molly said. "As much as the mother in me screams in denial for suggesting this, what if used the house elves along with mixed teams of Alteran's, Nox and Those from Earth."
Seeing she had all their attention she pushed on. "It's not like we don't have the room. What we need is the people, this way each team can handle around ten infants and if we kept siblings together some of those that are older can help out."
Leaning on the table Molly drove her point home. "This is not long term so as long as the little ones know love and acceptance they will be fine. Plus Harry just needs to move up his plans for searching out the Alteran's trapped in damaged ships to now, instead of two months down the road."
Catching herself before she mentioned the part about moving to their new home to those present that did not know about it. "It's worth a try isn't it?" Molly asked.
As everyone thought about what Molly had said she asked. "Aloria if we were able to retrieve all those trapped on the ships we knew about, before new information came to light on the other ships, how many people are we talking about?"
Aloria herself perked up seeing the train of thought Molly Weasley was generating. "We knew about close to nine thousand Alteran's trapped and in either hibernation units or stasis pods."
"With the new information from the data dump of the Cyrorar We can speculate on at least seven if not more damaged vessels to add to that total, with crews either in stasis or hibernation. The problem is we have no idea where they are." Aloria answered.
"Nine thousand would go far in helping us deal with the children." Remus spoke up.
"The Asgard can send several ships to help retrieve the lost crews." Freyr added.
Remus sat back in the chair sighing in frustration.
"The problem is that, if we bring the children out of stasis now, we do not have the people to crew the ships to retrieve those lost in light speed travel." Augusta said as she too entered the conversation as she stepped on the platform and took a seat.
"A month from now we would be in a position to do this, but knowing Harry like we do, he will not take the chance of something going wrong with the stasis pods." Augusta told them having heard the last part of the conversation.
"You are assuming he is going to start bringing them out of stasis right now." Remus objected.
"You know him better than I do. What will he do when the first pod start to malfunction." Augusta countered.
Breath indrawn in horror Molly whispered. "He will order them all brought out at once and try to save them all. And he will second guess himself after some die because we did not have enough healers around to handle the chaos."
General O'Neill listening to the back and forth banter of a team long used to bouncing ideas off of each other.
Sighing Remus asked. "Aloria where is Harry?"
Explaining to the others. "If he was not exhausted, he could take what we have discussed and turned it into a working plan faster than it takes Aloria to form a response to my question." Remus stated as fact.
"He is sitting, staring at the stasis pods right now." Aloria said worried over the quiet that was all she heard coming through the bond.
"Ok." General O'Neill drawled out. "He has worked more than enough of a miracle today."
"If he needs sleep can some one sneak up behind him and sedate him or something?" General O'Neill asked sneakily.
"After all we." General O'Neill pointed his finger around the table. "Might take longer but at least we can come up with a plan he can work with by the time he wakes."
Remus making a decision opened a channel to the Tyaes and spoke in Alteran hoping that bill would pick up on the subtle hint and reply in the same. "Bill, its Remus is Jack there I need to speak with him for a moment?"
Jack hearing the question hurried over to the communicator as he was slightly worried not to see an image.
Replying in Alteran Jack asked. "Remus what's wrong?"
"Harry is exhausted and not thinking straight, on top of that he did not eat after expending all that energy. To make a long story short the news of all the infants in the stasis pods and how jury rigged they are put his mind on hold. And he doesn't seem to be listening at the moment to the fact that we have come up with a possible solution." Remus rushed out.
"How soon can you transfer over to Ron's ship and make the shift home?" Remus asked hoping that Jack could break through enough to get Harry to at least eat.
"Shit.Shit .Shit; Ron is not with us any longer as Bill gave him permission to investigate a weak signal we picked up." Jack cussed.
"Damn." Remus whispered.
Coming up with an idea that might work Jack asked. "Aloria can you transfer my voice down to Harry?"
"Relay in place." Aloria reported intrigued with what Jack planned.
"Harry.HARRY." Jack yelled.
Getting no answer Jack tried. "Neville you there?"
Neville who was worried about his friend had been watching him from the moment he had appeared and refused to answer his calls responded. "I hear you Jack."
"Good I want you to place your com next to Harry's ear and when I yell out his name and he jumps I want you to stun him." Jack instructed.
Neville looked at his com as he heard what jack asked and wondered when the world had gone mad. "You want me to do WHAT?"
"Harry has exhausted himself and needs food and or sleep preferably both. But right now he is not thinking locked in a loop. So I want you to stun his Ass so he can at least get some rest. We need him thinking again." Jack pleaded.
Putting the com near Harry's ear and placing his hand just microns away from his head as he pulled up his magic enough to quickly stun him. The fact that Harry did not even realize he was there just made it plain that it was the right decision and he said. "Ready."
"HARRY." Jack screamed causing Harry to jump right into Neville's stunner charged hand.
"Well he out, but it's on your head when he wakes up and goes looking for me. I am sending him right after you." Neville rushed the words out nervously, as he conjured a stretcher and levitated it towards the TS so he could go to the med bay.
"Thanks Jack, he is sleeping now. Some what enforced but sleeping." Remus tried a little levity.
"Your ass is on the line to Remus if I end up sleeping on the couch." Jack said before closing the communicator.
Laughing Remus turned to the others and said. "Problem solved, Harry is now resting the rest of the bludgeoned."
General O'Neill smirked for a moment before looking towards the ambassador and saying. "Ok planning time. I can have another two hundred people here by morning."
Joe nodded his head and said. "I would agree the president would be more than willing to help out, from the conversation he and I had before I left Washington. He really wants to be able to join the Alliance."
"We also can have the same number here shortly." Freyr told him.
"Not all the Furlings that are here took part in the battle, much to their complaints. What do you have in mind?" Stone Crusher spoke up for the first time.
Sitting back in the chair General O'Neill thought out loud. "Is there any reason why we can't send out a few rescue ships now? At least they will be well on the way by the time Harry wakes up. While you might be short crew at the moment can we put together enough from all the races here to at least launch a few right now?"
While the others were thinking about what he had said, he added. "Tomorrow there will be four hundred or so rescued Alteran's, awake and ready to start working on waking the kids.
If we add in those the Nox volunteers and some of those already here and the volunteers our people can have here by that night and the next day.
Shouldn't we be able to also send out at least a couple of the rescue ships manned by the Furlings and Asgard's along with some of your command staff to start to retrieve those ships?
I mean they all can't be as involved as this rescue can they?"
"The infants and the toddlers are the ones right now that are overwhelming our abilities, but if we only had to hold on a week or so as we rescued more, who then in turn would be able to take on more responsibilities of the care of the children." Augusta offered.
"The only flaw in the plan so far is that while yes I can power up the ships and provide temporary translations of the systems, those ships would be completely without weapons as they need a direct command from Harry to unlock them." Aloria told them, hoping that they would see the solution like she did.
"We will be able to provide another six ships that would be able to provide cover within the hour." Freyr told them. "If you would retrieve the New Hope and the Vindicator along the way that would be eight."
"If we use some of my command staff from the primary shift long enough to set course before they to went back to bed, we could crew three more ships of the same class as the Bololarys with the help of the Furlings to man most of the other stations." Powaqa told then as she took another sip of the herbal medicine tea her Gran made her before she came to check up on Theta shift.
"So we have crews for three ships, four if we count Ron's. We also have escorts who can provide covering fire in case they run into any hostiles until Harry wakes up." Remus recapped.
"Aloria please put up a map showing the estimated positions of the damaged vessels traveling at light speed." Remus asked.
Aloria did as asked and a globular map of the Pegasus galaxy appeared above the table with seven blinking symbols scattered through out.
Stone Crusher always the war master on the look out for enemies asked. "Can you place the planet where we had the confrontation today on the map?"
Near the back a red area glowed as Aloria placed the requested information on it.
"Dear would you highlight the three vessels that have the largest numbers to be rescued?" Molly requested.
They sat around the table and stared at the Holo display before Remus put it into words. "We have our three targets.So when do they leave?"
After an hour of planning and selecting crews and ships Remus sat up and remembered something that might cause the whole plan to fall apart. "Shit."
"Remus." Molly scolded.
"We are forgetting one very important thing. None of us are in the chain of command and can tell Aloria to prep the ships for departure." Remus remembered.
"Yes But I can." Bill's voice was heard over the fold space communicator.
Shocked Remus looked around. "Bill?"
Chuckling could be heard along with Bill's Voice. "Relax Remus; I am still Aboard the Tyaes. I have been listening in to your little planning session. I originally was contacting you all to find out what was up with Harry, but decided not to interrupt what you were doing."
"Your plan is a good one, and when Harry wakes up I am sure he can tweak it to suit his purposes." Bill told them.
"Aloria please power up and prepare for launch the Vaelaeli, Berolo and the Veloras." Bill ordered.
"Right away Commander." Aloria was pleased that they figured out a solution that would work for now.
"I will let you lot finish this off then, I plan to get some sleep." Bill told them. "We should arrive in six hours."
"Right." General O'Neill said as he stood up. "Teal'C why don't you stay and ride herd on our teams, while the Ambassador and I return to Earth and get started on rounding up some baby sitters."
"You have learned much since first we met. Anteaus will be pleased to learn that the very young do indeed grow up." Lya said as Jack walked down the steps.
Augusta also stood up. "Teal'C is it? If you will follow me I shall escort you to the quarters set aside for your soldiers use."
"Thank you again for all you and your peoples help today. You have more than proved your willingness to hold up the ideals of the Alliance of Great Races." Remus bid the two goodbye.
XXXX
T Minus 2 months 2 days
Harry slowly opened his eyes wondering why he was starving and his head was pounding.
Looking around he noticed he was in Med Bay One and Jack was sleeping in a chair next to his bed.
Sensing Harry start to stir Jack woke up to see the curious expression on Harry's face.
"Why am I in the Med Bay?' Harry asked.
"How much of yesterday do you remember?' Jack asked slowly, as he handed over glass full of the specially prepared restorative drink.
Thinking for a moment. "Everything is clear until afterwards when I started to eat." Harry sniffed the glass full of bright orange liquid. "What's this?"
Pointing to the glass Jack said. "That is our future answer to the problem of extended magical merging with Alteran controls."
"Smells like Oranges." Harry said still eyeing the dubious drink.
"Tastes like them to." Jack's flippant answers shot back.
Taking a small sip and finding it tasted very good, Harry downed the rest in a couple of swallows.
Feeling his energy flow back into him like a tidal wave Harry willed the bed to provide him with support so he could sit up.
Feeling a lot better Harry started to ask once again why he was in the med bay, when he was distracted by a tray positively mounded with food, appearing in front of him.
"I convinced Aloria not to allow you access to the replays of everything that happened after your little episode until you eat." Jack smirked.
"Surely you don't expect me to eat all this. There is no way I would be able to." Harry started to complain.
Harry." Jack said sternly. "You will eat as much as you can, for heavens sake you lost twenty pounds yesterday."
Harry sat there stunned at the revelation that he had lost so much weight. Never one to have an ounce of excess weight to begin with this frightened him that he could lose that amount that quick.
'Aloria?' Harry asked through the bond.
'Jack is right Harry I will explain everything after you start eating.' Aloria sounded apologetic but firm.
Seeing Harry pick up the fork and start to eat Jack started to explain. "What we have worked out is, that in the extended magical bonding with the city and systems that you did yesterday, to keep up with what you were doing your body started to cannibalize itself to keep your brain as active as it needed to be.
Which means since you do not have an ounce of extra weight it started to break down muscle tissue and such to produce enough energy to keep up with the demands placed on your core. At least that is what I think that Poppy person told me."
"You were not the only one affected like that." Jack told Harry motioning for him to continue eating.
"That high calorie and protein drink was developed to counteract the effects so this will not happen to anyone again." Healer Christenson told Harry as she walked up to the bed.
"As soon as you finish eating you are cleared to leave." She told Harry.
"What happened?' Harry asked her.
"You went into metabolic shock and your brain just shut down. Unfortunately your body did not follow and you had to be stunned." Agatha told him.
Eyes glowing softly as she scanned Harry to see how well he was responding Agatha told him. "Seems like you are bouncing back quite nicely. Try to keep from doing any advanced magic for the next couple of days."
Moving away she stopped and turned her head. "Oh, before I forget, Aloria has been instructed to deliver that high calorie drink to you every couple of hours for the next four days. It will help you put the weight back on."
Harry stared at the retreating back of the healer and muttered. "Bloody hell, she's been taking lessons from Poppy."
Jack had to laugh at Harry's muttering. "Don't ever change Harry."
Checks tinged by blushing Harry wisely chose not to respond.
After eating way more than he thought he could he closed his eyes and for Jack's benefit told Aloria out loud. "Aloria, I have finished eating so let's see what happened starting when I sat down at the table and started to eat."
Harry spent the next hour or so reliving what had gone on wincing the whole while.
Coming out of the trance like state Harry simply said. "What a Bollocksed up affair."
Summoning some clothes Harry got off the bed and started to get dressed. "Well, you were right, the older you certainly have a brain behind that facade he presents."
Finished sealing his uniform in place Harry strode towards the door. "Let's get to the command deck so I make official what was planned after I was helped to sleep."
Hesitating a moment as Jack was not sure if he should be worried or not, thought he better catch up so Harry did not have time to plan a suitable revenge.
Walking down the corridor to take the long way to the Embarkation deck Harry decided that a joint meeting was in order.
'Aloria would you inform all the department heads and advisors to meet me in half an hour.' Making a snap decision he added through the bond. 'You might have the command crew and any of the others from the Cyrorar join us fifteen minutes later so we can find out what happened and plan from there.'
"Jack how did the crews and sleepers handle being re-introduced to the world of the living?" Harry wanted to know.
"Well it did not go as gently as it could have." Jack said remembering back to the confrontation when they found out the stasis pods were not on board the Tyaes.
"Meaning?' Harry asked as he walked through the door leading to the Embarkation deck.
Sighing Jack finally told him. "Meaning they were not too happy to find out they had been separated from the kids."
Harry did not say anything else waiting until they got out of the corridor, as he was busy returning the greetings everyone seemed to call out as he walked towards the work platform.
Once he had made it to his working platform he sat down and activated the displays with tracking maps showing the where about of all the rescue ships.
Looking over at Jack for an explanation, Harry frowned when out of the corner of his eye a plate of brownies appeared.
Sighing as he was not about to get into an argument with an Aloria in mothering mode. Moving the plate so it was in the center of the table. "Help yourself." Harry sighed.
Not about to risk a lecture from the protective city personality Jack wisely only took one.
"Once we docked and they were able to transport over to the city and they saw for themselves that the stasis pods were okay and all the panels are now reading green, they calmed down." Jack reported.
"Though after the tongue lashing Neville gave them for some of their remarks it's a wonder any of them will show their faces at the Farm to check up on the kids." Jack grinned at the memory.
"Never, ever discount Neville's abilities, or his knowledge of plants." Harry told him as he shook his head at the thought of the idiot that would do so, wouldn't be much left after Neville finished with him.
Harry and Jack spent the next twenty minutes catching up on all the information Jack had gathered on the command crew and other notables of the Cyrorar on the journey back.
Since there was going to be a joint meeting and then not knowing how many of the Cyrorar's crew and staff would show up, Harry spent a few moments thinking about the best way to change the platforms layout before willing it to do so.
As the platform started to widen and the table change so that it was more of a blunted arrowhead shape, Jack grabbed onto his moving chair before scolding Harry. "You were told not to use any magic for the next few days. There is no way in hell I am standing between you and Agatha when she shows up. Healers can be right scary when they want to and they have all these nasty devices to torture you with too."
Grumbling could be heard from the speaker in the table sounding like Aloria cussing, when a glass full of the energy drink appeared in front of Harry and she said. "DRINK."
Sheepishly grinning as he was not used to not using his mind to do everything any more Harry meekly picked up the glass and drained it on in go.
Even though he was not hungry he decided the least he could do is eat one of the brownies to make Aloria feel better. Or more to the point so she would not force feed them to him.
Harry was still slowly munching on the brownie as the others started to show up.
Harry just blushed sheepishly as Agatha walked onto the newly expanded platform.
"Good thing I did not take the bet with Poppy on how long it would be before you preformed magic without thinking about it." Agatha said sitting down, to the chuckles of the others.
'Yes well, you try to stop thinking about things bending to your will after so many years." Harry muttered.
Softening her tone Agatha replied. "I know Harry; I am not upset with you, just try to put off any major feats of magic for a few days.
Seeing that everyone that was not on rescue missions had assembled Harry started. "Ok let's try to hash out what we can before the rescued Alteran's show up in twenty minutes."
"Let's start with housing." Harry told them as he tapped into Gran's data pad to copy the information to his table.
"At first I was going to house them over in Theta all in one tower, but I thought that would not make it any easier for them to adjust to the fact they were lost out of their own time." Gran started to tell her reasoning's.
"But for right now I think it would be best if we house any of the off world volunteers in Theta with the babies and I have assigned quarters in Omicron and finished filling those empty ones in Alpha." Gran Finished.
"How much of Omicron is occupied?" Harry asked making a note on her answer.
"Roughly sixty percent of Omicron has been assigned and there is roughly ten thousand left to fill, though that will rapidly decline once we start bringing back those we rescue." Gran answered.
"Ok.Thanks." Harry said as he looked towards Agatha.
Sighing she pulled out her hand written notes as she was slightly old fashioned that way, more like she forgot her data pad in her quarters this morning, but she would deny that to any that asked. "Luckily DNA scans and health screening were done before they arrived. Surprisingly their DNA is a closer match to ours than the repository led us to believe, it should be no problem putting them through the re-sequencer so they can access their undeveloped cores."
"Do you know why there is such a wide margin of difference in the genetic structure?" Tanaka asked as he was studying the helix model being displayed in front of him at his request.
"It could be from the fact that they are refuges of a colony disaster centuries before the war started." Agatha leaned forward. "To tell the truth they are not that far off the scale that we could not just attribute it to genetic drift."
"Either way it just makes it easier as they will need two less treatments." Agatha closed with.
"Remus you spent the most time with them. How are they adjusting?" Molly asked.
"Confused, distraught, scared at first, trying to figure out what happened and why. But the really helpful thing is that at least for all those that were not part of the immediate crew, they are all parents of the children in the Stasis pods." Remus replied.
"After assuring themselves that their children were ok, and getting over the fear that they were about to fail at any moment, they seemed to have settled down and right now they just want their children out of the pods." Remus told them.
"As a mother I can understand that. The poor dears probably worried themselves sick." Molly exclaimed.
"Vlad, have you had a chance to look over the Parasites yet?" Harry asked the stocky Slavic head of engineering.
"Yes I have." Vlad told them as he inputted a command so that a Holo image was hovering over the table.
"From what I have been able to find in the archives, this style of Parasite was meant to act as a mobile surgical platform that would land on a planet to provide a ready made facility to treat the victims of a disaster.
Four drop ships were assigned to each as a means to ferry patients up to the main ship in orbit for care requiring more than a couple of hours. "Vlad then rotated the display so that everyone could see where the drop ships fit onto the hull.
Switching to an inside view most were shocked that the inside was not as pristine as it should be. There were stains and soot covering the bulkheads and floors.
Everywhere they looked cables lay tangled next to open service tubes running along the wall. Some corridors had huge cable running from generators towards where they drop ships would have joined the hulls. All in all the inside of the ships were a disaster.
"They are old and the best thing we could do is send them to the remotes to be broken down for raw material used to build new things." Vlad finished.
Harry stared at the pictures he was being shown, he could not imagine the sheer desperation that the crew had to be in to attempt this.
Seeing some of the people they were talking about making their way onto the embarkation deck Kevin cleared his throat. "Before we are interrupted I should report I have taken a hard look at the stasis pods and honestly they frighten me."
Willing himself to turn from the image in the center of the table Harry motioned for Vlad to kill it before asking." What do you mean Kevin?"
"Those things frighten me Harry. They should not be able to work, every thing they did to modify them should have blown them up. But yet by sheer willpower alone I think, they have kept their precious cargo alive." Kevin told him as he shuddered.
Aloria in the back of his mind doing her best to calm him and tell him they had a plan and it was a good one, Harry replied with conviction. "We are going to start getting them out this afternoon."
"Good, the sooner the better. And I can pitch those unholy things into the sun." Kevin spat out.
Seeing the Nox mind healers escorting the refugees over to the arrival area, Molly decided to jump the gun, before Harry used magic again and called out. "Aloria dear could you be kind enough to provide some comfortable chairs for us."
"Of course Molly." Aloria said formally, while laughing through the bond to Harry.
As the out of time Alteran's moved to find seats Harry stood up and dropped the charm hiding the glowing crown that was now part of him.
Four hundred and some eyes stared quietly as they took in the sight from ancient history books, which they believed was more a legend than reality.
Yet there standing before them was the legendary Lord Commander.
Waiting until everyone had found seats Harry scanned the crowd to get a feel of their emotions.
No such luck as the worry they felt for their children over rode any other feeling, and he was not gifted enough to delve deeply to find out.
"I know you have questions and that you are worried about your children. As soon as we are done here we will start to bring the children out of stasis" Harry started.
"From what my engineers tell me, well frankly I am surprised the pods even worked, let alone this long. So over the next couple of days I want your help in caring for the infants as we bring in other volunteers to help with their care. This is not something we had been prepared for and as such Toria Ai Shas just does not have the personal to handle it." Harry decided to be frank with them.
Levitating himself to the top of the table Harry walked to the end closest to those he was speaking to and gently levitated himself to the floor.
Waving his arm in one smooth motion the railing vanished and steps leading down to the arrival area appeared.
Stepping down one step Harry sat down on the top step so he would not be so imposing.
For the next two hours Harry sat there as he explained how things were currently and answered questions.
Steven, who had just finished a long series of diagnostics of the Astria system after its maiden voyage so to speak, was very pleased that it had preformed up to specs.
Looking down he noticed one of the displays light up with an incoming signal that was the precursor of one of his Astria being accessed.
Tracing the signal back he followed it back to the Earth gate used by the SGC teams. Routing the matter stream to the third Astria he announced. "Incoming travelers. Origin Earth SGC command."
Standing back up Harry told them. "The first of the volunteers seem to be arriving so let's leave any further questions for another day and see about settling the volunteers into their quarters and start bringing the children out of stasis before the engineers and healers have a coronary from waiting so long."
A few people laughed at his words and more smiled as the tensions started to dissipate now that they were about to be reunited with their families.
Scott lent me his most excellent editing skills for this chapter.