4 – Spera

(USS Spera – Colonel Vale's Quarters – 08.02.2022, 1255)

Chronologically, Marc Vale was the oldest flesh-and-blood member of the Stargate Program. He had been born in the year 42 BC. His name had been Marcus Valerius. And as soon as Marcus was old enough, he had joined the legions of Rome. There, he had climbed the ranks to become a Centurion. His Roman military career had been cut short by an encounter with an Ancient stasis chamber. Fortunately, he had been thawed in 2010 AD. After that, he had changed his name to Marc Vale. After a first attempt to rescue Colonel Young and Destiny's crew had gone south for the winter, he had been recruited to lead a second mission. That mission had been called the Nova Roma Expedition.

The expedition had succeeded. They had rescued both Destiny's crew and the original rescue team. Their home during the bulk of this adventure had been eight decks worth of Spera. After the expedition had returned and the debriefings had been done, Vale had taken all of his accumulated leave time. After years off-world, he had wanted to travel good old Earth.

He had visited his birth town of Philippi, his friends in New York – where he had been posted before joining the Stargate Program – and the Egyptian capital of Cairo. And that had been just the beginning, Vale had decided to visit to every place he had always wanted to see. As this had been taking place, Spera had been undergoing a refit. ~But she is still the same old girl that kept us safe during the Expedition.~ During his globetrotting, Vale had considered asking for another posting. But in the end, he had realized that Spera – USS or not – was his home.

After his leave had been over, he had returned to Spera to find that he needed to do some major shuffling. During the expedition, Vale had been the CO. Next came Lieutenant-Colonel Jennifer Hailey, who been XO and the Chief Science Officer. Below her was Major Frank Levine, who had been Chief Pilot. Fourth-in-command had gone to Major Laura Cadman, who had doubled as Chief of Security. And completing the list of bigwigs had been Doctor Allisson Porter, who was the ranking civilian.

But after they had returned, Colonel Young had gotten his post commanding the Prometheus. This meant that somebody had to succeed him as CO of the Chaser. Recommended by Young and Vale, Jennifer Hailey had landed that job. And Frank Levine had become her XO. This had left Spera without an XO, until Vale had convinced the brass to give Laura Cadman a promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel and second-in-command. He had also convinced them to make Porter third-in-command and Chief Science Officer. Vale was writing all of this down in the ship's log when there was ring at the door.

"Enter," He said.

The door opened and Laura Cadman came in. Vale was still getting used to the fact that he now actually HAD a door. Before her recent refit, Spera's crew quarters had been rooms with wooden walls. There had been a hundred and twenty cabins. Each had held a bed, a locker for clothes, a desk and a single chair. They had been tiny spaces, which had been created after the Expedition had arrived. But Spera 3.0 was a slightly different animal. She only had a crew of sixty, which meant that everybody got twice the space.

The new quarters had proper metal bulkheads with proper sound isolation. They also had much better lighting. Before, they had been making due with the lights the Ancients had installed. But during the refit, they had been able to install proper lights. The new rooms also came with sound-powered phones for internal communications. ~Thank you, US Navy.~ This refit was their handywork. All the rooms came with electric sockets and network plug-ins. This allowed the recharging of laptops, which could now be connected to the mainframe now. Finally, the navy had replaced all the furniture and given everybody a hundred dollars to buy something to decorate their quarters. It was Vale's purchase that drew Cadman's attention.

"Your purchase, boss ?" She asked, pointing at a painting mounted next to the door.

"Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night," Vale began. "That replica cost me fifty dollars, so I spend the rest on some reading material." He pointed a shelf in his new and improved locker. "Ten bucks per book at my favorite corner store, so I was able to get five."

"The Count of Monte Cristo, A Tale of Two Cities, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Robinson Crusoe and Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. You're into the classics."

"Guilty as charged," Vale said. "Although I do like the new uniforms better." When they had been on the Expedition, they had used a special issue uniform. But now they were using the Airman Battle Uniforms that all the US Air Force used. "But I have a suspicion that you didn't come here to discuss art or fashion, Colonel."

"No, sir," Cadman said. "I just got off the phone with Captain Cho's parents. I couldn't tell them much."

Lieutenant Tamara Cho had been a member of NR-2 from China. She had promoted to Captain and reassigned to the Sun Tzu. And she had not been the only team member they had lost. Two of Vale's people had stayed aboard Destiny when everybody else had gone home. It had been a longer story. But all that mattered now was that Doctor Alex Bennett and Private John White had volunteered to finish the original mission. And that it had left NR-2 with just one member, Doctor Nikita Aranov.

"You did what you could," Vale said. "How are we looking on the roster ?"

"Well, the brass still thinks we should change the team names, since the Expedition is over."

"That is so not happening," Vale said. He knew that NR was short for Nova Roma, but he simply didn't care. ~Time to get work, Marc.~ "Now, about that team rosters ?"

"NR-1 is still the same. You, G'Yal, Porter and T'Zalo." Cadman handed his a clipboard with the roster. The bulk of Spera's crew was Human, but Vale had put his foot down and insisted that some of the Alliance people were simply crucial to the ship. "Except for the promotions." G'Yal was a Nakai, who has been promoted to Security and give the rank of Corporal. Staff Sergeant T'Zalo was an Ursini, who had been Chief Pilot. Until Frank Levine had arrived. But when Levine had left, he Vale had made him Chief Pilot again. "And moving on to NR-2…"

"Which was basically wiped out by the transfers." Hailey had been the leader of NR-2. Now, that job belonged to Doctor Nikita Aranov, one of Spera's archeologists. "So, how did we fill the giant gap in the roster ?"

"Xander Henderson as Team Engineer and Hetty McConnelly as Team Botanist. Of course, transferring Hetty left a hole in NR-5," She sat down on the chair that came with the desk. "And Staff Sergeant V'Lazo as the Team Medic." V'Lazo was a Nakai male who had served on the medical team on both Chaser and Spera. "He's still getting used to being Chief Medical Officer, but he'll do fine."

"Speaking of people who are settling in, how is Private Wallace doing ?"

"Fine."

Private First Class John White had been a member of NR-3 from South Africa, he had been replaced by another South African Private First Class Richard Wallace. Wallace was the team's Security Officer. Before joining the armed forces, he worked in his father's garage. So he was good with tools as well. Next on the list was NR-4, but that team had not be changed. However, Carl Grogan – the team leader – had been promoted to Major.

"Which only leaves us with NR-5," Vale said.

"Right, Cinara had been promoted to team leader…" A Xivolo female, she was the second archeologist aboard. "…and Vladimir Golov is now second-in-command." Golov was a Russian soldier, who had also been promoted from Corporal to Staff Sergeant. "As for Hetty place, we've received another Scottish scientist, Doctor Dylan Calhoun."

The information dump done, Cadman leaned back and sighed. Vale scanned the new roster and added it to the log. His new – and bigger desk – came with a flatbed scanner. Vale saved the entry and turned off his laptop. With the paperwork done, they could focus on the important part of the equation. Brigadier Kersey had briefed him and then he had briefed Spera's crew. ~53 Humans and 7 aliens.~ Then they had set course for Atlantis at maximum speed.

"So, how is morale out there ?"

"It's in the dumps," Cadman began. "If these were the good old days, you'd be sending them out to loot and pillage at this point."

"Yeah, modern day generals tend to frown on that sort of thing," Vale said with a smile. "Time to move on to Plan B. Let's make a tour of the ship and take it from there. We can always go for the loot and pillage option later."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

The two of them left his quarters and got to work.

(USS Spera – Bridge – 08.02.2022, 1430)

Doctor Dylan Calhoun gasped as he walked onto the bridge of Spera. He and Richard Wallace had arrived by Stargate yesterday. In order to keep from raising any red flags, they had travelled to Stargate Command the old-fashioned way instead of using a teleporter. So he had been exhausted by the time he arrived on Spera. He had gone to bed and was only now getting to explore the ship. Spera was not the biggest ship in the fleet, but it was an Ancient vessel. One of the science consoles was empty, so Calhoun sat down at it.

He was checking the options on the scanners when two people came in. One was a Caucasian woman with blond hair, wearing the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. And the other was Caucasian male with brown eyes and matching eyes. This man was a Full Bird Colonel. Calhoun figured that this were Laura Cadman and Marc Vale. ~So, this is the infamous former Roman Centurion.~

The two of them were chatting and talked to the people manning the bridge. Calhoun knew what had happened in the Pegasus Galaxy. And he knew that the mood on the ship was far from good. ~There's nothing you can do about it, Dylan.~ So he went back to studying the console. While Cadman was talking to Sergeant T'Zalo, Vale approached him.

"Doctor Calhoun, I presume ?"

"That's me," Calhoun began, while turning his chair to face the Colonel. ~Here we go.~ For…reasons….he had a feeling that this conversation was not going to end well. "And you must be Colonel Vale."

"Well, doctor, how do you like our little Ancient seed ship ?"

"It's amazing, but I'm going to have to brush up on my Latin."

"Yeah, even if I had to do some studying. And I spoke Latin every day," But there were plenty of differences between Latin and Ancient. "So, how did your uncle take it when you told him you that you joined the Stargate Program ?"

"Well…," Calhoun bit his lower lip. As he had expected, the reason had surfaced pretty fast.

"You didn't tell him, did you ?" Vale smiled at him. "But figuring it out wasn't that hard. I've read Doctor Rush's personnel file, which said that he had a sister. She was listed with her married name, Calhoun. It also noted that the date of her death," He paused. "I also read your file before rubber stamping it for the short list for this posting."

"Oh," Calhoun paused. "So, did you hire me because…," He swallowed the rest of the sentence.

"No, I recommended you for the position because you're a top notch chemist and theoretical astrophysicist. And if you don't want to talk to you uncle Nicholas, that's fine with me. He isn't exactly the warm and fuzzy type."

"Yeah, after he graduated from Oxford, uncle Nick left for the States and never looked back. Things between him and mom were…ugly at the end," He paused. "So, what do we do now ?"

"Well, you have a science console to study and I have a ship to tour."

"Yes, sir," Calhoun said.

Calhoun turned back to his console, while Vale joined Cadman. The two of them were talking as they walked out of the bridge. ~Something tells me that the two of them are going to end up talking about me.~ But there was nothing that he could do about it, nor could he blame them. So he went back to work.

(USS Spera – Infirmary – 08.02.2022, 1438)

They were in the Infirmary, where morale was actually not that bad. Sergeant V'Lazo had the medical staff doing check-ups and running several tests. Cadman decided that now was as good a time as any to bring up the subject of Dylan Calhoun. ~Better get it over with.~ She had overheard the conversation between Calhoun and Vale, but she also knew how things looked.

"Sir, permission to speak freely ?"

"Granted," Vale began. "But let me guess, you want to know if I recommended Calhoun because he's Nicholas Rush's nephew ? And for the record, I knew you were eavesdropping on our conversation," He paused. "To answer your question, no. I'm a soldier, not a politician. I hire people based on skills, not connections."

"You realize Rush is going to be pissed when he discovers his nephew is here ? And that you didn't tell him."

"Yeah, well, as that old movie goes….Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

"Good to know."

Cadman smiled and they continued their tour of the Spera.

(M7K-821 – Field - 08.02.2022, 1440)

While Spera was on her way to the Pegasus Galaxy, Evan Lorne and Radek Zelenka were leading a team across the fields of M7K-821. Mere minutes after Atlantis had done dark, a Goa'uld Ha'tak-class ship had appeared above the base. At least, it had appeared as a Goa'uld ship at first glance. But an analysis had revealed that it was actually a hybrid vessel. The Ha'tak-class ship had been upgraded with both Ancient and Wraith technology.

The ship had fired a single shot, which had totaled the base's communications systems. Zelenka had led efforts to fix it, but the system was beyond repair with the supplies they had on base. Alas, getting the supplies they needed was complicated by the fact that the alien ship proceeded to teleport away the Stargate. They had analyzed the signal, but it was an unknown system. Which was why it had been able to get past the jammers installed in the Gate Room.

The Gate snatched, the ship had jumped away into hyperspace. ~Leaving us totally cut off.~ Lorne thought. After two days of attempting repairs, they had decided it was time to move on. So at 1200 hours, they had left Miller in charge of the base and headed out. The old Genii mine had needed workers, so the Genii had built a settlement in a cave network. Which was where the team was heading. They knew that if they found a Genii transmitter, it would probably be in bad shape. And even if it worked, it would probably be short-range. Alas, it was the only plan they had.

"So," Lorne began. "What do we tell the brass when they ask ?"

"Ask what ?" Zelenka said.

"Well, I'm thinking positive. And if we manage to pull this off, the brass is going to ask why the bad guys didn't blow us up." Lorne said. "I'd like to have an answer for them."

"I do have a theory, but you're not going to like it."

"Tell me anyway."

"When I analyzed our readings on the attackers, I realized that it wasn't just the readings on the ship that were off," Zelenka paused as they reached the mouth of the cave network. "There was something wrong about the crew as well. So I asked Carson to take a closer look at the readings. He agreed that there was indeed something off about the crew, but he couldn't tell me details."

"That's not a theory, Radek."

"I'm getting there. Carson noticed that there was radiation," They reached the Communications Building. "I'm not sure, but I think it's the same kind of radiation that we saw when an alternate version of the Daedalus showed up. And we also saw this when an alternate Rodney McKay zapped in."

"Wait, you think this is an alternate Goa'uld vessel ?" They entered the building. "You're right, I don't like that."

Lorne found the transmitter. As expected, it was far from pristine. ~But we don't have a Plan B.~ So they got to work.