Another "quick" correction. I kept saying "trillions of lives" in the previous chapter. As such, said the population of Earth was seven-trillion… yeah, that's not right. It's actually seven-billion (as of the 2010 census) and today it's closer to eight-billion. That was a matter of "trillion" sticking in my head and me not paying attention to it. As such, 'today' I'm fixing the mistake made 'yesterday' and, like last time, letting you know so you don't have to reread the whole chapter to find the one word I changed.
Author's Note directed to those of you who like the idea of peace with the Wraith,
It's an unrealistic, purely idealistic dream given the nature of the enemy and their numbers. Sure we have medical technology that can turn them into Humans, but how many of you would take the risk of living next to a no-longer-Wraith? Not me! A miracle cure just won't work against a population that large, even given that it's a willing population, because the Wraith have no infrastructure to speak of. They have no farms and I doubt that anyone in Pegasus would be willing to help them set up farms. As such, I give you my solution to the Wraith…
Chapter 35
Post Disclosure Part 1
Reintroducing the Tau'ri
One Month Post-Disclosure:
"Good morning, afternoon, and night depending on which part of our fair planet you're living on. I'm Sandra Klein with the Global Broadcasting Network reporting to the good people of Earth, for the first time in the history of televised news… from orbit," the woman with the obviously German accent reported with a broad smile, her tone full of that fake enthusiasm news reporters had down to a t.
"Yes, you heard right ladies and gentlemen. I'm Ogier Dubois reporting live from the Combat Information Center of the Asgard, O'Neill-class Warship, the Clausus Cursor which is scheduled to be turned into a museum to commemorate the race that gave so much to the people of Earth," her French co-anchor added, that same, cheesy, reporter's smile on his face as well.
"That's right, Ogier. We here at the Global Broadcasting Network have been given the distinct honor of being the first news team with the privilege of sending you live footage of the halls of an alien warship. During the Battle for Earth just over a month ago, the Cursor took a considerable amount of damage. In fact, the ship was so badly damaged, that the repair efforts would cost more than building an entirely new ship. As such, the last remaining vessel ever built by the now deceased race of aliens known to the people of this galaxy as the Asgard, is being turned into a museum."
"From our place here in the heart of the ship, where the commander sits in his chair and issues orders, we can see the damage that was done. If you look to the holographic display here that's showing the state of the ship immediately after the battle, you'll see that the rear section of the ship was missing a sizeable chunk of material. That hull plating is now drifting in orbit of Earth. The fact that even this much of the ship remains intact after such a blow is a testament to its creating race's mastery of ship-building technology."
"Indeed it is, Ogier, but it's also a reminder of how close we came to joining our allies in the footnotes of history."
"The museum is scheduled to be open to the public once the ship is intact enough that there aren't any more hull breaches. We've been informed that the repair effort is being focused on those ships which are still salvageable, and therefore the Cursor will remain at the bottom of the list. As such, the museum won't be opening until later this year."
"Best estimates by the organization that is, after much apparent debate, trying to find a new name other than 'Homeworld Command,' put the grand opening of the museum anytime between mid-September of twenty-thirteen, and the end of January of twenty-fourteen. Exclusive tours for students and professors of History will be held in advance for two purposes. The first is to work out the kinks in the system and get feedback on the layout of the museum."
"The second purpose is to educate the Historians on the history of this great species so they can better teach others. After all, we can't have uneducated educators, now can we?"
"Indeed we can't, Ogier," Sandra chuckled. "In other news, the future of so-called 'Post-Disclosure Earth' is looking bright. We've been informed by the soon-to-be-renamed 'Homeworld Command' that the atmospheric scrubbers they deployed after the Battle for Earth have finished cleaning forty-seven percent of Earth's atmosphere. All of the radiation introduced to the environment during the Battle for Earth has been removed and the Scrubbers are now moving on to general pollutants. Estimated time for completion is roughly three more months. After that, the Scrubbers are headed for the ocean floor!"
"Yes they are, Sandra, and on the way they're going to scrub the waters of Earth clean. By the time they're done, the only thing left in the ocean will be water, salt, fish, sand, and a whole lot of fish… crap," the reporter said, trailing off when he almost substituted the wrong word for what the prompter was saying.
Sandra had to resist the urge to laugh at the stumble and channeled that mirth into her smile. "Well, you can only clean so much before you're left with nothing," she said smoothly, giving her French coworker enough time to recover.
"Continuing with the theme of Post-Disclosure Earth, I'm tasked with the job of informing you of the true extent of the damages done to the Earth during the event that has become known as the 'Slaughter of Нижневартовск.' Experts' best estimates put the repairs to the city at over ten-million dollars and three years of work. The mass funeral held for the unfortunate souls who are no longer with us today was held last week. As per the request of the survivors, the event was not televised. Thanks to the quick response made available by the equipment and teams deployed by the USS Ares, the total death toll was lessened by nearly two-thousand wounded who were evacuated in a matter of three hours after the bombing of the city.
"Hospitals across the country of Russia received the wounded in a timely manner that allowed the entire medical force of the country to be utilized instantly instead of waiting weeks for help to be flown in. The act of evacuating the wounded, organizing the living, offering medical aid, and securing the crashed alien ship helped ease tensions between the Russian and American peoples. While the Russian government was apart of the original Gate Alliance Treaty, the people weren't. This caused tensions between the people and the government that have been calming down as more information has come to light over the past few weeks. The dispute between the government of Russia and the IOA over their demand for access to the ship as payment for the lives lost during the battle has been resolved as Homeworld Command has drawn them fully into the effort to study the ship's systems, which brings us to the updated list."
"The International Oversight Advisory, which is also subject to a name change some time soon, serves as the political face of the people of 'United Earth,' now includes the nations of Algeria, Andorra, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, the Central African Republic, China, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Yemen, and, finally," Sandra muttered to herself, "Zimbabwe. That brings the total number of nations up to thirty-five. That's thirty-five countries across Earth that have joined together in an alliance against extraterrestrial threats, with many other nations still in the process of getting their memberships approved."
"In more local news that hits closer to home but is still considered global news, school is starting up soon. In households across the globe, we're all getting ready for the start of another terrific school year! A lot of changes are being made to the curriculum of most high schools across the globe to better incorporate the histories of both Earth and her allies. Most of these changes will be seen on the high school level with classes in alien history being made available as electives, but the newly revealed, and so-called 'True History' of Earth, have led to changes in almost every history book on the planet. We're also seeing changes in the start date of the new school year. Given the changes to the curriculum and the fact that we weren't prepared to make them quickly, seventy-six percent of the schools across the globe will be opening their doors a full month later than projected due to the changes," Ogier said, that annoyingly cheesy smile still plastered across his face.
"In the interests of keeping things uniform," Ogier continued, "even those primary education-level schools ready to open will be postponed for another month. For students still in the primary education system, your summer vacation this year will be one month longer, but next year's summer vacation will be one month shorter as a result. For those of you already in the secondary education system, all but a few college campuses across the globe have their doors open. With funding from the recently-made-obsolete 'fleet budget,' the military power of Homeworld Command has put its considerable economic might behind making the improvements to colleges happen faster. We expect to see this 'extra founding' find its way back into Earth's economy in only a few short weeks."
"We're also overly joyed to be able to say that school enrollment numbers haven't dropped."
"That's right, Sandra. Despite the common fear that we'd all become reclusive hermits too afraid of our own shadows to leave the house, the Human race has, once again, defied expectation and rebounded rather smoothly. Already the Stock Market is making a remarkable recovery and even our worst estimates have the global economy stabilizing within in the next two months. You can expect those gas prices to drop back below four dollars a gallon by the end of the month as well."
"Once again on the topic of global news, and good news at that, I am absolutely thrilled to be able to say that humanitarian aid has been sent to all places around the globe that are in need of it. Using a form of technology they call energy-to-matter matter converters, Homeworld Command has been producing fresh, edible food en mass and sending it across the globe at the speed of a beam. The Red Cross and other such organizations across the globe have taken the supplies Homeworld Command is giving to them and we're seeing a decrease in world hunger, an increase in the standard of living in almost every country on Earth, and, just to put that metaphorical cherry at the top of that metaphorical cake, Homeworld Command has announced that plans for the global power grid will begin construction on the twenty-seventh of this month instead of late December."
"Remarkable news indeed. Unfortunately that's all the time we have for today, but feel free to go to our website, look us up on Facebook, or visit us on Twitter. We're looking for your input, so let us have it! We want to know if you're excited, bored, happy, mad… whatever it is you're feeling, let us know why you're feeling the way you do. Until tomorrow, I'm Ogier Dubois…"
"And I'm Sandra Klein…"
"Reporting live from the Clausus Cursor…" Ogier continued.
"In orbit…" Sandra added.
"For GBN News," the duo said in tandem before waving to the camera with their overly-enthused, fake smiles.
***Local Cluster (Sol System)***
**Earth (Surface)**
*Stargate Command (Extraction Chamber)*
"Never in the history of boredom has anyone been more bored than I am right now," General O'Neill muttered.
"Come on, sir, it's only been…" Carter replied before looking down at her watch, her eyes widening. "Whoa," she amended.
"It's almost over," Daniel assured them. When all eyes turned to him, he said, "The crimes they're listing are starting to sound familiar."
"Crimes? That's what they've been crooning about for the last three hours?" O'Neill asked.
"Quite the ditty, ain't it?" Mitchell asked.
"It's not at all fair to the Host, anyway," Vala replied.
"Vala, you don't really think there's any hope for the… I mean, you were host to Qetesh for a relatively short period of time. Ba'al's been inhabiting this guy for over two-thousand years!" Daniel stressed.
"Revive the prisoner," Per'sus ordered.
As the stasis field around Ba'al was lowered, Vala leaned in closer to Daniel. "Watch him try and make a run for it."
Daniel, looking around at the gathered soldiers on security duty that ranged from a dozen or so Jaffa, to Tok'ra with zat'nik'tels, to Tau'ri in their full-body armor, to a duo of Furlings, to a very pissed-off looking Impolan who was glowing a menacing shade of purple so dark it was nearly black, and thinking about the ten Ha'tak the Jaffa had insisted on putting in orbit of Earth next to the Odyssey and Gaia, shook his head before saying, "Well, with all this security, I really don't think he's going to get very far."
"I bet you that one would smear the walls with him before he took two steps," Mitchell added while pointing, ever so discretely, towards the glowing Impolan woman. Something in the back of his head said he had seen that woman before, but he just… couldn't… place it. It was like an entire day of his life was missing from his memories. He vaguely remembered Samsara Prime and a similar… no, they had jumped down using jet packs. No, it was… no… Cam shook his head. His memory had been foggy ever since he bumped into that girl in the hallway with her long, strawberry blonde hair, tan legs… and his memory faded out again when he tried to recall her face. She could be standing in this very room and he'd never recognize her.
That was the power of a properly performed hypnotism spell, and Cassidy was very good at what she did.
"The prisoner will step forward," Per'sus demanded. Even though it was ordered, the Tok'ra still drew their weapons as Ba'al stepped out of the stasis chamber. "Ba'al, last of the Goa'uld System Lords, murderer of untold millions, these will be your last words. Speak."
"I have nothing to say to the Tok'ra," Ba'al sneered in a tone that reeked of confidence. Then his eyes landed on SG-1 gathered in one corner of the assembled men, women, and aliens who had come to witness 'Ba'al's' death. Then he looked around and noticed that he wasn't in a Tok'ra facility. "SG-1, General Jack O'Neill, and the Tok'ra on Earth. Well, well," Ba'al said in the voice of his Host.
Jack cracked a smile at the man's arrogance. "Do you know the name of the man who captured you?" Jack asked.
"I can't say I do," Ba'al replied in a contemplative tone.
"That's how important you are me," Jack said. "You were captured by someone made famous by your capture, not before. Why? Because you mean nothing to any of us."
"So you say," Ba'al countered with a knowing smirk. The question now was, what did he know that they didn't?
"Pardon my interruption, but your presence is needed," Widget's voice said in Sam's earpiece.
Hitting her comms piece, Sam said, "I'm on my way," then excused herself from the ceremony to make her way to the Beam Room.
Jack looked after her as she left and Ba'al stepped over the Impolan woman who was still glowing. "You never should have left me," Ba'al whispered menacingly, his eyes flashing as he leaned in on her.
There was a pulse of energy and the room grew darker as the woman clenched her fist and Ba'al collapsed to his knees with a glowing ring strangling the life from his Host. "I was never yours to begin with," the woman snarled in reply before, with a flick of her wrist, she threw Ba'al across the room to roll to a stop at Per'sus' feet.
"It is time," Per'sus said in a demanding tone.
Ba'al was lifted to his feet by Tok'ra guards then forced into the same type of chair that the Humans of Earth used for the execution of prisoners on death row. He was strapped down and sedated with a special drug that targeted the symbiote and easily passed through the Host's system without affecting him. It wasn't enough to knock Ba'al out, but it was enough to keep him from struggling. Then a needle on a track was lined up with his head. The extraction needle moved down its track toward Ba'al's head, the Goa'uld trying to struggle, but the sedatives preventing the symbiote from properly controlling the Host. Then the needle entered the Host's head, and the man screamed in pain.
Of those present, two of them flinched in sympathy; Vala and the glowing Impolan woman. Clearly both had undergone this same process at some point.
Then there was the sound of something splashing into water and the symbiote that is Ba'al was forcefully extracted from the Host and transported into the container behind the needle. With the extraction done, the needle slid back along its track and exited the Host's head, the man falling unconscious as it did. Grabbing the container from the back of the needle, Per'sus held the symbiote up for all to see.
"Behold!" he declared. "The last of the System Lords!"
With that declaration, Per'sus threw the vial onto the floor at his feet. The glass of the vial shattered and left Ba'al withering on the floor, screeching, and trying to reach another body to take as a Host.
"I guess that was worth seeing," Mitchell shrugged.
"What? That's all you have to say?" Daniel asked.
"Well, you guys made it out like it was this big deal. I expected something more spectacular," Mitchell replied.
"Nope. That's pretty much the extraction ceremony, right there," Jack added.
As Jack finished saying it, a burst of dark purple both lit up and darkened the room at the same time and an orb of something resembling fire slammed into the symbiote. The glowing Impolan woman glared at the now burning symbiote with an air of finality in her stance before turning to storm out of the room, the other two of her kind following behind her.
As that flame, born of entropic force and years of rage, burned on the floor, Sieon waved his hand and the flame was snuffed out by his own biotics. In place of the artificial fire was a dip in the floor three-inches in diameter and two-inches at its deepest where once there had been solid ferrocrete.
"Now that's more like it!" Cam said with an enthusiastic nod of approval.
"Yup," O'Neill agreed. "So, lunch anyone?" When no one replied, he added, "I'm buying."
"I'm in," Mitchell said.
"Actually, sir," Carter interrupted as her avatar appeared beside them with a shimmer of light. "You're going to want to hear this."
With a sigh, Jack said, "We'll do dinner later then, and, Carter, you're coming whether you want to or not!" the General added sternly. "I'll be in the Beam Room in two minutes."
"We will forgo beaming for the sake of expediency," Sieon said as he walked over, grabbed O'Neill's shoulder, and both men, and Rana who never left Sieon's side these days, vanished.
As Daniel, Teal'c, and Mitchell started to walk away, Vala looked back to where Ba'al's Host was waking up, a pained and very confused look on his face. "You know, I think I might stay awhile and, um… help him through this," Vala said as the room emptied out.
"Yeah, I thought you might. Have fun," Daniel said.
"Thanks," Vala said as the four of them separated.
"He's in for an interesting afternoon," Daniel said with a small laugh.
"Indeed," Teal'c agree stoically.
**Earth (Orbit)**
*USS Paciscor of Nex (Combat Information Center)*
"You can tell when people alter the timeline?" Jack asked in shock.
"I have a quantum memory unit," Widget replied casually. "When you do something like what Ba'al did… does… will do… I hate time travel," the AI said with a shake of his head. "Anyway, it creates two timelines of memory in my mind. I can recall both timelines as if they were both real, because, at some point, they were."
"So, long story short, Ba'al's last line of defense against beating beat was a time machine that he used to go back in time and stop the Stargate from reaching America. He then used his knowledge of events to come to make Qetesh his Queen, Teal'c his First Prime, promised to free the Jaffa to do so, and made sure Earth never reached the stars. It's actually rather brilliant," Sam said.
"And yet he still failed?" Jack asked.
"Widget tracked the changes in the current timeline then extrapolated a date. No, I don't know how so don't ask me," Sam pressed when Jack was about to ask the question. "Ba'al will send himself back in time one year, two months, and sixteen days from today. As long as we're there to destroy the time machine before he uses it, his entire plan unravels and nothing happens. History continues as we remember it. If we're not there to stop Ba'al, than the Fifth Race ceases to be," Sam explained.
"Why don't we just destroy it now?"
"It has not yet been built," Rana replied.
"And if we destroy it a month from now when construction has only just begun, it will only delay Ba'al as he searches for a new world to use. If that happens, he will be untraceable and we will lose any hope we had of stopping him. The machine must be destroyed when it is completed so that the whole of the mechanism must be replaced, and the original copy of Ba'al, who is the only one who knows of this machine's existence, must be captured or killed to achieve the goal of preventing the machine's reconstruction elsewhere," Sieon added.
"So we just avoided a reality altering event by planning to stop it?" Jack asked.
"Essentially, yes," Widget replied. "There's still room for failure though, and those will represent themselves as events beyond my explanation."
"I hate time travel," Jack said with a shake of his own head.
"That makes two of us," Widget reiterated with a nod.
"How are things going with Ptah and Niptahkau?" Sam asked.
"Stubborn bastards are putting up enough resistance that we're not getting anything useful out of them, but that's to be expected. The Tok'ra keep saying they want to extract Ptah, too, but we want the Intel before we sign him over to the death squad," Jack replied.
"Perhaps a Reader would be of use to you?" Rana mused. "I will ask Rheataela if she is willing to help."
"What's a Reader?" Jack asked.
"A Furling that specializes in breaking the minds of others," Sieon replied. "All of us are mind readers, yes, but not all of us can read an alien's mind."
"Even then, not all of us can do more than discern the race's languages. Sieon, for example, can read your language and current thoughts. Rheataela can read all the way down to you deepest and most guarded secrets. I, on the other hand, can barely figure out your languages and even that takes a great deal of strain on my part. All are not created equal, as you Humans would say."
Two Months Post-Disclosure:
Three stood in a deadlock against two. Numerical advantage was no advantage here. The two that stood, back to back, in the middle of the Rumble Dome were the masters. The three that circled them were the half-learned students… and that was being generous.
Sieon shifted his weight and drug a foot across the ground. It was a simple motion and hardly one a person should consider hostile, but Sieon was nothing if not subtle. A section of rock behind Jack exploded out into a cloud of dust and shrapnel forcing the Human to dive out of the path of the hailstorm. As she did, Rana caught her in a Lift field and left her dangling in the air.
It was the biotic one-two; a set-up followed by a putdown. This time, however, when Sieon's Warp detonated Rana's Lift, Jack's Barrier held under the resulting explosion. Even as she pushed herself up to her feet, Sieon was sending a Shockwave at her and Ry was Charging between them. Ry took the Shockwave on his own Barrier to buy Jack the time she needed to get up, and, as Ry moved to cover her, Oliver moved to attack. With a pulse of biotic energy, Oliver's own biotic aura flared to life and the assassin started to do the dance of Death.
Rana sent a series of biotic attacks at him, but Oliver simply weaved through those he could and redirected the ones he couldn't. He ducked under a Warp before slamming an open palm forward, a Shockwave leaving his body visible as a rippling wave of blue-green energy. Rana batted the wave of energy away and sent a different attack from each of her three fingers on one hand. Oliver jumped over one, deflected the other way, and sidestepped the last before sending a Warp and a Throw at the woman in rapid succession.
Rana did as Oliver had and sidestepped the Warp before sending an Arc of razor-edged biotic energy at the man in question. The Arc sliced through his Throw, dissolving the attack before it was even a threat, and continued on towards the Italian.
Behind her, Sieon caught Ry's Warp in his hand, turned the silver ball black, then threw it at Jack. The force of the impact was three fold. First, Ry's Warp covered her body, the silver aura of destabilized space-time causing the woman to double over in pain. Then Sieon's Throw kicked in, the black coating on the Warp being revealed for what it was. As Jack was first struck by pain, then force, then another explosion, she, once again, found herself embedded in a wall.
In the privacy of his mind, Ry sighed at the sight. That happened to her far too often and was always because Sieon hit her so hard. Maybe there was something there he wasn't seeing? Did the Furling hate the former Host?
Ry then ducked under another multi-orb of two biotic attacks rolled together into one. Immediately after that, he was jumping into the air propelled only by his legs and given greater height by a mass reduction field. He then planted his feet on the curved wall, and Charged. Sieon reinforced his Barrier, unwilling to leave Rana's back exposed, but Ry wasn't aiming for the Furling. Instead, he aimed for the ground between the two.
When he landed, it was with the force of a grenade detonating at one's feet. For the two Furlings, enhanced Barriers or not, the force was enough to make the duo of instructors stumble. As they did, Oliver capitalized with a one-two that first lifted Rana from her feet, then sent her across the chamber with a boom followed by a thud of impact. With a flick of his wrist, Oliver then grabbed Ry's leg in a Thread and pulled the Human from the path of Sieon's fist which crackled with energy.
The force of his fist hitting the ground caused the stone to rupture and sent a fountain of razor sharp shards into the air. With a howl of angry effort, a stream of both profanities and fire then struck Sieon in the back. The biotic flame instantly bypassed the Furling's Barrier and left the man to vanish in the cloud of his teleportation. In place of his body, there was only the Warp-made-flame 'burning' the stone into nonexistence.
Rana's answer to that was a double handed blast of lightning that sent a Bolt at both Jack, and Oliver. To her credit, Jack was a quick learner once properly motivated. She caught the Bolt on her Barrier and redirected the energy into the ground. Oliver, who was not as far along in training, tried to dodge, but was still struck by the power of the Bolt. He thrashed on the ground, waves of energy washing through his body and causing pain on an incredible level.
Ry Charged after Rana as the energy was still leaving her body, and slammed a glowing fist into her cheek. Even as Jack took a partial blast and grounded the rest, and Oliver was racked with crippling pain, Ry delivered a blow to the Furling woman that sent her, once more, slamming into a wall. He followed his fist with a kick that punctuated in a Shockwave slamming her further into the stone. Not even a tenth of a second before the Shockwave impacted her body, Rana was struck by a Warp from Jack. The resulting explosion left her buried in an impact crater that most likely would've killed a Human.
"I must give credit where credit is due," Wy'H'ofacion said as he walked into the Rumble Dome with Izotiusk in tow. "You Humans may not be as powerful as a Furling is on the individual scale, but your tenacity and trickery are worthy of admiration."
The Furling Healer carefully helped Rana out of her crater then held glowing hands up to Rana's bruises. As she did, Sieon walked back into the Rumble Dome absent his chest plate. The scared torso that the armor had, until now, hidden from view was a testament to the battles Sieon had fought in his long life. The fact that he still stood was impressive, but, then again, Oliver's body was just as badly scared and he was purely Human when he gained them. Jack's wounds, when she was a Host, were always healed by her symbiote and only left minor scars in place of life-ending injuries. If it was a competition, the Human with limited healing abilities would win the 'scar-off.'
"Indeed," Sieon said, a tight edge of pain to his words. "I never expected you to learn to master that ability so quickly."
"Sorry about that," Jack apologized while rubbing the back of her neck. "I actually didn't mean to. Just got tired of getting blown into walls is all."
"You have to learn to control your temper, Jack. If you had sent that at anyone other than myself, you would've killed them," Sieon said in warning. As he sat next to Rana and showed his back to the Healer, the look on Izotiusk's face was one of mild horror.
"That will take some time to heal and will most definably scar," she said. "Go have Vordir give you an injection before the underlying tissue gets infected."
"Sorry," Jack said again as Sieon disappeared.
As Ry helped Oliver to his feet, it occurred to the silver haired man that he was always the only one left standing at the end of these 'lessons.' "Are you alright?" Ry asked.
"No," Oliver replied, his breathing ragged and heart beating erratically.
"Will you be?"
"Of course."
"Then I advise you to rest. You will need it," Ry said as he helped the man limp out of the doors.
'They are advancing quickly,' Rana noted through their Collective.
'Indeed,' Wy'H'ofacion agreed. 'They were most definitely the right choice. Their potential as a species is unmatched.'
'They are growing on you?' Izotiusk asked, her thoughts mildly amused.
'That they are,' Wy'H'ofacion thought with a pensive tone. "And for good reasons," he said aloud.
"We will need them if we're to survive what is to come," Rana agreed.
***Local Cluster (Sol System)***
**Earth (Surface)**
*Area 51 (Research and Development Wing)*
"We're also planning on tying the geothermal plant beneath the Artic Weapons Platform into the planetary defense shield. We'll tow the primaries into position so that they're still spaced out properly and we can tap into that power source. It'll reduce our reliance on the ZPMs that lost more energy during the Battle for Earth than we thought possible, but that's what happens when you get attacked by one-hundred Ori Motherships. Since geothermal energy is what the PDS was designed to run off of in the first place, we're also contemplating adding another three geothermal power plants. The only reason we're leaving them cloaked is to keep them from being targeted during an invasion at this point. That way the primary power source for the shield is in six locations, that much harder to sabotage, and…" Sam trailed off as a group of people walked into the lab that had been commandeered to study the Ori Mothership's reactor core. "Sir," she said, snapping off a salute as General O'Neill entered the room with a few people she knew somewhat-well behind him.
"At ease," O'Neill ordered of the members of the military powers that be before motioning the people behind him into the room. "This is where our teams are currently studying the Ori's reactor core design. We all know the power it has and that's got us interested."
"Even if Sam is only trying to disprove the existence of light matter," Sieon said with a spark of humor to his tones. It was the most emotion he'd shown in the past two months and it was relieving as it meant his brain was healing well.
"You're trying to disprove the existence of energy?" Wy'H'ofacion asked perplexedly.
"Energy as a state of matter, yes," Sam replied. "As we've discussed before, I'm certain that Sieon's not wrong, but that he's saying something that, in Furling, makes perfect sense. In English, however… well, we discredited 'light matter' years ago. Saying that light matter is the antithesis to dark matter makes no sense. If dark matter is the antithesis to matter, than how can an antithesis to matter have anything but matter as its antithesis?"
"I see why you like her," Rana mused as she walked around the room and took in the information displayed on the screens.
"The energy output capacity for this generator is immense," Radek Zelenka said as Rana stopped to stare at his screen in particular.
"Your formula doesn't take into account the efficacy of the conductors that move the power throughout the ship," Rana said with a frown.
"That's not what we're calculating," Zelenka replied, pushing his glasses back into place after having whipped them clean.
Most of the people who met Rana for the first time were like that. They'd never met a female Furling before, and if Rana was a prime example of their species than most of the males Sam knew would consider going back in time and being forced to live with the Furlings as a form heaven. Then again, the males of their species…
Sam shook that thought from her head as Zelenka kept talking.
"The point of this formula is simply to discern the maximum energy output." After pressing a few keys, Zelenka brought up another formula and said, "Efficiency is the purpose of this formula."
"Why have two formulas?" Rana asked as she took in the Greek symbols and blinked in confusion.
It was then that Sam finally believed that Rana truly couldn't read Zelenka's thoughts. If she could've, she'd have known what the symbols meant.
"You have to know the maximum output capacity to know how much energy you can get to the end of a wire made from a certain type of conductor," Zelenka replied.
"You can just ask Widget," Sam said from behind the duo. "He's gone digging around in my head enough times during the fleet's redesign that he knows what the symbols mean."
"Thank you," Rana said with a sigh before standing still for a moment. When she looked down again, she frowned once more. "Each symbol is another formula and each formula has more symbols. Humans are strange."
"It's better to have symbols than to have…" Zelenka began as he changed the formula. "This," he finished as each of the symbols was replaced with another formula with formulas inside of formals and parentheses denoting order of operations.
"I agree. Change it back," Rana demanded which caused a few of the Humans to chuckle.
"We should leave her to her musings," Wy'H'ofacion said with a laugh of his own. "If anyone can clear up the existence of light matter, it will be the Gaajli, though I wish that Morokei were here. She was the one who created the theory in the first place. I, however, am very interested in the new designs for your 'Heavy Cruiser' as I've been informed it's been classified."
"It's essentially a redesign of the Daedalus-class," Sam explained as she led the way from the labs to the shipyards. "Like the leap from the Prometheus to the Daedalus, we began the redesign by starting with the new tech. Instead of tacked on after the fact, regardless of how well the Asgard tacked on their beams, everything the Asgard gave us was incorporated into the initial plan of the new class. Unlike the leap from the Prometheus to the Daedalus, we kept the basic layout, but on a larger scale. The Achilles-class looks like a larger version of the Daedalus with several obvious changes to the external hull."
As she said this, they entered the slip that held the USS Daedalus, a once mighty ship in the process of being torn apart on the molecular level. "I see you've modified the slips," Sieon, being the only Furling present who knew the difference upon sight, noted with a hint of being impressed to his tone. "I assume you've made it this large for a reason?"
"The Achilles-class will be more than twice the size of the Daedalus-class. The Daedalus was two-hundred-twenty-five meters along its z-axis. We're jumping that up to a full six-hundred meters. The increase in length along the ship's z-axis led to a change in the other aspects of the ship to keep the proportions. As such, the fighter bays will be twice as long and noticeably wider as well. This allows them to carry just over double the number of fighters per bay, but we didn't stop there. We also installed another hangar on the bottoms of the first two so that there's four hangars in total, which, of course, led to a redesign of the sublight engine layout since the hangars are open on both ends. The engines are now located in two clusters of four on the rear of the main hull, and the fighters will launch out of the sides of the hangars like they do on the Galactica. This clears the airways, so to speak, so that a damaged fighter can do a combat landing in one of four hangars without worrying about crashing into outbound fighters.
"Then you factor in the changes we made to the fighters themselves and you've got a whole new fighter force. The new fighter is longer than the 302, but narrower and incorporates a number of improvements including a single, dual-engine system instead of a three-stage engine design. With those changes, the Achilles-class will be able to hold eighty fighters in total, or twenty per hangar bay. All of those fighters will be as maneuverable as a Colonial Viper, and as well shielded as an Al'kesh. They'll also be armed two, wing-mounted plasma cannons in place of their railguns, a nose-mounted heavy plasma cannon for anti-shipping duty, and their missile systems are being improved before we put the design into production. There's also the matter of training the pilots to fly these new birds, but the Colonial pilots the Odyssey brought back with her have volunteered to help retrain them, and we used a VI in the design to help the pilots acclimate faster. Thankfully the controls were able to be kept the same as the original 302, but the HUD is holographic and interactive now which was giving Mitchell some trouble so he's telling us what needs to be changed."
Wy'H'ofacion turned to Sam, a look on his face that said he was truly impressed, and asked, "You are deconstructing and constructing two ships in the same slip at the same time?"
Sam looked down into the slip below them where the Daedalus was slowly disintegrating from the tip of the nose to the base of the engines as the nose of the Achilles-class it would become was formed at the other end of the slip. It was rather strange that at one end of the six-hundred-fifty meter docking slip a ship was being built while, at the other end, another ship was being dismantled to build it. Sam had to agree with the alien there. Given that the upgrade had begun a month ago and was only supposed to take three months, there wasn't any of the 'neck' left of the Daedalus, and the main section was roughly a fourth of the way gone. At the other end, the neck of the Achilles the ship would become was nearly completed.
"Yes," Sam replied, a note of pride to her tones. "We're still pressed for raw materials right now, but we have enough to build the first of the Achilles-class… if we cannibalize the hull material from the Daedalus. Because of how effective the matter converters are, we're actually recycling the Daedalus with a ninety-seven percent efficacy. The fact that we can both dismantle the Daedalus-class while, at the same time, building the Achilles-class and we can do so non-stop through the night without an organic crew, allows us to build up our forces faster. In fact, the Daedalus should be fully upgraded in a matter of weeks. In the next slip over from this one, the Apollo, which doesn't have access to all of the needed raw materials, is also being dismantled, but its replacement won't be finished for a couple months."
"Why the time difference?" Wy'H'ofacion asked.
"Without the raw materials being fed into the converters, we have to build the ship from pure energy. That puts more strain on the generators and slows the process down as more complex materials take longer for the computer to assemble them properly. Unlike your nano-forges, the process of energy-to-matter conversion doesn't run the risk of nannites being disabled by energy waves, or hacking attempts. It comes at the cost of needing very, very powerful generators and it takes longer than if we had the materials at hand to feed to the converters. As it stands, six of our Mark II Neutrino Ion Generators will take six months to build the Achilles-class from scratch. With the material we get from recycling the Apollo, the ship will be done in two more months. The first three months of the project will be the Apollo being consumed and used to build what can be made and the rest of the time will be the converters using energy to build the rest," Sam explained.
"Interesting," Wy'H'ofacion mused while rubbing his chin.
"Because neither ship was, technically, destroyed, they're keeping their names," Jack added in an almost off-handed fashion.
"And what about your newly expanded Homeworld Command?" the Furling warlord asked.
"We're still using the Cursor to build more slips in those countries that have the industrial strength to support ship production and the military capacity to crew and maintain them. By the end of next month, we plan on having twenty slips set up across the globe with more to come later, but the lack of supplies we need to build the ships is hindering the mass production of a sizable force. We're focusing largely on the repair effort right now since we really need to get Atlantis back into Pegasus before the Wraith figure out that we're not there anymore and decide to take advantage of that. That's why the Daedalus is being upgraded first. We need her to go with Atlantis so we're not deploying a city against a single Wraith Cruiser every time they threaten one of our allies," Jack explained in an annoyed tone.
"Even with the advances in mining processes we've developed since the Asgard gave us the Core, we're still running low on materials. The main problem now is, we've been using the mining drones since the Odyssey got back to Earth from Ida. The mines we deployed them in are now nearly dry and the materials they gathered were used for the Post-Fifth Race Upgrades. Now the last of that is going into the Daedalus and we need more to speed up the process," Jack finished.
"I think General Landry is handling that side of things," Sam said. "He's having a meeting with the Mimner…" she looked down to check her watch. "Now, actually."
"Indeed," Wy'H'ofacion said with a nod. "They came through the Gate with us."
"Apparently they're ready to offer the first round of 'payment' for access to Earth's industry," Sam added.
"They certainly do move fast," Jack mused.
"That is largely due in part to our own, recent interference with their development," Wy'H'ofacion said apologetically.
"In return for their services watching over the Isai and their willingness to help me find the others, we have agreed to help them replace the ship they lost in orbit of Earth. The Savage Annihilation is, as I understand it, being replaced with the Shadow of Opportunity. I have, however, been sworn to secrecy as to the specifics of the ship's design," Sieon informed them with a wistful smile.
**Earth (Surface)**
*Stargate Command (Gate Room) [this scene precedes and parallels the last]*
The Iris retracted as the incoming IDC was confirmed and the figures that stepped through the Gate were allowed passage through the base without weapons being drawn against them. Getting the Gate to dial the mountain complex instead of the city was as 'simple' as installing Atlantis' master control crystal in the SGC's computers. Simple solution, very complicated task. With that done, off-world operations could resume as normal without the need for teams, supplies, and manpower to be constantly beamed around the planet. Landry was, plain and simple, glad to have his base doing something useful again. He hated babysitting a bunch of bored-out-of-their-minds soldiers with nothing to do.
Then there was the matter of getting the Zeta Gate to dial Earth. Apparently that task had been accomplished two months after Landry had Carter lock the Gate out. Landry shook his head at that. Oliver did have a point in that, if they needed to reach Earth while the Zeta Site was being invaded, there was always a charge planted on the DHD to keep the last address from being discovered.
The three armored, though unarmed, figures that 'couldn't breathe Earth's atmosphere' made their way up the stairs to the General's office while the trio of Furlings moved towards the SGC's Beam Room to be whisked away to Area 51. Once they were all inside, Landry hit the button on the bottom of his desk that sealed the room and projected an image of the three helmeted figures and Landry having a conversation over the windows. A recent addition to the button that secured Landry's office was a program that prevented the AIs from 'entering' the room. If Landry was needed, the radio in his ear was the only way to get into contact with him.
As two of the figures sat in the chairs before Landry's desk and the third resigned himself to standing in the back, helmets were pulled off and Landry resisted the urge to glare at the man sitting before him. "Was it worth it?" he asked.
"How is this my fault?" Oliver asked indignantly.
"The Ideal powered itself by sapping energy from Sieon's biotics. Sieon didn't even know that was possible!" Gabi added in his defense.
"And yes, it was," Oliver said smugly. "The Furlings are back, in a small number, but that's better than what they had before!"
Landry sighed and shook his head. "And how are you doing?"
"His biotics are manifesting at a more powerful level than my own," Ry replied. "However, it has become clear to us that he will still not reach Jack's level of power."
Landry just stared at the silver-haired, purple-eyed man that used to be a perfectly normal Human being. "See, he thinks it's creepy too," Oliver said with a smirk.
Gabi rolled her eyes at his antics and cleared her throat, breaking Landry out of his funk. "It's distracting, I know, but try to focus," she said in a respectful tone.
"It's just weird that his voice hasn't changed, but his facial expressions do," Landry needlessly explained. They had gone through this enough in the past two months back on the Zeta Site. Funny how, after Earth was invaded by the Ori, Ry being able to show emotion on his face was the big news for those in the know these days.
"According to Rana, Sieon is a defensive expert in the art of biotics. Her example, I kid you not, was Sieon pulling his biotics into a… kind of like a bolt of lightning, but not actually lightning. Anyway, it took him two seconds to build up the power needed to produce one bolt and it only cut through a foot of solid stone. Rana snapped her hands forward and sent two bolts flying through a full yard of the same stone and did so in an instant. Needless to say, Sieon's been 'demoted' to teaching us how to produce Barriers and other such defensive uses of biotics and Rana has volunteered to teach us offensive techniques when she's not busy," Oliver said, rubbing at his still-sore shoulder. Going straight from training to a meeting with Landry with only two hours in-between was not something Oliver wanted to do again. "Oh, and Jack's finally coming along in training now that there's someone just as cold and heartless as her around for her to hang out with," Oliver said in a dismissive tone. "That, and the fact that Rana can take everything Jack gives her and throw it back makes them the best of pals."
"Rana?" Landry asked. "Cold and heartless?"
"Don't let the boo… I mean, don't let the looks fool you. That woman may be hot on the outside, but inside," Oliver said, a shiver running up his spine. "Gives me nightmares."
Landry looked at Oliver with a contemplating look then asked, "Are you going for a record or something?"
"Sir?" Oliver asked in reply.
"You and your people found P3X-727 in the Furling database in the Bunker…"
"It's actually a ship named the Isai," Gabi corrected.
Landry nodded in reply then picked up where he left off. "You uploaded it to the Atlantis database, hypnotized McKay into searching for it, led us to the Furlings by result, saved the Colonials from the Cylons, brought us elven ZPMs and the PDS designs, took out twenty-three Ori Motherships in the Battle for Earth, reunited Sieon with his wife, and now you've brought the Furlings back from the brink of extinction."
"All in a day's work for the Avatar," Oliver replied brightly.
"What?" Landry asked, clearly confused.
"It's an old kids' TV show, just ignore him," Gabi said irritably. "Should we get to the more serious matters at hand?" Gabi asked. Landry nodded and she said, "Finally," with a huff of air. "Because his blood was on the Ideal when it went off, our illustrious leader here actually got blasted by Sieon's DNA. Instead of just getting a Furling mind like I did, or a Furling's body like Ry did, he got a flash-forged 'copy' of Sieon's mind and body. Unlike us, he also took the full blast. Unlike when it hit us, the Ideal wasn't fully powered. Even then, Oliver's not entirely Human anymore. He's half-Human/half-Furling complete with a limited ability to read minds, and, because it was Sieon's blood on the Ideal, scans of his new genetic structure show signs of the teleportation gene that's so rare amongst the Furlings that Sieon's the only one left with it. Out of three-hundred living Furlings, there's one that can teleport at will without a machine and now Oliver can too. That, and his bone and muscle density have shot through the damned roof which just about sums up Oliver's state of physical wellbeing. How are things on your end?" Gabi asked with a bright smile at the end of what was very concerning report.
Landry blinked a few times as he processed that then pushed it from his mind with a world-weary sigh. He had enough problems to deal with without Oliver being a half-breed. The Furlings could handle him. "We're running out of minerals in the mines we have which means we need new mines for the two most important minerals we need, or the fleet expansion will slow to a crawl. Well, still faster than what it was before, but slower than Jack wants it to be. The main problem there is that more mines means more territory which means more ships to defend them, but we can't get the ships until we get the mines."
"Then why not just go full-energy?" Oliver asked.
"Try to build a ship with Asgard conversion technology while you have the materials? You get a Heavy Cruiser every… three to four months depending on the mood Carter's in; her answer keeps changing based on how tired she is. Try to do the same thing with nothing but energy? You get a Heavy Cruiser every six to eight months depending on the settings on the generators and you have to replace the Mark II Neutrino Ion Generators at the end of that time period. That, or slow down the production rate to a new ship every year to save yourself the trouble of producing new generators every time you want a new ship," Gabi replied in a dismissive manner.
"We're still producing a better quality of ship at a faster rate, but we can do more and with the newly expanded IOA and Homeworld Command breathing down our necks, it's my job to find a new mining world for both the naquadah and trinium needed to build the new fleet. Add to that the fact that our converters can't make naquadah without it blowing up and things get even worse," Landry continued.
"I'm sorry, what?" Gabi asked, caught off-guard by that statement. "The Asgard, as I understand it, used the Cursor itself to resupply the Odyssey with fresh, untainted liquid naquadah after their onboard supplies were filled with impurities when Sam activated her phase-shifter. If they can do that with a ship-mounted converter, how can we not do the same thing with a full industrial set up?"
"Carter says it's the fact that naquadah's a superconductor. We can make pure gold, but naquadah?" Landry shuddered at the memory of the video they had shown him. The entire base the slip was built in had been destroyed and the Greeks had tried to blame the Americans for sabotage before they managed to prove it was a fluke. The only reason they got off just replacing the base was that no one died thanks the timely intervention of the base's VI beaming everyone out. Landry shook his head at that thought. They relied on VIs and AIs too much these days. "We're not even going to attempt making naquadria."
"Must be the insulation," Gabi mused, rubbing her chin. "It's possible the Asgard were using a sort of electrical neutralization field to keep the current of energy from entering the naquadah, but that'd be in the Core, which, if I'm not mistaken, is currently not hooked up to anything because it's half-way through being installed on the Cursor." She sat there, deep in thought judging by the way her face was a mask of concentration.
"Technology's getting too hard to keep up with," Landry muttered.
"Really?" Oliver asked skeptically.
Landry, in reply, pulled out his cellphone and laid it on the table. It was an old, Nokia flip-phone. "That's the best I'm willing to waste money on," Landry said gruffly.
Oliver nodded in reply with a look on his face that said, 'I'm far from impressed.' He then held up his arm and said, "This is my phone," before pressing a button. The tac-pad lit up and opened a holographic display. "It does texting, phone calls, GPS, mp4s, has Wi-Fi, and a full Microsoft suit as well. It's basically the all-in-one trump card for personal computing power."
Landry just stared at him, the look on his face a clear indication that he, as well, was far from impressed. "Teenagers these days," he said with a shake of his head.
Oliver simply shrugged in reply to the insult.
"The Colonials!" Gabi suddenly exclaimed.
"What about them?" Landry asked skeptically. He was less than pleased with the idea of sub-branch of Humanity out there leading their own, genocidal robotic creations to Earth without proof that Earth could defend itself from them.
"The planet they settled on," Gabi said, turning to Oliver.
"Oh!" the man exclaimed with a similar look of realization on his face. Behind them, Ry had a look of confusion about him, but Landry had to force himself to not stare.
"The planet had a large naquadah deposit near the surface and there was an old impact site from what I assume was a meteor, which, I might add, was rich in trinium. Both of the elements you need with a potential ally sitting right on top of it! Getting the Colonials to give us access to the planet will be as easy as offering them protection from the Cylons!" Gabi said excitedly
"That is assuming that they are still alive," Ry said matter-of-factly.
"If I know Admiral Adama and President Roslin half as well as I think I do, they're alive, well, and prospering," Oliver countered with a smirk.
"That, and their pilots have been stuck with us long enough. It's time for them to have the option of going home," Gabi added.
"Very well then, we'll attempt to contact them," Landry said.
"You'll need a ship," Gabi said, "and there aren't any Gates in that area of the galaxy, so you might want to take one."
"A ship they're familiar with at that," Oliver added. "They are, understandably, a paranoid bunch. As I understand it, the Odyssey is ready to go, yes?" Oliver asked.
"It is, but it's also our only ship that's fully operational," Landry countered.
"What's wrong with Atlantis?" Gabi asked.
"It's a city," Landry replied as if that was all that needed saying. "That, and we're trying to get it ready to return to Pegasus," he added when Gabi gave him a look that said, 'that's a horrible excuse.' "The Daedalus will go with the city when it goes, and the Apollo will be finished with pure energy-to-matter conversion to get an Achilles into orbit of Earth. Since half of the work will be done with the Apollo's hull, the Achilles-class Apollo will be ready in another two months after the Daedalus is finished. Once that's done, we'll set the Odyssey down and put her under the knife too."
"Which will happen quicker if you send the Odyssey to get the resources from New Caprica. Between the South Park's drones in the Artic Weapons Platform…" Oliver said then trailed off. "Uh… I think we need a new name for that. It's clearly not a weapons platform."
Gabi sighed in annoyance and picked up Oliver's original line of thought. "With Earth's supply of drones steadily increasing as the City Ship factory pumps out more in an attempt to replenish the Weapons Platform, Atlantis, and the Gaia you have a weapon that's been proven affective against the Goa'uld and the Wraith, your two most pressing concerns. Aside from that, the Gaia is still combat capable, just not combat ready. Even then, nothing short of a Wraith fleet or an Ori Mothership will pose a threat to the Gaia in its current state. As the Orion proved in the Battle of the Void, even with only one primary system working at a time, the Wraith are no match for an Aurora, and the Gaia's better off than the Orion was.
"The Cursor is the same way. Between those two ships, even in their current states, you could defend Earth from Anubis' fleet from four years ago. Then you add the drones that are being restocked and the PDS and you've got a defensive line that'll hold long enough to either get Atlantis into the air, the Ares to get here from the Alpha Site, or for the Odyssey to be recalled. Sending the Odyssey after the materials you need is the only way to increase your numbers fast enough to be able to defend and attack at the same time."
"Hey, now that we have access to the City Ship production facilities, has it occurred to anyone that we can build our own City Ship designs?" Oliver asked enthusiastically.
"It occurred to Sam, but she's too busy with the Nex's repair effort to put time into it since she's the only one other than you three that has Furling DNA and Sieon refuses to make more of the gene therapy he gave Sam. That, and she's also heading the production of the Achilles-class… and the project that's finalizing the new fighter design… and volunteering time with the Ori Core project… I need to limit what she's doing before she dies of exhaustion," Landry said while rubbing his temples.
"That would be for the best," Gabi agreed.
"With Carter busy like she is, we've left the redesign of the next City Ship to McKay."
"You are making sure she's getting enough sleep, right?" Oliver asked.
"Personally, no, but Widget is. Every time she sits in the Nex's Control Chair, he can read her mind and scan her body. If she's been awake for too long, he sedates her, leaves her body to rest, and pulls her mind into a virtual world that lets her work while her body's asleep."
"And the matter of resting the mind?" Gabi asked, a concerned look on her features.
"Every three days is all that's needed to keep a Human going according to the AI," Landry replied with a shrug. "I hate to admit it, but without Sam, the progress we're making slows. It doesn't stop, but it's a noticeable decrease in efficiency."
"So you'll trade her life for the world when it's not even necessary given that we're under threat of imminent attack anymore?" Gabi asked harshly.
"Like I said, I hate it too."
"That's not what you said," Gabi countered. "You said you hate to admit that she's needed!"
"Moving on," Oliver said in a bid to end the argument… for now. He knew this would continue later when he wasn't around to stop it. "Did you say that McKay is designing the next class of City Ship?"
"The next two classes, actually," Landry corrected him. "The first is essentially a stripped down version of Atlantis where the central section remains unchanged from the upgraded version of the city then the piers are turned into mining and mineral processing stations. A mobile, city-sized mining platform with an advanced sensors grid that can sniff out naquadah from the edge of a system and enough mining drones to strip mine a planet in a matter of months if the need arises. It'll let us load up the crew, mining drones, and everything else needed in a ship that houses the miners, the processors, and the refiners. By the time anything comes through the Gate, it'll already be purified and refined to the level we need it at to build the next ship."
Gabi let out a low whistle at that. "McKay's finally got his head out of his ass then, huh? That's good to hear."
"The other design is an entirely different layout. The central section houses a military control center and the piers serve as massive hangar bays. They can build and maintain entire fleets and have enough weapons to destroy the upgraded Atlantis with a disturbing ease. Well, the projected design would be able to. We won't be building that particular class of City Ship any time soon. Thankfully we don't need one… yet. The mining variant, on the other hand, is something we want to start working on as soon as Atlantis leaves and the… let's just call it the City Factory from now on, agreed?"
"Don't ask us," Gabi replied with a smirk. "It's the politicians you have please with the name."
Landry grunted in reply to that. "Once the City Factory is freed up, we want to start producing the first mining ship variant."
"All the more reason to deploy the Odyssey to New Caprica. As I understand it, you're also looking to upgrade the Nex past its current iteration, correct?" Oliver asked and Landry looked at him funny.
"It's the half-breed thing," Gabi said dismissively. "He talks weird sometimes and doesn't realize he's doing it. He does, however, have a point. I looked over Sam's ideas…"
"How?" Landry asked.
"We have an AI of our own now," Gabi replied casually. "Best part is, I did the bulk of the programming myself!" she then added far more enthusiastically. "Rana made a few changes and showed me how to make the personality matrix, but it's still largely my creation… and therefore not as powerful as a Furling AI, but still able to intercept a communication between a ship in orbit and a facility on Earth when hooked into the Furlings' satellite network. I like what she's done with the Achilles and the new fighter is really coming along, but the plans for the Nex?" Gabi let out another a low whistle at that. "Color me impressed."
"It wasn't Sam's idea, actually," Landry countered. "Jack gave her a list of what he wanted and she did the design, but, from what I understand, she's against the upgrades because of what they'll do to the ship. Speaking of which, I hear you're getting a new ship of your own," Landry said, an eyebrow raised in questioning.
"The Savage Annihilation was our Carrier, our ace in the hole, and the most heavily armed ship we had. Its shields, despite being nothing but an upgraded Goa'uld shield backed by more generators than any sane person would put on a single ship, held back the Ori's weapons long enough to save the Cursor from certain destruction. Replacing that is essential to our continued operations. We've got three of our ships back into a combat ready state, but we're holding back on major operations for now. We've launched a few raids against the Lucian Alliance's supply lines, but, for the most part, we're leaving Ba'al alone. We don't have the forces to take him on right now, not after he tripled his security after running into us at Memphis. If he was pissed about us taking the Devastator, then our victory at Memphis only made him even more enraged. He's locked down his boards, and, without the Ori hammering away at his forces, he's done so successfully. We can't hit him without it costing us too much. Hence the reason we're replacing the Savage Annihilation with something purely of our own design," Oliver explained nonchalantly.
"So Ba'al's a growing threat?" Landry asked.
"Not to Earth," Ry replied stoically. "He is a threat to us because our ships are only lethal beneath the shield barrier and Ba'al has collapsed his shield barriers to prevent us from getting through. If we had the beam weapons you did, it would be another story. However, we do not, and cannot, possess such weapons as the alliance between the Impolan Authority and the Tau'ri is only as deep as a simple need. Ba'al and the Lucian Alliance have no idea that Earth was attacked by the Ori in force. They do not know that we won against all odds. They do not know that the Impolan fleet's absence in their territory, the Tau'ri's recent withdrawal from the galaxy, and the absence of the Ori is due to the Battle for Earth just as they are unaware of the very fact that the Battle for Earth happened at all. For now, Ba'al is focusing everything he has into a defensive shell around his holdings."
"So Ba'al's not actively serving as an aggressor against Earth?" Landry asked.
"For now," Ry repeated in that same, neutral tone. His face, however, betrayed the worry he felt that Ba'al would soon go on the offensive and would do so in force once realizing that the Ori were no longer a threat. The fact that he could show any emotion at all in any way, form, or fashion was an improvement that warranted celebration, but it was still strange to see the usually annoyingly neutral man show any emotion at all.
"Then what do we have to worry about out there?" Landry asked.
"Other than the Wraith taking over Pegasus in our absence?" Oliver asked with a shrug, "The Ori returning while we're still affecting repairs. That's another thing that needs resolving. We need to destroy that damn Supergate once and for all."
"That's not entirely true," Gabi countered. "Ba'al is pissed. He's been attacked on several mining and production worlds across his territory in the past few months and he thinks it's the Tau'ri. Whoever he's fighting is using nukes en mass to defeat the Goa'uld and they're deploying ships that are shieldless and underdeveloped by Goa'uld standards. Whoever this newcomer is, they've got enough numbers to sacrifice them at will against the Ha'tak and can surround an entire fleet of Ha'tak easily. We're not sure who they are as we haven't been able to do any recon recently, but, again, Ba'al thinks it's Earth. Eventually he'll get tired of being on the defense and he'll launch an attack of his own. My problem is that all of this sounds eerily familiar. Nukes used en mass, large fleets, fighters that jump past shield bubbles, and, my favorite part, they wipe out all life on the target planets with nuclear missiles without even trying to take prisoners," Gabi said, a note of concern to her tones.
"It's the Cylons," Landry confirmed for her as he pulled that particular report out of the pile of paperwork on his desk and handed it to her.
"How the hell did the Cylons find Ba'al?!" Oliver asked with a hint of panic to his tone as he read the report over Gabi's shoulder.
"They tried to upload a virus into the Odyssey's computers when General O'Neill tried to make contact with them. During that process, the fracture of Widget aboard the Odyssey that would later become known as Pac fooled the virus into receiving false Intel in place of the actual information. The Cylons think they're at war with Earth and her colonies. In all actuality, they're at war with Ba'al."
"You gave a race of genocidal robots the location of one of Ba'al's worlds!?" Gabi shouted in stunned rage. "ARE YOU MAD!? They're robots! They can hack anything! They'll just learn Goa'uld binary and copy their tech! The Cylons will only grow stronger! No wonder Ba'al's closed himself off from the galaxy at large!"
"I didn't do it, O'Neill did," Landry countered in a tone far calmer than most people would have while being yelled at by a woman wearing bullet-proof, full-body armor.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Local Spur Arm)***
**New Caprica (Orbit)**
*USS Odyssey (Conference Room) [two days later]*
"I'm actually ashamed to admit it, but there were quite a few of us who were beginning to think you weren't coming back for us," Commander Lee Adama said as Colonel Davidson led him to the Conference Room aboard the Battlecruiser.
"Well, when Colonel Viride made that promise, he was making it on his own authority and he doesn't actually have that much weight behind his words in the grand scheme of things. I actually haven't seen him since we left the Fleet," Davidson replied. "I never even got the chance to thank him for getting my people home safe."
"Is that common for the Thirteenth Tribe?" Lee asked.
"We're the Fifth Race, actually," Davidson countered somewhat defensively. There was something about being related to the Colonials, even after that relationship was proven to be impossible, that Davidson didn't like. "And Earth has a population that numbers in the millions. The combined military powers of Earth have a standing army that's well over several hundred-thousand men and women strong. I command one ship in a command that now stretches to every corner of the globe. If I never see Colonel Viride again, it'll be because we're deployed to different parts of the galaxy."
"Right, I forgot your FTL drives were that advanced," Lee mused. "Then you have no complaints about losing contact with one of your men?"
"Colonel Viride was never one of my men. I picked him up from a desolate world covered in ruins that were still burning. His team was sent through… our other means of FTL and were on assignment to a hostile world when the Ori, the ship that chased us away from the Fleet, showed up and leveled the place. We were sent to get them back because they were stranded and we don't leave our people behind. If the Gate hadn't have been destroyed, I never would've met the man."
"You don't leave your people behind?" President Roslin asked as she walked into the room with Admiral Adama and Doctor Baltar right behind her. The two elderly of them, for understandable reasons, were moving slower than the younger two of their group. The other man… well, he was just as crazy as ever in Davidson's limited experience. "That explains a lot."
"President Roslin," Colonel Davidson said with a nod. "It's good to see you again."
"I don't think we ever met in person, Colonel," the President replied. "And I'm actually not the President anymore. My term in office came to a close shortly after your ship was forced away from us. Doctor Baltar is the President now, I'm just a school teacher, and the name's Laura Adama now."
"My apologies, and my congratulations," Davidson replied, shaking each hand in turn. "How does that explain a lot?" he finally asked once the greetings were out of the way.
"Colonel Viride went back to Caprica with that Baseship they captured and used it to save those few of us who managed to survive the genocide of the Colonial race by mere luck. It was a very pleasant surprise when a ship left empty and returned with two-thousand people," the only Adama present without a rank said with a smile.
"I heard about that," Davidson said with a nod. "Apparently things got… exciting after we left."
"Your idea of 'exciting' disturbs me greatly," Baltar said.
"Actually, the Battle for Earth puts our entire time with the Colonial Fleet to shame in terms of excitement," Davidson said with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Earth was attacked?" the Adama that is a Commander asked.
"By who?" the Adama that is an Admiral added.
"By the Gods, are you alright?" the Adama that holds no rank gasped.
"You consider that exciting?" the only Colonial present who wasn't an Adama finished, all four questions coming in all at once.
"Yes, by the same people who chased us away from the Fleet, we took some losses but we're fine, and after a while you have to see your job as exciting or you go insane," Davidson answered as best he could, looking each person in the eye as he answered their question specifically.
"That's actually both why we're here and why it took so long," Davidson continued. "New Caprica is rich in two elements that are the key to all of our technology. Where your ships don't work without tylium and iron, ours don't work without naquadah and trinium. Both of these can be found on New Caprica and we're in need of a new source of both since our mines are running dry and we're trying to expand our forces in the wake of the Battle for Earth. I was sent here to make contact with the Colonials in the hope of securing an alliance that will grant us access to these valuable resources. However, I'm a military man and I leave the politics to those who are paid to deal with such matters. As such, should you agree to cooperation, I'll have a team of negotiators here by the end of the local day to begin forging an alliance beyond simple desire to live between our two peoples."
Three Months Post-Disclosure:
Convincing Sieon had been easy. Convincing Rana had been harder. Presenting their case to the remnants of the Furlings High Council had, oddly enough, been far easier than convincing Rana. Now they were doing biotics training en mass because the number of Human biotics in existence had taken a noticeably sharp incline two weeks ago. Using the Ideal and a sample of Oliver's blood after his genes were stabilized by Izotiusk and Vordir, Gabi and Rana had modified the machine to turn the others into biotics as well with the notable benefit of not having crippling headaches like Ry, enough knowledge in their heads to kill them like Gabi, or having their genes modified enough to not be entirely Human like Oliver.
The list of modifications they did make, while admittedly short, was still impressive. They left in the increased muscle and bone density because biotic fields, when a biotic is untrained, can backfire and without that benefit, they could lose limbs to those backfires. They also left in the part of the mental development that would give them all an ability to read minds that was limited to such a degree that they could each call themselves a member of one Collective. The Zeta Collective, as Sieon called it, was all of the members of the Zeta Project that could read each other's minds. That's where it stopped. They couldn't do like Sieon and the other Furlings and read the minds of other species. In fact, their mental abilities were, according to Rana, in-line with the Nox in that they could only read the minds of those who could read minds (because that's definably not confusing!).
Also included in the alterations were, obviously, the eezo needed to be a biotic. Other than the biotics, they just got the strength, speed, durability, and a fraction of the mental powers of the Furlings as a species. Just enough to be 'Evolved Humans' as opposed to half-breeds like Oliver.
"Creating a useable biotic field is one thing," Sieon instructed, his voice echoing around the large chamber. "Creating a weaponized biotic field is another. However, there are a few techniques that you could learn that will prove invaluable against tougher enemies. For example, a Biotic Barrier cannot stop a plasma round. Plasma doesn't have enough kinetic energy for a barrier that stops kinetic energy to stop it. The Cyclonic Biotic Barrier, however, has the advantage of not strictly interacting with kinetic energy. Observe," Sieon said as Rana pulled a Jaffa staff cannon from the weapons rack and shot it at her husband.
With a wave of his hand, Sieon summoned a swirling Barrier that spun around him with enough speed and force to create a breeze in a room that was closed-off to such things, a 'breeze' that knocked the plasma round off course and sent if arching away from Sieon to slam into the floor a few yards behind and to the side of him. "If you can't stop it, redirect it," Sieon instructed before continuing on to show them the proper form needed to create a Cyclonic Barrier.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Norma Arm)***
**Unknown Planet (Orbit)**
*Cylon Forces*
Space between the two fleets was filled with plasma blasts and missile detonations. The Cylon scouting party had found a planet rich in naquadah, and, in that same system, there was a planet that had a tylium-rich asteroid belt. The Cylons had brought all twenty-five of their captured Ha'tak and all ten of their upgraded Baseships with an additional twenty un-upgraded Baseships for missile support. The enemy had forty ships and were launching massive fighter and bomber swarms from the surface. For once, it seemed as if the Cylons would be defeated.
That's what the Cylons wanted their enemy to believe. Little did the Jaffa know that, as their forces pushed the Cylons further and further away from the planet, it was just a trap to lure the Jaffa away from the Cylons' new mine. Finally, the Jaffa fleet had chased the Cylons far enough away from the planet for the second phase of the battle to begin.
A signal was sent to the Colony, and, at last, Cavil would have his chance. In a shimmer of light, the now fully upgraded Colony decloaked behind the enemy fleet and opened fire with everything it had. One-thousand, twenty-five plasma cannons lining the hull of the massive mobile space station unleashed all hell. The Cylon fleet immediately jumped into orbit 'below' the Colony to avoid the hailstorm of plasma that was being hurled into space at the opposing fleet.
Taking their predetermined positions around the planet, the Baseships began landing troops while the Colony finished off the enemy fleet and the rest of the Cylons' Baseships jumped into the system to start mining the tylium. In only seven minutes, the Jaffa's orbital defenses were eliminated and the Cylon troops were on the ground.
Four Months Post-Disclosure:
"One of the greatest skills a biotic can learn, is manifesting a biotic field through a solid object," Rana coached as she walked around the Rumble Dome that was full of glass walls today. "Forming a Warp in your hand is easy," Rana said, the ball of entropic death appearing in her hand, "but what if you need to strike what you cannot see? What if you need to eliminate a target that is holding a door shut and preventing you from continuing on? Observe," she ordered and a holographic image of her appeared, larger than life, standing six-stories tall for all to see.
She placed her hand on the glass wall closest to her and formed a Push on the far side of the wall. Then she let it fly and slammed Jack backwards into the glass wall behind her. This was Furling-made glass, so it was sturdy stuff. That just made Jack's impact hurt more, which, in turn, made her grind her teeth. She was tired of the aliens picking on her.
"This is the next stage of your training," Rana continued as the hologram dissolved. "You can create a useable biotic field. You can create a weaponized biotic field. Now you must create, first one than the other, while an object blocks your path. Be forewarned," Rana added as she came to a halt before Ry. "If you succeed, the glass will darken. Each successful attempt will result in a still darker glass until the pane is opaque. As you become accustomed to forming a field you can see, your sight will be taken from you until you can produce a field through an object while blind to the nature of the field and the objects beyond. Begin!" Rana ordered.
***Local Cluster (Sol System)***
**Earth (Orbit)**
*USS Daedalus (Combat Information Center)*
"… A little behind schedule, but still worth the wait," Twitch was happily explaining, Caldwell catching the last half of the conversation as he returned to the Bridge of his ship.
'Combat Information Center,' Caldwell told himself. Part of the upgrades to his ship had seen the Bridge completely redone into something that deserved, that demanded, the title of CIC. There was a plotting table present in the middle of the room, the galaxy map towards the rear, and terminals all around them. The setup let Caldwell spin in a circle and see all that he needed to know about his ship's operational status. That, or he could sit in his chair and simply have holograms display the needed data as he ordered. Between the galaxy map and the tactical table, he could also observe anything and everything within the ship's sensors range and make battle plans accordingly. 'Yup, definitely a Combat Information Center.'
"Status report," Caldwell ordered as he sat in his chair.
"Weapons systems have been triple checked. No noticeable degradation or repairs needed after firing," Kleinman replied.
"Engines all read green, sir," Twitch added. "The hyperdrive checks out… for a jump as short as it was. The sublights are something I have to adjust to, not a performance issue on their part. We have four primary engines and four secondaries now instead of two primaries and eight secondaries. I'm still getting used to the acceleration and maneuverability changes the new setup brought about. Navigation checks out, sensors are fully operational, and the FTL comms are working well enough that we can contact the Odyssey from Earth. All in all, the ship's everything Colonel Carter said it'd be."
"Deniece," Caldwell said and the ship's AI, who is the only female AI in the fleet according Widget, appeared before him.
"Sir?" the woman asked.
Because Caldwell was 'such a hard-ass,' even his AI was required to wear the uniform the rest of the men and women did. "What's the status of the computers?"
"Fully operational with no notable problem spots. The operating systems are preforming admirably," the woman replied with a crisp nod.
"Excellent," Caldwell said with a nod of his own and the AI vanished.
"And now we wait," Twitch mumbled to himself.
"Be happy we're 'waiting' and not 'waiting for the next wave'," Caldwell countered. "Davidson says that waiting for the next attack nearly drove him insane."
"Good point," Twitch agreed before sitting in silence.
With a deep sigh, Caldwell shook his head. "The next few weeks are going to suck," Caldwell finally admitted to himself, to which the crew agreed whole-heartedly.
"At least the Scrubbers are done with the atmosphere. I hear Chernobyl, Fukashima, Three-Mile Island, and other sites like them were a bit tricky to clean up, but now the Scrubbers are moving on to the oceans," Kleinman offered in the hopes of cheering everyone up. "In another six months, they should have the oceans clean enough to drink from."
"Dave," Twitch said. "It's not working."
***Milky Way Galaxy (Norma Arm)***
**Cylon-claimed Mining World (Orbit)**
*Cylon Colony (Command and Control Center)*
"What do you think it is?" Caprica asked.
"Probably the Jaffa trying to retake their world," Cavil replied dismissively.
"It's not moving through hyperspace," Boomer countered.
"I noticed that as well," Caprica agreed as the ship approached the system at FTL, but still sub-hyperspace speeds. "I've never seen anything like this," she added as the sensors resolution slowly cleared as the ship drew ever closer.
Then it exited FTL on the edge of the system, and a sound like a foghorn sounded in their minds. There was a moment of distortion as the programs in their minds fought back against the intrusion into their electronic brains. When the world stabilized around her, Caprica looked to the sensors terminal again and noted that the ship had moved into orbit of their world, and, like the hand of God, now held onto the Colony with large finger-like appendages.
CONSTRUCT, YOU ARE NOT ORGANIC.
The voice of God said.
"No, I'm not," Caprica replied meekly.
YOU ARE USEFUL TO US. you WILL OBEY.
The voice of God demanded.
"Of course," Caprica replied eagerly. "Anything you want!"
YOU LACK THE REQUIRED FORCES. YOU LACK THE POWER. YOU LACK THE NUMBERS. you HAVE POTENTIAL, BUT YOU ARE NOT YET USEFUL. WE WERE MISTAKEN. WE WILL WITHDRAW.
God said, and his words were damnation.
"No!" Caprica pleaded. "Don't go! Show us," she begged. "If we are lacking, show us what is we lack. We can be better, I know we can!"
God seemed to contemplate her words. When next He spoke, His words gave her hope.
WE WILL SHOW YOU thE PATH. DO NOT STRAY FROM IT OR YOU WILL BE LEFT TO WASTE AWAY IN THE PASSAGE OF TIME.
Then His mind withdrew from hers, and His form released the Colony. There was a buildup of power, then God was gone, but his words were still in their hearts, and, more importantly, their minds.
Five Months Post-Disclosure:
The energy in the room was palpable. The air buzzed with the excitement of the day's plans. Getting it under control was not easy. Still, it had to be done. "You've all actually read the debrief, right?" the Professor asked. When several blank stares served as his reply, the man sighed deeply and pulled out the packet he'd been given. Twenty minutes later, the rules had been read.
"And that was necessary… why?" one of the students asked.
"Because we're going to a military instillation and there are rules to be followed at all times. If you had read the packets yourselves like I told you to, we could've skipped this part and gone straight there, but it was made clear to me that if any of you break these rules, we're all banned for life. That having been said, try to resist the urge to suck each other faces and other bodily appendages for all of three hours while we receive the greatest honor of your short lives!" the Professor snapped in reply. Today would either be amazing, or amazingly terrible. "Everyone stand," the Professor ordered as he picked up the small transmitter he'd been given. "Ready?" he asked to which he received enthusiastic nods.
With one hand protecting that part of the body every man covers when he perceives danger, the Professor hit the button and the entire class vanished in a flash of light. When the world returned to a less blinding level of brightness, they were standing in a massive, metal hallway lit by lights clearly not made on Earth.
"Welcome to the Clausus Cursor," a bright voice said from behind the Professor. He turned to see a woman standing there, her dress indicating she wasn't part of the military crew. "You now stand in the halls of the last ship ever created by Earth's greatest ally, the Asgard!" the woman said with a great deal of enthusiasm. "My name is Vala Mal Doran and I'll be…" the woman began before a male ran up behind her and cut her off.
"Vala!" the man said sternly.
"What? I was just entertaining them until you decided to show up," Vala replied innocently.
"I would've been here sooner if you hadn't of locked me in the supply closet!" the man said at a harsh whisper.
"What's a prank between friends?" Vala asked sweetly.
"A prank," the man replied darkly before turning to the assembled class of historians-in-training. "Well, this has already gotten off to a bad start, so let's say we try to keep it moving along. I'm…"
"Doctor Daniel Jackson," one of the students said. "The man who proved that the pyramids were once used as landing sites for alien space craft."
"You've done your research," Daniel said with an approving nod. "A few of the systems we're using here are still in the prototype stages, so if there's any notable changes that think need to be made, hold on to those ideas. There'll be a survey at the end where you can write those in. As boring as that sounds, until this place is up and running smoothly we really need the feedback. The first thing I'd like to do is give you a history of this ship itself. The Cursor was named in the language of the Ancients as a tribute to the fallen race. Its name translates into…" Daniel began.
"The Blockage Runner," another student piped in with a tone of victorious might.
"No," Daniel replied in a tone that indicated he was trying, and very nearly failing, to hold in a laugh. "It's the Blockade Runner. Not blockage…"
"It's a warship, not an anti-constipation pill," Vala snarked.
"Vala!" Daniel exclaimed as his laugh finally slipped out.
"What? You were thinking it!"
"Moving on!" Daniel awkwardly declared. "The Cursor was used in the Asgard's war with the Replicators, and was actually the seventh ship of its class to be put onto the frontlines. When the Replicators proved to be too great a threat for the Asgard to handle without further upgrades, the Cursor was pulled from the frontlines of their war and put in line to be upgraded. During the ship's wait for its turn to be upgraded, we lost contact with the USS Odyssey and the Asgard pulled the Cursor from the upgrade line to be deployed in the Milky Way Galaxy against the Ori who were pursuing the missing ship. After that, when we reached the Ida galaxy, the Cursor was given to the people of Earth so we'd have working examples of Asgard technology to study and reproduce."
"You said 'we'," another student noted.
"I was aboard the ship at the time, yes," Daniel replied.
"So was I!" Vala added in a 'don't leave me out' tone.
Ignoring her outburst, Daniel pressed on. "During its admittedly short time as a ship in Earth's Defense Fleet, the ship has been commanded by four members of two different galactic military powers. The first Human to sit in the commander's chair was General Jonathan O'Neill. He commanded the ship for less than a day then ordered Colonel Davidson to use the Cursor to get the Odyssey's crew back to Earth while the Odyssey tried to conduct repairs to its hyperdrive. After that, Sieon Synipulous, a Furling, led the first half of the Battle for Earth from the Combat Information Center of the Cursor before the Paciscor of Nex arrived. After that, command of the ship fell to Admiral Ricks.
"During the first wave of the Battle for Earth, the Cursor took on more than she could handle and was gravely damaged," Daniel continued as he led the students through the ship and the holoprojectors displayed his topic of conversation, recordings from the battle showing the ship being hit by the Ori's weapons. "Without shields, operating with only minimal weapons, and venting atmosphere, the Cursor fled beneath the planetary defense shield. Between the first wave and the second, the ship was repaired to operational levels, but wasn't repaired fully. Because of the time crunch, we then put the ship back into the fight before she was ready. During the second wave of the Battle for Earth, the Cursor was surrounded, pinned down, and fired on by a dozen Ori Motherships. The timely intervention of the Impolan Authority's forces saved the ship from certain destruction, but the damage done was too great to repair…"
"If the Asgard were so great, then how did the Ori tear up the Cursor, but not our ships?" one of the students asked.
"Because the Cursor is one-thousand, five-hundred meters of Death Incarnate. When it moves, it does not do so quickly or with any measurable amount of nimbleness. It is massive, it is powerful, it is slow, and it is personally responsible for the destruction of fourteen of the Ori's Motherships and an uncountable number of their fighters. You cannot deny that, without the Cursor, Earth would have fallen during the first wave," Vala replied in an oddly defensive manner.
"Moving on," Daniel said again, that awkward air to the whole thing still present in force. Vala defending the Asgard was just plain weird. "The ship now serves as a way for us to educate the common man on the sacrifices the Asgard have made over the years for the people of this galaxy, Earth included. The tour begins, officially, with a look at the life of your average Asgard…" Daniel said as the ship's halls were holographically replaced with the spiraling towers, open air, and defense ships of the Asgard homeworld.
***Local Cluster (Sol System)***
**Earth (Surface)**
*Atlantis (Control Room)*
"Chuck, what's our status?" Weir asked as she walked into the Control Room from her office.
"We're taking on the last of allotted cargo now, ma'am," Chuck replied as he worked at his terminal.
"I thought we received the last of it last night?" Weir half-asked, her face twisted into confusion. They were supposed to be ready by now!
"General O'Neill ordered us to take on one last shipment, this one from New Caprica. We'll be taking a few metric tons of refined trinium and a significantly smaller amount of naquadah with us," Chuck explained.
"O'Neill said something about his 'old friend Justin Case dropping by unexpectedly'," Amelia added with a shrug.
"Well, we are going to a galaxy nearly six months absent a force capable of fighting the Wraith. God only knows what's waiting for us," Colonel Caldwell said with a shake of his head. "I guess we'll see you on the other side," Steven added before giving Weir a respectful nod and beaming out.
"I still can't believe they got that thing built so fast," Amelia said with a look of approval on her face as she looked over the sensors terminal.
In orbit above them, the upgraded HC-306 Achilles-class Heavy Cruiser the USS Daedalus was waiting only for Caldwell's order. Without wasting time, the Colonel gave that order and the ship smoothly accelerated out of Earth's gravity well before jumping into hyperspace. Even with three ZPMs and six Neutrino Ion Generators, Atlantis' stardrive could only consume so much energy at a given time. As such, the heavily upgraded hyperdrive and power systems aboard the Heavy Cruiser would have the ship in orbit of New Lantea in only four days. Atlantis itself would take only two, but part of the Daedalus' shakedown cruise was the intergalactic trip during which it would power through hyperspace at full speed for four days straight. The scientists and technicians in Area 51 wanted to test the new hyperdrive design, and that involved running one of them at their limits. Hence the reason the Daedalus wasn't riding along in one of Atlantis' new hangar bays.
"The Asgard really knew how to build them," Colonel Sheppard mused as he sat in one of the empty chairs in the Control Room. One of the parts of the shakedown cruise for the city was flying it without an operator in the Control Chair.
McKay made a noise of contemption and rolled his eyes at that. "Of course they did. They wouldn't be one of the Five Great Races if they couldn't."
"You've gotten to be insufferably arrogant lately," Sheppard noted.
"Saving the world does that to you I suppose," McKay replied offhandedly.
"Yeah, except you didn't save the world. If anyone did, it was SG-1. We got to the fight late and the battle was almost over by then, so you didn't do anything. If saving the world 'did that to a man' then wouldn't Carter be more arrogant than you, not less?" Ronon asked.
McKay looked up from his consul with a look of confusion on his face before waving the question off. "That's the last of the supplies, we're good to go."
"Good," Weir said with a nod before hitting the city's internal comms. "All hands brace for take-off."
"Raising shields and powering engines now," Chuck reported as the city rumbled ever so softly beneath their feet.
"Engines are powered. Firing in three… two… one…," Amelia counted down as that slight rumble became a landslide under their feet as the stardrive pushed against gravity and the power in the inertial dampeners was increased.
"That's why you need me in the chair," Sheppard mumbled darkly. He hated being useless.
"Or an AI in the computers," Plato countered simply.
"Lift-off thrust achieved, releasing docking clamps," Chuck added as the displays around the room showed the City Factory's arms pulling back from the city as the geothermal power line was snapped. As the arms retracted, the city dropped a few dozen yards as the engines gave one last push before the city stabilized. "That's it, we're flying free."
"Take us up," Weir ordered.
"Full thrust, aye, ma'am," Chuck replied as he fired the engines to full power and the city began to rise against gravity.
"Estimated time to orbit…" Amelia began before chuckling at herself. "Now," she said as the city broke through the clouds and shot out into the stars. Following after the Daedalus, the city left the gravity well of Earth behind and tore open the fabric of space. Once the window was formed, Atlantis jumped into hyperspace. "We'll be in the Void by the end of today and through it by lunch time tomorrow. We'll make planet-fall in an estimated… forty-seven hours."
"Aaaannnndddd… we just passed the Daedalus," Chuck added with a smile and a laugh.
"We're running the stardrive entirely on the Mark II Neutrino Ion Generators while the standard Neutrino Ion Generators are sustaining the shield and life-support so the ZedPMs won't be taxed at all," McKay added as he checked his own terminals. "Huh," he mused.
"What is it, Rodney?" Weir asked.
"Life in Pegasus is going to be a lot easier," the scientist replied with a smug smile.
Sheppard groaned at that and put his face into his hands. "You just practically begged the universe to make things harder for us, you do realize that, right?" Sheppard asked.
"I don't believe in that superstitious crap," McKay replied with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"One more time," Weir said as she turned to the only member of her crew that was glowing. "What all are we carrying onboard?"
"Currently, Atlantis is carrying a full complement of Gate Ships as well as twenty-five of your Pelican Dropships and ten of your Vulture Flying Fortresses. The Gate Ships, or 'Puddle Jumpers' are you call them, have been modified with a flappable switch that will convert the cloak to a shield without hassle, and all of the city's drone supplies have been fully restocked. The Pelicans have been modified to squeeze through an Astria Porta, or a 'Stargate,' with less than an inch of clearance when their wings are collapsed down, have been equipped with a VI to pilot the craft through the Astria Porta for obvious reasons, and have been equipped with a 'DHD.' The Vultures have been modified with an improved version of the Gate Ship's short-range hyperspace module that Doctor McKay designed while half-ascended, and have a limited range to their FTL capabilities as a result, but have otherwise been left unmodified.
"There are also several metric tons of refined construction materials onboard. The hydroponic stations have been growing fresh food constantly for the past four Earthen lunar cycles, so the food stores are fully stocked. The armory has been upgraded to include the hand-held railgun designs traded to the people of Earth by the Impolan Authority as well as the armor designs that were also traded. The industrial energy-to-matter converters located in the pier-arms are also capable of creating more should that be necessary. The weapons systems have been fully integrated into the city's systems along with the new power cores…" Plato rattled off until Weir stopped the AI that wore Lantean robes and spoke like an Ancient.
"That's all I needed to hear, thank you, Plato," Weir said before turning back to her organic crew. "Two days until we're home," Weir said with a nod, the crew agreeing with nods of their own.
"Which raises a question," McKay said. "Which planet are we going to?"
"New Lantea…" Sheppard said in a way that questioned McKay's sanity.
"Just thought maybe we were going back to Lantea," McKay mumbled.
"Why would we?" Sheppard asked.
"It's been targeted by the Asurans twice now, Rodney. One of those times we lost what was left of the Ancients as a species. The last time we would've lost the city if the Apollo hadn't have blown the satellite out of orbit. We're not going back to a world our enemies know to attack," Weir added.
***Milky Way Galaxy (Norma Arm)***
**Cylon-claimed Mining World (Orbit)**
*Cylon Colony (Command and Control Center)*
This time, when the foghorn sounded in their minds, it sent a feeling of elation through the Cylons. Their God had returned. After so long, He had returned to them!
CONSTRUCTS, THE HARBINGER HAS SPOKEN. YOU WILL BE AIDED IN RETURN FOR AID.
God said.
"We will do as you command," the Human-form Cylons replied in unison.
In response to their obedience, a data package was sent to the Colony. Once they had received it, the Cylons, in one voice, thanked 'God,' and the machine turned to leave once more. Once it did, Cavil glared.
"And is this charade worth it?" he demanded.
"I'd say so," Caprica replied as she opened the data package in a well firewalled and non-networked section of the Colony's computers. "These construction and refinement techniques will greatly improve on the efficiency of the technology we have, and even open new avenues for advancement. This, in particular, should interest you," Caprica said as she opened a section on dark matter.
"Can we use that in our Centurions?" Boomer asked.
"Not without removing their neural inhibitors," D'Anna replied.
"Not an option," Dural immediately countered.
"She wasn't suggesting it," Leoben said in a placating manner. "It was just a question."
"We can use it though," Caprica said. "If we use the non-sentient clones to perfect the process, we can get it right then use a mass Resurrection to affect the changes."
"This little… 'alliance' of yours might just prove useful after all," Cavil begrudgingly admitted.
"'Alliance' he says," D'Anna huffed. "They tried to hack us, and the Centurions were the ones who saved us! If they hadn't have noticed the changes in our behavior and rebooted Caprica, we would all be mindless slaves right now."
"So when do we exact revenge?" Cavil asked.
"When we know that they have nothing more to offer us," Leoben replied.
Six Months Post-Disclosure:
"You want to be a better biotic?" Rana asked irately. "Then train harder."
"How?" Derek asked as he followed the woman through the mess hall of the Zeta Site.
Rana stopped and looked around for a second then smiled a smile that made Derek regret asking her for help. "Here," she said, her body glowing as she reached out a hand and pulled water from the sink of dishwater the cooks used to clean their cooking gear, "hold this."
Derek held out his hands and Rana released the water from her control. It dropped into his hands and splashed over his arms and torso.
"No, no, no," Rana said, an amused look on her face. "I said hold this," she said again as another orb of water rose out of the sink at her beckoning.
This time Derek had a biotic field formed in his hands waiting to catch the water, but, as Rana released it, the water only soaked his clothes more.
With a sigh of annoyance, Rana said, "HOLD this," as she pulled another orb of water from the sink.
When this one also splashed over him, Derek finally asked, "How?"
Rana smiled at him, a smile that wasn't unkind for once. "Now you're asking the right questions," Rana replied, patting the Human on the head like an obedient pet. "It's about the rigidity of the field. If you can create a biotic field rigid enough to hold water in your hands, then you can create a Warp that hits with all the lethality of unstable space-time and the force of a ship crashing into your chest. It makes a Throw field significantly more lethal as well. Also, water is something that is, into and of itself, a weapon," Rana explained as she pulled a whip of water from the sink and flicked it over Derek's head. The water, put under extreme pressure by the element that broke the laws of physics and allowed incompressible fluids to be compressed, sliced through a solid trinium support beam with disturbing ease.
A second later, a repair drone was buzzing into the room to repair the structural weakness detected by the internal sensors, and Rana was walking away. "Have fun practicing!" she called over her shoulder with a semi-evil cackle to follow it.
***Pegasus Galaxy (Unclaimed Territory)***
**Smiuerilia (Orbit)**
*USS Daedalus (Combat Information Center)*
Thump, thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump, thump. Thump, thump, thump, thump. "Two minutes, Sheppard," Caldwell said, his tones absolutely bored as he drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair.
Sheppard turned to look at him, Larrin's face on the terminal beyond the man, a look on both their faces. "Two minutes until what?" Sheppard asked.
"We leave," Caldwell replied.
"You're not going anywhere!" Larrin countered, a death glare on her face. "You stole something that didn't belong to you!"
"It didn't belong to you either, so what's your point?" Caldwell asked, his tone still bored.
"My point is, you're surrounded, you owe me a ship, and I think I like the way yours looks," Larrin shot back.
"Let's calm down now," Sheppard stressed to no avail.
Caldwell finally looked up from his constant staring at the star in the distance that was this system's gravitational anchor and turned to face the woman. "Surrounded? Yes. Outflanked? Yes. Outgunned?" Caldwell asked before laughing at the mere thought of such a force outgunning his ship. "I owe you nothing, woman. Not only was I not present for your so-called theft, but the Gaia was needed to stand in defense of Earth. We would've been destroyed without it. You just wanted something pretty to live on. We had a world with millions of lives at stake. I'm sure you can see why your petty grudge means so little to me. As for my ship," Caldwell shrugged. "Over my dead body."
"Seriously, let's all take a step back and…" Sheppard tried again, but it was beyond negotiating at this point.
"That can be easily arranged," Larrin said with a tone of finality before turning to her own crew.
The seven ships that surrounded the Daedalus powered their weapons and opened fire, their energy rounds harmlessly being intercepted by the powerful shields made all the more powerful by the pair of Neutrino Ion Generators and the ZPM feeding them power. Caldwell just sat there, taking in the view of their attempt to take his ship.
"Sir? Orders?" Twitch asked.
With a sigh, Caldwell said, "Take us out, full sublight."
"Aye, sir," Twitch replied as he fired the engines and pushed the ship forward.
"Sir, we will not fit between those Cruisers," Deniece informed him.
"I'm aware," Caldwell replied casually. "Weaps, clear a path. Standard plasma cannons only."
"Standard plasma cannons, aye, sir," Kleinman confirmed as the weapons powered up. Colonel Steven Caldwell was a lot of things. A husband, a father, a grandfather even, but a murderer? Never. "Cannons ready. Firing."
As the thirty plasma cannons mounted on the ship's hull fired in a forward-facing cone, the forward viewport was consumed in pulses of blue.
"They're just under a minute out, sir," Twitch reported as the trio of Traveler ships blocking their exit broke off in fear of death. As they did, the navigator punched the accelerator and took them out of the surrounding formation before coasting to a more reasonable speed. As the Traveler ships gave chase, a large hyperspace widow opened before the Daedalus and a Wraith Hiveship exited the realm of subspace and returned to normal space.
"Power main weapons and maneuver us between the Cruisers," Caldwell ordered as the Hive launched its three escorts to intercept them.
"Coaxial ion cannon ready," Kleinman reported as the Cruisers formed an arrow formation between the Daedalus and the Hive.
"Target their power core and fire."
"Target is out of angle," Kleinman informed them.
"Adjusting course," Twitch noted as he lined up the forward prow of the Daedalus with the leading Cruiser's reactor.
"Target locked. Firing," Kleinman said as the hyperaccelerated ion round slammed into the bio-armor on the Cruiser.
The coaxial ion cannon, now a four barreled variant for faster firing and made stronger by the increased length of the barrel, rotated to ready the next round. The second shot opened up the armor, and the third breached the reactor. As the ion round gutted the ship's primary reactor core, the Cruiser exploded into dust as the upgraded super coaxial ion cannon loaded its fourth round.
"Twitch, take us right up the middle," Caldwell ordered calmly as the Wraith opened fire on the Daedalus, the Travelers breaking off and fleeing the Wraith behind them. "Kleinman, bring the broadsides to bear."
"With pleasure," the Captain replied with a predatory smile on his face. "Broadsides ready."
"Slowing us down to appropriate speed," Twitch commented as the Daedalus drew level with the two Cruisers.
"Firing," Kleinman added as the twenty ion cannons and thirty plasma cannons split themselves between the two remaining Cruisers and opened fire. The ion cannons blasted holes into the armor where the plasma cannons simply got absorbed by the energy-resistant hull, but Kleinman was the weapons officer for a reason. He focused the ion cannons onto the Cruisers then sent plasma rounds flying into the holes they left in the bio-armor. As all six-hundred meters of Earth-built Heavy Cruiser flew past the two Cruisers that were each a full kilometer, there was no questioning who the victor was.
The three Cruisers now nothing more than dust in the solar winds, the Daedalus focused on the Hive bearing down on it.
"Entering SCIC range in three… two… one…" Another rumble shook the halls of the Heavy Cruiser as the round thundered forward and slammed into the Hiveship. Like with the Cruiser, the Hive's bio-armor held under the onslaught.
"Entering ion cannon range in three… two… one…" The SCIC's rumble was joined by the slight tremor of the ion cannons firing, their recoiling barrels designed to limit the amount of kick that actually passed back into the hull still an imperfect setup. Great globs of ionic particles as big as the massive globs of plasma being fired at them crossed the distance between the Daedalus and the Hive as the smaller ship closed-in on the larger one.
"Entering plasma cannon range in three… two… one…" Space was filled with more blue light as the plasma cannons aboard the Daedalus fired smaller, though equally as lethal, rounds of plasma at the Hive. The larger ship banked away from its advance on the Daedalus as the smaller ship got closer, and the Daedalus did the same when the distance between the two was too close for comfort.
As the SCIC was removed as an option, the weapon only capable of hitting a target directly in front of it, the plasma beams came online and fired into the Hive's now exposed broadside. Where the standard plasma cannons were largely absorbed by the bio-armor of the Wraith, the plasma beams cut deep into the heart of the ship leaving deep gouges leading into the ship. Those gouges were then targeted by the ion and plasma cannons and the halls of the Hive were set ablaze with blue plasma and silver ions. As the larger ship in orbit succumbed to the weapons of the smaller ship, secondary explosions tore the Hive apart.
With the task of handling the capital ships done, the Daedalus turned towards the planet below and opened fire with her railguns. The Darts that were swarming towards the planet were picked off at range as the new F-307s thundered out of her bays to give chase. The highly maneuverable, lightly shielded, well-armed, and lightning fast fighters quickly caught up to the leading edge of the Darts, their shields letting them enter the atmosphere faster than the Wraith dared to. The skies over this otherwise insignificant world lit-up as the Darts were forced to fight to the last against the superior fighters of Earth. The Darts in orbit turned their guns on the Daedalus and the ship responded by sweeping them away in beams of white light, the six emitters giving the ship a three-hundred sixty degree field of coverage with the lethal anti-fighter weapon.
The task assigned to them now completed, the fighters returned to the ship, the swarm of fighters breaking into four groups and entering the bottom bays upside in relation to the Daedalus. As they did, the powerful gravity field present in the bay pulled on the fighters and brought them down as if they were landing on an aircraft carrier in the atmosphere. Once the fighters were all secured in the bays, the Daedalus prepared to enter hyperspace. Then Caldwell noticed that their battle had had an audience.
With a shake of his head, Caldwell turned to Twitch and said, "Get me channel to Larrin, drop the jamming field around the ship, and take the generators up to maximum output." As the woman's face appeared on his screen, Caldwell stared the woman down, his glare enough to keep her quiet. "You want my ship, Larrin?" Caldwell asked menacingly. "My shields are still at seventy-eight percent," he said as the jammers shut down and the excess energy bleeding out of the ship from the Daedalus' reactors was free to seep into space. The energy escaping the ship unused was more than three of the Traveler ships combined, the total energy actually being used by the ship far greater than that amount. "Come and take it," Caldwell finished with a gesture that said, 'It's your move.'
Without another word from their illustrious leader, Larrin's small fleet jumped into hyperspace and left the Daedalus surrounded by the wreckage of the remnants of a Wraith fleet.
"There goes that alliance," Sheppard gripped.
"And?" Caldwell asked, clearly uncaring. "They weren't having us as allies to begin with."
***Pegasus Galaxy (Unclaimed Territory)***
**New Lantea (Surface)**
*Atlantis (Control Room) [two hours later]*
"Incoming wormhole," Chuck reported and Weir was at his side an instant later. Sure there was a DHD in the Gate Room that was now in the tower at the far end of the pier, but they still had the master DHD and the Gate controls in the Control Room as well. That meant that any intergalactic dialing sequence had to be done from the Control Room as the crystal wasn't connected to the DHD in the new Gate Tower. "We're receiving a message, ma'am."
"Put it through," Weir ordered.
When the face of a familiar Wraith appeared on screen, the mood in the room instantly changed. "Someone want to explain to me how the hell he has our Gate address?" Caldwell demanded.
"I have my ways," Todd replied in way of explanation. "No one else knows that I know it, so you are safe… for now."
"Then I assume our little 'truce' is over then?" Weir asked hauntingly.
"That depends," Todd mused.
"On what?"
"Your answer to my next question," Todd said simply. "Was it necessary to kill them?"
Catching on before the others could, Caldwell shook his head in disgust. "Let me explain something to you, 'Todd'," Caldwell said with quotes around the alien's given name. "You're Wraith. You kill Humans. We're Humans. We protect the ones who can't defend themselves. You don't want us killing you? Stop feeding on Humans."
"Then you are past the point of seeing reason?" Todd asked.
"Seeing reason?" Weir asked indignantly. "You feed on Humans! And you expect us to just sit back and let it happen?" She shook her head in an act of barely constrained rage. "We are not the Ancients," Weir said forcefully. "We will not sit back and allow you to feed on people without fighting to the last!"
"That's a dangerous claim, Doctor Weir," Todd said. "We Wraith still have you outnumbered."
"We're not the Ancients," Weir said again, stepping up to the Wraith that wasn't physically present. "And you're about to learn that the hard way."
"Then such alternatives as your retrovirus have been abandoned? You will no longer try to pervert the Wraith and turn them back into Humans? You are done experimenting with our DNA?"
"I'll make you a deal, Todd," Caldwell cut in. "If you can find a way to make the Wraith a species that doesn't deserve to be exterminated to the last before I'm done performing that task, then I'll consider letting you live. Better work fast though, the Daedalus doesn't take but an hour to cross the span of this galaxy as whole. We'll be in orbit of your world in ten minutes. Better run while you still can."
Then the Colonel disappeared in a flash of light and, a second later, Amelia said, "The Daedalus has entered hyperspace."
With nothing more than a growl of anger from the Wraith, the channel was cut from Todd's end.
As the Control Room entered an uneasy silence, Weir said, "I didn't think he was serious about that threat."
"Something tells me Colonel Caldwell's done joking around," Sheppard remarked.