Chapter five
Minna was the last to fly into the hanger after the engagement, and while the other three Witches were walking to their respective rooms for some rest, the Karlslander was only just landing her Striker.
"Need any help?" Colonel O'Neill asked as Minna was dismounting her Strikers, making the woman jump and fall to the hanger floor a good four feet below her. "Ooh, sorry." He jumped down and held his hand out to help her up.
"Thanks," she grumbled as she took his hand and he pulled her up.
"I take it everything went well? From what I hear these things normally take longer."
"Yes. The weapon was a resounding success. I think I may have Erica's sister come down to examine one… if that's okay with you?"
He held up his hands, "Oh, by all means. Why don't you keep that one? I think we may have one or two spares with the rest of our equipment anyway."
"Thank you, Colonel. If you'll excuse me though, it's late and I need to rest."
Daniel was rifling through books in the library while an angry Flying Officer Clostermann sat at the table, upset. For some reason Daniel was the only member of SG-1 that the Gallian could tolerate. Daniel wasn't sure why, or much care at that time. There was so much history to catch up on.
"So for how long have you guys know about the Neuroi?" Daniel asked while flipping through a book about Romagnan history.
"Me personally?" the blond girl asked, lifting her head off the table. It was late and she must have been tired. "I'd read about them, but never taken it seriously until a few years ago when they attacked."
Daniel put the book down, leaving it open so he doesn't lose his page, "I've been meaning to ask about that. Exactly what happened when the Neuroi appeared? As far as anyone's told me, they just arrived out of nowhere and started destroying everything."
"That's exactly what did happen," Flying Officer Clostermann answered sternly, "Just arrived out of nowhere and started killing."
Daniel sat across the desk from the girl and put his hands on the table. "You don't mind if I just call you Perrine do you? I'm not even in the military after all."
She gave him a puzzled look, but nodded.
"Well, there has to be more to it than that. You have no idea where they came from, what they want, anything?"
Perrine stood up and cleared her throat, "The Neuroi come in a variety of classes and sizes, with both ground and air forces. The only way to permanently kill one is to destroy its Core. The red beams fired from the same coloured hexagons will disintegrate anything they touch. The Neuroi air forces come from the spiral shaped hives that hover above the various countries, however the origins of the land based Neuroi are unknown. There are rumours about the origins of the Neuroi in Africa, but these are mostly unconfirmed. This is all I know, so please stop asking questions."
Daniel blinked and then pushed his own glasses up a bit. "Uh, okay, thankyou." He got up, picked up the book on Romagnan history, and turned his back to Perrine, who was now resting her head on the table again. After a moment, he turned back around, "I don't suppose there are any books about these Neuroi in Africa?"
"How should I know that?!" she burst out, "this isn't my library!"
"Oh, um, sorry, I just thought-"
"Thought what?"
"Oh, nothing." Daniel quickly turned around and went back to his reading.
Shirley stretched her arms and yawned as she walked to her 'workshop' part of the hanger. It was too early for breakfast to be prepared, and normally Shirley would wait till at least then to get up. But, Major Carter had asked if they could get up early so Shirley had thought it best to get up and clean things up a little before the Major arrived.
Shirley heard a rummaging in her workshop as she walked in and found Major Carter looking at some of the components of a dismantled magical engine.
"Oh, Lieutenant Yeager, sorry," she said quickly, looking up from her work, "I couldn't sleep so I decided to come back here."
"Just call me Shirley, Sam," Shirley told her as she scratched her head and yawned again, "and I don't mind as long as you keep it relatively clean."
Sam smiled, "Trust me, I don't work in a messy workshop."
"So what are you working on?" Shirley asked, picking up a strange rock near the dismantled engine.
Sam turned back towards the engine, "I'm just trying to get a better understanding of the engine before I try and jury rig a Naquadah plant for it."
"A what plant? I don't see what foliage has to do with anything," Shirley told Sam offhandedly.
Sam laughed quietly and sat back on her feet, "Naquadah is the element the Gate is made up of. It's a highly conductive, highly dense material. My hope is that I can rig up a Naquadah generator small enough to replace the magic engines in these Strikers, making them usable for regular people rather than just Witches. I'm telling you, this could turn the tide in our fight against the Goa'uld." Sam sat back up and resumed her work.
Shirley wanted to ask what a Gate was as well, but fearing another lengthy explanation, decided against it.
"So these Neuroi beams," Sam began, "they destroy everything?"
"Yup," Shirley answered with a nod, jumping atop a crate so that she had somewhere to sit "Everything 'cept our shields."
Sam sat back and rubbed her chin, muttering, "I see," and then she went back to her work. "If you don't mind, I would like to run some tests on a shield."
"What sort of tests," Shirley asked with another yawn, it was way too early for her.
"Ballistic, chemical, radio, just about anything I can think of really. I might have to get Daniel to help me with a few, but we might get some insight as to what they're made from."
Shirley couldn't help but laugh, "I told you that yesterday, they're made by magical energy focussed by the shield projector."
"I'm afraid I still don't accept that explanation," Sam told Shirley, "I've met plenty of cultures whose 'magic' just turned out to be tricks and technology. So, about the tests?"
Shirley shrugged, "Sure, why not."
After another hour or so of talking, Shirley jumped off the crate and said, "Why don't we go get something to eat, breakfast should be ready by now."
Sam got up and wiped some sweat from her brow, "Yeah, why not."
Jack walked into the dining hall ready to eat whatever was put in front of him, even if it was that strange Japanese food again. He was starving for some reason.
"Good morning, sir," Sam greeted as she and Shirley walked in at the same time as him.
"Ladies," he replied with a smile, letting them get to the food first.
"Good morning, Colonel," Major Sakamoto said over a cup of tea as Jack took a gamble and sat at the Witches end of the table. There had been no order or decree that the Witches and SG-1 had to sit at separate ends of the table, it had just sort of happened the other night, so Jack wanted to test the waters a little bit.
"Good morning, Major," he replied with a slight grin, "have a good sleep?"
"I did, thank you for asking. Was there something you needed?"
Jack flinched back as if he'd been hit, "That hurts, Major. I just figure since we might be staying here awhile I might as well try and break the awkwardness between SG-1 and you Witches."
Major Sakamoto leaned back and put a hand on chin while crossing the other over her chest, "That would be the logical thing, wouldn't it. This approach may work with a couple of the girls, but I'm afraid this is a fairly tight nit group, and some of the girls may… will not be responsive to this approach. You may want to be a bit less straight forward."
"It's working for you though?" Jack inquired around the gruel he was shovelling into his mouth.
"I'm a soldier who prefers the straight forward," she stated, "Most of these girls aren't."
"Everyone's like that at first."
"The Major is right," Commander Wilcke said from behind Jack, making him jump, just before sitting down next to him with a slight grin on her face, "these girls just aren't around men that often and as such will be nervous around them. Let them go to you, don't go to them, it'll be better for both parties."
Jack looked at her sideways and returned to his meal, "If you way so."
Daniel was looking at a world map that Sanya had found for him in the library. It was midday and Sanya's turn to keep an eye on him, and as Daniel had discovered, anywhere Sanya was, Eila would also soon be. Unlike the other members of SG-1, Daniel was on a first name basis with almost all the Witches by now, mostly because he wasn't military like them.
"Do you have any pens, pencils, something I can draw with?" Daniel asked quickly, an idea coming to him.
"Um," Eila looked at him in surprise, "sure, I'll just go get some."
She left and returned a moment later with wooden box of pencils, "Here."
"Tanks," Daniel said as he took the pencils, "is it okay if I draw on this map?"
"Sure," Sanya said without lifting her head from her pillow. Sanya was often put on night watch and so slept during the day, bringing a pillow with her when she had to leave her room.
"What are you doing?" Eila asked as she curiously peered at the lines Daniel was marking.
"I am drawing the countries that were around during the 1945 of my dimension."
"Wow," a wide eyed Eila said, "there sure are a lot of them."
"Yep," Daniel said just as he finished marking all the countries, and then began naming them.
"So, are there really no Neuroi where you come from?" Eila asked after a moment of silence, "Even during your 1945?"
"Nothing like that, instead we've got Goa'uld, and I'm not sure if them or the Neuroi are worse. As far as my 1945 goes, we were in World War Two at that time, something you folk have been lucky enough to avoid."
"World War Two?" Sanya said, lifting her head from the pillow.
"Um, yes, it was a very bloody war involving just about every country on the planet. The worst of it was the Nazi regime lead by AdolfHitler, from here," Daniel pointed to Germany/Karlsland, "who wanted to take over Europe."
"What happened to Orussia?" the grey haired girl asked.
"Yeah, and Suomus?" Eila added.
"Well, Orussia, which is just Russia in my time, was the Soviet Union, which was on the Allied side of the war. It was a communist state made up of several different countries. Suomus," Daniel pointed at Suomus/Finland, "was part of the Axis powers, though that was more to protect themselves against Communism than following Hitler's ideals."
"So… we were… enemies?" a horrified Eila asked; a look of horror crossing Sanya's face too.
"Ah, I don't think you existed in my universe," Daniel told them slowly.
"Wh- what?!" Eila exclaimed, "We didn't exist?!"
"Not as you are now, anyway. In all likelihood, you two would have been hidden in basements, away from the battle. Children weren't used for fighting in my dimension."
"What was this… Nazi regime?" Sanya asked, burying her head back in her pillow, muffling her voice slightly.
"Well," Daniel sat across from the two Witches, "The Nazis were a socialist political party founded by AdolfHitler. Their ideals were that Aryans – blue eyes, blond hair – were the 'master race' and basically they should rule the world. He conducted purges and put 'unfavourable' people in work and concentration camps, where they were worked, starved and killed."
"That's horrible," Eila said, jumping back a little in her seat, "was he stopped?"
"Yes, he was, sort of. When the Soviets had taken Berlin, he poisoned his wife and his dog, and then shot himself."
"Serves him right," Eila huffed, crossing her arms.
"Who were the unfavourable people?" Sanya asked from her pillow.
Daniel began counting them off on his fingers, "Um, Jewish people were the most prominent, but there were also gypsies, mentally disabled, physically disabled, social and political dissidents, homosexuals-"
"They killed homosexuals?!" Both girls exclaimed at once, standing and bashing their hands on the table.
"Perhaps we should drop the subject," Daniel suggested, quickly rolling up the map and stuffing it away.
"I'm going to talk with Barkhorn," Eila told him before storming off.