Season 2 - Chapter 1

Thoughts

"speech"

"Goa'uld speech"

SG SG SG SG SG SG SG

Morning, September 1st 1998 – Battersea Park

Lake, great, two laps now,

Morning run isn't so hard anymore after doing this three times a week for almost a year now. Harry's toying with a half-marathon dream for next April, which is probably within reach.

If we're on planet, that is.

The main obstacle isn't the distance, or fitness – it's finding the bloody time for the long-distance build-up.

Language!

Our days are so packed, it's not even funny. It starts with education. With so many clever minds in one small group, it was clear to Harry, and certainly to me, that we cannot stay with just our primary school education. Keira heard me say something about it, and the next morning Harry and I were facing our partners acting as the WIB education committee, and scheduling our schooling for the next few years. Not that anyone expected us to gain any Doctorates, soon.

If at all…

But they insisted that about three years of effort, plus 'on the job experience', as Calvin called it, will turn us into a competent voice in any discussion. They also insist that the sooner those years start – the better.

"They do have decent heads on their shoulders," as Keira puts it.

Thanks dearest.

Our best plans for WIB see us at the research and planning stages for at least a year. Then building stages for another year and a half, before any serious exploration can be possible. That gives them about three years to bring us to a competent under-graduate level.

"At least they'll understand what we're talking about," Seth delicately remarks.

I appreciate you too, friend! Oh, just one more lap now.

I can see Harry accelerating his pace and gently pulling away from me.

Oh, no you don't!

I up my pace too, That's harder now.

This year we were done with our A-levels. Not a full and balanced education, but science heavy - Maths, Physics', Chemistry, Biology, and Calvin insisted on Business - We are the founders of an Energy-Space tech start-up, after all. With enough money to afford the best personal tutors, and access to some of the brightest minds in the world – it was easily accomplished, yet not with perfect grades all around.

Calvin says perfect grades are overrated anyway. My parents are prouder than when I've finished my NEWTs a year early.

I'm still miffed.

We were also pushed to delve deeper into Runes and Arithmancy, but I'll elaborate later.

Our second lap of the lake is getting quicker and quicker, till we do the last few hundred yards in full sprint, and crash into our seats at the park's café, huffing and puffing.

Competitive much?

"Tea, and toasts, with cream and marmalade, please? Do you have Jasmin?" Harry just nods in agreement, trying to catch his breath. "And cold water please. Lots!"

Then, we had our talk with Beatrix regarding our Alteran friends. She was curt and direct. a) we need to pursue this. b) we need to clue the others in. c) we should make haste.

She did acknowledge the fact that magic generating technology is something not lightly fiddled with, and that it certainly opens a whole can of worms. That made the R&D centre on the moon that much more pressing. There was some push back from R, but ultimately, she accepted Beatrix and our insistence that it's quite important to do, for good reasons. Keira's anxiousness to open one of the reactors up, to see how it ticks, just made the decisions easier to make, and the moon lab got pushed up the schedule.

The outcome was a huge demand on our time, since extended packages, as well as warding, were crucial, even on the 'dark side'. Some countries make an effort to capture images of it. They would be a tad surprised to find a laboratory complex there.

Bill and Fleur were immediately fully employed by the program, and put to work. There were thoughts about bringing in more mages, but we were, and still are, both reluctant and hard pressed to find the right people. Just think about it – finding an Arithmancy master, for example, who is innovative (Innovative wizards are so common, right!), intelligent, and understanding of science, or open minded, at the very least. And – one who will be willing to swear a secrecy vow with no preliminary information. Makes you think of hen's teeth.

Seth does insist on a healer and says that our problems are on a tiny scale for now, and we don't want to lose the few people working with us. He is right, though for now, we are relatively safe. We'll be in touch with a healer, as soon as we start exploring – hopefully, in a year's time.

"What are the plans for today?" I hear Harry ask.

"You have a meeting with Francis about the power management system." R is as helpful as ever, as she crushes in the chair beside me, followed by Fleur, Bill, and a couple of R's 'friends.

What a show-off!

R, being who she is, is treating our morning run as a warm-up. Not having an ego competition, for the last mile, means she hardly broke sweat.

Francis is the CEO for our company, who was referred to us by R. He almost called R by her name before she stopped him.

Damn, something with 'W' then.

Our first meeting with him was Hilarious. He was looking at us and Keira, like we were trying the most preposterous hoax. I think only R's presence in the room stopped him from leaving. Finally, Keira presented him with one of the energy staff's power supply and asked him to measure the output. That made a believer out of him. He was discussing tech, and IP, and roadmap, and system development, and equity with R and Keira, till Keira pointed him towards us, and told him that 'the kids' are the owners and founders for the technology.

Surprised was an understatement.

The reality was more complicated, as it usually is. While we hold the IP for the reactors, Keira is the one to develop the actual working model and did so within a government project. We had to run it past the Prime Minister, but it was decided that Keira will 'discover' and publish the science and basic design. The breakthrough was explained with a 'discovery' of an exotic heavy metal, within one of the UK territories. She is rumoured for a Nobel prize next year, though there's an ongoing debate whether it will be for physics, chemistry, or peace.

I've heard Calvin mumbling something regarding 'his turn' and 'quantum crystalline computers.'

Just as soon as he manages to understand any of these systems...

The Naquadah location is kept a secret and was immediately pronounced as a national treasured resource.

There were teams gathered for every step of the value chain – as Francis called it.

An effort is going on to scavenge as much as possible of the Naquadah floating above earth, just outside the lunar orbit.

A team is working on Naquadah refining. No remarkable science there too. Heat and current do it. Since Naquadah is so sensationally conductive, one can, apparently, refine Naquadah ore into a usable metal, using common home batteries, though a little more power helps. Refining the Naquadah into the highly ionised liquid needed for use as a power source is a little trickier. Again – All that is needed is your regular application of heat and current. Naquadah, though, is so amazingly heat conductive, that achieving the needed temperatures is almost impossible on earth, or should I say – inside the atmosphere.

So glad we had enough Secondary school science, at that stage, to understand this explanation.

As R explained to us, again - more of an engineering issue, than a scientific one: Naquadah needs to be turned into plasma, then cooled while ionised, to turn into the energetic, liquid substance we are aiming for. 'We', Earthers, don't know any material capable of resisting the temperatures needed for turning Naquadah into plasma. So, the container must be made of Naquadah too. That same Naquadah will lead the heat 'outside', making huge, unwanted, climate changes we couldn't imagine in our wildest nightmares. It will also point a blaming IR finger at the location of the refining plant, for all to discover.

The solution – do the process in space, or on the moon, where the heat can be easily dispersed into the void. That forced us to extend our moon facility. Obviously, this is only a vague description and the devil is in the details.

Thankfully, the distance between Earth and the back of the moon is just within the ring transport range, as long as Precious is up there to act as a relay station. R designed and ordered a few dozen Ring-size containers, and had Fleur engrave those larger on the inside, and magically nulled on the outside, which made moon shipments easy – A container was positioned open to the street, where contractors could load it, not knowing that the 'warehouse's capacity is much larger than it should be. When needed it was closed, ringed out, and another container was ringed in and opened.

Keira is on the moon most of the time, working on the creation of a functioning reactor, using Earth's existing manufacturing capabilities and materials. The end product was a small scale generator. Design limitations and inferior materials resulted in heat escaping, which she cleverly harnessed to create more power, by channelling this excessive heat into regular turbines. Her new reactors would also not be harmful in case of a malfunction or an accident.

We used the Battersea power station and its old turbines as a selling prototype. It can now supply London with electricity for the next 20 years with no emissions, and no toxic waste. We just need to find and mine more Naquadah, sometime during the next 20 years, or destroy a few more Goa'uld capital ships, for our ore needs, and all will be spiffy.

The Battersea clean energy company (I know, lame…), is incorporated in London. Francis and his founding team holds 30% of the equity. He asked for this, and we only got a weak pip from the Sneakoscope, so we let it be. Fleur and Bill have their 2.5% (Not diluted – they had to explain that one to us as well), and we keep 15% in trust, in secret, for the team, to give to R, Calvin, Keira, and Beatrix, as soon as they stop being employed by the government.

BCE published the reactor design and will monetize on set-up, management systems, and obviously – the sale of Naquadah charges for the reactors. The first set of 20 power cells (for lack of a better word) were spelled with Portkeys to bring them to a secure location in the event someone tried to remove them from the reactors. Francis also suggested that we give them away for free, and only charge for actual power consumption – it's still in debate.

The UK will get its power stations converted at cost and be given free Naquadah charges for the next 10 years. There is also a secret written agreement, between us and the Prime Minister's office, that BCE will not move its centre of operation outside of the UK, and will not conduct any tax planning. Prime Minister Blair is satisfied.

After our work meeting with Francis, we have some training to do.

It started as a joke – halfway through the year, just as new prototype energy weapons started to come out of early production, R asked for a section size SBS unit to join the few men already on our team. No use for them to first encounter space travel and new weapons the day they are needed for action, she said. Our group of pilots also asked to freshen their ground combat training, as it seems from Precious design, that ground support is part of the mission it was planned for.

In any case, R took us to the training grounds when some of the troops had Urban Warfare training. They were using the new 'Phaser' guns. Those are obviously not real phasers, and there is no phasing in the works – they had to explain this one to us. What those are, are reworked snake guns.

They – the weapon design team.

They had to rework those, since the whole infusing the blood with Naquadah didn't work at all. I mean, it worked, but only for a short while. In any case, they had to disassemble the guns, then reassemble them without the controlling mechanism, so anyone would be able to use them. Doing that, they discovered the first shot stuns, the second kills, and the third disintegrates sequence. They too thought this to be stupid and replaced it with an easy-to-use switch – logical. Now that one can 'set it to stun' – you can see just how the name 'Phaser' stuck.

"Want to join in?" R asked.

I must admit that I was reluctant. I mean, we did fight Death Eaters (and Werewolves), and even Jaffa.

Right, that has gone brilliantly.

All of this doesn't make us well trained soldiers.

"Hey," she said, noticing our reluctance. She took off her jacket, removed her service gun, and took a red phaser from the box. The red ones are 'stun-only' training guns, so no risk of accidents.

"Oh, come on!" R calls, putting on the new, anti-phaser protection vest, leggings, and helmet. "It will be fun – like paintball. Let's kick some special forces arse!"

We reluctantly put on our protective vests, waved the red phasers, for our trusty wands, and joined R outside.

"Guys! We are three. 'Get the box' scenario, in five" she calls into the PA.

"You're on!" comes the reply.

"OK girls. We need to get to a red briefcase from in here, and bring it back out, without getting hit, and certainly without getting stunned." R points at a room on the wall map. "They will probably be waiting for…"

"Accio red briefcase!" Harry calls. There are some shouts, and banging, and the case comes flying towards us.

We put the case back and tried again. This time I Apparated in, thanked the woman standing there with a gun pointed at the door, and Apparated back, before she had the chance to turn. Nevermind hit me.

"Let's actually get there for once, through the corridors?" R offered.

So we did. In a run. Shields, Stunners, fast running, and Vanishing inconvenient walls, took them by surprise.

Agent Sidney, the one in control, when R isn't for some strange reason or another, insisted that they needed people who can do what we do, if ever soldiers are actually needed again. For this to happen, he needed to know what we're capable of, and we all must know how to work together, or we'll get ourselves killed.

General fitness and combat training were added to our schedule.

"Back to the office?"

What else didn't I tell you about? Right, space excavation effort!

This has sadly not gone as well as we hoped for. Let me elaborate:

There is quite an impressive debris field, floating up there in space. Those ships were about half a mile blocks of Naquadah. One is blown to smithereens, but the other one is half whole.

Good news – This is a whole lot of Naquadah, which will suffice us for our energy needs and the building of about a dozen Corvette, or even Frigate size ships. Maybe more, depending on the amount of it we'll be able to rescue and the final designs.

Bad news – well, there were few of those.

The first was the fact that the debris field was drifting and expanding, making time an issue. Our only way to excavate any of it was to ring pieces into precious, then move them into an expanded ring container. When full, the container was ringed back to Earth, or the Moon base, and an empty container was ringed in. This was labour heavy work and forced the chunks of metal to be ring size. Any larger and it forced us to use a mage, out in space, enlarging and shrinking containers. The size of most chunks meant that only Harry has enough magical stamina to do the work, for any reasonable length of time.

In any case, Precious was on this, almost none stop, from the moment we had a few more people to fly it. We started by picking up the small chunks, at the far end of the debris field.

"Those are the ones drifting away the fastest," Keira explained.

We then moved onto larger chunks, as soon as the weapons department managed to create and install a cutting laser on Precious. We quickly discovered that shooting Naquadah chunks, with whatever canons Precious had originally, was a rather bad idea. Almost lost Harry, who was floating out there at the time, and luckily had the sense to get away and mostly behind Precious, before the trial shooting.

At one stage Precious crew noticed the American space shuttle laboriously reaching the edge of the debris field and picking up a few small Naquadah chunks, before turning back for the two days flight back to orbit. There was a glint in R's eyes when she heard of it. That night, a gift-wrapped container, larger than a space shuttle and containing a heavier load of Naquadah (and gold – we didn't bother to separate those) appeared 'mysteriously' on the runway of Area 51. It had a note "Don't bother with Endeavour – WIB".

The half whole ship was something completely different. We visited it first during one of Precious 'tours'. We reached in through an opening in the hull and found ourselves in a warehouse of sorts. Another opening led into a hangar full of roundish ships, few times larger than Precious. This made us stop. We came back with Keira, a couple of our pilots, a couple of our special forces' men, and some space suites.

First indications were good. The hangar was opened to space, and to the inner corridor, but the place had gravity.

"There must be something still powering this thing," R is ever the pragmatic one.

Those roundish large ships were thrown around but still looked whole enough. We checked the nearest one, and found a hatch to walk in. The cockpit is much larger than Precious' yet familiar. I touch the sphere in front of the pilot seat. Systems light and hum to life. We shut it off – we'll be back.

The next hangar is full of fighters. Except for the ones near the blown hull, most seem whole. We pack one up to bring back with us. Calvin will be glad for a working computer system he is allowed to disassemble. This is when we almost lost Troy. He decided to fly a fighter home, which he was clearly capable of after his numerous solo flight of Precious. Shortly after I had added Disillusionment and Notice-Me-Not Runes to the chosen fighter, he was off heading for home. Soon afterwards we heard his distress call on the radio saying he lost control of the fighter and found himself flying away from Earth at the best speed the fighter was capable of. The time that took us to reach Precious and chase him down, pushed both the fighter's air supply, and our nerves to the limits.

The next day we found ourselves back on the shipwreck exploring deeper inside. We forced a few doors open, only to find more deserted corridors. Until one door revealed a lit corridor, and air escaping. I lock the door behind me and R, then Apparate to bring the rest of the team. When back, I find R standing in front of a group of men, dressed like that Bra'tac of the Americans. All pointing staff guns at us.

Jaffa? Still alive and trapped ever since the battle? Poor sods…

As a reflex I raise my left hand forward, ready to shield.

This brings them all to their knees, bowing to us.

What? Why?

We remove our face shields so they can see us better.

"Hello, can you understand me?" R asks hesitantly. "Please get up?"

"Who may we serve?" Asks one of the Jaffa.

Huh? How are they speaking English?

Linguistic questions aside, there are people waiting for our answer.

"No need to serve, we can help you. We didn't know there are people still alive up here, after all those months." I answer.

"We are faithful to our gods," the man answers. "Who are you, so we can thank you properly?"

They mean the Goa'uld!

"They probably mean Isis and her fellows", Hurry remarks.

"I am not Isis, and there are no Goa'uld here. Please let us help you? How many of you are here?" I try.

Wrong answer!

In front of us the Jaffa raise to their feet, pointing their staffs at us and start shooting. I manage to shield R and Keira who are beside me. Harry shields agent Sidney and Corporal Davis, who were standing a bit in front of him to provide protection. Lieutenant Alcott and Sargent Pennock are not so lucky and are in the open. They are well trained and quick to react, yet no one is used to the space suits, and there is no shelter around. Alcott is down almost immediately. Pennock manages to return fire before being hit too.

Behind our shields, we return fire. R's handgun does nothing to the armoured Jaffa, unless she manages a headshot. Davis and Sidney are doing a little better with their light submachine guns, yet their bullets ricochet all over, and only a few penetrate. Have you ever seen Battlestar Galactica? – it's like shooting at Cylons. Harry moved from almost effective piercing spells into much more effective blasting ones. I Conjure some concrete blocks to hide behind, but those will not last for long. Cannot bring myself to use lethal magic.

Some slayer I am …

Stunning does almost nothing against those armoured men. Vanishing is surprisingly effective, especially when R, Davis, and Sidney notice what I'm doing and shoot down every person I've stripped of their armour.

"No use, masks on, we fall back". R cries over the comm.

Alcott and Pennock are hit, and their suits are no longer airtight. "You go back. Harry and I will bring them directly to Precious!" I call out, and stick Pennock to the floor. I do my best not to look at him.

Harry does the same for Alcott and opens the door long enough for our friends to be pulled out by the wind. I seal it back and hear Harry calls "Lumos!" The jaffa are crying in surprise and pain and are thrown back when I throw restraint to the wind and Banish them all away. We grab Alcott and Pennock and Apparate back to Precious. I can see Pennock now and promptly lose my lunch – inside my suit's helmet. Harry looks at Alcott and shakes his head helplessly. Pennock's breaths still and I Vanish his suit and shower him with healing spells. We need to get him back to the hospital – fast.

We tried to reason with the jaffa for about a week, but it was for no use. They were loyal to their gods, and willing to fight to their death, even when a win was not possible. At the end, a fresh company of agents and Commandos, using general-purpose machine guns, armour piercing ammo, and grenade launchers had to fight through most of them. We managed to Stun and save only six of the 50 some Jaffa still living on board. The poor fellas were trapped in a single corridor, near their barracks, in between the bridge and the hangar, with only life support, limited food, and no space suites to get out and about.

Took us a week to sort through the rest of the ship. It was a lot of effort, but we managed to transfer one of the roundish ships – an Al'kesh we were told by one of the Jaffa we saved, in between promises of death by his god's hands. We also picked up a few computers for research. We found many staff and snake weapons for us to convert, as well as damaged ships and fighters for us to remove power reactors, liquid Naquadah containers, computer cores, weapons, and ring platforms off of, for research, development, and use. What appeared to be the ship's main reactor looked whole, but we left it alone until we were more qualified to handle it. Same with the ship's remaining engines and bridge systems. The most interesting object was found in a hall connected to the bridge. In there stood a large, tall, Naquadah ring, with constellation symbols all around it.

"Navigation?" Keira asks, looking at the round planetary keyboard in front of it.

"Astria Porta", Harry answered. "Let's take it with us – We'll explain at the base".

Huge shout to flyboy38, my beta, who takes the time to make sure story is a much better read.

I'm still in need for someone British to go over this story as well, and help my British characters talk and act as they should. So if anyone's interested - please send me a message.

Cheers!
SFD