Chapter 14
They walked through the Gate and into a darkened place with dim lighting. At first they appeared to be in a large cargo hold with a Gate towards a rear wall. As they walked down the center of the hold lights started to shine from above and illuminate the area.
Jack's clone Jon asked, "We in a ship of some sort?"
June grinned, "Yup!"
Jack stated, "A ship! What kind of ship?"
"Not sure but I think Sophie's mind chose it for a reason." she figured. She looked over at Jon, "Just amazing how you and Colonel O'Neill look so much alike and yet…You don't. I know it's the age difference but I find it fascinating."
"And you are?" he asked as thy walked.
"June," she smiled.
Sam added, "She's my daughter."
Jon did a double take, "You have a daughter? When did that happen? Some alien device that I should know about!"
"No alien devices or anything like that," she assured him. "I was sixteen and I got pregnant after my mother died and I was a mess. She was supposed to have been adopted into a nice loving family but she ended up in foster homes instead." She decided to not go into the child trafficking ring June helped break.
Jack spouted, "June adopted me."
Jon gave him a funny look, "She adopted you?"
"As he dad," he nodded.
"Oh," he rolled his eyes amused. He asked June, "Ever meet your real Dad?"
"He is my 'real' dad." she told him. "I have met my biological father and he's a good guy. I like him. He's a Major in the Air Force."
Sam told her, "Cam would like to spend time with you."
"I would like to see him more," she agreed. They came to the end of the cargo hold and had to manually open the bulkhead door. They found a dark area and stepped inside. The lights online and lit the long hallway. The area appeared pleasing to the eye and less industrial. It was a creamy color with a lit ceiling and shiny white floor. They walked down the hallway passing embedded sliding doors on each side. They arrived to the end of the hallway and elevator that opened automatically. They stepped inside the futuristic styled lift and found a control panel with four alien languages on the face: Asgard, Nox, Ancient and Furling.
Daniel stated, "The panel has all four of the great races on in."
"Weird," Jack agreed.
The elevator came to a halt and the door slid open to reveal a well-lit bridge. It sat empty as if waiting for the crew. The ceiling was filled with lights; the flooring was covered in blue carpet with gold accents. The walls were a cream color with golden trim. The computer displays were all crystal and the seats were of a creamy leather type material.
Jack stepped foot on the bridge and gasped at the luxury of it. "It's like the Enterprise but for rich people."
Walter helped Sophia to a seat. Upon sitting down a light erupted around her. She started to feel better almost immediately.
"The headache is going away," she spoke.
"I can understand you again," Walter assured her. "It must be helping you."
"I think so," she agreed.
Sam and Daniel both started going over the displays as Hank Landry and his daughter stood gasping at it.
Hank noted, "This place looks like it is fit for a king."
"Very elegant," Lam nodded.
"That's because it is," Daniel told him. "The ship's name is the Nimrod. It's made by the four races for what appears to be an unnamed king."
Sam stated, "This is ship has weapons and deep space engines. I'm starting up the engines now."
As Daniel and Sam went over the stations, Jon took a pilot's seat. The chair nearly wrapped around him as he gained control of the helm. "Hey, this cool." he noted.
June looked upon a plaque on the wall that was written in all four languages. She read it off, "A gift to from the four great races to the next king. May your rule be equal and just…" she pondered. "Why would four great races give a gift to unknown king? Unless, the king is another race…The fifth race." she wondered.
Jack heard her pondering and looked at Sam and Daniel, "You don't think the Ancients, the Asgard, the Nox and the Furlings came together and made us a ship and then hid it on Mars."
"Stranger things have happened, Jack." Daniel shrugged.
"The Nimrod's engines are nearly at full power," she reported pleased. "My god, this ship has never been used. It's all brand new. The engines have no time on them." She looked at Jack, "This ship is still new."
Above Jon a 3-D display of the vessel appeared. The vessel was three times longer than the Prometheus and over oval in shape. The display showed cross sections of compartments for crew and hangars with shuttle craft. "This is pretty neat," Jon told them.
As Sophia rested in the chair Sam stated, "The computer is downloading the information in Sophia's head into a data bank. The data bank filing with it. The memory was left blank to be filled by…Us?" she wondered.
Daniel started reading, "This is a lot of information."
"The Nimrod is retrieving and storing the information from Sophia's mind," Sam grinned. "It's saving her and the information."
Sophia admitted, "I do feel better now."
Jack winced at the name, "Can we chance the name? Nimrod just doesn't do much for me."
Daniel smirked, "What would you like to call it? The Enterprise, Jack!"
Jack would have named it the Enterprise had Daniel not mocked him for Daniel knew him well at times. He miffed, "No!" He thought fast after Daniel torpedoed the name. "Acme," he smiled.
"Acme?" asked Daniel unsure why he come up with that name.
"Road Runner," he admitted.
"After a cartoon, Jack?" asked Daniel.
Jon admitted, "We would have picked Enterprise but you poo-pooed that idea."
Sophia suggested, "The Millennium Falcon."
Daniel rolled his head back, "She's as bad as he is."
Sam told them, "We can change the name later. Right now it's the Nimrod."
Jack pouted and muttered, "Hate that name."
Hank took the co-pilot's seat next to Jon as Jack took the commander's chair. Sam took engineering and Daniel was still engrossed in the data banks. June took communications and navigation. She reported, "I'm picking radio traffic from the Prometheus. They had taken heavy damage." She looked at the screens before her, "Anubis is right on top of them. They won't hold."
Jack stated, "Let's go!"
Sam stated, "Engines are ready. We are under the crust of the surface. We should be able to just lift straight up."
Jon took control of the helm. His left hand embedded into a pad on the console before him while his right hand worked a joy stick controller. "This is designed more for us than…aliens…." he then figured the ship really was a gift.
The Nimrod broke the surface of Mars and rose up above the red planet. The display screen on the bridge engaged and the makeshift crew could see outside the vessel as they left the planet and headed towards the Prometheus and the last stand it made. As the Earth made ship was about to take a final blow Jack placed the Nimrod between the Anubis and the smaller ship. The Nimrod was nearly equal in size to Anubis's ship. Suddenly the firing stopped.
Jack opened a hailing channel to Anubis, "Anubis…I will give you three seconds to get your ass out of my orbit or I will blow you to smithereens."
Anubis went silent and didn't reply. His normal gloating was suddenly muffled. Instead, the ship went immediate to hyper-drive leaving the Goa'uld Glider pilots behind.
Jack's shoulder's slunk, "I can't believe he ran so fast. I wanted to try the ship out. Damn…" he miffed.
Sam stated, "Well you did give the option to leave."
"But I didn't think he would take it," he countered.
June mentioned, "You don't become a big, bad Goa'uld by sticking around to fight losing battles."
"True," Jack had to agree.
Daniel blinked, "I just found the address to the city of Atlantis. It's in the Pegasus system. There is just so much in here…" he rubbed the side of his face.
Over the radio Major Mitchell's voice came, "This is Major Mitchell to unknown vessel. Tell me you are SG-1."
June replied, "SG-1 is onboard. Sophia is stable."
"Glad to hear, Jules." he recognized her voice. He had named her Jules on his own. "Where did you find that ship?"
"Mars," she reported. "Sophia led us to it."
"I knew the kid was special," he grinned.
June called out, "Teal'c! Are you in one piece?"
"I am," he proclaimed.
"We are happy to hear that," she told him. "You stayed and fought for Earth when our leaders left. Thank you!"
"I fight with my friends who I have a great honor serving," he replied.
John Sheppard's voice came over the radio as he spoke to Teal'c, "Hey Teal'c. You didn't have to stay and help us. She's right. The leaders all packed their bags and left. It's been my honor serving with you today."
June asked, "You are Major Sheppard?"
"That's right," he grinned gazing upon the large vessel before him. "How did you know that? I didn't use my call sign."
"I recognized your voice from the battle I was listening to earlier," she told him.
"You must have a heck of a memory to be able to do that." he told her for there were so many voices going across the radio waves.
Cam chuckled, "You have no idea, Sheppard. She's my daughter."
"Daughter?" he asked. "She doesn't sound like a kid."
"She's not," he replied. "I was the kid."
"Ah," he understood.
As Mitchell bragged about his biological daughter June looked to Jack who she thought of as her father figure. She gave him a smile and sighed, "I guess he gets bragging rights."
Jack assured her, "So do I! I got adopted."