Chapter Text
Chapter One
Sakura's Offer
“Here's the thing... I've been thinking.”
Sakura's words reached me as soon as I entered the Fortress. I did not even get the chance to look at the night sky and admire how the Fortress was now located inside the Magnus System, my Magnus System. I turned around. She was really there, physically... well, sort of. I still did not know whether her physical body was a suit she chose to wear at times or not.
“That is a dangerous occupation.” I quipped.
“For you? I agree.” She retorted without skipping a beat.
“What can I do for you?”
“At least you've stopped knocking on open doors. For the most part. This is what I was thinking about.”
In an instant, my mind assimilated her offer. It was filled with data and details and angles and perspectives and so much more, but in the end, it could be neatly summarized for my primitive intellect. What she was proposing I do was to not use the Generic Military Jump Document this time around, as I had initially been planning. The Jump Level would still be in a Military setting twinned with a Gender Wars setting, but the document would be a simple CYOA, one that was actually mostly redundant with what I already had. On top of that, I would have a few tasks to accomplish, one of them with priority. Then, once that first task was tackled, I would be reinserted as a mock start, just for giggles. Also, while my next Companion lady, as well as potential bondmate, will be available for a meet in this following world, and that soon after my arrival, with a smoothed out introduction and everything, I should avoid even meeting the second potential Companion I had been thinking about recruiting in this next world, holding that off for the next visit to the same universe. In return for my agreeing with her offer, I would have an easier time starting this Jump Level, in ways that were not yet available in setting, but that would be waived off for me, I would have a somewhat easier introduction to some of the main individuals in the tales of this universe, one of whom was my own fourth Companion, and, as a freebie due to some of my return thoughts, I would get a fifth and a sixth guaranteed Companions added to my initial four (the one I was thinking about in this next world, plus another one down the road whom I had thought about in the past), making it a sextet of guaranteed Companions eventually. Finally, as a bonus, I could expand my stellar system to a small cluster and I could use this universe as a base, sort of. Well, that bonus was for down the road anyway.
After a few heartbeats of thinking about it, I agreed.
“Have fun. Bye.”
I shook my head at her sometimes mercurial attitude. Not that I was the one to comment on that. At least the changes she sometimes brought were never truly onerous.
Opening the computer, I looked at the document for this following Jump Level. It was a CYOA by QueenEthereal, v2.1 for Stargate. A pretty straightforward one. Well, the [Double Down] applied in this case, since there were no CP points to be had.
Sex? Yes. Again. Age? I disliked the options available. Age 24 and age 35 with nothing in-between? The option for age 29 appeared. Good. Species? Well, I could choose two and one of them could be a custom species. Perfect. [Ebonmer] and [Altera]. Starting location? Well, that one was going to be a twofer as well. I would start on an empty planet somewhere. And then, I would (mock-)start again, elsewhere. Choosing a bonus! And only one bonus. But, [Double Down] applied, so I could take that solitary bonus as a double. Which I did, getting two extra perk points instead of one. Who needs a [BC-304] anyway? I could build one if I found it that terribly interesting. Which I did not.
I was now looking at skills. The document said I could choose two. Which meant I could choose four. Out of six. My problem was that they were mostly redundant. [Martial Arts], [Polyglot], [Mechanic], [Aim], [Pilot] and [Science]. Well, I dropped [Aim], since what I had from the Mass Effect Jump Level was already better. I also did not think I'd ever need to shoot a fly with iron sights at 100 yards. Not when I could do the same at 1500 yards and change targets in rapid succession. Then, I flipped a coin and ended up dropping [Martial Arts], while keeping [Polyglot]. It worked fine for me. I was a Blade Dancer. I did not need more martial arts. Not that I needed more languages either, but just saying.
The next section was the one reserved for perks. There were eight of them, and I could pick six up. Another headache of choosing which ones to drop. Actually, that one was easy. I dropped [Knowledge Theft] and [Strength]. The former I could already do much better, without needing to subdue anyone. The latter was exaggerated. It offered a 100× strength increase (meaning 200× with [Double Down]) when compared to my racial baseline, along with near perfect control of my own body. Well, I already had that level of control and more, being a [Shaper]. As for the strength increase, I would get there on my own, through hard work. I felt it would be better that way. The other perks were added to my already impressive list. [Enhanced Mind] offered me some marginal improvements by this point, but I would take them. My mind was my best attribute. [Ageless] was more or less redundant, but why not? No longer aging after a certain age of my choice (29) and no longer being capable of dying of old age. I already could do both, but it was still better than those two perks I'd be dropping. It even fused with my existing similar perks. [Sight] was a curious one. It came with 360° vision and a mile range in all directions. Being a [Shaper], I could control it. It would supplement my other senses when it came to staying aware of my surroundings. It also came with the ability to 'see' what was on the other side of an active stargate. Well, wasn't that already a feature in the gates themselves? Either way, I was going to take it just the same. [Replication] allowed for instant building, given the needed material and blueprint. It nicely updated my similar Builder abilities. [Regeneration] offered a neat survival capability. While I was already immortal up to a conceptual level, it would now be that much harder to truly test that limited form of mortality I still had. And [Healing Hand] – bring back even the dead, provided they died within an hour and there was still a body available.
That one reminded me of my friends, dead in Denerim. As a [Legendary Healer], I could technically do this already. It would just become easier. Back then, I had been unable to save them or bring them back to life. Something about the Veil in Thedas, the Archdemon being the one to kill them, the nature of souls, their already being at peace with their mortality and the prospect of dying in that battle or perhaps all of the above and more, had made it inadvisable to even attempt resurrecting them. I cared little about being seen as some sort of saviour figure. What I did care about was that the moment I'd thought of resurrecting them I simply knew it would not work. Oh, they would have come back to life, but they would never have been their former selves. They had simply already crossed over before a few minutes had passed. The end result would have been a sort of grotesque uncanny valley, except with souls instead of robotic faces. So, while this [Healing Hands] perk promised the Moon, I knew better. I was not going to count on it blindly.
The next two sections came together – choosing the year and choosing a complication or more. The year was simple, since it offered a range. I chose before 1997. As for the complications, I had the one Sakura wanted me to take, [Stargate Malfunction] and there were the tasks she had offered me, that had not been present in the initial document, and which were not time sensitive.
I saved the CYOA Document and I went to kick back, relax and prepare myself for a new Jump Level.
* * *
I dropped on my knees with a deep gasp. I was nude, in my original main-Form body, also know as the twin of Carla von Lahnstein, complete with chin length curly honey blonde hair. I simply knew I was the same as I had been the last time I had used this body, back during my life as Daphne Greengrass, at least superficially. I could also feel the changes and the improvements I had accumulated ever since. Suffice to say, as I drew myself upright, it took me a short while to get used to being 173 cm tall again, instead of 223 cm or even 181 cm in height. I also felt lighter, not just because I was, but also because I was in space.
This particular insertion method specified I would start inside a stasis pod on an Alteran ship. Not just any Alteran ship, but actually a... portanavis. Aw... how cute. It was a wonder the stasis pot fit inside. Anyway, as an Alteran myself, the portanavis would be in perfect working order and it even had six drone weapons. Yay. I was being sarcastic. That was because I was also supposed to be near a stargate. And I was near a stargate. In space! I had thought it would be on a planet! Except, I should have read the description better. Only for another species would the ship be crashed and out of order, thus presumably on a planet. For Altera, the ship would be in perfect working order, which meant it could be anywhere, such as near an orbital stargate. As a little bit of teasing from Sakura, the Stargate was actually in the L4 point of the binomial Bendis / Magnus. I was in my own system, which, from what I could tell after looking over the sensors, was in a cluster located about 0.3 million light years past Pegasus DIG if one came from Avalon (the Milky Way), at an angle that allowed me a truly fantastic view. Pegasus DIG itself was too small to see clearly from so far away, at least with the naked eye, but Andromeda (M31) and Triangulum (M33) were both much larger in the sky, even though they were also much farther. M31 was about 1.5 MLY away, while M33 was about 1.35 MLY away from where I was.
According to the time stamp, the date was the 11th of November, 1990 – my very own 29th birthday, in this universe. Well, it was time to get a move on. Those stargates weren't going to fix themselves, after all. First things first.
I needed to reach the Stargate Network Hub, or just the Hub for simplicity. That was not in my extra-galactic independent cluster. It was nowhere near, being located in a pretty distant galaxy altogether. In point of fact, it was located where Clava Thessara Infinitas was also located. The key to infinite treasure. Which did indeed exist. Except it was not what Qetesh had believed it to be.
I sat down at the controls and powered up the little portanavis. The walls became transparent, allowing me to locate [Tenara Clava]. She was close behind me, relatively speaking about being both close-by as well as behind me. I heard Tenara's mental hello and smiled as I started telling her what had been going on. Before long, I was parking the portanavis inside the Technomancer. It was starting to look like a tight fit, with a Kodiak and a skycar in there. I took out the Kodiak and the skycar – much better. Eventually, I was on the way.
I could have gone to the Hub by stargate, and I was mighty tempted to do just that, if only to see my first stargate in operation soonest, but frankly, I did not want to risk it. The first task, the priority one, specifically said the stargates were starting to behave erratically, transporting people to random destinations. It was better to simply fly there. Of course, I also just wanted to fly. It would take me at least ten hours at my cruising speed to cover the approximate 4.5 – 4.6 million light years I had to traverse. That was plenty of time to study the local universe.
* * *
Clava Thessara Infinitas (CTI) was a quaternary star system located in the Carina Dwarf Galaxy, which was practically on Earth's doorstep, astronomically speaking. Or perhaps, more like in the local neighbourhood. From my rogue cluster, I had to cover 4.1 MLY to reach Avalon, then I had to cross Avalon and head south of it, relatively speaking, for another circa 300 KLY, beyond the opposite edge of Avalon from where I was coming. The system was filled with habitable bodies and it was also artificial, a sort of last line of defence the Altera had imagined for themselves. When the plague had hit, they had instead turned it into a legacy for their future descendants. They had also isolated Carina as well. It was not impossible to see it, but for some reason, no one ever came to visit. It was just... not interesting enough. As luck would have it, the CTI system contained the main hub of the stargate network. It was hidden inside an artificial asteroid and it was exactly what it said on the tin.
The amenities inside the space station masked as an asteroid and housing the Hub were basic, by Alteran standards. At least I had my Cosmic Backpack for some entertainment and good food. Not that I truly noticed, since I was working almost non-stop. Even had I not been busy with work, I would have gawked at all I could see inside the Hub. Granted, I was no longer easy to impress considering I knew how to build a stargate, however, I had never actually seen one in operation yet, or even just plain seen one. I had not wanted to until I would reach this universe, to see one in its natural habitat, so to speak. And now, I was watching twenty-three of them.
Four of them were outside the asteroid, being space gates. One of them was of the large variety, measuring 400 m across. Two of those space gates were smaller, yet still ship grade, measuring in at 200 m across. Only the fourth one was a standard stargate.
Inside the Hub, in the main central room, which was about the size of a good sports arena, there were the remaining 19 stargates. They were arrayed in two rows of 9 stargates each, placed along two opposite walls, ensconced inside their dedicated ring shaped alcoves for security, with a single one placed in the middle of a third wall, halfway between the two rows of stargates. This third one was also physically blocked from being dialed. The only way to access the Hub via stargate was to be an Alteran, to be able to mentally communicate with the gates and to possess the requisite security codes which unlocked one gate inside the hub. Afterwards, one needed to follow a certain path of stargates before eventually dialing in and one had to still submit to a remote intent security judgment. If one missed any security measure along the way, one died. It was as simple as that.
As I had expected, the solitary stargate, or the middle one, was the main stargate of the entire complex. In IT terms, that one was the only stargate with administrator rights, being the sole one capable of accepting incoming connections from all connected networks and the sole one capable of establishing outbound connections to all connected networks, as well as to access in administrator mode all the galactic networks addressable from the hub, which were all of them ever installed within the local galactic group. Just as a sort of indicator, the crystals on that stargate were purple. The other eighteen stargates had all sorts of colours for their crystals, being already connected to the various networks they could manage, yet refusing incoming connections from said networks and not being automatically connected to any other network. That was merely a default mode, of course, since each gate could be programmed to connect itself or to be assigned to any of the networks available. Only the Pegasus DIG was isolated so that no one could dial out of that network, except through Atlantis and even then only to Terra Atlantus on Earth. Dialing in from outside Pegasus also worked only from Earth and only to Atlantis, unless one was an administrator and entered the right codes, in which case, all those restrictions could be bypassed. Even so, those changes had to be entered from the Hub, for security reasons.
After taking in my fill of looking at the stargates, I ran a short diagnostic first. Then I ran a second diagnostic and then I ran a calibration package over the stargates in Carina. The local network was fairly small, since after all, Carina was called a dwarf galaxy for a reason and it was not populated either. Eventually, after an exhaustive battery of tests, I activated my first stargate, from the Hub to another stargate in Carina. The event horizon was indeed mesmerizing, although the novelty wore off rather quickly. I checked the feature that allowed one to view the far side through the stargate, no Jumpchain perk required. It did exist and it did function, as I knew it had to. I also compared it with my own perk given ability to do the same. Well, the perk was marginally better with respect to intuitively establishing a danger level on the other side. The same result had to be inferred when using only the gate's software and hardware, through experience and by taking into account the various metrics scanning the far side of a wormhole provided. On the other hand, the stargate's software and hardware offered an increased resolution, going as far as orbital distances. In the end, my ability and the stargate's function worked in synergy, which was all for the good.
Going through was... normal. It felt as if I was passing from one room to another, through a widely opened door. I would have to run more tests to determine why the people of SGC reported, or would report, feeling as if they were going through a blizzard every time they used the stargates. That shouldn't have happened. Then again, they had also taken as gospel Samantha Carter's erroneous conclusion that one was deconstructed and then reconstructed during each transit. Stargates did not work that way. Instead, they enveloped each traveller or object going through them in a contiguous shield and they then transported that through a really high layer of hyperspace (the higher the layer, the higher the maximum speed that could be reached along it). The transit was not instantaneous either, although it may as well have been even at galactic scales for a galaxy compared in size to Avalon. I did not even want to guess how a 2 MLY across galaxy would be like since one did start to feel the transit time when travelling between galaxies, with addresses requiring eight chevrons and transfers between galactic networks, over distances measured in millions of light years. Even then, one did not normally travel for more than one minute. The only such connection which would take a longer time would be the one using a ninth chevron, pointing at a very distant target, either a moving one (such as the Destiny) or through a theoretical other galactic group's Hub; none had been built, but the network could certainly be expanded in such a way.
In passing be it said, the connection to the Destiny via a nine chevron address was actually a hack, or perhaps one could say it was a particular case of a second network hub with a singular stargate assigned to it – the Destiny herself. There was nothing really legendary or mythical about nine chevron addresses. The overall network had simply been designed to grow as needed and at a certain point, one could theoretically use up all the addresses space available with eight chevrons, hence, one would need to open a second network hub.
Well, I spent three days testing and measuring all I could test and measure about the local stargate network in Carina. I even visited the local system, surveying all the local planets, stars and other points of interest. There were potentia factories to restart. There were tech caches to secure and verify. In general, there were plenty of chores to do while the network was running its diagnostics.
Then, once I knew what I would be doing practically, as well as theoretically, it was time to test, update and calibrate every network in the local group. It was thus that within a few short weeks, I had all the networks connected to the hub up to snuff, even those with heavy restrictions such as the one in Pegasus DIG. The fix was not difficult in and of itself. The difficulty was related to the facts the fix could only be applied from the Hub, it could only be applied by an Alteran who had access to the Hub (such as one who had access to a complete ARoK) and it took time to apply without negatively affecting the network or its users. That was why it took until the end of November instead of a few hours at least or a few days at most. I had to partition the networks, apply the changes, and then calibrate them again, just to avoid some hapless schmuck being caught in the event horizon of a gate by an update, and to avoid anyone catching on to what I was doing. I wasn't worried about the Goa'uld or the Wraith figuring it out. I was worried about the Asgard or the Nox doing it. It was not yet the time to get in contact with either of those. Which was also why I did not implement or activate some of the more aggressive features. I could have logged off all Wraith DNA for the stargates in Pegasus DIG; that would have resulted in all Wraith trying to use those stargates being turned into energy upon arrival. But, that would have also attracted attention for the time being and the only ones suffering would have been the human populations in that galaxy. Such measures could always be taken later, when ready.
Meanwhile, with this initial task solved and with all the stargates functioning again as they should, it was almost time to insert again, that mock-insertion that Sakura had mentioned. I only had about two weeks and change left, but that was fine. It was more than enough for a visit back to my rogue cluster and for a few last minute preparations. In fact, even though it was plenty descriptive and not at all imaginative, I would name my cluster just that – Rogue Cluster. It was a small stellar cluster, it was a rogue, since it was not gravitationally tied to any galaxy, or very weakly tied to any of them, so then, Rogue Cluster worked. The fact it also reminded me of Leliana and other rogues from Thedas had absolutely nothing to do with it. Honest, guv'nor!
The entire cluster was not large, but it was not exactly small either. It came in at 29 light years in radius, it included 269 star systems and the outer artificial nebula, which looked and felt much like the Serpent Nebula, albeit at a different scale and more purple than any other colour, extended that radius by another 30 light years in every direction. This artificial nebula worked in more ways that one as a shield and a massive notice-me-not field, besides having a few other functions.
In those two weeks, which eventually became three weeks, I had many projects to check upon. Potentia assembly lines that needed to be built and started. Rogue Cluster's central black hole that needed surveying (I had some plans for it). There were mining facilities and megastructures I wanted to design and put to work respectively. There was even a house or two to install or build, as the case may have been. In other words, I was in Builder heaven.
Alas, that small vacation of mine had to end. There were people to see and sights to meet.
* * *
The second insertion, the one Sakura had cheekily suggested, happened in a desert. One moment I was ready, dressed for success and with everything collected in my Cosmic Backpack. I had even said my goodbyes to Tenara, for the time being. The next moment, I was kneeling over sand covered hard rocks. In late December, 1990. Sky clad. In the middle of a tank element bivouacked for the night. Between four tanks parked close to each other. Well, shit!
I stopped time, the way I had learned to do it since the Worm-verse. Effectively, I was invulnerable for the duration, without anything and anyone moving to me. My own bubble of space-time where time was a constant. I used that short reprieve to learn where I was – Kuwait. When? 22nd December, 1990, at 0231 hours. What were these tanks around me? They were four sloppily arrayed T-72 MBTs belonging to the Republican Guard. They were sloppily arrayed because for some strange reason, the Iraqi soldiers had parked their tanks in a cross formation, back to back, so they could hang some large piece of tent cloth between them for shelter. If I remembered correctly, the winter of 1990/1991 had been rather unpleasant and cold, yet this was still the Arabian Desert. Unpleasant and cold in the Arabian Peninsula was not the same thing as a Canadian blizzard. It didn't even qualify as chilly for someone from Central Europe. At that very moment it was cold mainly because I was in a desert, at night. So then, one may understand the Iraqi soldiers' attempt of providing shade for themselves during what was a rather boring assignment. As their own propaganda was saying, they still held hopes they would not be attacked. However, one could not accept their lack of discipline, because such lack can get people killed. Case in point.
The usual bowl of grey glass in which I appeared, when I was inserted this way, had the upper bodies of six former Iraqi soldiers arrayed all around it. The lower half of their bodies were already turned to ash. All six were dead. These were the crews of two of the tanks of this platoon. It was time to get moving.
The moment I released the time hold, yet kept intact the shield around me, the four tanks exploded. None had been cut by the energy bubble, since they were at least far enough for that, but that energy bubble was made of electricity and the tanks were made of metal. The dry desert air was not a true barrier in that respect. It was a “duh!” moment. The electricity had fried everything and the energy in it had been sufficient to ignite their fuel and whatever else they had that did not appreciate it when it was subjected to lightning strikes worth of electrical current for long seconds, seemingly without end. The other six tankers died by electrocution – they were all sleeping around their tanks, with two of them sleeping while on guard duty.
Luckily, or perhaps kindly, Sakura had dropped me in a corner of the desert that was only occupied by this tank platoon. The nearest one was too far to intervene. By the time they would reach this location, I would be long gone.
* * *
The sun was rising and I was still looking for my Cosmic Backpack. Sakura had dropped it across the border, in Saudi Arabia. I could have flown to find it, but for some reason, I decided to hoof it instead. Maybe I wanted to catch some UV rays when the sun rose, since I was sky clad and all? Nah, I just didn't feel like watching out for helicopters and planes at altitude while also looking down on the ground in order to spot a single speck of darker dust in a bloody desert. Sometimes, walking or even jogging was better than flying, especially when the distance one had to cover was less than a couple dozen miles. Even when one had to cope with a pair of bouncing 32Cs. At least I kept myself invisible and I made sure not to leave tracks. The Americans defending this part of the border were not sleeping on guard duty and their tools were active. Also, while I did not particularly enjoy running or even jogging as a form of exercise, I could run fast and I could run for a long time without breathing harder than normal.
My choice for a method of locomotion proved inspired, when I found my Cosmic Backpack. It was buried in the sand, with only a strap showing up for air. Even on foot, I still had to walk around in circles for a couple of minutest before finding the thing. Had I been in the air... yeah, not a great idea. Workable, but not great.
I did not get dressed right away. No, at first, I stood to catch my UV rays and get the beginning of a nice tan. Or maybe I just meditated (using [Kaleidoscope]) to get some intel on this world and my place in it. Or both. It was interesting and Sakura's doing no doubt. In fact, it was beyond interesting and it could become problematic. Was I being trolled again?
To begin with, while I was the Ebonmer/Alteran known as Logan Blake, my identity on Earth was quite different. On Earth, I was RCAF Lieutenant-Colonel Logan Daphne Blake, VC, GC, LG. What was Sakura thinking? Looking deeper, I could breathe a sigh of relief that at least the VC was classified. Actually, the GC was classified as well, except for other reasons and in a different manner. What it came down to was that a curious busybody might learn of the existence of the George Cross, without actually learning why I had been awarded one, yet they could never learn about the existence of the Victoria Cross, unless explicitly told and made to sign a very firmly worded NDA in advance. As for being a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter, that was actually easier to explain.
To begin with, Sakura had done some manoeuvring behind the scenes, mostly to troll me, but also to keep her word, and she had used an item of mine that I had had no intention of using in this universe – the [Lordship Ring]. As such, I was now, in actuality, Logan Daphne Blake, VC, GC, LG, while being styled the Lady Revan. The Lady Revan part came from my [Lordship Ring] being associated with Clan Revan, an old and very storied Clan than no one could truly remember, yet everyone was certain it existed... because it did, even if it only existed because of me. As Lady Revan, I was also the Revan of Revan, or in other words, I was the Head of Clan Revan or the Chief of Clan Revan, depending on the variant (all forms meant the same thing).
As such, Queen Elizabeth II had inducted my sorry self in the Most Noble Order of the Garter, as per the criteria established for that Order, which just meant “at Her Majesty's pleasure.” She had done it when my own [Lordship Ring] had imprinted its Jump-fiat backed influence on this world, and there had also been another reason. I'd been pranked, by a little Goddess, put up to it by a Creator, who'd himself likely had had it suggested by Sakura. That little Goddess had pranked me because she wanted to chat with her good friend Beth, or one version of her. Come on Sakura! I've only met the Creator once and I've not spent much time with that little Goddess at all! I was whining. And if anyone had anything to say about it, then “Honi soit qui mal y pense”.
Anyway, at least I could somewhat explain how come I was a Lady. That was not classified, just obfuscated. But the rest? Well, I was a British subject for having once been born and lived in Britain, as a witch. Never mind this Earth had no witches and wizards anywhere. There had to be a Stargate universe out there that was in fusion with an HP-verse. There likely were more than one. I was also a Canadian citizen for having been one in other lives. I was then a Royal Canadian Air Force Officer, a Lieutenant-Colonel no less, and a combat pilot, because this Canada had allowed women in combat roles already (still barring the submarine service) and because even before officially allowing women in combat roles in the military, this Canada had already used such service members, without officially acknowledging it or even mentioning it. Oh, by the by, there was one part I actually liked about that – this Canada had unified its military branches, but it had not changed the ranks after the Army, so that this Canada still had Air Commodores. At least that was something to look forward to.
But, since Canada was a Commonwealth Realm and Canada's Head of State was Queen Elizabeth II, and also because I was a British Peer on account of being the Chief of my Clan of one, I had been able to serve with the British SAS, or so everyone here thought. It was all very hush hush and super classified, but the lads from Sports and Social would swear up and down they recalled a lass who'd saved a few of them in tight spot and who'd kindly taught them a thing or two at Hereford. Of course, they would only do that without giving away any identifying element and even then, only when in truly trusted company (meaning only Tier One Operators that they personally knew, trusted with the lives of their children and who swore to keep silent about it; the Queen and the Prince of Wales were the sole exceptions, for not being Tier One Operators themselves, but then again, they knew already). Otherwise, in front of anyone else, the lads from the Regiment would just looked puzzled and not a little dumb as they would ask:
“Wot? A lass in Sports and Social? Are yer running a fever, guv'nor? Gots to tell yer, yer should lay down on the ale some.”
They'd be pretty convincing about it, too. As for how I got those two particular medals, well, the George Cross had been awarded for that one time when I had saved Buckingham Palace from a bunch of Irish lads with arson on their minds. Of course, no one could ever find any archives about it, since the real reason why that George Cross had been awarded was my becoming a Spectre, two universes ago and a few a couple of multiverses over yonder. That was also the reason the lads from Hereford knew me, and I now knew of them at the very least. Well, that and likely also because I could easily teach them a thing or two. Having the experience of an Asari Huntress for longer than their lifespan had to count for something.
As for the Victoria Cross, that was so classified because it described my saving Tela and Wrex once upon a time, without ever mentioning any alien race or the fact that action had happened on an alien moon, not to mention in another time, universe and multiverse altogether. But otherwise, it was pretty accurate in describing how I had single-handedly saved an SAS squad pinned down by overwhelming numbers of guerrillas in some nameless jungle somewhere.
Was it any wonder I was happy not to have every Tom, Dick and Harry wonder where I had gotten that alphabet soup after my name? It was bad enough they'd wonder about the Lady in front of it and it was bad enough some of them might even have enough clout to learn the rest, eventually.
At least, as a sort of consolation prize, the [Lordship Ring] did come with some helpful real-estate already waiting for me, so there was that, too. But, as I usually concentrated on the present in such moments, all that was for future-me to consider. The present-me had another issue to deal with. I was in Saudi Arabia, nude, just across the Kuwaiti border, while at the same time, I needed to be in KKMC, as it was normally known, or the King Khalid Military City, as it was officially called in English. And KKMC was located about 215 km WSW from where I was.
I was dressed within moments. At least that was one step easily solved. The desert BDU was even nicely comfortable and form fitting, the better to move properly in it. Curiously, while the old Air Force ranks had been preserved, it seemed as if the insignia was the Army style one, with Bath Star and Crown. That was fine by me.
Now, how to get to KKMC? Looking around, I noticed I was not that far from a small temporary airfield. A quick deployment of my motorcycle, made to seem as if it was a dirt bike to others' eyes, and I was on my way. Five minutes later, with my bike already stored away out of anyone's view, I was requisitioning a place for myself on a US Army CH-47 Chinook heading to KKMC within ten more minutes. One hour later, I was reporting in to a staff Colonel.
I gave him chapter and verse of all I'd observed behind enemy lines ([Kaleidoscope] for the win). I even mentioned in passing that they could count one less tank platoon worth of T-72s. They'd been in my way when I was crossing back and they'd been asleep. They could blame it on the elements for all I cared. Or they could claim it themselves. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, it was amazing how much one could accomplish when one did not care about who got the credit.
This US Army Colonel had never seen me before. He would likely never see me again, if his prayers were answered. He did know there were Operators working behind enemy lines and he did know not to ask questions that would make a General give him a telephone call. He'd not made Colonel by being stupid. On top of that, he could tell just by my uniform that I was a Royal Canadian Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel who was still barely 29 years old, who was operating pretty damn far from where the Canadian troops were stationed (in another country altogether) and who seemed to have been trained to operate as a Special Forces trooper, too. In other words, the man could connect the dots with the best of them and he knew when not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
I saluted, he returned the courtesy and I was on my way and out of his hair. Sure, the various American politicians might have complained about placing servicewomen in harm's way, but I was a Canadian Officer and he cared more about intel that would save his men's lives than he did about what politicians liked for a sound bite, this week.
Next, it was time for some chow, while listening to Radio Water Cooler, and then to look up a certain USAF Lieutenant for a mission I was planning to run within a day or two.