The Unending Odyssey
Part 1 – Chapter 2
"What's Wrong... wait there's the Ori - Oh SH!T"
Harry watched with little interest as Thor described the Asgard Core, which the guy was stood at. Harry from his chair just to the side watched Sam as she listened. He could tell that she wasn't as happy about the installs as others of the crew were.
"The Asgard Core is equipped with it's own power source, so it will not infringe on your ships' Naquadah reactors nor your Zero Point Module. However, when the upgrades are completed, the core will be integrated into all of the Odysseys' systems."
Sam nodded, and Harry idly noted how her hair bobbed slightly at the motion. "There must be something more you can do." She asked as he did.
"Interesting…" Thor commented quietly at their odd timing, making Harry hold down his flush. "I assure both of you; we are providing you with all of the latest Asgard technology, along with a knowledge base, which includes our entire recorded history."
Harry sighed as Sam glanced downwards for a moment.
"That's not what we were talking about." Sam told him.
Thor nodded in understanding. "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."
Harry frowned and looked at the Asgard core, thinking. It sounded oddly familiar.
--
Harry sat down, late for the briefing. Landry had finally returned from the Asgard High Council not an hour ago and called the meeting. Harry, having been assisting Kvasir with updating the Asgard Hyperdrive at the time, had only just gotten to arrive.
"Sorry I'm late…" Harry apologised. Landry just waved him to sit.
There was one spare seat, in between Daniel and Sam on Landry's right. Daniel had obviously left the chair for him.
With a nod in thanks to the Archaeologist, Harry sat down and listened.
"What about Ascension?" Landry asked.
"It wasn't an option for them." Daniel replied solemnly. "They made the conscious choice to extend their lives through science, generations ago."
"And as extended their lives had been before cloning, They only lived for about 3 centuries on the outside, and Thor himself is part of Earth Norse Mythology… They've been cloning for millennia." Harry added.
"Yes… well once they began to do cloning, they took any natural evolution necessary for ascension completely out of the equation."
"They're planning on ending their lives before the degeneration they're suffering from goes too far." Landry revealed.
"Mass suicide?" Daniel asked in shock.
Everyone was silent, and Harry guessed that they, like him, were somewhat upset at loosing friends.
"How they are going to do it, I don't understand." Landry started, "Something to do with a… shift in the planet's core…"
Harry's eyes widened, and looked at Sam, and she looked back, eyes wide also.
"Temp increase of the core's gravity?" Harry asked.
"They did it to a sun…" Sam agreed.
"Colonel… Lieutenant?" Landry asked shortly.
Sam nodded to Harry to say.
"They're going to increase the planet core's gravitational pull."
Cam frowned. "I read one of the reports on these guys… didn't they do that to a Sun?"
Sam nodded. "Which caused it to collapse into a black hole, yes."
"But in this case," Harry continued, "just increasing the gravity of the core, that it begins to collapse… then reversing the process… removing it's gravity altogether…"
Cam, Teal'c and Vala raised their eyebrows.
"You got all that, from 'something to do with a shift in the planet's core.'" Vala commented.
Harry shrugged. "Hey, I spent a few months with those guys, they did that to a few worlds rather than let them fall to the replicators, early in their war when they had numerous colonies at those times. The easiest way Thor could describe it at the time was similar to what Landry said… Thor described it as a shift in the gravity field."
"But why do that, the replicators are gone." Teal'c pointed out.
"Their tech-" Sam and Harry both started, but Harry stopped with a slight smile and let her say it.
"Their technology is highly advanced…"
"The most advanced in 3 galaxies…" Harry interjected.
Sam nodded and continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "If they left any of their technology behind, it could fall into the wrong hands."
"So they're making sure they don't leave any…" Vala summarised.
"Except what they are installing on this vessel." Teal'c added.
Daniel looked at him in realisation. "It's going to be their legacy."
A silence settled over them again for a moment.
Just a moment. "When's the big moment?" Cam asked.
Harry realised that Cam didn't really like the solemn mood that they were all in lately, and was trying to lighten things up, but the humour wasn't present in his voice this time.
"When we get safely back to Earth." Landry answered. "They're leaving us with a one-shot power module based on the one General O'Neill built 8 years ago, to allow us to Gate back here and…" Landry stopped, unable to say it.
"Bare witness." Teal'c finished for him. Landry nodded.
"This is the station we're Gating to." Landry said as he pushed a few buttons on the table console in front of him. Harry, along with the others, turned to look at the large display on the wall of the Briefing room. It resembled the Jackson Class vessels, but was distinctly a space station. To the side of it there was writing in both Asgard and English. The station's name. It said, 'Journey's End'.
--
Several days later, Harry, Sam, Teal'c and Thor stood in the Asgard Core room. Thor finished placing crystals into a tray of sorts below the controls, and the console lit up as the tray slid closed.
At the same time, the wall display screen came on, and large amounts of Asgard text rolled across the screen, before some of it disappeared, and a GUI similar to the Odyssey's human control computers had, appeared.
"The Core is now fully operational." Thor declared, and stood to the side for Harry or Sam to look at the controls. Sam took the opportunity while Thor was present, to take a look. For a moment, her forehead scrunched slightly as she concentrated. Harry found it slightly comical, and smiled slightly.
Thor seemed to realise something, and instructed, "If you like, you can interface with the Core using a holographic representation of myself, or any other Asgard on record in the knowledge base."
Sam looked up, and smiled in slight thanks, but told him, "I'm sorry, but that just won't be the same."
"I have been working on this for the better part of a year, Colonel Carter." He replied.
"We do appreciate this, Thor," Harry interjected. "We just mean we'd miss you. No hologram could ever replace that."
Thor nodded in thanks. He glanced to the side of where Harry stood, and Harry turned to see Cam enter the room. When he turned back, he realised he had missed what Sam said.
"Many on the council do not believe we should be imparting such advancements to you." Thor replied.
"We promise to do our very best not to let you down." Both Harry and Sam assured him. It took them a second to realise they both said it at the same time. Harry barely held down his blush.
Thor nodded accepting it. After a moment of thought, he spoke again. "You are the Fifth Race. Your role is clear. If there is any hope in preserving the future, it lies with you…" He looked between all those present, and added to Teal'c, "and your people."
"No pressure, right." Cam muttered with a slight smile.
Harry idly thought that most smiles in the last few days had been slight at best.
"You have all earned my respect, and my friendship." Thor added. Harry glanced at Cam, since this had been his first meeting with Thor, only to see the Colonel look down and away from them. when he turned to look at Sam, he saw that she was holding back tears. One had gotten past her though, and trailed down her cheek.
"The feelings' mutual." She replied and wiped the stray tear away.
Thor stepped a bit closer to her, "please do not be sad. The end of my people has been a long time coming. We hade made too many irreversible mistakes in our development. Hopefully you can learn something from it. My only regret is that our physical weakness has left us incapable of helping you further, both in your fight against the Ori and their Priors, and personally."
Sam knelt down and hugged him. She barely held the hug 2 seconds though, before the ships alarms' went off.
Harry's eyes widened in response to the next words to be spoken… "Colonel Carter, this is the bridge. We have 3 contacts – Ori Motherships bearing down on us!" Landry's voice came from the comm. speakers in the room.
Sam let go of Thor quickly and dove over to the human control console opposite the Asgard Core control console, and tapped a bunch of buttons to bring up system status reports. Glancing at them, she tapped the comm. button and replied, "Sir, the Hyperdrive is still offline… Diverting power to the shields."
As she said this she had manipulated the controls accordingly. Harry took position at the Asgard Core console.
"You must go." Thor said, attracting their attention. Harry idly noticed Cam and Teal'c leaving the room at a jog. "Goodbye Colonel Carter, Lieutenant Potter."
Harry nodded, and both he and Sam said their goodbyes together, and as soon as that was done Thor had been beamed out.
Harry looked at Sam, and saw she was still crying. She saw him looking, and collected herself. "You alright?" he asked.
"Will be…" she muttered, and turned back to the console. Harry likewise turned back to the Core console. Harry took note of the sensor report. "Bridge, The Asgard have just disembarked."
"Colonel, Where's that Hyperdrive?" Came the reply, Landry's voice.
Sam replied, "It'll take a few minutes to get the Hyperdrive back online."
Sam moved over to stand besides Harry, as he began tapping symbols and moving the console devices, mostly without looking at them. He had a thought, and with a few taps and moves, the display changed to show sensor readouts to the side of the systems status reports.
"Uh… Sam?" Harry asked.
"Yeah… I see it."
"Is that what I think it is?"
Sam looked over the readouts and carefully manipulated the controls to change just what was displayed.
"Is it a weapon?" Harry asked.
Sam mutely nodded, as the power reading continued to climb.
Harry's eyes went wide, and he quickly moved to the communications button and pressed it. Hurriedly he said, "Sir, I suggest we put as much distance between us and the Motherships as possible."
"Where's my Hyperdrive lieutenant?"
"Booting up now… But I suggest we wait before opening a window… What the Asgard are about to do would disrupt them."
"Understood."
Harry released the button and went back to the Asgard Core controls. He registered that Sam had changed the display again. Next to the ships status report was a visual of the battle raging behind them.
3 large blue pulses came from the surface of Orilla, and their sheer speed shocked them both. 2 struck home on the Ori Motherships, completely overwhelming them. The angle on one of the pulses split it down the middle of the ship, while the other had been sideways to it, and so split between forward and rear sections.
The last Ori Mothership was lucky, the pulse grazed the ship, but it still caused a lot of damage.
"How the…" Sam gasped.
"They've taken Zero Point research to new depths, Sam." Harry told her, before pausing long enough to tell Landry that the Hyperdrive was up and they could leave, and continued, "a single Zero Point… Module of theirs, is like 3 Ancient ones. Well, almost literally, they've made several be within one. Fully integrated into their newer ships, of course."
"So the Asgard Core…"
"Probably." Harry affirmed, then added, "That weapon has probably drained a few."
Sam sighed as the notable sound of the Hyperdrive creating a window sounded through the room. She brought up a galactic map plotting their course and speed.
"It'll be just under a day to the galactic edge." She told him.
Harry nodded, then noted from another, smaller screen he turned to. "Well, we took a bit of damage from those Ori Motherships before they were neutralised…" he told her.
"Damage?"
"Blown out crystals, conduits…" Harry muttered, before a slight smile came over his face. "Check this out." He turned one of the control pods, and the main screen changed to so a close up of the Command module, with numerous lines running around it. Some were red before they continued, in yellow, into the bridge. They seemed to convalesce at points that Sam knew to be the Conn and Tactical.
"What is that?" Sam asked, pointing to the thicker red lines. She noticed that in places, the green lines and yellow lines were thick.
"Those, are what I had the Asgard install."
"What are they?" She asked again.
"Surge protection, Fuses." Harry bluntly told her, smirking.
She blinked at him.
He continued. "I find it stupid how such a neat safety measure that is present in practically every home in America and Europe, can be forgotten on a multi-billion dollar piece of equipment."
"Being red, they…"
"Need replacing? No. I asked the Asgard if they had ever encountered things that could 'self-repair'… somewhat like organic tissue. Closest they came was what they installed, somewhat like a surge and dip protector. It cleans the power coming through it, and when more power comes through, it stores it for when the power dips. And it's like a fuse in that, when it takes more than it can handle, it disconnects. But it's more of a trip-fuse, than your typical plug socket fuse."
"and Yellow means?"
"Yellow means it merely is near capacity, and needs to bleed off, in which case automated power regulation kicks in and 'dips' the power so it can bleed it off into the line, while Red is when it gets tripped, in which case 3 things need to happen. Either A – reset it. B – the surge protector needs bleeding off and resetting, or C – it needs completely replacing. Certain power spikes can still overload it. But at least it's not overloading the consoles our people are working at."
Sam nodded, a little pale. "what about the other ships?"
Harry frowned. "I made sure that Kvasir knew to give us plenty of stock, and plans to build more. They designed it so we could at least backward engineer a method of producing more. Only enough spares to replace the Daedalus' and keep a few spares for us and them. The Apollo will have to do without."
Sam turned away for a moment, Harry continued working on the Core controls, and after a second, swore.
"Harry!" Sam admonished with a smile.
"What is it?" Came a new voice – Vala.
"Hey Vala… well, Problem. Those blown crystals?"
"yeah?" Sam nodded.
"We'll need knew ones if we want to get back home within 2 months."
Sam turned back and brought up allsorts of things. She evidently knew these better, Harry noted, as she barely glanced at them before brining up another screen of information. Harry didn't look, since' she'd tell him anything he hadn't yet pointed out.
After a minute of this, she swore.
"Sam!" Harry admonished with a sarcastic smile.
"Sam!" Vala admonished, getting into the joke.
"Vala!" Harry then added to her.
"Harry!" Vala did back, enjoying this one.
Harry looked closely at Sam, who was looking rather intently at the screen, too intently… Harry noticed the corners of her mouth twinge.
"As much fun as you two are having…" She started, then mumbled, "you overgrown children…" before she continued on, "We have a problem."
"Define… Problem." Harry asked.
"To replace those crystals? We'd need to drop out of hyperspace."
Harry frowned, and looked at the schematics Sam had. Just as quickly as she had, Harry came to the same conclusion.
Harry looked at Sam, and she looked at him.
Together, they swore, "Oh… B-…"
Vala waited for them to tell her the problem. And waited. After a minute, she asked, "Hello… so we drop out of hyperspace to replace a few crystals. What's the big deal?"
Sam turned to her, and began. "Well, it starts with how those crystals are in a section of Hyperdrive that can only be accessed while the Hyperdrive is inactive." She paused, and glanced at Harry.
Harry continued, "and it takes a good few minutes to power the Hyperdrive down to a safe level after exiting hyperspace…"
"then another minute to get in and remove the crystals…"
"Another to get out and be passed new ones…"
"and another to get back in and insert the new ones..."
"I get it… I get it." Vala stopped them. "But again, why is it such a BIG problem?" She reiterated.
"Well…" Harry began. "The Ori aren't meant to be here."
"Ever since me and Daniel wound up in their galaxy, they've been making inroads into our area of space, and I don't think they're supposed to be…" Vala pointed out
Harry rolled his eyes, but Sam continued on. "we mean Here, in the Ida galaxy. According to the Asgard, after their war with the replicators, there isn't all that many civilisations here."
"So basically, too much bother to come here to convert them?"
"Exactly."
"…. Oh Boll-"
"I know." Harry interrupted, Vala now seeing their point.
--
A/N: 3,045 words above. This is where I'm up to in the final version. in the previous version, i'm up to activating the time dilation field. I'm adding bits, and changing bits an removing bits between writing versions. This one , at the end, instead of the fuse thing, i had a rather, complex bit about how they measured 'warp speed' if you will. I thought it was a bit lame so i put the fuse thing in instead. So far, up to this point (minus the speed thing) in the last version, well, it's a mere 2k. This is 3k and then another 1k for the teaser. :D
Reviews are appreciated. check out the discussion for this fic over on the HPSG-1 Yahoo! group. ;)
