SGD 3x07 The Pegasus Project
February 5, 2005
Chulak
The phrase "War is Hell" didn't have the same impact until one had actually experienced it.
"It's now Day 35 of the Ori War," Dee shouted over the din of gunfire, energy weapons, and screams. "We've been on Chulak for nearly a month now. We've lost or destroyed all our camera equipment, what you're seeing is a feed from Tina's suit camera-"
The camerawoman raised her M4 carbine and put an awkward burst through an Ori warrior that had almost made it past the rubble-reinforced dirt berm that they were entrenched behind. Dee continued, unfazed- it had happened too many times for her to count. There was already a nasty melted patch in her armour that constantly reminded her not to stay in the open for too long. "As you can see, we're right in the thick of it. I can't say exactly where we are due to security reasons, but we're on the defensive and we're slowly being pushed-"
"Showtime's over!" a gruff voice shouted. Sergeant Sullivan shook the camerawoman on her shoulder. "We're pulling back! There's no way we can hold this position any longer!"
"Sergeant, didn't we just pull back a few hours ago?" Tina asked, yelling over the deep boom of tube artillery.
"Yep. We're pulling back again. You're going first-" The Sergeant was roughly cut off by a staff blast that had zipped over the top of the field-expedient fortification and into his head. The scene was gruesome. He dropped instantly to the ground, his face a mangled mess of seared flesh and exposed bone.
"Sergeant! Shit!" a Marine beside them shouted, dropping his gun and kneeling beside the man.
The heavily armored form of an AESF drop trooper landed beside them, firing her machine gun at the rapidly oncoming Ori forces. "He's dead, goddamn it! Get them the fuck out of here!"
Another two ODSTs dropped down as the Marine force began to retreat. Ahead of them, the first 155mm shells began to land, halting the Ori advance- at least temporarily.
SFB Cheyenne Mountain
"Is it really that bad, sir?" Colonel Reynolds asked his commanding officer as the broadcast ended.
General O'Neill shook his head. "No. It's worse."
"How can it be worse?" Reynolds asked.
"Fifty kilometres. Fifty kilometres between the Ori and the 'gate. They've already taken key positions in the city and publicly executed thousands of people. The Free Jaffa- the 'never give up, I die free' Free Jaffa- are now evacuating the planet. They're fortifying Dakara- Bra'tac told me that they think it's going to be their last stand."
"What about our troops? I don't mean to marginalize the-"
O'Neill held up a hand. "I know, Albert, I know. The Marines are dropping like flies. They aren't trained for this, equipped for this- fuck. Hundreds of casualties. That fire mission was the last one- we're pulling out the Paladins."
"Where the hell are they coming from, sir?"
"Hell if I know! Maybe they're cloning them aboard those motherships, maybe they've got a gate, maybe they're sending in supply ships."
Colonel Reynolds leaned back in his chair. "General- Jack, this doesn't make any fucking sense. The Ori have complete space supremacy and damn near control of the skies, too. They could wipe our forces out in a couple of seconds flat. Why waste so many men and so much equipment."
The General paused for a moment, his finger tracing circles on the table. "Terror. They're not fighting a war of destruction. They're fighting a war of terror. They're not trying to wipe us out. They're trying to get us to convert."
"Jesus Christ," Reynolds breathed.
"The Ori want more followers, that's why they're going on this space-Jihad. Blasting our guys to pieces from orbit would only piss us off. Killing a couple thousand Marines in front of civilians, or a couple thousand civilians in front of Marines, they're trying to put the fear of God into us. Break down our will to fight. And while they're at it, suck up our resources too."
"Fuck. And the other planets, sir?"
"Hebridan doesn't have much of a military, and they're being hit hard. We've deployed there- from what I've heard, it's one hundred percent hellish fighting in the streets of the future. Langara's giving them a hell of a fight, and yes, the Kelownans have dropped the bomb. So have the Rand and the Caledonians. At this point, it's their only option."
"Hebridan- that's where we're headed, right?"
General O'Neill nodded. "Yep, if they ever approve the mission. I guess they want to see how the Pegasus Project goes first."
Atlantis
One by one, the four current members of SG-1 came through the stargate, their strides confident and powerful. Behind them were several crates of supplies- no sense wasting the power-consuming activation- but it was the flagship team that the party in the gateroom greeted.
Colonel Carter didn't salute Weir- she had made her preference clearly known the last time they had met. Still, she came to attention. "Ma'am."
She nodded politely before motioning them to follow. "Welcome to Atlantis, SG-1. Usually there would be more formalities, but the current situation dictates otherwise. I understand you're hoping to find an anti-Ori weapon, or at least some clues, here."
"That's right," Daniel replied. "I found a reference to the city in Vegonbrei's archives. And now that there are real living Ancients here, we can go right to the source."
"Captain Helia and her crew left before Merlin and Morgan Le Fay did," she cautioned. Seeing the dour look on Daniel's face, she added, "Of course, they still might have something to offer."
Along with the familiar faces of Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan and Dr. Rodney McKay, there were three unfamiliar faces at the conference table. One was a light-haired woman with a brown-trimmed green uniform. Daniel immediately recognized her from the files as Sora Tyrus of the Genii. The second he could tell was a traveller, but the dark-haired woman wasn't familiar to him. The last person caused the breath to hitch in his throat for just a moment, even though he was already prepared. An Ancient.
"Colonel Carter, Doctor Jackson, Vala, Teal'c. This is Sora of the Genii and Katana Labrea of the Travelers." Weir introduced before sitting down. "And this is Luthan of the Lanteans."
"It's an honour to meet you," Daniel greeted, offering him a slight bow.
"Please, the pleasure is all mine," Luthan replied with a smile. "I never thought I would meet the humans of Earth in person, not after you had advanced so far. I do admit I would have preferred less desperate circumstance."
"I think we all would," Weir agreed. "Colonel Carter?"
The Colonel slipped a small device into the holoprojector in the middle of the table, and it immediately lit up with a map of the Milky Way galaxy. "Since the initial Ori invasion, the Supergate has activated only once again. Currently, there are somewhere between six and thirteen Ori motherships active in the Milky Way, along with their escorts. That's already more than we can handle. As you may know, we put our best minds to work, and this is what we came up with."
The view switched to a close-up diagram of the Supergate. "Our initial thought, and this is what we tried just before the invasion, was to simply dial out before the Ori could dial in. We thought we had a control crystal programmed correctly, and we thought we knew where to install it. It didn't work.
"It turns out the Ori supergate controller uses a complex error-correcting and hash signing algorithm to ensure that nobody could do what we tried to do. We still don't know exactly how it works, and brute-forcing the encryption would take our computers millions of years to complete even if we did."
"Actually, only thousands, with my improved algorithm," Rodney McKay interrupted smugly.
"That would still be far too long. Instead of trying to dial out, why not just dial in?" Sheppard asked, emphasizing with hand motions.
"I'm sure they would have tried that," Rodney countered. "Even without any sort of protection, there's no way it would work. It's exponentially proportional to size, which means the energy required to create a connection with a Supergate would far exceed that of an ordinary gate. It'd be like putting together a Saint Bernard and a Chihuahua."
"And the problem with that would be?" Vala asked, completely missing the reference. Teyla, Sora, and Katana looked equally confused. Luthan smiled, amused at the bickering of the humans.
"Oh, I see. You're, um, mocking me, aren't you?" Rodney spat back.
"What? Um, no, I'm not from Earth. I honestly didn't get the reference."
"Actually, Colonel Sheppard isn't far off," Carter explained, eager to redirect the discussion. "We are introducing another Stargate into the equation."
The hologram zoomed out, revealing a second, standard stargate beside the Supergate. "If we can make a connection between that gate and one from the Pegasus galaxy-"
"Aha. Knew it. You're going to make a jump." Seeing the glares from half the other people in the room, Rodney defended, "Don't shoot me, you know I can't help myself!"
"We've done it before," Carter continued. "Stargate Command inadvertently dialed the gate address of a planet that was on a collision course with a black hole, P3W-451. The only way to disconnect before Cheyenne Mountain got swallowed up was to set off a shaped charge right at the event horizon."
"Oh, no, that is a whole different ballgame," Rodney interjected. "Hello? We're talking about jumping a normal-sized, plain vanilla stargate to an Ori Supergate. That is nowhere near the same-"
"I know, McKay."
"And you'll need a sufficiently large nuclear device, and- and a dialling crystal capable of intergalactic dialling, and if you want to keep it open for longer than-"
"A black hole," Carter cut off, exasperated. "I know, McKay. We've planned this thoroughly. We're as ready as we'll ever be."
"I am just saying, the yield calculations can be extremely tricky, if not borderline impossible," Rodney defended. He added smugly. "You may need me."
"John, do you think you could spare Rodney from your team?" Weir asked the Colonel.
Sheppard waved her off. "Hell, you can keep him."
"Colonels, General," Luthan interrupted. "If I may, I would like to join this mission."
"For what reason, Luthan?" Weir asked politely.
"Call it intellectual curiosity."
"All right. I was under the impression that you were going to assist Doctor Jackson with his search of Atlantis' databanks."
Luthan shook his head. "I was, yes, but this is far more interesting considering my field of study. Linna will doubtfully be far more helpful in any case. If I express how important this mission is to the war, I'm sure Helia will release her as well."
"All right," Weir agreed, standing up. "Make it happen."
Linna turned out to be a tall, slim woman with a more than slightly condescending attitude towards humans. Daniel was sure it wasn't intentional- Linna had apologized and explained that she hadn't had much contact with humans.
"I liked the other one better," Vala whispered, summing up Daniel's feelings in one short phrase. He sharply nodded agreement.
"I did run the search you asked for- Castiana and Sahal," Linna told them. "I checked the Atlantis database, the... Aquarius database, and the Tria's database. There were no matches, as expected."
"Did you get the spelling right?" Vala asked.
"Vala, it's not that simple-"
"Of course. I'm the ship's historian, I'm well aware of the concept of linguistic drift. After this much time, with different influences, there may be none of the root word left. You didn't really expect any references in the database, did you?"
"No, but I figured it was at least worth a shot," Daniel replied. "Still, we know there's something within the Atlantis library."
"Then let us start by consulting an old friend." Linna lead Vala and Daniel down the staircase, away from the gateroom and toward what Daniel vaguely remembered was one of Atlantis' holorooms.
They stepped inside the mostly circular room, and Linna brought up a hologram of another Ancient using a control pedestal in the middle of the room. "Hello. You may enter your query verbally, or by entering it manually on the console before you."
"This is a learning program used to teach our children the Lantean systems. It consumes power, and she is a bit... patronizing, but it may be the best option for a first-time user."
"Uh, thank you?" Vala said rudely. Daniel glared at her.
He faced the hologram. "Uh, I'll speak, if that's all right."
"Of course. But note for future sessions, manual input is required for most system interaction."
"I think I had her in Grade 5," Daniel wryly noted. Linna shot him a funny look. He turned his attention back to the hologram. "All right, could you display a map of the Avalon galaxy?"
"Certainly." A shimmering, slowly rotating field of stars appeared above them. Linna pinched the bridge of her nose and began pacing impatiently.
Daniel traced the patterns. "Okay, that's Earth... and that is Taonas."
"Praclarush Taonas was one of the earliest Lantian cities," the hologram recited. "It was abandoned when the inhabitants learned their sun was nearing the end of its life-"
"Yes, thank you, I know. I've been there," the archaeologist replied wryly. "Okay, um, show me the order in which the earliest Ancient cities were founded."
"How is that useful?" Vala asked impatiently. "You going to join up all the dots and draw a pretty picture?"
"I'm afraid I have to agree with Vala," Linna added. "What you are doing will bring us nowhere closer to our goal."
"I'm just getting my bearings," Daniel defended. "In all honesty, this could take a while."
Feigning excitement, Vala cheered, "The way you approach things, it could take the rest of our lives!"
"Sorry, but we're not going to find the location of this thing by looking under 'W' for 'Weapon'!"
"'P' for 'Planet,' then? I'm just saying, ask the question!" Vala insisted.
"There is absolutely no way that what you are suggesting would work-" Linna retorted.
"It would take all of eleven seconds!"
Daniel sighed in frustration, gripping the pedestal with a white-knuckled grip. "Hello. We're looking for the names of two planets, known on Earth in ancient times in the dialect of Old English as Castiana and Sahal."
"Satisfied?" he asked the former space pirate. Before either of them could say anything more, the hologram spoke up.
"Taoth Vaclarush and Valos Cor." A pair of planets were highlighted, and their addresses displayed next to them.
"Now, I am satisfied."
Behind them, Linna managed to close her jaw and partially regain her composure. "How did that happen? There is no remnant of either word left... I- the Atlantis computer can translate in real time- but- no- it can't compensate for 8000 years of linguistic drift like that!"
Vala raised her hands. "Okay, well, she gave us the names of the planets. She even gave us the addresses, which means we could be out there somewhere overlooking Atlantis, toasting with exotic beverages!"
Daniel slowly shook his head. "No, Linna's right. It shouldn't have worked. There's something else going on."
"Of course there's something else going on. The program won't work like that- can't work like that- doesn't work like that! I've seen the source code."
"Any ideas?"
There was a pregnant pause. "No."
He turned back to the hologram. "Is there an archival visual record of the Lantean citizens who fled to Earth?"
"There is," the hologram replied.
"Display them for me. One at a time."
AES Daedalus
"Gate telemetry checks out," Carter announced. "Stabilizing thrusters are on line, and power is well into the green. We're good to go."
"Where is Rodney McKay?" Teal'c asked.
"I'm here!" the scientist announced animatedly. "One of your crew wouldn't let me finish my sandwich in the corridor."
"I apologize sincerely," Takahashi said. The rest of the bridge crew stifled their laughter at the obvious sarcasm that passed right over the scientist's head.
Muttering something about 'Japanese honour', he manipulated the controls in his tablet. "Okay, yeah, looks like we're good to go. Have you, uh, dialled the gate?"
"I've already sent the remote dial command," Carter told him. "It's just going to take a while because of time dilation."
Rodney checked his watch, and counted exactly 5.47 seconds before the stargate activated. "Ah, just in time."
Colonel Carter keyed the comm system. "Tango Mike One, this is Daedalus, do you read, over?"
"This is Tango Mike One-Actual. Reading you loud and clear, Sam," the familiar voice of Jacob Carter replied after a short delay. "The secondary gate is in position and we have seen no sign, repeat no sign of Ori activity. We are currently holding position at a safe distance from the gate and are ready to begin monitoring from this end, out."
"Okay, prepare to deploy the first device," Rodney ordered. He glared at Carter. "And let's just hope that extra five percent doesn't obliterate the stargate."
Luthan watched the exchange with interest. He had come to observe the physics and engineering aspects of the endeavour, but found himself captivated by their social interaction more than anything. The stark contrast between cold military procedure and animated exclamation both excited and frightened him.
"Tango Mike One, prepare for detonation flash," Carter told her father on the other end.
"All stations, prepare for detonation flash!" Takahashi ordered. In a split second, the viewing window on the bridge darkened, and just in case, the crew turned their backs to the window.
"Deploy the device," Carter ordered. On her command, a small nuclear warhead appeared in front of the stargate. Seconds later, a massively intense pulse of light and hard radiation struck their sensors, blinding their sensors. Nearly half a minute later, it dissipated enough for them to resume communications.
"-like it didn't work, Sam," came a crackly reply. "Repeat, negative on the diversion. The secondary gate is still active, over."
Carter shook her head. "Okay, let's try again. Two nukes this time."
"That was, uh, my idea, by the way," McKay interjected, though nobody was listening. "See, if we increase the duration, we hopefully won't- nevermind. Just get on with it."
"All right, we're going to try again with two nukes this time," Sam told her father. "Make sure you keep a good safe distance. There's a chance we could vaporize both gates if we get this wrong."
"It's like five percent, maybe seven-" Rodney began, but was cut off.
"It is wise to be careful," Luthan interrupted. "When we experimented with the Astria Porta, we found them unpredictable. Some were destroyed more easily than others and with much more dramatic consequences."
"Great. So we have quality control issues too," Rodney muttered.
"Coordinates are set. Beaming the warheads in five, four, three, two, one, mark."
There was another colossal flash, this one longer than the first, and it took almost twice as long for communications to come back up.
"Still no dice," Jacob's voice told them. "Repeat, the secondary gate is still connected. However, there was a transfer of energy between the- wait. Damn it, I'm picking up an Ori ship heading toward us. Look, if you're going to do something, do it fast, because they're going to be here within minutes."
Atlantis
"Doctor Weir, you need to see this," Zelenka told her as soon as she stepped into the control room, practically dragging her over to the sensor readout. "We've detected a hive-ship on long-range sensors-"
"Are they headed toward us?"
"No, the Daedalus. They're headed toward the black hole-"
Elizabeth was already moving. "Can you send a message to the Daedalus?"
"No, the black hole is interfering with our communications," the technician informed her. "However, Stargate Command might be able to relay a message through the Tok'ra."
"Do it. Dial the gate and send this message: Have detected Wraith ship approaching Daedalus coordinates in Pegasus." Cannot relay warning directly because of interference. Advise Daedalus commander of danger upon receipt of this message."
Linna tried to keep her emotions under control as she watched the people- her people- shimmered by. Some of them she knew well. Adalyx, who lost two sons to the Wraith. Didthura, who would constantly repeat that it was their fault the Wraith were a problem and their fault they were losing. Trebal, bitter at becoming the Aurora's first officer after her prospective command was destroyed in port.
She crumpled to the floor, the voices of Daniel and Vala seemingly lightyears away. Those were her people. Now, the holograms were all that was left. Some of them might have ascended, but they were gone. Her people were gone. The Ancients were no longer, no matter how much they wished to bring back their past glory. They were living on a damaged copy of a city-ship, for all intents and purposes standing underneath humanity. It was the humans taking on the responsibility of protecting the galaxy.
"I take that back - we know him!" Vala nearly shouted.
The hologram of Ganos Lal shimmered into existence and stepped out beside the still hologram of the bald man. "Moros was the last High Councillor of Atlantis."
Vala tried the name. "Moros. Well, apart from the funny hat, he's the spitting image of Merlin, isn't he?"
"See, in Arthur's time, that was Myrrdin," Daniel explained. "You see how a word can change over the centuries."
"I know where you're going," Vala theorized. "You think the Merlin or Myrrdin or whatever his name was, came back to Atlantis at some stage and hid these names here as clues for us to find."
"No."
"No?"
"The first human to set foot within the city after it was abandoned was Doctor Elizabeth Weir, leader of the current Atlantis expedition," the hologram told them helpfully.
"Are you sure of that?" Vala asked.
"Evidence of his presence would have been recorded."
Vala slapped Daniel on the arm. Happily, she exclaimed, "Well, darling, I guess that's it! We'll have to leave here with exactly that which we came here for."
"No, I already knew Merlin was in the archive. I was looking for someone else," Daniel replied absentmindedly. He turned back to the hologram.
"You chose your words very carefully when you said 'the first human to set foot in the city.' What about Ascended Being?" The 'hologram' hesitated, and he pressed further. "You're not really a hologram, are you?"
She turned to lock eyes with Daniel. "You have your answer, Daniel Jackson. I suggest you act on it."
Then she fizzled away, leaving the two humans and one Ancient alone in the room.
AES Daedalus
"Sir, detecting a Wraith hive-ship, closing, bearing one-eight-one zero-four-zero, closing fast!"
"Shields to maximum!" Takahashi ordered. "Sound battle stations!"
"Sir, shields are only operating at twenty percent efficiency due to the black hole."
"Move us away-" The starship shuddered as a Wraith energy bolt struck its shields. "All ahead flank. Get us away!"
"No, you know what, we need to do the opposite!" Carter told them.
"What?" McKay stammered.
She turned to him. "Against a gravity well this strong, they've literally got the higher ground. But if we can get them to follow us closer to the black holeā¦"
"Then their systems will be affected the same way as ours, including their jamming technology."
"Which means we should be able to beam the warheads directly aboard their ship," Carter finished. She turned back to the commander. "We'll have to slingshot around. Hopefully, they'll chase us and we'll be able to beam the nukes aboard as they pass the stargate."
"Do it," the commander ordered without hesitation. "Full power."
As they increased velocity, streaking toward the event horizon of the black hole, she activated the comm system. "Dad, it's Sam. We're about to try something that will probably vaporize the Stargate at both ends. You've got exactly twenty seconds to get your hyperdrive on line and get out of there."
"Picking up the Wraith ship, it's really chasing us!" McKay nearly shouted. "Okay, okay- Wraith ship's in position! Beam the warheads! Go!"
"Beaming warheads now!" Seconds later, a pair of nuclear detonations obliterated the behemoth from the inside out, the massive gravity-distorted explosion completely engulfing the still-active stargate.
Tok'ra Tel'tak
Jacob watched through the darkened windscreen as the energy from the detonation streamed through the secondary gate, the stream impacting on the shields of the Ori ship cruising above the Supergate. The Supergate itself crackled with energy as the wormhole began its jump, quickly activating and forming its massive event horizon.
The Ori battleship was still directly over the centre of the Supergate when it activated. Its immensely strong shields did nothing against the destructive force of the unstable vortex. Within seconds, the aft end of the ship was completely vaporized. The front half continued on its momentum before secondary explosions from failing systems began tearing it apart, the leviathan quickly consumed by the extremely powerful reactor that once provided the means for its protection.
"Daedalus, this is Tango Mike One," Jacob stated as calm as he could. "Uh, whatever you did, it worked. The jump was successful and the Supergate is now active, over."
The excited voice of Rodney McKay came over the radio. "Wait, what? Are you serious?"
"Not just that. We kept the stargate cloaked as long as we could and lured the Ori ship in front of the event horizon. I am happy to report that one Ori battleship is now permanently out of commission thanks to the unstable vortex."
"You mean we just blew up an Ori ship-" Sam began.
"-by destroying a Wraith ship!" Rodney finished.
"Yeah, we did. I think it's fair to say we've done pretty damn good today."
