Disclaimer: The characters of Stargate belong to MGM but the words are mine. The characters of the Four Orders are entirely my own.

The New Dominion

AU/SG1/FO: Sam Carter's life is saved by a mysterious man but no one believes her until she brings him in as a valuable ally. Mystery shrouds him and his intentions. That's when the troubles for the galaxy begin. A new course has been charted.

Chapter 14

Flagship

Samantha had seen many things in her career and in the SGC but nothing really compared to driving a car several hundred meters above ground. How had it come to this? Well, she went on a date with the elusive and mysterious Robert Diablo. He had managed to somehow solidify the air molecules forming a highway in the sky.

They were zooming across the country with great speed but it was not the speed that made it special it was the 'where' and the 'how'. She was having so much fun. She had of course to let go off her scientific mind that still trying to wrap this idea around itself. It was incredible a highway in the heavens. If anyone were to see them he would most certainly think he had lost his mind.

Sam thought of Jack, Daniel, Teal'c and Jonas. They wanted so badly to follow her but once she stepped onto the highway she knew they could follow her no more. In a single hour they had gone so far away that only a supersonic jet could catch them now. But it was incredible to see things from this perspective. It is one thing to be on a plane it is another to be in car at the same height as one has the opportunity to simply slow down, even stop and admire the mastery of the beauty of nature.

And Jason, this crazy alien probe, had such features. She had wondered for some time what this probe could really do. The ability to transform, metaphor into anything was incredible, no it was beyond incredible. It spoke of such advancement she had never seen before, not even the Asgard could achieve that, or the Ancients. And by thus, she wondered what other amazing races are there in the depths of the cosmos. How far have they reached? What had they seen?

And everything came back to the man sitting next to her, the resident mystery – Robert Diablo. The man was an enigma. She and her colleagues thought they had figured him out. He was simply straight forward man and yet he still managed to surprise them. They knew of course that he had powers but they never really asked the question how extensive those powers are. What he can really do? What are his limits and does he have ones at all?

The first time she saw him he came down from the heavens saving her life. The next time she saw him he raised walls of water and she watched mesmerized the dance of the water. It was a display of power, incredible control, and a control she had seen no one ever do or master. She never thought it possible that any man can master and control the elements. She never thought it possible that a human can do that.

And yet there was something that was off. When he came to the base, Janet performed all tests possible and known. The CAT scan showed that he used a quarter of the available brain power of the human mind. Janet and all other specialists agreed that this was impossible. For someone to possess that level of control he must be using all available brain power and yet here he was the impossible man.

Sam thought of the Ancients again. With their level of development they had never reached further than this one man. The last time it happened O'Neill's mind was overrun but his brain power was almost at its maximum and still he did not display such a variety in the power usage. But then again his mind was preoccupied with sustaining the knowledge of the Ancients.

So why then this one man could do so much with only twenty five percent of the brain power? How was that even possible? Their understanding of the work of the mind had advanced much and yet there were many unknowns. And one of these unknowns was standing right beside her.

"Robert, I've been meaning to ask something."

Robert looked at her and shook head. "Always the scientist, hey, Samantha?"

Sam blushed. He saw right through her suggestion again. But it was who she was, a scientist.

"Yeah," She nodded.

"Well then go ahead,"

"Well um…"

"How?" He said.

"Hugh?"

"You want to know how. How I can do certain things that you can't explain." He explained.

"Yeah," Sam replied. "Well, see it from my point of view. We've seen others that can do things but um…"

"Never at this level?" He finished her sentence.

"Yeah, how do you all this? How is it even possible?"

"Well, I'm not a scientist so the exact how I can't tell you that for I don't know. But I suppose I could try to make you understand in a different way."

"Alright, try,"

"Jason, pull over." Robert said and Jason obliged. "Alright, do you swim?"

"Me?"

"Well, I know Jason can. Well, he floats."

"Um, yeah, I can swim. Why? Are we going swimming?"

"No," Robert chuckled. "But we could later."

"Oh!"

"When did you learn to swim?"

"Um…ah…"

"Just answer the question."

"Well, my father thought me and then in the academy."

"Right," Robert said. "Good, do you enjoying biking?"

"You mean a bicycle?"

"Yes,"

"Um, yeah, I can bike."

"How do you know?"

"Well, I learnt when I was younger."

"Right then Samantha, you have your answer."

"Um, what answer?"

"You asked how and I answered."

Sam opened and closed her mouth unsure of Robert's thought pattern. She had trouble following his logic. It was perhaps because she expected something at her level explaining his powers and his answers got her confused. But still – swimming and riding a bike what the hell they had to do with anything.

Robert continued. "Now, Sam, if you were never to bike again or swim, do you think in twenty years you can still do them?"

"What?" She was really confused. "Well, yeah of course," But she still not seeing the connection.

"How?" Robert had reached his fully logic question.

"What?" Sam repeated and then it started to hit her. "Of course," She said. "I can still do it because it has become a muscle memory and whether I do it now or with a twenty years gap it is irrelevant. It is because my body has gotten accustomed to."

"And here you have the answer of how." Robert said. "You see the problem with your ascended Ancients is that they used technology to substitute the process of learning. Even subsequently when they ascended they again used technology to accelerate the normal passing of time thus to achieve ascension in no time at all. And ironically, you can't circumvent nature in certain areas. Learning is an important process. You can't circumvent it and hope for identical results."

"So," Sam said to recap. "You achieved all this because you allowed the normal passage of time to learn?"

"Yes," Robert replied. "Well, you could say I cheated too but not in that area. You can't cheat the process of learning. It doesn't work like that. Let's take O'Neill. When he downloaded the knowledge of the Ancients, the repository, he circumvented the process of learning. He had all the data of the process in his mind. And yes, it did allow him to do certain things but his body could not handle it. It couldn't handle the stress. Why – well because the body did not have the time to learn it gradually."

"So it overloaded?"

"Yes,"

"How did you cheat?" Sam asked intrigued.

"Well, in order to achieve this level of control, a life time isn't enough."

"What is?"

"Several."

"I still don't understand how you cheated."

"I found a way to live longer." Robert replied and with a strange grimace added. "Much longer,"

"Right! How old are you?"

"Very, very old," Robert replied. "I've accumulated experience of…well I have a lot of experience. And this experience has allowed my body to get used to it. It has become a muscle memory. I don't have to focus specifically anymore. It just happens when I wanted it to."

"So essentially, you have evolved over time."

"I suppose yes."

"Hugh, but the Ancients did the same thing."

"No, no, they did not. They used a machine to accelerate time or slow it down depending on the point of view. It is not the same thing. Nature has to take its course and you have to let it happen. You can't rush it."

"Yes but Jack overloaded because he was holding the entire knowledge. It was too much."

"And that's where you are wrong."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, alright, how would he have been able to hold it?"

"How much of the human mind does a normal human use, in general, on average?"

"It is between five and ten percent."

"Right, then O'Neill has another ninety, right?"

"Well, yes, but it is not enough."

"If you are not ready for it then you are right no. But if you are ready that's a whole different story. Let me ask you this if an ascended Ancient takes the repository in his energy state will he be able to hold to it?"

"Um," Sam mumbled and reflected upon the question for it was an interesting one. "Well, I suppose yes."

"Wrong,"

"What? Why?"

"Because you're facing the same problem, not enough place, memory," He replied. "Not to mention, they are not ready. If you allow the normal passage of time, then maybe it could work. But their minds may know how but their bodies don't. It hasn't become a memory therefore it can't be."

"But they are energy!"

"That changes nothing. The principle is the same, Sam, it doesn't matter what form you are in. Repetition is the mother of all knowledge. It is simple enough proverb and truth. The only exception to that rule was your Replicator doppelganger. She had the ability to download the information into the other replicators and the greater their number gets the bigger the chances for more room and thus more knowledge. And still it would take them time to understand the information received for just having information and understanding it are two very different things."

"Of course," Sam said. "But Daniel said that Oma did not erase the knowledge of the Ancients from him."

"And that's true."

"But he still has it."

"But did he have access to it?"

"Well, no,"

"Exactly,"

"That's the thing I don't understand. How can you have it and not at the same time?"

"Well, if he could access it what do you think would happen?"

"He would overload!"

"Why?"

"Well," Sam did not have to reply this time. She finally got it.

"The humans Samantha have untapped potential. We can store information anywhere in us. We can store in our brain but we can also store in our cells. That's how organic computers were born and other places – our subconscious that possess a hundred percent brain power and one other the best of all – imagination. Now we can do that only when we consciously understand how. And for that you need…"

"Time!" Sam replied.

"Good, yes, time," Robert nodded. "Of course, a single human life time is not enough for that process on average. Of course that too is debatable. It depends on many foreseeable and unforeseeable factors most of which we have no control over."

"Which one are you?"

"Oh, well, I'm somewhere in between."

"So, um, imagination?"

Robert chuckled. "Yes, the best of all,"

"How do you store information, in imagination?"

"With a lot of practice,"

"Right,"

"Hey, no one says it is easy."

"So to recap, over time you became this powerful."

"No, over time, I became this knowledgeable. Powerful, well, that's a different story and for another time." Robert replied. "Jason, resume course."

Sam did not quite get the difference between knowledgeable and powerful. But his point of view on the rest had a lot of merit too. Time, they needed time to become more. And it has always been the truth but with the Ancients techs they had tried to circumvent it and it bit them in the bottom. There was more to these super powers that met the eye. Of course she would love to know the exact biological process that allows these powers to exist.

Jason continued on the highway in the sky for quite some time. Sam saw them pass by ships and boats and wondered if all these people had seen them and what they have thought – a car zipping in the sky. It was beyond imagination. It was outright crazy. But they were doing it anyway.

Sometime later, Jason slowed down and then finally stopped. They were above some islands that Sam had to recall on the world map only to find out they did not exist on it. The strange thing was there were no active or inactive volcanos in the area. So how did these form? Diablo seemed to know but she did not think he was inclined to share how.

"Where are we exactly?" Sam decided to ask anyway.

Diablo did not answer. He got out of the car and then jumped down leaving Sam and Jason behind. Sam feared that the sky highway would disappear with him and she and Jason would fall down but nothing of the sort occurred. Sam looked down and as it turned out Diablo was perfectly fine. He had landed without a problem on his feet down on the surface as they were quite high up, at least a kilometer.

"What is he doing down there?"

"I wish I knew!" Jason replied.

"Can't you scan?"

"I have already."

"And?"

"And nothing…"

"What do you mean nothing?"

"Well…nothing,"

"As in there is nothing down there or there is?"

"As in my scans are deflected!"

"Oh! But there is something down there?"

"That much is visible!"

"Can't we go down and find out?"

"I can leave the pathway but I'm not sure I can find it afterwards!"

"Right!" It was indeed a curious dilemma. But Sam's curiosity was highly aroused. She wanted to know. And just as she was deciding to ask Jason to go down Diablo came into vision. He was climbing up and soon was with them.

"Well then Jason, resume course, straight ahead!" He said and Jason obeyed. Diablo remained silent for awhile then stood slightly up and visibly altered the path before them. It was straight forward no longer. It had now curves, ups and downs.

But it did not stop there as soon they ventured inside low clouds and the scenery changed drastically. They were passing by valleys and forests of clouds in forms and shapes. There were even birds of clouds. It was mesmerizing. At one point they were driving past a lake again of clouds and fishes were jumping of it.

"That's so beautiful!" Sam couldn't resist saying.

"The world usually is." Diablo replied with a smile. "The beauty of the clouds is that they are reflecting the world beneath."

"Wait! We're seeing what is beneath us?"

"Yes, more or less,"

The journey through the cloud land continued for several long hours. Diablo even made them climb higher in the mountains of different shapes of clouds. There were rivers curving here and there, large lakes, high mountain peaks and erupting volcanoes. Each of these sights was memorable because of the light, the changing light of the setting down sun. It was like being in wonderland or in heavens.

Diablo took control of Jason at some point and directed him down. The pathway ended on solid ground though Sam was not sure where they were. Flying for hours in clouds on a zigzagging path makes it difficult to determine the direction. They continued driving though until they stopped on top of a hill overlooking a valley.

Sam's eyes were out of their orbit for beneath them the valley was filled with people hurrying around a massive metallic structure. Sam quickly scanned it and determined beyond shadow of a doubt that it was a ship, a space ship. It was so big, at least four kilometers long and one or two wide.

"What the hell is that?" She exclaimed though she knew it was ship it was still the biggest she had ever laid eyes on. It was not though of Ancient design or US's. No, this one was an isosceles triangle or more to the point triangles incorporated one into the other. It did not look it had a main bridge as the whole thing was evenly smooth but that was just an optical illusion.

"Well," Diablo said. "You wanted to know what I'm doing on Earth other than taking you out on a date. Now you know. I'm building a ship. This ship, it is going to become my flagship. You want a peak?"

"Hum, what?" Sam lost him at flagship, building a flagship. When someone starts building a flagship that usually means he has a fleet or that he is going to build one. "Flagship?"

"Yes, flagship," He repeated with a wide smile.

Sam opened and closed her mouth. This accomplishment was astounding and more to the fact that it has happened right under their noses. Then his words caught up with her. "Did you say you will let me have a peak?"

"Well do you or don't you?"

"Oh, hell yeah,"

"Very well then let's go!" He said. They took a different route and soon lost the valley out of sight but only for a moment. Soon they entered it and Sam could truly appreciate the size of this thing. It was four kilometers long, one wide, and seven hundred meters high. It was gigantic.

"Jason, stay here!" Diablo said as he parked him at the parking lot where literally thousands of cars were parked. He got off the car and offered a hand to Sam that she promptly accepted and they rose up from the ground and soon landed on the top surface of the ship.

"Wow!" Sam exclaimed as she touched the surface. She looked around but really could not identify the metal. It resembled silver and titanium but it was not either. It felt really odd walking on it. She reached the edge and noticed just a few meters beneath odd apertures. "What are those?" And she pointed at them.

Diablo came too and looked at what she was pointing. "Oh, those are vents for aquatic submergences."

"You mean this thing can go under water?" Sam asked stunned.

"Well, should it have to – yes,"

Further down, she noticed another set of apertures though significantly larger. "And those?"

"Which ones?"

"Just a few dozen meters beneath,"

"Ah those, well those are experimental."

"Yes, but what are they for?"

"Well, they are for defensive purposes."

"Yes but what do they do?"

"Well, to be honest I did not pay that much attention when the chief engineer was explaining that part! I know it has to do with defenses and that it is experimental but that's about it!"

"Right," Though she did wonder what defenses purposes could there be. The apertures were large but no large enough for missiles, bullets perhaps but that required a whole different system of delivery. It could be something with flares.

They continued the tour. The ship was immense. It had many turrets and by many she saw many, many, more than a few hundred. Apparently they were designed for a wide range of combat – long distance, midrange and short range, and even against fighters.

The different types of weaponry were also very imposing. The ship had plasma beams like the Asgard ships and the Goa'uld motherships, and some other energy based beams that Sam had never seen before, but it also had railroad guns like the BC304. It had also a very impressive arsenal of different types of missiles.

Then there were four bays that were monstrously big. Each of these monstrosities could hold at least one BC304s and in terms of space fighters around a hundred so in total that would be around four hundred fighters, and or two hundred smaller ships. There were as Sam saw other smaller bays for supply ships and ground troops. Essentially this ship was one flying fortress of space and ground assault capabilities.

"How many people serve aboard a ship of this size?" Sam asked.

Diablo sighed. "I don't know about um…eight…"

"Eight people?"

"Eighty thousand!"

"WHAT?" She exclaimed shocked. "But that's a whole city!"

"Yep," Diablo nodded. "That's about it."

"But how do you maintain almost a hundred thousand people?"

"Well, it is not easy. Each segment of the ship is like a small community. It has its recreational places for um…entertainment, training, and relaxation."

"So if someone wanted to…let's say…steal the ship, he can't do it with a skeleton crew three or four people?"

"No," Diablo replied shaking head. "If you want to steal the ship, the minimum crew necessary to fly and maintain the systems of this ship is about…around…um…twelve hundred people."

"Twelve hundred – wow!" Sam exclaimed. Stealing a ship this size seemed impossible. She was thinking it because she really wanted to know if the SGC could pull it off but the entire personnel of the SGC was less than the number of people required to safely operate this ship so it was out of the question. "But doesn't it have a more centralized system that would allow less people to fly it?"

"Well, I don't know. I think it might be possible but most of the ship has to be vacant. And still, it is not like flying a Ha'Tak. That one you can fly even solo but not this type of ship. It has a lot of systems that can't be put in detail on the bridge. Besides, you have many bridges each of which controls a different segment. They are all coordinated from the main bridge but still this ship can do a lot of things hence the reason it is called a flagship."

"Um ok, how fast is this thing?"

"In terms of atmospheric flight?"

"Ah…um…ok, atmospheric flight?"

"Well, it is um…around…um…mark six!"

"Mark six as in six times the speed of sound that mark six?"

"Um...yes,"

"That's impossible. A ship this size could not possibly move with this speed."

Diablo shrugged and replied. "Why not?"

Sam opened her mouth to answer but seeing the indifferent mockery in Diablo's eyes decided it best not to give him a lecture on gravity and aerodynamics. He seemed to think it can.

"Alright, um…sublight?"

"Aw…sublight, um…I think it was um…around two hundred thousand a second, more or less."

"And hyperspace?"

"Oh, hyperspace, um, I suppose in your terms it is something like three hundred light years an hour."

"That's the top the speed, right?"

"Um, yes,"

"And on average?"

"Um…about hundred and fifty, sixty, somewhere there."

"Wow!" This ship was definitely faster than the BC304 though considerably bigger. "What kind of power source does it use?"

"Energy cells,"

"Which are what exactly?"

"Come see for yourself though I don't promise you'd understand!"

And he was right she didn't. She did see them and they looked very much like Diablo's eyes in their energy state but that's about it. The cells themselves were no bigger than matchboxes, rectangular in shape and tabular. She did ask for the exact specifications from the chief engineer and she got them. But understanding it proved much more difficult, actually nearly impossible. The math used in these equations made no sense to her.

"Um, what about intergalactic drive?"

"Well, the IHD can reach up to…um…let's say the distance between Earth and Triangulum, it will be covered in around four days without pushing the engines. Pushing them will get us in half that time."

So, Sam calculated, it was as fast as the BC304 but with a ZPM assistance. BC304 could cover that distance in between two, three weeks. But that's normal; Diablo's ship was bigger and had more power than the BC304. Still, the ship had numerous advantages over their best achievement, and the Asgard and the Ha'Tak, and hell even the Ancients.

"Shields?"

"Shields, right, um, it has primary shield grid, secondary and tertiary though the latter is reserved for the engines so I suppose you could say primary and secondary."

"Artificial gravity, of course you do and inertia dampeners."

"Yes,"

"Emergency…"

"Yes those too. No ship can go without them – emergency force fields and backup generators that can provide enough power for hyperspace flight up to fifty light years an hour. The life support system is off the main grid, separated. Should it be damaged it will go onto the separate backup systems that could extend it up to a month worth."

Sam was visibly impressed of the backup systems on this ship. The designers had definitely thought of the worst case scenario. As a whole, this ship was a flying menace and should Jack's suspicions become true, they will be well over their heads.

"Tell me about Seudeny's vessels! Are they as powerful as this one?"

Diablo looked at her and for a moment did not reply but then said. "His ships are slightly less powerful than this one but just as dangerous. Samantha, I thought we discussed this Seudeny is my concern not yours."

"I'm just curious. What's wrong with that?" She asked innocently.

He eyed her again for awhile before answering. "There is nothing wrong in being intrigued and curious but there is something wrong with being suicidal."

"Every ship has a weakness even yours!"

"True, every ship does but it doesn't imply it is easily found. This is valid for my ship and his."

"How long it usually takes to destroy one of his?"

"Ideally about four hours…"

"Four hours?"

"Well, you didn't think that you can beat a ship with primary and secondary shielding in ten minutes now, did you?" Diablo asked back. "These are big ships, Samantha. It is not the same like shooting down a fighter with a ground to air missiles."

"Well, I suppose a nuke will do it faster."

"A nuke, really, well perhaps in an ideal situation, but in reality no chance in hell. You can plant a nuke inside this very ship and the emergencies systems will either erect a force field containing the explosion or they will beam it off the ship, and well there are other contingencies to that event. It is not that easy to blow a nuke inside this ship or his. If you think we haven't thought about it you are extremely delusional."

"Well then I'll shut down the emergency systems!"

"Oh, wow, good luck with that," Diablo exclaimed snickering.

"Why?"

"I suppose for the simplest of all reasons the disabling protocols have to be enacted simultaneously from sixteen different parts of the ship. There is no central system for that for obvious reasons."

"Are you saying that if you disable fifteen locations and one only remains the system will be still fully active?"

"Yes,"

"But that makes it impossible!"

"That's the point!" Diablo replied. "And that's provided you are still alive."

"How so?" Sam asked.

"Well, the ship does also have internal defense systems to fight intruders."

"I imagine those can't be shut down easily either?"

"You imagine quite right!" Diablo confirmed. "Samantha, this is not a Ha'Tak ship where you can walk around with impunity, untouched. Commandeering a ship of this class is close to impossible unless you have a very large contingent fighting on your behalf. Don't forget this ship has a crew of eight hundred thousand people. Their safety is top priority."

"Yeah, I can agree with that."

The task of taking over this ship was indeed very complicated. She had thought of it the moment she saw it and wanted to more about its inner workings but the more she was learning the more she understood the impossibility of her wish. Of course, the ship will have protection – eighty thousand people that were a lot of people, one hell of a crew.

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