Chapter 10
Stargate Command, Earth, 8th March 2003
It was the early hours of the morning in Colorado Springs. One would've expected Colonel Jack O'Neill to be fast asleep in his private room in the SGC's infirmary, but he wasn't. In fact, sleep was very far from his mind at the moment. Sleep for Jack O'Neill brought nightmares of death and torture at the hands of Ba'al, and sarcophagus addiction was driving him crazy, which made the nightmares worse still.
Jack did have help, though. The most direct help came in the form of Dr. Janet Frasier, who was doing her damnedest to get the colonel through the lows in which he currently found himself. Jack swore to himself that he'd never complain about the petite doctor ever again, she'd foregone sleep and even meals to help Jack, until he'd insisted that she was starting to look worse than he felt, and that she ought to go home and sleep. She'd smiled very sweetly at him, and Jack remembered the exchange fondly.
"Well, Colonel, I know you must be getting better, you can't even make acidic quips at me any more," she had said, causing Jack to be filled with burning guilt.
"Doc, I'm being selfish here," he said. "If you burn out, I'll be stuck in here for even longer, because I sure as hell won't let McKenzie near me!"
The doctor had eventually seen it Jack's way, and had gone to her quarters to get some much-needed rest, leaving Jack alone for the first time since his return to Earth.
Jack was dazing, not really wanting to fully fall asleep. Instead, he lay there imagining the ways in which he was going to kill Ba'al, each more unpleasant, slow and painful than the last. He was imagining the System Lord being sealed in a sarcophagus along with some of that burning acid. He grinned inwardly as he pictured the scene.
Jack was thinking that the effect would be much greater if the sarcophagus had a transparent lid when his musings were interrupted by a new voice, the voice of the being who had helped him retain the trappings of sanity during his time with Ba'al.
"Hey, Jack," Daniel said, materialising in the seat across from Jack's bed, the same seat that Frasier had briefly fallen asleep in that afternoon. "How are you doing?" the ascended archaeologist asked gently.
"Well, I haven't got an ancient disease, I haven't got a snake in my head and most importantly of all, I haven't got a System Lord getting his stress relief by killing me every afternoon after he comes back from the office," Jack said. "I'd say I'm peachy,"
"I'm glad to hear that, Jack, really glad. I was so close to breaking you out of there myself. It was killing me-" Jack glared at him, unimpressed, "Sorry. There was nothing else I wanted to do more than bust you out," he said.
"But that would be against the rules on board your particular plane of existence, I get it," Jack said. He could see a deep sadness on his friend's face.
"Do you even like being ascended?" he asked seriously.
"The novelty's starting to wear off. The rules here are, are, so complex and Byzantine that you can't even relax for a second. I'm on a very short leash with the others now, even after what I did do to help you, and to be honest, Jack, it's starting to grate," he said, showing a bit of the Daniel Jackson spark that Jack knew so well.
"I'll bet," Jack said, knowing full well that Daniel's strong ethics would be clashing strongly with the completely alien culture in which he now lived.
Their conversation continued through to dawn-time. Daniel had left with a small smile, having been cheered up by Jack's wit. Before he had left, he had told Jack that:
"Things have changed around the SGC, there'll be one change in particular that you must deal with,"
0800 came, and Jack was pondering Daniel's words of wisdom when there was a knock at the door. Thinking that it would be Frasier or even Carter, he called the visitor in cheerily, but the visitor was not one he was expecting, not yet.
General Hammond entered the room softly, enquiring as to Jack's state of being. The General allowed himself a brief grin when Jack gave him the same answer that he had given Daniel, then settled down to business, explaining the events that had transpired while Jack had been away.
George was most surprised when the Colonel did not object strongly to the British involvement in the SGC. In fact, the man seemed pleased by the news. Hammond dimly recalled from Jack's file that the Colonel had been involved with several highly successful joint covert operations with the SAS in Iraq and Somalia. No doubt these experiences had made the man more amenable to the British than say, the Russians, Hammond thought.
There was one final piece of news that Hammond had to deliver, and it was potentially the most controversial; the news that SG-1 had gained a new member. George took a deep breath, choosing his words carefully.
"Colonel, there is one more thing I need to discuss with you," he started, cautiously...
--
Diego Garcia, Indian Ocean, Earth
Major Carter and Jonas were aboard the MV Phillips, which was sailing through the gathering dusk towards the site that had been prepared by US and British military engineers for the Mjolnir. A combination of Tok'ra tunnelling crystals and old-fashioned explosives had been used to carve a large hole in the shallowest part of the lagoon. Carter was impressed with the audacity of the plan, which was to land the Mjolnir in the lagoon, so that it was completely covered by water. The plan was then for the ship to be enclosed by the extremely odd structure now looming ahead of their small merchant vessel. To Carter's eye, it seemed to be a cross between an oil drilling platform, a glass dome, a caisson and something out of a sci-fi movie. Carter had no idea how the structure had been built in such a short time, but the concept was ingenious.
The 800 metre wide, 150 metre tall dome was to be sunk over the Mjolnir after it had submerged itself. Then, the water would be evacuated via an array of high-volume water pumps, eventually leaving the Mjolnir in a dry, steel-framed enclosure with a base-station floating above it, providing access and necessities such as an air supply.
The complicating factor to the design was that the Mjolnir could be required to launch at any time. To this end, each of the glass panels and steel supporting rods was laced with naquadah-enhanced explosive cord, sufficient to break the dome and allow the ship to leave. It was a secret base worthy of a Bond supervillain, Carter thought.
If Carter was impressed, then Jonas was goggling openly at the huge temporary structure. Kelowna's largest building was the sprawling governmental compound in which he used to work, and it was not that much larger than this huge dome.
Jonas realised that because of the secrecy concerns, Earth was going about fighting the Goa'uld in a very half-hearted way. If they could apply the full industrial base of the planet to the task, if the industrial base that could produce something like that dome was maximised, then the Goa'uld could be history within a very short space of time.
By this time, the Phillips had come alongside the barge that was acting as the control centre for the operation. Jonas, Sam and several engineers in hard hats disembarked from the merchant ship. The two SG-1 members ascended the steps to the control centre, arriving to see a surprisingly calm scene. There were several people sat around a bank of computer screens, which were displaying telemetry from the hundreds of pressure, stress and temperature sensors embedded in the dome's structure and in the hardened surface that the ship was going to land on.
Another group of people, mostly USAF personnel, was attending to the sensor and navigational beacon systems that would track the Mjolnir as it made it's descent.
The final group, which appeared to consist of engineers from the US and UK, was undergoing a final briefing from two officers, one from the US Army Corps of Engineers and the other from the Royal Navy. After the group had dispersed, Sam walked over and introduced herself.
"Major Samantha Carter, US Air Force," she said, saluting the more senior Royal Navy officer.
"Ah, Major, good to see you. My name is Commander Bond, this is my island, and unless I'm mistaken, this is all your fault," he said good-naturedly. "You must be Jonas Quinn," he said, shaking Jonas' hand, "Allow me to introduce Captain Williams," he said, indicating the US Army officer. "Captain Williams will be coordinating the deployment of the dome enclosure once your chaps have landed the very large alien spaceship in my back yard. I believe that they're ready to begin," he said, handing the two SGC personnel radio earpieces, so they could listen in on the action. He nodded to them, then moved to the centre of the room. He clicked his radio on so that everyone, both at the landing site and on the bridge of the Mjolnir, could hear him.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now ready. On my mark, we shall be commencing the operation in sixty seconds," he paused, looking at the wall clock, "mark," he said authoritatively.
--
High Earth Orbit
Colonel Emerson acknowledged the transmission from Bond. He turned to Lieutenants Marks and Gant, who were going to be flying the vessel during the difficult manoeuvre.
"Marks, Gant, prepare for the first burn," he ordered. The Mjolnir was going to fire it's engines in conjunction with the repulsors. The aim was to bring the ship to a stop directly above Diego Garcia, with the ship being supported by it's repulsors. Then the descent proper could begin. It would be the most time consuming element, as the ship had to cover the tens of thousands of kilometres between itself and the top of the atmosphere. Then the fun would really begin. Emerson looked at the clock.
Fifteen seconds.
Ten seconds.
Emerson watched as the seconds ticked down. He could see Marks beginning to sweat slightly from the anticipation.
Five seconds.
Emerson started giving orders to the bridge crew as the clock ticked downwards. When it reached zero, he gave one last simple order.
"Execute," he said.
On the outside of the ship, several hundred thrusters started firing, working furiously to scrub away the speed of the ship. This would have caused a 'primitive' craft such as the Space Shuttle to simply fall out of orbit, but the repulsor systems of the Mjolnir meant that no altitude was lost.
On the bridge, Emerson was primarily concerned with one display, that of the point on the Earth's surface that was directly beneath them. Currently they were about 100 miles out from Diego Garcia but they were closing steadily.
Another few minutes, and Marks reported success. They were now ready to begin the second phase. Emerson signalled Diego Garcia.
"Commander Bond, we are on station. Our altitude is forty-five thousand klicks. Ready to begin descent phase on your command," he reported in the clipped tones of an aviator.
"Thank you Colonel, our tracking systems concur. Engineering teams are ready for you. You have clearance for the descent phase, Colonel Emerson. Bond out," the commander of Diego Garcia replied smoothly. Emerson nodded to Marks, and the Lieutenant cut power to the repulsor systems, allowing the Earth's gravity to reach out and draw the massive vessel downwards.
The strength of Earth's gravity at 45,000km is relatively weak, so Marks fired the dorsal thrusters for thirty seconds to kick-start the process. All eyes were now glued to two screens. The first showed a set of cross-hairs on an image of the Earth, which were currently exactly lined up on the GPS coordinate of Diego Garcia. The second was a readout showing altitude, acceleration and velocity. The velocity and acceleration were currently fairly low, but they would only increase as the altitude decreased and the grip of Earth's gravity became ever stronger.
--
Stargate Command, Earth
General Hammond was in his office. His chat with Colonel O'Neill had gone surprisingly well. Jack hadn't complained much, and hadn't even threatened to shoot anybody over the appointment of Sergeant McKenzie, even when he heard about the SAS man being the sharpest shot on SG-1. The colonel was not, however, overjoyed by the arrangement, and George could tell that the likeable young SAS man was not going to be in for an easy ride.
George looked at his watch. Time to send SG-3, 6 and 8 on their latest mission, a mission to conduct a surgical strike against one of Anubis's shipyards. The mission was to be conducted alongside Rak'nor and a group of his Jaffa, and the SG teams were going to attack disguised as Jaffa, in the hope of fuelling the fires of the war between the System Lords.
They were originally going to mark themselves as being servants of Bastet, but Hammond had vetoed that idea. He had suggested that they pick a different System Lord to impersonate. When he had put forward his alternative candidate, all of the men had agreed heartily.
Hammond started making his way down to the control room as the gate started dialling out. Ba'al was sure going to get a surprise at the next System Lord meeting, the Texan thought gleefully.
--
Alpha Site
The training exercises at the Alpha Site had finished earlier that day, and Teal'c and James were scheduled to return to Earth later that night. The two members of SG-1 were passing their time very productively. Teal'c had invited McKenzie to spar that afternoon, and was going through the motions of Jaffa melee combat skills with the Brit, and while James wouldn't admit it, he was knackered. His hand-to-hand training in the Parachute Regiment and then the SAS hadn't come anywhere close to this, but he was savouring the challenge, even though he was fully aware that Teal'c was going easy on him with the wooden quarterstaffs.
Teal'c had commented that James had excellent mental discipline and that he was a quick learner, both attributes vital for hand-to-hand fighting.
Indeed, by the late afternoon, James was forcing Teal'c to raise his game, catching the Jaffa off guard several times in their last session.
As Teal'c helped him to his feet, James reflected that at least he would soon be able to beat off any number of drunken attackers when he was on the lash with his mates back in Hereford.
--
Ha'tak Vessel Mjolnir
Emerson and the bridge crew of the Mjolnir had not relaxed through the whole 44,500km of their journey so far. Now approached the tricky part, the atmospheric entry. Normally, an eight hundred metre wide object entering the atmosphere at night would light up the sky over most of India, east Africa and Madagascar. Fortunately, the repulsor systems of the Mjolnir would be very handy in avoiding such a public display.
Once the ship was approaching the top of the atmosphere, Emerson gave the order to re-engage the repulsor systems. To an observer travelling down alongside, it would've appeared that the ha'tak had stopped dead, but the repulsors had slowed it's descent from a speed of hundreds of kilometres per second to just a few thousand kilometres per hour, enough to avert most of the heating that would occur due to friction as the ship passed through the ever-thickening atmosphere. As the ship passed serenely down through the stratosphere, it decelerated even more, down to only a few hundred kilometres per hour. Marks and Gant were very busy with the controls all the way down acting on information from the ship's sensors and guidance from their counterparts at the control centre on Diego Garcia, trying to hold the massive vessel on course for the tiny atoll in the Indian Ocean.
--
Command Centre, Diego Garcia
Major Carter watched the sensor displays showing the Mjolnir descending rapidly past 30,000 feet. Air traffic wouldn't be a problem, as agents from the CIA and SIS had 'persuaded' the few airlines who would be flying over the western Indian Ocean that night to find minor technical faults with their aircraft. These faults were very minor, but required that the flights be delayed until morning, when they would all be fixed.
The Mjolnir was passing 25,000 feet by now, and the activity in the small control room stepped up a gear. Commander Bond (Carter had discovered that his first name was actually James, much to his chagrin) stepped outside and made a large waving gesture to the engineers on the barge. Several seconds later, the landing patch of the Mjolnir was flooded in brilliant white light from dozens of high-intensity lights. Indicator beacons placed out to the north, south, east and west activated, giving the Mjolnir a radio bullseye to aim for. The ship was now very close.
Carter stepped out onto the balcony with Commander Bond and looked upwards to see a small smudge in the sky that was growing almost impossibly quickly. It resolved itself into a triangular shape, and the details of the ship were becoming evident. Carter could feel the balcony start to vibrate, the oscillations rapidly increasing in frequency and amplitude, almost threatening to shake the place apart. The ship had roared down through a wispy cloud and screeched to a standstill about fifty feet above the rippling, floodlit water of Diego Garcia. The air filled with the menacing echoing sound of the ha'tak's repulsor engines. Under the floodlights, engineers scrambled to their positions like ants in a nest, ready to monitor the massive ship as it made it's final descent into the space that had been cleared in the lagoon bed. This was the tensest part of the operation, as there were only a few tens of metres of clearance for the ship in the lagoon.
On the bridge, Marks and Gant took a few moments to compose themselves. Now they would be changing their roles slightly. Marks would control their rate of descent, while Gant would be controlling the rotation and level of the ship, with Gant in command.
Having gained clearance to proceed, Gant ordered Marks to start taking the ship down at two feet per second. Keeping the ship level, she ordered the rate cut to zero after twenty seconds. They were now ten feet above the now gently thrumming water. She ordered Marks to take it down again, this time at half a foot per second. Almost imperceptibly slowly, the ship eased down towards the water below.
The control room was now providing much of the guidance for Gant. The ship was very slowly inching down towards the water. It took an additional twenty seconds for the lowest part of the tetrahedral main hull to strike the water. The moment of impact was surprisingly undramatic, as the ship was only covering six inches per second. A gentle splashing noise echoed around the lagoon. Carter had to hand it to Marks and Gant, they were doing a sterling job under the conditions.
She watched as the massive ship gently lowered itself into the water. With her trained pilot's eye, she catalogued the hundreds of tiny adjustments in descent rate, yaw, pitch and roll.
Soon, the lower parts of the superstructure were striking the surface of the water. Jonas stepped outside from the hushed atmosphere inside. Flashing his signature grin, Jonas joined Carter, and the pair settled down to watch the vessel complete it's submergence inch by inch, foot by foot, metre by metre.
--
It took another hour or so under the bright floodlights, but eventually the engineers watching the landing pad sensors reported that the ship's full weight was settled on the concrete pad. Commander Bond then received confirmation from Emerson that the ship was settled and that he had powered down all non-critical systems, which in the ships' current situation meant everything but life support.
The next part of the plan could now move ahead. One of the Al'kesh recovered from the Mjolnir was hovering overhead, ring-transporting the twenty or so people on board off. Apart from Emerson, Marks, Gant and the rest of the bridge crew, the only other people on board were Doctor Zelenka and his teams of scientists who had been watching the critical systems like hawks. Now they were all leaving, so the dome engineers could do their work.
--
Apologies for the long wait.
The descent of the Mjolnir was quite fun to write, hope people like it!
Reviews always appreciated.