Secret Constructive Destruction

February 2013

Part 2

Carter sat in a metal room. A chair sat in the darkness with her. A slight glow was coming from a consol, but it was just a light she was using. The mining robots had done their job well. With more precision than she had anticipated. She stood up and said, "Lights," to turn them on. The room brightened up without flickers, just an instant flash and the lights were on. She smiled and walked to the centre of the large room. It was about fifty meters from side to side and had a ring platform at the back. She was on the communication level, the first level. The sensor level was her net stop.

She pressed a few buttons to the side of the rings and appeared a level above. She walked in and said, "lights," Again. It was the same size as the previous room. She walked to the centre chair by the blue view screen and brought up a system diagnostic. After ten minutes, the diagnostic finished and came up with all green. She went to the next level and did the same.

The fourth, and top, floor of this area was different. Each seat around the large chair in the middle had a flat stump of metal. It was a holographic projector. There were three in a sort of circular motion in front of the chair. When turned on, each showed a command chair of the sensors, weapons, and engineering. The three floors below her were of these specialities. She ran a diagnostic from the chair in the centre of the room then, when it all came green, started a power-up sequence.

When the ship hummed to life, she started the engines up and, after a few minutes of upward travel, the darkness became light. The sunlight flittered in like a warm breeze. She activated the cloak, using the shield to project it around the ship, and headed for next to the base.

She put the ship down a kilometre away from the base and transported herself to her room in the facility.

"John!" Sam shouted as he was on his way to breakfast. "I need to tell you about something." She said quietly.

"What is it?" John asked, talking at an equal volume. "I'm hungry."

"Get your breakfast then meet me a kilometre west of the base." She thought for a second. "Centre base."

"So, one kilometre west of centre base." He said groggily. "Ok."

She walked off down the hall with a grin on her face. John headed back on his way to the mess hall. He got his 'food' and sat down next to Ronon and McKay, who were deep in conversation about something.

"You can't just wander over to a wraith and stab it." McKay was saying. "It would hear you."

"You don't walk over. You run over and jump at it." He corrected. "They never react in time."

"Yes, but what if there are more than two and one is behind a tree?" McKay protested.

"You always make sure you know how many there are before you attack." Ronon noticed John at the table.

"What you two talking about?" John asked as he ploughed into his breakfast.

"What tactics we should teach the men before our attack on the wraith to get back a few ZPMs." McKay said offhand. "Ronon is in charge of military action."

Ronon smiled. "I'm the best at killing wraith."

"You still follow my orders." McKay pointed out.

"Actually, he doesn't." John informed. "If you get attacked, he decides what happens, not you." Ronon's smile became a beaming grin. "Apparently you're getting another ship."

"We already have two 304s." McKay said. "We're just going in and going out."

"But you don't know how big that facility is." John said. "You don't even know if there is a facility."

"Well they're not exactly powering ancient warships are they?" McKay said. "Or they are..." He trailed on. "Maybe there are ancients there."

"Just take a stealth ship with you to find out." John said as he finished the last of his 'food'. He stood up and said, "I bid thee farewell." With a smile he put his tray in the wash and started to walk out. Sam was standing there beaming. "Alright, I'm coming."

"Good." Sam started to walk at a rather fast pace.

"What happened to meeting me a kilometre out from the base?" John asked.

"Change of plans." She said. "Larrin is coming as well."

"What?" John said, flabbergasted, "Why?"

"I thought the Travelers would want to know about this as well." She said while reaching for her earpiece. "Control, beam us nine hundred and fifty metres west of the base centre exactly."

They appeared in the green field outside the base and apparently in the middle of nowhere. Sam muttered something else and Larrin appeared in a flash of light. Sam was already walking ahead with a device in her hand. She pressed a button and they felt a slight tingly sensation as something passed over them. John stumbled back slightly in shock as he looked at the large writing in front of him.

'FGS-311-01 ARIA' was how it read. He looked to both sides and saw it stretch on for a while, he couldn't grasp the size of it. Carter turned back to them and said.

"I make the cloak involve us so that we can see it." She said. "Say hello to the ship that can take on a super hive and win."

"Uh, hello." John said as he looked up. He was in its shadow and felt small. He could tell they were next to the hangar, but he was smaller than the writing on the side.

"Its over one thousand one hundred metres long, six hundred and fifty metres in width and over one hundred and fifty metres tall." She held up the device she was holding and a hologram appeared of what he assumed was the ship. "We are the three dots by the side."

"Where?" John asked.

"There." Larrin said pointing to what join thought was a fly in the way. "I must say those weapons on the side are huge."

"Ah yes, we spent months designing the HFAPBW, High Frequency Asgard Plasma Beam Weapon," she informed. "In simulations they will disintegrate anything they touch and can destroy shields easily."

"Wraith don't use shields though." He said, not understanding.

She looked at him and shook her head. "It was also designed to destroy 304s."

Larrin looked between them confused. "Why would you want a ship that can destroy your own?"

"Because the Trust steals our ships." John said. "I told you that yesterday."

"Oh, right." Larrin looked at the hologram for a minute before she spoke the words, "Can we have a look around inside?"

"Yes." Carter pressed another button on the device and they appeared in a large room. "This is the main control room."

"Wow." John said. "It's bigger than a 304's, that's for sure."

"There are another three levels below." She informed. "I'll let you look around. Just stay together and keep this with you." She handed over another device that looked like hers. "Press the red button when you want to go back to base."

"Thanks." John said as he pocketed it. "Where's the map?"

"Press the green button for the map, blue is for where you are in the map." Sam said, there was probably a more complex name for most of this, but Sam was going easy on him. It was the morning after all. "Have fun, I've got work to do."

He pressed the button to tell him where they were in the ship and it told them they were at the front. He looked around and saw two large rail gun batteries on either side of the bridge. Behind this in the next section was a lot of mission silos and behind that on the next section were a lot of big guns. Two either side were 'wings' that held a huge hangar on their far side and a very large cannon shaped thing. On the 'wing's' far side away from the body was another large rail gun battery. To the back were six clearly visible engines and another three, two medium and one small, at the back of each hangar.

"Where first?" John asked as he saw Larrin stare at the missile silos.

"There." She pointed where she was looking.

Ten hours later and John and Larrin were still walking around the ship. They'd gone by the mess hall for some food, which had been programmed into a matter converter, it was the first food he had eaten that tasted good. They were now in the engine room looking at the large cylinders that went nearly to the front of this section, behind the 'neck'. All six were the same size and each was turned off. They were both on a railing near the middle of the large room.

"Looks like we're in the noisiest part of the ship." John said as he heard a slight humming from the main reactors. "This any different from the generation ships?"

"Yeah, it's clean and there aren't wires hanging from all over the place." She said as the lights flickered on and off a few times. "And the faulty wiring." She added with a giggle.

"Yeah, it explains the loss in resources I've been having." He said.

"You didn't know about it?" She asked with slight surprise. "That's just bad leadership."She nudged closer to him ever so slightly. "Why did you get command here?"

"I've been fighting the wraith as a military soldier longer than anyone." He replied. "They made me general for this campaign."

"Campaign?" She turned her entire body towards him. "What are you going to do after this then?"

"I don't know." He replied, turning to her. "Probably go back to Earth and see where I'm needed."

"Why?" She stepped towards him. "Don't you have a reason to stay?"

"We were ordered to take out the wraith then help the Pegasus chose a government. After that, we lend as much help as they need to survive."

"What if I gave you a reason to stay?" She stepped closer again. Her face was nearly a foot away. "A very important reason?"

John pulled his groggy eyes open and yanked his head up. He covered his ears as the blazing alarm of his cloak went off. It stopped as he pushed it off the bedside table. He looked around his room and saw that his cloves were over the floor. He got up and got into his uniform. What happened last night? He thought as he tried to recount his memories. He remembered a very large ship called the Aria, he wasn't about to forget that, there was something else though. Something he had been drinking for.

He decided on thinking about it then headed for the control room. Sam was standing there ordering the staff around.

"I thought you were going to have a lay in, so I thought I'd take charge until you got here." She said. "But I see you're here on time."

"Yeah, just got a slight hangover, could you not speak so loud?" He doubted she was shouting, but it felt like that, "Otherwise my head will explode and brains will go everywhere."

"No brains, just skull fragments." Sam said evilly. "Just grab breakfast first, I'll be in charge until you get here."

"Ok." John said. "Did anything really important to my life happen last night?"

She stepped so close she was talking into his ear. "You're unveiling the Aria today." It sounded like she was hitting his head with a sledge hammer. "Five O'clock."

"Ok." He said. He turned around and left the room. "I wonder if they do hangover cures in the mess hall.

Larrin walked by with a beaming smile on her face. As she walked passed him she brushed his side with her hand. He looked back towards her then as she disappeared, rubbed his head.

"I need food." He said to himself, determined to remember what happened the previous night.

It was five O'clock and the army was now standing by the west side of the base. Larrin was nowhere to be seen, so she much have been in the crowd. He knew for sure something had happened, he just didn't know what. Was it just a kiss? Or did it go the whole way?

He walked up to the podium and the army went silent. Three shadows were on either side of him cloaked. He knew the others were standing at the front, all cloaked. They would appear when the ship appeared. If he didn't mess up on the speech, then it would be a great show.

"As all of you know, we have soldiers on the base that keep us all safe. Some of you call them the secret police, unfortunately, and some of you call them the shadows. You don't know how many of them there are. They are not there to spy on you. They are there like security. I've heard rumours that some of you think they're not real and that some of you think there is an army of them. Both of those rumours are half right." The Shadows uncloaked and came to attention. "They're ordered to stay cloaked like that all the time so that nobody knows who they are. But there is also something much worse that is cloaked behind me. It could tear apart a city with one shot and could make most of you give up if you saw it. Fortunately, it's not going against you." There were looks of anger, confusion, looks that screamed 'you betrayed us'. "This is going against the wraith." He smiled as looks of shock filled the crowd. The Aria must have uncloaked behind him. It was confirmed with a nudge from a still cloaked shadow. "This is the Aria FGS-three-one-one-oh-one. It was designed to destroy the worst the wraith could throw at us. If they see this in a fight, they'll say to themselves, 'we're dead'." He joked. "As of now missions will be given out and the shadows are looking for recruits. You'll know if you've been chosen for the shadows." He looked around the crowd. "Go kick their arses out of this galaxy!"

Cheers raged out from around the crowd like thunder. John stepped down and felt Alex tap him on the shoulder. "Could've been better mate." He said as he walked off.