Stargate: Unity, 4th Series
Episode 3: An old Friend
Chapter 2:
Inside Access Media building, New York.
3 days till zero hour.
"I'm sorry to disturb you in this time of mourning," Julia Donovan began, "but after the release 4 days ago about the president's untimely demise, we were also informed that we would be safe. Today it has been announced that this could be anything but the truth. A one General Jack O'niell, a relatively unknown air force officer, mentioned in a conference briefing that until further notice major venues, such as concerts, will be cancelled and he also urges all civilians to stay at home, away from all urban metropolises. Police will be setting up barricades around cities so that only necessary people will be allowed into the city, however it is unclear what deems you as necessary at this point."
"Still no word yet on those responsible for the attack," she continued, "But General O'niell personally assured me that he, and a large proportion of military intelligence agencies, are working as hard as possible on tracking down the terrorist's."
"Aaand were clear. Julia, there's an air force officer waiting in your office for you."
"Thanks Steve." She replied to her camera man, as she walked off towards her office. "Sam, what can I do for you?"
"Miss Donovan, hello, as you've probably figured out, in three days Vice president Bridges will be declassifying the Stargate program."
"Yes I gathered that much, what does that have to do with me?"
"He will be acknowledging the programs existence, and some files will be open for public access, it will not cover everything, but we would like you to go through all the files we have on the Lucian alliance and present that straight after the vice president's speech."
"The Lucian alliance?"
"They are a band of drug dealers and bounty hunters that have become quite involved with terrorist strike recently. They've hit 1 of our of world bases and they were responsible for both the attack a few months earlier on the home(world)land security base, and for the attack on the white house. We will be sending you all the relevant data you need."
"They're responsible for..." Julia replied, but trailing off before she could finish her sentence.
"It has not been confirmed, but it is quite likely, yes."
Major Gantt had just returned to the bridge after making some adjustments to Asgard systems from engineering, "Colonel Davidson, Asgard sensors have been modified, we can now pick up any ships exiting hyperspace within point 2 light year radius, and cloak detectors are now running 24/7, although they can only pick up cloaked ships with a much smaller radius."
"Good work Major, Lieutenant can you please open a link between the other ships in orbit." After a few second, Colonel Huang of the Sun Tzu, and Colonel Carter of the Hammond appeared on screens. "Colonels, we have successfully made modifications to the Asgard systems onboard the odyssey, we are ready to send over technicians to begin work on your two ships."
"No need Colonel, I've already made the modifications." Replied Sam
"Off... course-you-have. What was I thinking, asking the great Samantha carter if she needed help with technology?" Said Davidson with a smirk, making Sam blush a little.
"The Sun Tzu still needs to be modified, as does the Arcturus which is due to launch any minute now." Huang stated.
Just as Davidson was about to give the order to beam technicians over, there was a faint beeping noise coming from major Gantts monitor. "Colonel we have 2 contacts, point 1, 5 light years out."
"Get into position," Davidson ordered, before turning back to the screens, "Colonels we have a contact point 1, 5 light years out, time to get into position."
The four ships, including the Arcturus, all entered predetermined positions around the earth at 108.5 degrees apart, making sure no ship could get through without being detected.
It would still be days before the ships would reach earth, but no one was willing to take any chances on that.
"I'm sooo bored!" Groaned Vala, "Why is it, again, they won't let me go visit Daniel in Atlantis?"
"The Stargate is not to be used for your personal entertainment, Vala Mal Doran," Responded Tiel'c.
"Well that's ridiculous! It's not like it'll hurt anybody. Anyway, muscles, why do you think the Aschen haven't launched a full scale attack on earth? I mean, if they really do have 800 ships and building dozens more, they could easily overwhelm earths pitiful defences."
"Perhaps they do not have the man power or the supplies to launch several hundred vessels at the same time with full crew on board. That is after all, 10's of thousands of staff."
After about a minute of silence Vala sighed, jumped up and sat on the desk in Daniel's old office, and started kicking her legs. "If they're not going to let me do anything fun, can at least put us back on the mission list! There is nothing to do around here!"
"On the contrary, these last few days have seen the most activity on this base than in its entire history."
"I meant nothing for me to do..."
"And," Tiel'c continued, ignoring Vala's selfishness, "SG-1 will not be put back into the field until a replacement for Colonel Carter and Daniel Jackson have been found."
"I still don't understand why they abandoned us, it wasn't my fault was it?"
"Daniel has wanted to be transferred to Atlantis for some time now, and Colonel Carter was promoted to a position that best suited her."
"It's still no fair!"
"Indeed."
The Arcturus was a beautiful ship, much smoother in design than the 304's with no hard points, it kind of reminded Jack of an Asgard ship, except for the shape of it. It was much larger than a 304, about 1.5 times larger, and basically, as Jack put it because of its shape, a flying brick. Along the sides of this 'brick' there were multiple hangar bays which only held 2 302's at a time, but as soon as they were launched the wall behind them opened, and 2 more 302's were brought into the hangar bay very quickly on a conveyer belt. 5 of these hangar bays lined each side, making the total carrying capacity 40, with three larger transport ships externally attached to the top of the ship. The Overwhelming size of the ship was for the large crew, along with the normal crew of around 100 there were also the 80 302 pilots and each transport ship was designed to carry 30 personell into and out of battle, although the crew for those were only brought on board for certain missions.
"Alrighty then, what do we got?" Said Jack, sitting down in the command chair in the bridge.
"Nothing yet, Sir," Reported a lieutenant.
"Nothing? Didn't carter say the ships should have arrived by now?"
"That was assuming they were Alkesh and were using full sub light engines. They could have approached slower, or even turned around once they saw that we were waiting for them."
"Riiight, get me Colonel Carter."
"Yes sir?" Answered Sam a few seconds later.
"Carter." Jack said with little emphasis.
"Sir?"
"Whats up?"
"Umm, what, sir?"
"I'm bored, ok Carter! We've been up here for days and nothing has happened."
"we cant let our guard down, sir. They could show up at any time to make another raid."
"I knew that... it's just, well it's so boring!"
"Yes sir."
