Starting new story like I said I was if you read the Author's note in the other story. I'm still doing New Beginning too so don't worry. I hope you enjoy, thanks for all the positive feed back.
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Chapter 1
September 16, 2007
Bridge, USS Odyssey
Orilla, Ida Galaxy
The Odyssey had been traveling to the Ida Galaxy for six days, the Ida Galaxy being a little farther away than Pegasus so even with a ZPM boosting her hyperdrive the trip took nearly a week. General O'Neill, long time commander of SG-1, former leader of the SGC, and current Homeworld Command leader was currently sitting in the command chair aboard the Odyssey. About a week before they had received a subspace message from Thor stating their presence was required immediately on Orilla. He didn't say why, but it sounded important. So Jack had taken temporary command of the Odyssey and, along with SG-1, headed for the Ida Galaxy.
Jack was worried, though he didn't show it. Usually when the Asgard needed something they came to Earth. To ask them to come all the way out to the Ida Galaxy, without even so much as a reason why, really worried Jack.
'Atleast I got the old gang back with me, and some extra luggage' he thought to himself, referring to Colonel Mitchell and Vala being the new additions.
"Sir, we're about to drop out of hyperspace," informed Major Marks, the ship's navigational officer.
"Good, 'bout time," the old General replied.
A few moments later the Odyssey dropped out of hyperspace over a lush, green world that somewhat resembled Earth. There were several ships in orbit around the Odyssey, the large and familiar O'Neill-Class Warships.
Suddenly there was a ping on Major Mark's console, "Sir the Asgard are requesting permission to beam aboard."
"Tell 'em to come on over," replied Jack, his usual laid back nature coming through even on duty.
SG-1 entered the bridge, and a few moments after that a bright column of light appeared on the bridge of the human ship. After a few seconds the light was replaced with a small, grey figure with a large head and big black eyes.
"Greetings, and welcome to Orilla," spoke Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet.
"Hey Thor old buddy, long time no see," replied Jack as he stood up and walked closer to Thor.
The Asgard nodded, "Indeed, it has been some time since I have seen you O'Neill. I trust you have been well."
"Yep, I've been pretty good lately. Little stress here and there, what with our galaxy being under attack and all, but otherwise quite good," he replied with his usual sarcasm.
"Hi Thor, this is Colonel Mitchell and Vala, some new additions to our team," Carter spoke up introducing the two.
"Greetings, I wish we could continue this discussion but there is not much time. O'Neill, with your permission several Asgard are prepared to beam aboard this ship and begin installing various technological upgrades," said Thor.
"What kind of upgrades. Are we talking big honking space guns here?" asked O'Neill, not actually believing the Asgard to give them much. While they were are very benevolent race, and he considered Thor a friend, they were a paranoid bunch that didn't like handing out weapons to many people.
"That among other things. We are planning on providing you with everything we have and know," replied Thor in an even tone.
The entire bridge was silent, no one could believe what the small Asgard had just said. When Earth met advanced aliens, the advanced aliens didn't hand out any of their technology. Now you had the most advanced aliens out there currently saying they wanted to give Earth all their technology.
"By that you mean..." Vala trailed off.
"Everything. All our most current technology. All our knowledge," Thor replied again.
The bridge was silent once more, until Daniel spoke up.
"Sorry, we're just a little stunned. Why are you doing this? You've always resisted in the past, said we weren't ready," Daniel asked.
"Indeed, and many Asgard still believe that.'
"So what's changed?" asked a still shocked Mitchell.
Thor had a sad look on his face, which startled many on the bridge, especially Jack. While they had seen some Asgard with cocky and arrogant expressions on their faces, they had never seen such sadness.
"As a race we are dying. Very soon we will all be gone," Thor replied with no emotion, despite what his face showed.
Everyone on the bridge just looked to one another, unsure as what to say.
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1 week later
Orilla, Ida Galaxy
The Odyssey had been undergoing a major refit for the past week. In order to completely upgrade the small ship, the Asgard had to partially take it apart using their matter converters to replace and upgrade the power conduits and sensor relays all over the ship. The humans had been beamed down to the city for the time it took to upgrade the ship, mostly being taught about some of the new systems the Asgard were putting in it.
Carter spent her time with Heimdall, who explained to her how the Asgard Computer Core worked. Daniel and Vala stayed with some of the Asgard historians learning about the history of the Asgard and how to operate the Knowledge Base. Most of the other Odyssey crew spent their time learning about Asgard systems and how to operate them. Jack spent the last few moments he had with Thor.
The two leaders sat in Thor's personal quarters in one of the tallest buildings in the city.
"So, this really is it for you guys?" asked Jack rhetorically, since he already knew the answer.
"Indeed it is O'Neill, though I wish it were not," replied the ever emotionless Asgard.
"Isn't there anything you can do?" asked Jack, not wanting one of his oldest friends to die.
"Everything that can be done has been done. The final attempt to solve our physiological degeneration has left each of us with a rapidly progressing disease."
"So you're going to give us your technology to carry on your legacy," guessed Jack, his smarter side showing through.
Thor nodded, "Many on the Council did not believe we should be imparting such advancements."
"Well, I promise old buddy, we won't let you down," Jack stated firmly.
Thor stood up from his chair and walked over to Jack. He looked him firmly in the eye, then continued.
"You are the Fifth Race, your role is clear. If there is any hope in preserving the future, it lies with you and your people," Thor stated.
Jack was shocked, he had been the first one to hear the Asgard say that they might one day become the Fifth Race but to hear it for real was something else.
"Hehe, no pressure huh," Jack chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.
"You earned my respect long ago, and my friendship... Jack," Thor stated, his voice for once a little shaky.
Jack just sat there in shock, unable to comprehend that Thor had used his first name, or the emotion in his voice.
"You're my pal too Thor, but I noticed you used my first name," Jack noticed.
"I... believed it was appropriate to use your first name. Despite what I have shown in the past I have long considered you to be one of my closest friends, and I needed to show you that before the end. My only regret... is that our physical weakness has left us incapable of helping you further."
Jack nodded, although he didn't need such a gesture to prove he and Thor were close. Unable to think of anything else to say, Jack just reached down and gave Thor a hug. It was a little awkward since Thor had such a tiny body, but that didn't bother Jack.
Suddenly his radio went off, "Sir, all personnel are aboard and ready to depart," Marks spoke through the radio.
Jack broke off the hug, his eyes a little teary from the emotional moment he and Thor just had.
"It is time. Goodbye... Jack," Thor stated, again the sadness showing in both his voice and face.
Just as the bright light of the beaming enveloped Jack, he could have sworn he saw a small, crystal clear liquid escape from Thor's eye. Then in an instant, Jack was gone and back up to the Odyssey.
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When Jack's vision returned he found himself on the bridge of the Odyssey; everyone was at their stations waiting for him. He walked over to the command chair and sat down. He was about to order Marks to take the ship away from the planet when suddenly an alert popped up on Marks's terminal.
"Sir, three contacts just appeared on sensors. Ori motherships," he said before the Odyssey was rocked by weapons fire.
Alarms began ringing out all over the bridge, crewman running to their stations to initiate damage control and other important tasks.
"Shields are down to 91%," informed Marks.
"Carter, we got Ori motherships on our asses. We're gona need the hyperdrive here pretty soon," Jack spoke into the ship's comm.
"Sir they hyperdrive is still offline diverting power to the shield," she informed.
'Dammit' Jack swore internally. He turned to Marks, "Full sublight, get us clear of the planet."
"Full sublight," Marks confirmed as the Odyssey raced away from the Ori motherships and Orilla.
Mitchell and Teal'c entered the bridge, nearly thrown to the ground when the ship was hit by another blast from the Ori mothership.
"Shields are down to 83%," Marks again informed.
"Some reason we're not jumping to hyperspace?" asked Mitchell as he grabbed the weapons chair for balance.
"Carter's workin' on it," Jack replied.
"Sir, sensors are detecting a massive build up of energy coming from the planet," Marks said worriedly.
"Carter! We need the hyperdrive now!" Jack yelled into the comm.
A few seconds went by before she replied," I've got it. Do it now!"
Marks didn't wait for Jack to give the order, he pressed a few commands on his console and a few moments later a hyperspace window opened. Just as they were about enter the blast wave from the explosion of the planet hit them, destabilizing the window. The Odyssey was flung into the unstable hyperspace window and entered hyperspace.
Sparks flew all around the bridge as crewman were thrown t the ground, Jack and Marks managed to stay in their seats but just barely.
"Sir, hyperspace window is destabilized. Hyperdrive failure is imminent!" Marks yelled.
"Drop us out now!" replied Jack.
A few moments later the Odyssey was flung from hyperspace back into normal space, unfortunately the force of the ship being ejected from hyperspace was a bit too much for the inertial dampeners to compensate for. As a result Jack was thrown from his chair into the forward viewport, head first. After a few seconds his vision faded to darkness, the last thing he remembered was crewman running around and Teal'c running towards him.
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Colonel Mitchell was currently sitting in the command chair sporting a nasty cut on his forehead onboard the Odyssey. After they had exited hyperspace the inertial dampeners hadn't been able to block out all the G-forces and as a result the crew was thrown about. General O'Neill had been knocked unconscious, so he was now the acting commander until he recovered. Teal'c had taken him down to the medbay, and Carter was going over what exactly had happened.
"Sir, I have the damage reports you requested," Marks spoke as he entered the bridge, he was sporting a rather large bruise on his face from where he had hit his head on his control console.
Mitchell swiveled the chair towards Marks, "Give it to me straight Major."
Marks pulled up his touchpad, "We have had minor injuries on several levels, nothing to severe. No casualties. As for the ship: our sublight and hyperdrive engines are all functioning normally. Railguns and missile tubes are all operational, the new plasma beam weapons and ion cannons are offline however since a few of the new neutrino ion reactors the Asgard installed are offline. Our shield generators are fine, but since some of the power generators are down they're operating at reduced efficiency. Even with the ZPM they are only at 60%, but that's mainly because we aren't using the ZPM's total power output, and Colonel Carter doesn't think we should since we only have a few ZPM's and we can't afford to drain this one."
Mitchell nodded, "Have we contacted Earth yet?"
Marks shook his head, "No sir, our subspace communications are still down. It will be a while before they're back up, but right now we're focusing on bringing the generators back online."
"Keep me posted, I'm heading down to see Carter. If any Ori show up don't wait for my order. Just take us back into hyperspace," Mitchell ordered as he left to go down to the Core room.
A few minutes later Mitchell arrived in the engineering room where the Asgard Computer Core was housed. There, along with Carter, was Teal'c, Daniel and Vala.
"So Sam, you have any idea on what the hell just happened?" asked Mitchell.
Sam stood up from her chair next to the Core, "Apparently at the exact moment we entered hyperspace the shockwave from the explosion of Orilla hit us, destabilizing the hyperspace window. It's a good thing we dropped out when we did too, had we stayed in any longer the entire ship could have been vaporized."
"Well where did we drop out anyway?" asked Mitchell trying to ignore how close to being destroyed they had come.
Sam walked over to the Core and pulled up a picture of the Milky and Ida galaxies. A red blinking dot relatively close to the edge of the Milky Way appeared.
"That blinking dot is us. The blast wave gave us a sort of boost, and launched us pretty close to the Milky Way. We encountered the same situation when we entered hyperspace on a Hat'ak-class vessel after we sent the system's sun into supernova," Sam explained.
"Explains why we came so close to the Milky Way even though we were only in hyperspace for a few moments," Daniel summed up.
"So where do we stand. Can we jump back into hyperspace and head back to Earth?" asked Mitchell.
"Yes, it should only take us an hour to reach the Milky Way and a little more time to get to Earth," Sam said.
"Alright, Sam tell Marks to set a course for Earth. I'm going to go check on General O'Neill," Mitchell ordered.
Teal'c followed, "I will accompany you Colonel Mitchell."
Mitchell nodded and the two left for the ship's medbay.
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September 24, 2007
Bridge, USS Odyssey
Hyperspace, Milky Way Galaxy
Mitchell was once again sitting in the command chair, thinking about his and Teal'c's visit to the medbay.
(Four hours earlier)
Mitchell and Teal'c walked into the Odyssey's medbay to find several crewman still on beds or waiting in chairs. Most injuries weren't very severe, the worst was General O'Neill. When he had hit his head, it really rattled his brain. He was currently in a coma, but Dr. Sanders was confident that he'd awaken in time. Until that point, Mitchell remained the commanding officer.
Cam was interrupted from his little flash back by Major Marks.
"Sir, I've picked up a distress call coming from a system not too far off our current coarse," he informed the Colonel.
Teal'c, who was standing near, raised an eyebrow, "I was under the impression that our subspace communications were down."
"They still are sir, but this was picked up on our Asgard sensors, it appears to be using both radio waves and some sort of laser based communications. Not as fast or efficient as subspace but we were still able pick it up thanks to our more advanced sensors," Marks informed.
"Let's hear it," ordered Cam.
Marks nodded and a few moments later the message played over the loud speaker.
"I repeat any Alliance or Council forces in the area please respond. We have Batarian slavers attempting to attack our colony. Please we need help," then the message cut out.
Teal'c tensed when he heard the word slavers, having a deep hatred for any type of enslavement. Cam had similar feelings, though obviously not as intense.
"Marks, set a course for the system where that message was sent from, and tell SG-1 to meet me in the armory on this level," he ordered as he and Teal'c headed there.
"Yes sir," replied Marks as he altered the course of the Odyssey.
A few minutes later the two entered the armory, the rest of SG-1 having already arrived.
"Suit up guys, we got a rescue mission to go on," Mitchell stated as he started to gear up along with Teal'c.
"Cam, what mission?" asked Carter who had yet to be informed.
"We got a distress call from some planet saying that they were under attack by something called Batarian slavers. We're headed there right now to give them some help."
"Don't you think that we're being a bit reckless, I mean we don't even know who we're helping," Sam pointed out.
"Normally I would agree with you Colonel Carter, however I cannot sit idly by while people are being enslaved. Not when we worked so hard and long to rid the galaxy of it and are still fighting it off today," Teal'c spoke firmly as he grabbed a Sodan staff blaster, a shorter version of the staff blaster.
Daniel nodded in agreement, his hatred for the enslavement of sentient beings as strong as Teal'c's, and started grabbing his own gear. Vala just looked at her and shrugged, so she and Sam followed suit. In a few minutes SG-1 was geared up and ready to go, so they made their way back up to the bridge.
When they appeared on the bridge, Marks turned to them.
"Sir, we're about to drop out of hyperspace," he informed the Colonel.
Mitchell nodded, then waited along with his team for the Odyssey to exit hyperspace. A few moments later the ship flashed back into normal space, a planet could be seen through the view port.
Suddenly Mark's console beeped, "Sir, I'm reading seven contacts on sensors."
"Ori?" asked Daniel worried.
"No, they don't match any profile on record. I'll pull up a visual on the HUD," Marks replied.
A few seconds later a holographic screen appeared in front of the viewport showing the seven ships. They were currently parked in orbit around the planet, but their design was very different than most races. Six of the ships were small, grey-brown colored ships with a set of wings on each side with a long nose running up the middle not unlike the Taur'i battlecruisers. The seventh one was of the same general shape, only much larger.
"The smaller ships are only one hundred and twenty five meters in length, while the seventh is five hundred and eighty two. I'm not detecting any energy shielding or see any weapons platforms, but they could just be offline for the moment," informed Marks.
"I'm guessing these are the Batarian slavers the distress call talked about," guessed Mitchell.
"Or it could be this world's defense fleet," Teal'c offered another theory.
"Marks, open a channel," Cam ordered.
Mitchell walked over to the large monitor on the other side of the bridge, waiting for the other ships to respond. After a few minutes the screen sprang to life, showing the largest ship's bridge. The crew was obviously not human, although they shared the same general body type. Their faces looked like someone took them straight out of a mi 1900's sci-fi movie: four eyes, smooth hairless skin, and a greenish-tan color. Mitchell decided he should try and communicate with them, but he had to be careful since this was a first contact scenario in the truest sense.
"Hi there, my name is Colonel Mitchell of the-" he was about to continue when the alien started yelling in some other language. Suddenly the channel was closed, leaving the bridge crew of the Taur'i warship very confused.
Major Mark's console gave an alert tone, "Sir, I'm reading an increase in their energy output. They're powering up their weapons," he informed them.
'Dammit' Cam swore internally. Suddenly the ships open fired, their weapons slamming into the Odyssey's shield. The crew could here muffled thuds as the weapons impacted against the shield, but causing no visible damage.
"Shields are holding sir, their weapons aren't having much of an effect. Less than one percent drop in shield output to be exact," Marks said.
"What kind of weapons were those, they obviously weren't energy weapons?" asked Daniel.
"Sensors seem to indicate some kind of advanced accelerator cannon. Similar to our railguns but a hell of a lot more powerful," Marks explained as the ships continued to fire rounds at their ship to no avail.
"I believe it would be prudent to return fire Major Marks," Teal'c suggested.
Marks turned to Mitchell, "Sir? Permission to engage the hostile ships?"
"Wait, we should try contacting them one more time. This could all just be a misunderstanding," Daniel intervened.
Cam sighed, then turned back to Marks. "Open a channel to them again," he ordered.
A few moments later Marks shook his head, "They're refusing hails sir."
"Alright then, Marks you have permission to open fire."
"Yes sir," the Major replied, punching in commands into his station.
A few seconds later hundreds of magnetically propelled naquadah/steel rounds left the railgun emplacements on the Odyssey, heading fight for the enemy fleet. Just as the rounds were about to tear the ships to pieces, a blue shield of some kind appeared around the ships. They were similar in appearance to the Ancient shields in that they contoured to the shape of the ship's hull instead of an elliptical bubble like most races.
"Marks! I thought you said they didn't have shields," exclaimed Mitchell.
"The sensors aren't reading any kind of energy shielding sir. But they did detect something right before the railgun rounds hit," Marks explained.
"It's possible their shielding only activates when incoming fire is close enough, which could indicate their power generation is lacking. Or they just have a completely different shielding system, but we won't know until we can see their tech," Carter guessed.
"Marks, take us in as close as you can. Focus all fire on one ship at a time starting with the smaller ones, hold off on the nukes for now. We don't need to send that planet's civilization down there into a panic when the EMP blast knocks out their power," Mitchell ordered.
Soon the Odyssey began accelerating towards the enemy fleet, firing all of its railguns onto one of the small ships. Hundreds of naquadah/steel rounds going seventeen hundred meters per second slammed into the blue shields of the ship. After about thirty seconds of continuous fire the shields broke, allowing the rounds to tear the small ship apart. Within ten seconds the small vessel was nothing more than a flouting pile of broken hull fragment and floating bodies. The Odyssey continued to fire like this on the smaller vessels, all the while the enemy ships couldn't even scratch the battlecruiser. After the sixth ship was destroyed, only the large vessel remained. But instead of fighting, it disappeared in a flash, the space where it had once been rippled like water in a pond.
"Where the hell did it go?" asked Mitchell.
"I've still got it on long range sensors. It's still in normal space but traveling at many times the speed of light, heading for the edge of the system," Marks said.
"Incredible. We've always wondered if FTL through normal space was possible, guess we know now," Carter said excited.
"Alright, Marks take us into orbit of the planet. See if you can contact anyone down there as well," Cam ordered.
Soon the Odyssey was in geo synchronous orbit above the planet, trying to raise anyone on its comm system. While they had long ago upgraded to subspace communications, they still used good old fashioned radio for times when someone didn't have subspace or theirs were down. In this case both scenarios applied.
Suddenly the comm sprang to life, responding to their calls, "...repeat this is Lt Jane Shepard of the 316, we have suffered heavy casualties and are in need of reinforcements. Please respond."
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Sorry for cliffhanger, next chapter out shortly hopefully. Thanks for all your guys' support and reviews. Cya.
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Quick technical info:
-changed size of the BC-304 from 225 meters to 580 meters, makes more since with those measurements.
-railguns shoot a round that is comprised of naquadah and potassium, making them very strong. the Batarian ships are of a much lesser quality than the alliance and council races, but the ability to shred their armor is pretty accurate since the railgun, by the weapon's very nature, is much more effective against armor than shields.
-the neutrino ion reactors aren't as large, therefore not as powerful, as the ones used on Asgard ships. but they are still much more powerful than anything earth has barring a ZPM. the upgrades to the shields and weapons require more power than the naquadah generators can provide, so with some of them down they can't power them without drawing power from other key systems, or with draining the ZPM somewhat.