Three

For Colonel Tanya Ward, United States Air Force, this was quite the special occasion, being the first female officer to attain command of a Daedalus-class battle-cruiser (designated BC-304's, but also referred to as Deep Space Carriers in some circles). Whatever you called it Tanya did not care this was her ship and she was going to make it the pride of the United States Air Force.

Her 'shakedown' mission was the first intergalactic journey for the Phoenix and her crew. Heading out to the Pegasus galaxy to the Ancient City of Atlantis where humanity's Atlantis Expeditionary Force was based. Aboard her ship was Lt. Colonel John Sheppard (also of the USAF), and his team as well as additional supplies for the Atlantis expedition, they were returning following a recent debriefing on Earth. Once reaching their destination, the Phoenix would take up a permanent posting near Atlantis, assisting in its defence against the various threats of the Pegasus Galaxy, the Wraith in particular, as well as aiding in the exploration of any locations that were not part of the local Stargate network.

The Phoenix was currently within in the Milky Way Galaxy, on a straight run from Earth to Atlantis' location, with very few factors that could affect them while in hyperspace; they were looking at about eighteen days' travel at their current hyperdrive velocity to reach Pegasus. Right now, everything was fairly quiet on the bridge, with the crew monitoring the vessel's systems and making adjustments as necessary. Ward allowed them to continue at their current pace, as they were in no hurry to reach Atlantis; no need to push the limits of a ship just off-the-line like the Phoenix before it was ready.

Without warning, the Phoenix's hull began to shudder badly; Major Darren Hayden, Phoenix's helm officer, was first to react. "Colonel, we've got trouble with the hyperdrive; looks like a problem with the hyperspace bubble stability" he said.

"Status? Can we maintain the field?" Ward grimaced, her earlier pleasant mood vanishing into the ether.

"Negative sir, if we try to keep this up, it could cause serious damage to the hyperdrive. Worst case, it could blow" Hayden continued.

"Recommend that we drop-out of hyperspace so we can find the problem. We could then continue on to Pegasus, or turn back towards Earth; again, worst case sir," he finished.

So much for not pushing my new ship too much, Ward thought, something had failed on Phoenix and they hadn't even done anything strenuous with it... yet.

"Alright... Hayden, shut it down. Divert power from the Asgard weapons to structural integrity. Major Craig, raise shields as soon as we drop out of hyperspace. No sense taking chances, even if no one's around," Tanya ordered quietly. The Asgard-designed beam weapons were very powerful, but they also drew upon a lot of energy that right now could be more usefully spent.

"Yes, sir." Major Lisa Craig, Phoenix's tactical officer, replied as the ship repeatedly rocked from port to starboard. It was at this moment Lt. Colonel John Sheppard entered the bridge.

"Ah, Colonel Sheppard, good timing. It looks like we've hit a slight hitch," Ward said with a slight bit of sarcasm, looking at the man of thirty-something-odd years, receiving a shrug and a lop-sided smirk in return.

John Sheppard had a rocky history at best with the United States Air Force and from what Ward had seen he was close to being kicked out, but that was before he had joined the Atlantis Expedition. Since then he seemed to have matured somewhat, and became a leader that Ward could respect, albeit not one who always followed the traditional chain-of-command preferring to make on-the-site decisions himself rather than looking for orders from superiors. It was one that made him an effective SG team leader and he could prove very useful if they ran into any further trouble.

The Phoenix rocked on its axis yet again, its hyperspace bubble collapsing inwards on itself. The Phoenix dropped-out into real space, the hyperdrive going into emergency shutdown almost instantly, preventing catastrophic failure as well as heavy systems' damage. Craig immediately raised the shields ensuring the Phoenix and her crew had some form of protection, just in case somebody hostile came across the crippled ship.

"Oh, crap!" came a voice from the back of the bridge. Ward and Sheppard turned to see Doctor Rodney McKay standing staring at one of the displays.

When exactly had he entered the bridge? No one had noticed, much to the dismay of Ward. Definitely going to have to rework the security procedures, plus add some drill time, she thought. Such inattentiveness by any of her personnel could prove to be fatal for all involved.

Rodney McKay was easily one of the most arrogant and annoying individuals a person could ever encounter. Fortunately, he was also one of the most capable scientists that Earth had to offer. In particular, he was extremely familiar the with internals of the BC-304's, having done more than a bit of work on the Daedalus, first of the 304 series and their class' namesake, making him absolutely invaluable in this kind of situation. Currently the lead scientist of the Atlantis Expedition and a member of Sheppard's team, if anyone could keep McKay in line and focused on a situation, it would be John Sheppard.

"What's wrong, McKay? The hyperdrive?" Sheppard asked, beating Ward to the punch.

"We're still in the Milky Way," McKay replied, missing Sheppard's question. Looking over at Ward, he continued, "But we're lost."

"This is a good thing, right? Can't we find our position with by the star constellations, match them up with known 'gate addresses?" Sheppard asked, slightly confused but trying to sound optimistic at the same time. At least they were still in their home galaxy, so how exactly could they be lost? he thought.

"Not really the case here!" McKay said sarcastically. "Look, we might still be in the Milky Way, but we are in a completely unexplored area of space. No SGC team has ever been in this area, thus no Stargate addresses on record to match up with, and the Phoenix doesn't exactly carry around the entire list of unexplored or uncharted 'gate addresses aboard." He explained rapidly laying down the situation they were in before returning his attention to the nearby displays.

"Our galaxy has a very large amount of space to cover. We could be anywhere, literally!" McKay finally finished not even looking at the others.

"Well said, Rodney. I'd have never figured that out, until you were so kind to explain," Sheppard retorted, with an equal degree of sarcasm. Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex, both being Pegasus galaxy residents as well as Sheppard's two other team members, arrived on the bridge following his remark.

"Doctor, is the hyperdrive still online? Or what about long-range communications?" Ward interrupted, taking control of the conversation before the Atlantis contingent took over her bridge. Neither Teyla or Ronin were engineers or members of the United States Air Force Ward wasn't entirely convinced they would be helpful right now, but she wasn't about to dismiss Sheppard's people in front of him.

"In order: no-go on the hyperdrive. I'm not even sure on what happened to it, but we've got no power to the drive, for now," McKay replied, looking at the nearby systems' readout. "As for long-range comms, oh they're working, no problem. But sensors read no habitable planets anywhere near us, no active subspace communication frequencies the database recognizes. Oh and another problem; they always come in threes," McKay said looking upwards at the ceiling. Everyone except Sheppard followed his gaze.

"What is it?" Sheppard's patience beginning to wane he didn't like this one bit. Neither did anyone else.

"Other than we're lost, in the middle of god knows where, and we have no working FTL?" McKay inquired, looking at the Lt. Colonel with an even more sour expression than normal, for McKay.

"Yes, Rodney! Other than you have no idea where we are, and you have no idea how to fix the hyperdrive." Sheppard returned. It was a well-known and proven fact that if McKay under put under sudden death-level pressure the scientist delivered near-miraculous results.

"Oh, c'mon, I didn't say I had no idea how to fix..." McKay began; He prided himself on being able to repair and/or improve any piece of technology, anywhere. Especially when Sheppard put him on the spot.

"McKay!" Sheppard ground out, finally loosing his temper for real with the egocentric scientist. McKay had a severe tendency to over talk. More like blab about how good he was with technology, actually. This was not the time or place for that.

"Fine, fine! We're detecting three unknown ships closing in on our position. Power readings are almost off the scale," McKay finished, looking right at the sensor displays.

"Dammit... Craig, shore up the shields, arm railguns and load all missile tubes," Ward ordered, not willing to take any chances here. The Asgard-designed shields provided an excellent passive defence against most threats, but experience demonstrated that weaponry was also a necessary deterrent, given the number of hostile species Earth had run-ins with over the last ten-odd years of off-world travel.

"Dr. McKay, if you could, head down to engineering and try to get our hyperdrive back to operational status. Bring the Asgard core online to assist if you have to, although the power drain is really inconvenient," Tanya said. McKay nodded quickly in response and rushed out of the command area.

The Asgard were a now-extinct race after millennia of repeated cloning and no sexual reproduction, resulting in genetic degradation which was beyond repair. They had given aid to humanity in the past in various forms. Before they had passed beyond they had passed on all their knowledge and technology to humanity who they considered to be the "Fifth Race" those worthy enough to carry on the Asgard legacy.

The alternative would been being held under the sway of the Ori, a hostile power of ascended humanoids from another, far-away galaxy that commanded power and technology nearly equivalent to that which the Ancients themselves once wielded; almost certainly, the Ori would've forced the Asgard to turn over their also highly-advanced technology to further the Ori's campaign of converting non-believers to their religion, Origin, and exterminating those who did not 'follow the path.' Although there was the slight possibility that the Ori could remedy the Asgard's genetic degradation, the price demanded was deemed too high to consider paying.

This particular Asgard core consumed a great deal of power while operational, being a duplicate of the original installed on the Odyssey, second of the 304's, and thus lacking the self-contained power source of the original. Regardless, it could prove invaluable in isolating the problem with the hyperdrive. And now that the Ori were a diminished threat, there shouldn't have been any problems with activating the core, which in the past had enabled Ori vessels to track the Odyssey with incredible accuracy, even through hyperspace; which should have been impossible, as neither the Ori, nor any other species, had ever demonstrated that capability beforehand.

"Unknown vessels dropping to sub-light," Hayden reported, observing the three near-purple & light-blue coloured, scarab-shaped craft that appeared ahead of them. "They've raised some pretty powerful shielding, and are powering up some kind of directed energy weapon, type unknown or power."

"Open a channel" Ward said, looking out the main windows as the first of the three craft fired an opal beam at the Phoenix. The ship rocked heavily through the hit but the shields held firm.

"Return fire, railguns and standard nukes only," Ward grimaced, they unknowns hadn't even bothered to communicate before shooting, but that wasn't an excuse to cut loose with the full firepower at her disposal she'd try to dissuade them first.

"Colonel Sheppard, if you want something to do, join our 302's and keep those alien ships busy. Otherwise, get off my bridge, ASAP; Ronon, Teyla, the Marines could use some assistance if the hostiles intend to board us," Ward said, referring to the Phoenix complement of 8 F-302 space superiority fighters and the ship's on-board combination security detachment and field assault teams, respectively. Giving one last look at his team-mates, Sheppard took off a run for the starboard hanger bay he was a proven F-302 pilot in combat against multiple enemies.

As for Ronon Dex, a lean, yet well-built tower of a man and a nearly-unequalled expert in close-quarter combat, as well as Teyla Emmagan, who despite her rather short stature, was physically very robust and nearly as much a master of close-quarters fighting as Ronon himself, the two of them would be the perfect complement to her Marine contingent in this fight. They too, followed Sheppard off the bridge, but not before giving a slight nod and short bow to Colonel Ward, from Ronon and Teyla, respectively.

"This is Colonel Tanya Ward, commanding officer of the Earth vessel USAF Phoenix to the attacking craft, cease fire." She said holding down the communications button on her console. "We bear you no hostility, and are on a re-supply mission only. However, should you continue your attack, you will face the full force of our weapons," Ward stated, just as three more beams struck the Phoenix's shields, two on the aft sections, and one on the forward quarter.

"Shields down to 87% and holding," one of the bridge officers at an auxiliary console reported, the Phoenix was taking a fair battering from the enemy weapons, much more so than from Wraith ships, surprising to them considering the effectiveness of the Asgard shielding.

"Launch starboard fighter wing," Ward ordered. Eight F-302 Fighters launched from the starboard bay, followed the Phoenix's array of railguns and conventional nuclear ordinance resuming fire on the attacking vessels; their shields flickered but held strong.

"Major Craig, bring the Asgard beams back on-line, see if they are any more effective. Start them off at low output and target the same ship our fighters are attacking, maybe we can cause some damage with a combined assault," Ward decided, as the ship's sensors detected another unknown ship entered the region. At this rate, we're definitely going to need the Asgard weaponry, despite their heavy power consumption... and probably some additional insurance on top of that, Ward concluded.

"Bridge to weapons control, commence loading of enhanced nuclear ordinance, we might need them." Ward spoke, after activating the internal communications relays.

The Phoenix, like all BC-304's nowadays, carried Mark Nine Naquadriah-enhanced nuclear warheads aboard. Naquadriah was an extremely unstable and even more reactive variant of naqudah, the element that Stargates were made of, which itself had complemented the previous Mark Eight series of tactical warheads, which Phoenix also had, but in fewer numbers. Combining naqudah with standard nuclear weapons multiplied the explosive yield a single bomb at least ten times over; Naquadriah, potentially an order of magnitude greater than that.

"Understood Colonel. The housing took a bit of a beating when we dropped into normal space; it will take five minutes to get three enhanced nukes onto the loading tray."

"Do whatever you can, weapons." Ward replied, hoping the beam weapons would be effective without added missile support.

"Sir, a fourth vessel just appeared in the area, it's a different design from the others and is hailing the attacking vessels."

"Understood put them up, Major Hayden." Tanya wanted to be in the loop as much as possible. "Dominion vessels, this is Captain Benjamin Sisko, commander of the USS Defiant. You are ordered to end your attacks or be fired upon." The voice said over the communication system. Ward and her crew looked at each other in confusion, as no Earth ship was named 'USS Defiant,' nor were any Earth ships designed like it.

"Sir, one of those ships is breaking off and attacking the new ship - the Defiant"

"Looks like they are on our side. Have Sheppard and the other fighters focus on the craft we target. And keep an eye on the Defiant, but don't target them unless they target us." Ward ordered. She'd take any break they could get in this fight, especially since her ship wasn't at 100%.

The Phoenix opened fire again on the unidentified 'Dominion' ships with railguns, conventional missiles, and Asgard weapons, causing the attacking craft's shields to flare with damage. Ward was more concerned with the other side of the battle, since what she saw was worrisome; the Defiant was very manoeuvrable and carried a heavy weapons array. She was amazed that it had taken out one of the Dominion ships already. That made Ward worry about what could happen if the Defiant decided to take on the Phoenix.

"Continue firing. We need to keep up our side of this battle," she said as the fighters made another run at the lead Dominion craft. Though they were doing little damage, they were doing their bit to keep the Dominion craft honest. Phoenix's bow mounted beam weapons lashed out again, causing the Dominion craft to physically shuddered from the most recent hits; the weapons were beginning to show their potential as more power was being pumped into them.

"Colonel, the Defiant has destroyed its second target; they are coming around to our target." Craig said as the third and final craft began manoeuvring away from them.

]"We're detecting a power spike from the vessel, possibly engines," said Hayden as he glanced at the readouts on his console. Moments later, the Dominion craft jumped out of the area, accelerating to speeds beyond what Phoenix was capable of. "The Defiant is slowing to a full stop. Their shields are still up, but their weapons powering down."

"Have Colonel Sheppard and his fighters regroup around us, and bring us in line with the Defiant. Keep shields up and weapons fully powered. Let's see what happens."