Authors: squid109 (aka mizor) and Tarantulas
Disclaimer: we don't own the characters, not getting paid etc
Rating: PG-13
Archive: tell us first
Review: please
A/N: This is the sequel to Detour.
Mechanistra
Hot Pursuit
O'Neill figured that realistically he shouldn't have been surprised at the recent turn of events. One thing he had learned after his dealings with the Asgard was that nothing EVER went according to plan. It had started out simply enough; he and the SG-1 team had been invited to go on a shakedown cruise on the Asgard's newest O'Neill class warship, the Samantha Carter. Being that the Asgard were one of Earth's primary allies and he was now in charge of Stargate Command it really wasn't an offer he could refuse. Besides, Thor had promised the refreshments would actually be palatable for a change. Naturally things had quickly gone to Hell in a hand basket. A Replicator ship had been spotted and since the Samantha Carter was the closest available combat craft that had any chance of defeating it, it was "heyde ho and off we go".
"I am afraid I have mixed news General O'Neill, said Thor. "As expected our modified shields were able to defeat the Replicators weaponry, however most unexpectedly our new weapons were not able to penetrate their shields. I fear that we will have to use the disruptor weapon you designed with knowledge obtained from the Ancients Library. Unfortunately its range is limited so we will have to close the distance between our ship and the enemy's by a considerable margin."
"Just how close will we have to be Thor?" asked Lt Colonel Carter. She was still a little bit embarrassed about having a warship named after her.
"Within hundreds of kilometers. The effects of the magnetar are degrading the Carter's fire control systems."
"And just what is a magnetar?" asked O'Neill.
"It's a type of neutron star General" replied Carter. "One with an enormously strong magnetic field. Typically with a strength over a quadrillion times that of Earths magnetic field."
"At this close a proximity to the star, General O'Neill, should our shields fail the magnetic effect of the star would pull the very iron out of your blood cells. Hopefully our shields will maintain themselves."
Jack hoped that the last was an attempt at humor by Thor but with the Asgard you could never be sure.
When the Replicator ship had realized that it's weapons were ineffective against the Asgard warship it had changed course towards the collapsed star. Apparently hoping to use the chaotic conditions near the star to blind the sensors of its pursuer and make it's escape.
There was a good chance their plan would succeed. When it was young the star had been the larger partner of a double star system. When it had gone nova and collapsed into a neutron star the force of the explosion had altered its orbit. It was now much closer to the star that had once been its companion. Once been because the neutron star was now busy devouring the smaller star. The gravity of the neutron star was literally ripping the other star apart. Great sheets of star stuff where streaming from the doomed star towards the neutron star where, when they impacted with the surface of the star they released a torrent of radiation.
This was not the only problem the star was presenting. According to Thor the magnetic poles of the star were going to shift soon.
"And this means?" asked General O'Neill
Carter tried to explain, "When the poles shift, the moving magnetic fields will heat the surface of the star to at least 20 million degrees Celsius. This will result in a burst of gamma radiation that will in one second exceed the total amount of energy our sun produces in one year. Also during this period the magnetic field of the star will increase by several orders of magnitude."
"So I take it we do not want to be here when that happens. Err, just when do you expect this to happen Thor?"
"Soon very soon"
"Then lets just use your disruptor thingy on that ship and get us out of here."
"We are now within firing range General O'Neill"
"Do it Thor"
Unfortunately Thor's estimate of when the magnetic poles would shift had been optimistic. Within the neutron star the pressures had been building for thousands of years reached the critical point. Magnetic lines of flux crossed, bent and broke. On earth such an event was called a starquake. For a moment the magnetic field around the star was magnified by a billion times as the star emitted a gamma ray bust that for the duration of the burst outshined galaxies. In that instant the conditions in space near the star exceeded the conditions of the Big Bang. Something had to give and it did. The very fabric of space ripped and the Replicator ship and the Samantha Carter went … elsewhere.
O'Neill was suddenly surrounded by scores of other O'Neill's, those nearest to him appearing real and solid while the further ones were insubstantial, ghostlike. Older O'Neill's and younger ones, some in uniform and some not. Those in uniform had rank insignias ranging from captain to three star general. At the same time there were thoughts in his head that were his but not his.
Confused he turned his gaze towards Lt Colonel Carter. There were multitudes of Sam's as well. Like the O'Neill's they varied in age and appearance. Some were obviously pregnant and some had children. One of the closer Sams was standing next to a boy about five years old; the boy's features were disturbingly similar to his.
Then everything slipped back into normalcy. There was only one of each team member.
"Whoa", said Dr Jackson. "What was that all about?"
"General O'Neill perhaps you should check the main viewscreen." As usual Teal'c appeared to be completely unfazed by developments.
The viewscreen no longer showed the neutron star and its tortured companion. Instead the screen showed that the Carter was in relatively clear space apparently not too far, as astronomical distances go from a rather ordinary looking orange-yellow star.
"Now this is really interesting," said O'Neill. "Thor do you have any idea where we are?"
Space is big and planets are rare, inhabited planets are rarer and inhabited planets harboring intelligent life rarer still, it took several days before to locate a planet that supported a technologically advanced culture. At Sam's suggestion Thor took station near the planet and began to monitor communications.
"Just until we figure out what is going," on she said. "We don't want to provoke a fight by mistake."
To the astonishment of everyone onboard, including himself, Dr Jackson was able to understand the voice transmissions. The translations nanobots that Trance Gemini had implanted in him nearly a year ago were still functioning. The voice transmissions were in Common.
"Well," said Daniel "The good news is that we know where we are. The bad news is that we have no way to get home unless we can contact Captain Hunt. Anyone have any ideas on how to do that?"
"You mean besides showing up on that planets doorstep saying "Hello we're here from a parallel universe. We were chasing a bunch of galaxy destroying monsters and ended up here by accident. Could you direct us to the Andromeda Ascendant so their chief engineer can send us home?"
Teal'c was the first with a suggestion. "General O'Neill, since the Andromeda is a military vessel, perhaps we should begin locating and monitoring military transmissions."
While it was fairly easy for Thor to isolate and begin monitoring military communications, decoding them was something else entirely. Eventually they succeeded and Daniel was able to translate for the others. The majority of the traffic concerned some place known as the Arzawa system.
After listening to Daniels running translation for a while. O'Neill turned to the others. "Folks I think they have a bug problem here."