13: The Line
by chaos_eternus

Twenty-One

"He does not suspect?"

"No, he does not."

"It would go badly for you if that were to change."

"He is a fool; it is unlikely that he will realize he is being used. Anubis did not realize he was being used when he launched the attack here did he not? If I can command Anubis, a mere Tau'ri with delusions of adequacy is not an issue."

"Perhaps, but do not think you can control me as easily as you do your pawns."

"I know where my loyalty lies and that is with you my lord."

"We shall see."

"And soon. Thundersdawn is already vulnerable; we shall be able to strip much useful technology from her when the time comes. We wont be able to take the entirety of their fleet unfortunately, some of it is not here and a few ships we have no tools aboard, but I have no doubt we'll take some."

"The extra hulls not to mention the technologies are our purpose here."

"Their shields! Even Anubis eyes them greedily."

"His shields are still stronger."

"But the Tau'ri shields combine Asgard, Tollan, Tau'ri, Goa'uld and even some ascended thinking! If we can obtain samples…"

"That is your goal. I would advise against failure."

"Of course my Lord."

"Do we know yet what the Chinese intend?"

"No," Kalinda replied shaking her head, "I've taken a look at the satellite photos myself but I'm no expert and all the experts can say is 'the Chinese are performing a major refit of their prime Aircraft plants' and frankly, you don't need to be an expert to be able to tell that from the photos."

"Let's assume then that the rumours about refitting to starfighter production are true then," Billingsgate noted, "what are they capable of producing?"

"That's the million dollar question. Unfortunately, it boils down to the Intel people not being able to confirm which designs they have managed to compromise. Doesn't help that they're producing some of the core components for many of our small craft… frankly, I would say Strikers probably are the least likely option. Lancers… possible but they know there are issues so unless they've got a hold of the mark 3 design that's highly unlikely. Vipers… doubtful, frankly, if they're going to go with an existing design, I would lean towards the F-302's. "

"That," Billingsgate noted, sliding a file across the desk, "is Intel's thinking too. There is just one joker in the deck…"

"They don't have to go with an existing design," she concluded, "still not seeing why you coming to me with this though."

"That file contains a list of every technology we know the Chinese have either legally or not and a list of everything else ordered by the apparent likelihood of the Chinese having obtained it as well. You might be behind on the Vipers and F-302's but you know most of the other craft like you designed them yourself."

He grinned at the eye-roll this earned him from Kalinda and continued, "your mission, should you choose to accept it, is wade through all that bumph and give me a purely technical analysis of what the Chinese are likely to be able to do and not do as far as starfighters are concerned."

"Oh," came the considered reply, "great."

"Another fine mess…"

"I know," Carter frowned, "and this isn't exactly my area of expertise nowadays either, though I seem to be caught up in these meeting a lot."

Davis shrugged, "no exactly my area of expertise either, but as Thompson would say, needs must when the devil drives."

"Still, its four Lancelot's and three locations that need the defences."

" Gaia, Thundersdawn and Edonia. Can we assume one each and then argue over the fourth?"

"No," Carter shook her head, " Edonia station isn't quite Ravenbright but she's well defended… admittedly she's on a prime target but frankly, the station is more of a tripwire anyway. Against a determined assault there's no way we could hold that location for long. I say we take the Mark IIIB that's under construction at Edonia and bring her home."

"The local CO wont like that," Davis considered this, "thinking two each for Gaia and Thundersdawn? "

"Yes," she sighed, "the platform at Ravenbright is almost complete. That one we drop right over Gaia. Then its what, another two to three weeks before the next platform is completed which is the IIIC in orbit. Ship her to Thundersdawn, leave the IIIA in orbit for Gaia and when we can, drop the IIIB over at Thundersdawn. "

"Two A's for Gaia and the B and C prototypes for Thundersdawn… that's a bit of a throw discrepancy."

Carter shrugged slightly, "maybe… but Gaia already has the seed of a Mark II array not to mention the Admiral Peters once work commences. Thundersdawn will have to rely almost entirely on whatever two platforms we assign until work starts to near completion or more platforms become available. That may take years."

"And we're assuming the twin's rather daredevil scheme gets the go-ahead." Davis noted.

"Perhaps, but if it doesn't then it is even easier. Leave Edonia alone, grab the IIIA at Ravenbright for Gaia ."

"Maybe," he sighed, "I'm not sure the effort to preserve Thundersdawn is the best idea myself."

"Maybe, maybe not," shaking her head, she leaned over the table, "in the long term, it'll cost more to keep the station simply because of her age. She's been heavily used for over a decade now and that's a good life for a satellite. Her construction may have been a deliberate snub and perhaps even a Glory-chase by the English but the lessons learnt in her construction and her 'life' has been invaluable. Even the analysis of the damage is going to tell us a lot that will help us to build stronger, more survivable, longer lasting easier to maintain stations… so yes, she's certainly been valuable.

As far as scrapping her goes, there are damn good an argument for that… but for me the overriding argument is cost and time. In the short-term it'll cost less to refit the station properly then to scrap her and start afresh. That means nine slips that can be brought back into use a lot quicker.

We may regret it in the long-run but have to survive long enough for that to matter first. We need those slips. "

Davis nodded reluctantly, "I'll trust your judgment on that. I could certainly see your point about the construction space… but I also don't think you've heard the latest from Joan."

Carter groaned, a wry grin crossing her face, "Oh?"

"Nothing bad…" he responded reassuringly, "apparently she's trying to plan the refit so that bay nine on the base of the station can be brought back into use as quickly as possible once the station arms and the other eight slips have been removed."

Leaning back from the table, she gave a low whistle, "that's the largest bay isn't it?"

"Only one on the station capable of handling Britannica's " came the swift confirmation, "with the mess the rest of the station will be in, the construction schedules will probably be extended but a slip is a slip."

"I see," Carter grinned, "plus it's an extra argument for keeping the station with the bureaucracy…"

Davis chuckled then sighed sombrely, "Not that I can blame Joan that much. She's looked up to Peters as long as I've known her, to want to save the legacy of… well, for all practical purposes, her mother, that I can understand."

"So long as she is considering all the implications," she cautioned then shook her head, "but we have gone off the track. The deployment will have to depend on the final decision on Thundersdawn but what do you think?"

"I think we need to look again at the option if Thundersdawn is scrapped. That's going to take quite some time and involve a lot of personnel and small craft. I'm not that happy with only leaving a small array of Tridents and Firebirds for defence."

Wincing, Carter shook her head, "they won't even have that. Thundersdawn is the control for those platforms. No control station…"

"That's another reason to drop a Lancelot there then,"

"To act as the control centre for the smaller defences," she concluded, "Maybe, but it might be best to make it an IIIA variant. I don't see that a deconstruction project would need the weight of an ion cannon or Goa'uld capital ship weaponry."

"That would make an IIIA and an IIIC for Gaia with the IIIB prototype being left at Edonia, " Davis noted, "I'm sure that a lot of our Captains will be breathing a sigh of relief at not having to tow that kind of mass all the way from the nebula."

"Right, it would have to be staged anyway to prevent engines overloads. It may take up to a month to deliver the platform."

"I think firmer figures on what it would take would be a good idea," he noted, "if Thundersdawn get's green lighted we may find ourselves having to do exactly that."

"It'll mean Ha'taks, " Carter noted, "only craft we have with serious towing capability. I'll look into it certainly."

"The next question is where do we put the next batch of Firebirds? "

"How many?"

"Twenty, all IIB's so Cobra missiles instead of Sidewinders and Sparrows. "

Grimacing, she let her hands dance over the touch screen built into the desk, "it would be tempting to say drop them in Earth orbit. I'm sure the general public wouldn't mind that but Coalmine has six of the oldest birds in service and they're having reliability issues… but four of the top five least reliable are at Minehead. "

"You're suggesting pulling all the older birds?"

"We would have had to do that anyway," she shrugged, "but judging by the deployment notes I can see here, it looks like Peters was trying to do a 50/50 split on the Firebirds. Half the production to replace older Tridents, half to extending existing arrays."

"Fine," Davis noted, "strip the ten worst Tridents and the remaining ten get dropped on the Earth and Gaia arrays."

Carter nodded agreement then frowned, "about the Lancelot at Edonia. There may be an easier way to move the platform."

"Oh?"

" Merchant with the cargo pods stripped."

"That may work," Davis nodded, sending her an appreciative nod, "will the platform fit though?"

"Maybe," she nodded, "probably. I'll have to double check the dimensions to make sure though. What's the progress on the Lagrange platforms?"

"Soon as the new Firebirds are out, work will start on five new Lagrange B 's,"

"B's?"

"RSS was already working on an improved design for the arrays when the amalgamation came," he shrugged, "Thompson ordered them dusted off, tweaked and put into gear. I haven't had an opportunity to check out the full details yet but apparently they're shielded and have pulse lasers. Nothing heavier though."

Carter considered this for moment, "at least it will stop the one-hot kills."

"That I suspect was the point," came the swift reply, "we've lost more of the Lagrange arrays then other type of platform and they're a prime part of the early warning network. Couldn't keep that up indefinitely."

"No, certainly not but the downside of course is that the newer designs do take a lot longer…"

His head whipped around in shock as gunfire sounded loudly outside the conference room, his hand darting towards the pistol holstered at his side.