Altair (P3X-989 and PX3-989)
Summary
Altair (P3X-989 and PX3-989) is the homeworld of Harlan, an artificial sentient being who was the last remnant of an advanced civilization. He created artificial copies of SG-1 when the team visited Altair, and the robotic SG-1 eventually made Altair their home.
Factoids
- Names and Designations: Altair, P3X-989, PX3-989
- Number of Suns: Unknown
- Number of Moons: Unknown
- Source of Address: Abydos Cartouche
- Introduced in Episode:
- Earth Cultural/Technological Equivalent: highly advanced
- Main Interest: Exploration
- Influenced/Dominated by: Altairans
- History of Stargate: Unknown
Stargate Glyphs
Unknown
Geopolitical Structure and History
Eleven thousand years ago, Altair's biosphere could no longer support life (1.19 "Tin Man"). Facing annihilation, one Altairan named Hubold created an underground facility where he could conduct a project to allow a thousand of the Altairans to survive the destruction of their world. A thousand Altairans's consciousnesses were transferred to duplicate mechanical bodies. However, many did not survive the transfer process, including Hubold himself.
The survivors of the transfer adjusted to this new "life" in different ways. Some left with portable power sources, but they never returned. Others could not accept life as a mechanical being (indicating that Hubold possibly conducted this experiment on them without permission). They went to the surface and left the range of the power source in the facility that kept them operating. Only Wallas and Harlan remained in the station, keeping it operating for survival. Wallas eventually died in a repair accident. Eventually Harlan was the only "survivor" of Altair.
By the time SG-1 arrived on the planet, the machinery of the underground facility was breaking down. Harlan, after a long time alone to maintain his home, was ecstatic to have new people in his home. The team was knocked unconscious by some kind of unseen weapon. Harlan then used them as baselines to create synthetic duplicates. The duplicates had all the memories and personalities of the originals when they awoke, and aside from noticing they were quicker on remembering and calculating things, thought they were the originals.
Harlan did not explain, and the robot SG-1 left for Earth. Eventually discovering they were synthetic, the team was forced to return back to Altair when they became "ill", i.e., their power source was shutting down. Harlan immediately set them to work in doing critical repairs to save the facility. The duplicate Teal'c malfunctioned and tried to kill O'Neill. Harlan did not realize his body held two consciousnesses, Teal'c and his symbiote. He had to destroy the duplicate Teal'c. Exploring while dealing with the loss of their teammate, the rest of the robot SG-1 found the original team, lying on slabs and awaking to find themselves looking at...themselves.
The original SG-1 left Altair, witnessing a corrected Teal'c duplicate alive and well with the others. The O'Neills agreed that the Altair Stargate would be buried. However, the robot SG-1 became restless doing mundane repairs on aged equipment (4.21 "Double Jeopardy"). Explorers at heart (so to speak), they began to use the Stargate again. The robot Carter was even able to develop a portable power source that allowed the team to spend longer time offworld. When they did not return on time after a mission to Juna (P3X-729), Harlan became concerned. Frightened, he contacted Stargate Command and travelled from Altair to the base to explain what the other SG-1 had been doing. Unfortunately, Harlan returned home to Altair alone. The robot team died saving the original SG-1 and the people of Juna from Cronus.
When Lt. Col. Mitchell was interviewing potential teammates for SG-1 after the veteran team had moved on, some of the SGC scientists proposed an android team they were developing (9.01 "Avalon Part 1"). They specifically mentioned they had "modified the android body recovered from PX3-989, and are currently incorporating the experiences of every SG team member since the inception of the program into a viable artificial intelligence." It is unclear whether this was Harlan or one of the robot SG-1. The project was not viable; it had not received much funding. The scientists hoped Mitchell's endorsement after reading their 380 page report would give them the boost they needed to actually start the project.
Episodes
Gallery
Related Characters
- Col. Jack O'Neill
- Dr. Daniel Jackson
- Capt./Maj. Samantha Carter
- Teal'c
- Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell
- Cronus
- Harlan
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--Aurora 21:03, 13 March 2008 (PDT)