Chapter 2.
Prometheus Launch Bay, Prometheus.
Walking onto the bridge was a surreal experience, I only ever saw this as a set on TV not as a real living breathing area where people worked, diligently did they work on consoles preparing all the necessary checks to get the ship ready for flight, the surreal feeling really hadn't left me in the week or so of being on this ship for her quick refit, but that kind of inner monologue was for some other time.
I looked over to the tactical station, brand new screens and user interface that would allow for better tracking and deployment of weapons systems, the older one was, for a lack of a better word, sub-standard.
The current master and commander of the ship William Ronson came over to ask if everything was ready to go and I gave my affirmative, it was time to get started.
Colonel Ronson sat down in the center seat and flipped the switch on the right of the armrest which just happened to be the ships intercom and addressed the crew.
"All hands this is the Captain, departure stations" he closed the internal channel, I could already see his crew was excited to get going and so was I. I headed over to the auxiliary engineering console on the bridge, it was feeding me all the data I needed on not only the new power core and hyperdrive but on the weapons and defensive systems as well.
"Colonel all systems show green across the board, we are ready to fly" I informed the Colonel.
"Excellent doctor, then lets be off, helm disengage docking clamps and clear all moorings, take us up!" he received a quick "Aye sir" and the sound of clunking, moving metal was heard through the bulkheads as the moorings and clamps retracted, the ship then began to rise and a soft steady thumping sound could be heard coming from the sublight engines -really need to upgrade those things- the sunlight tore through the forward view port -also something to look into- the ship then blasted off at a 45 degree angle, the ships inertial dampeners working hard to overcome the Gee's the ship was currently under, and before we knew it we were already in orbit.
"All right, set course for the testing site, lets see how our new hyperdrive does shall we." said Ronson, there was a sound of charging energy and I watched the power levels of the new hyperdrive as well as all power transfer leads climbing steadily, everything was perfect so far, the new powercore easily supplying power to the new drive quickly and efficiently, at least as efficiently as the Prometheus' design would allow.
"Sir the hyperdrive is charged and ready and in a 3rd of the time it normally takes I might add" commented the helmsmen.
Ronson turned his chair to me briefly with a grin to which I raised an amused eyebrow and a smirk in return, he then turned forward again and ordered "Take us to hyperspace".
Space tore open in a purple and blue cloud of subspace energy, and the Prometheus shot off like a rocket into the cloud, the hyperdrive humming away as we continued onward to our destination.
"We have entered hyperspace sir, eta to Abydos...forty three minutes!?" The confusion and suprise of the helm officer was understandable, although Abydos was no longer the closest world with a stargate to Earth thanks to the ancient database that O'niell had in his head it was still almost 2000 light years away, a journey with the old hyperdrive would have taken many days, Vizeer and I enhanced it even further from my initial design, I loved that little guy but there was nothing like getting your hands on the real thing to help you visualize even more enhancements.
"Doctor you are a indeed a miracle worker aren't you?" Quipped Ronson,
"Not seen anything yet sir, this is just the beginning" I quipped back, I heard a brief chuckle come from the man, it was strange, I normally believed William Ronson to be a no nonsense by the book kind of guy at least that's what the series portrayed him as, maybe he was more mellow than what was shown in the show.
The trip to Abydos was spent going over diagnostic screens as well as briefing the bridge crew a little more in depth about what we were doing, live fire tests on the surface of the now dead Abydos to measure destructive yields more effectively by measuring crater width and depth with sensors upon the surface of the planet.
I had auxiliary weapons and shields screens available to me so that I could deactivate a tactical element if necessary in case of overload or potential damage, it also allowed the same for the shields, and as luck would have it, it was about to be needed.
"Sir we are about to arrive at Abybos, 10 seconds" informed the helmsmen.
"Excellent, take us out of hyperspace and enter standard orbit".
"Aye sir" was heard from the helm, Ronson turned to me a few seconds before the ship transitioned to normal space to ask if I was ready for the tests, but my eyes were glued to the forward view port, where not one but two! Goa'uld Ha'tak class ships sat in orbit, my brain, functioning at a far higher rate of speed then anyone else's on the bridge saw the ships and processed a response, my hands moved like lightning.
"Shields up!" I shouted as I brought the system online, and just in time as I just saw the first bolts of plasma energy flash from both Goa'uld vessels as they begun pounding on the new shields. Ronson whipped around in his seat, the heavy pounding of the Prometheus' shields easily audible around the bridge. "I am rotating shield harmonics to counter as much of the enemies incoming fire as possible", the thumping sounds within the bridge became more distant as the shields countered more of the force of incoming fire.
"Report!" ordered Ronson, the tactical officer responded.
"Sir we have two Goa'uld Ha'tak class ships bearing down on us at 10 thousand kilometers out, shields are holding, we got lucky sir, had Doctor Felger not reacted as fast as he did they would have gotten the drop on us."
I also added my two cents into the report of the current situation "Colonel if sensors are correct, the power levels coming from these two Ha'tak correspond to the same energy levels we have seen in the type two variants, that's the same as the Goa'uld Sokar's technology, if I had to hazard a guess, another Goa'uld got curious as to what Anubis' super weapon could do and came to see what the fuss was about. Sir we wont get a better chance to test the new weapons then this"
"Are you positive your weapons will be effective Doctor, I wont risk the Prometheus or her crew for an experiment." said Ronson, I could understand his hesitation, the Prometheus had yet to come up against these kind of odds before, and with her original weapons, she would have no hope of coming out on top, as sad a commentary as that was.
"Hundred percent sir, I recommend we begin attacking immediately, I suggest dedicating 3 turrets to each ship on assault mode, should be more then enough firepower to hold them back." I said.
"Agreed, weps make it happen!" ordered the Colonel, he received an affirmative from the tactical officer and few seconds later we could feel and hear (somewhat) the report of the new plasma repeaters, the level of weapons fire from the new turrets was staggering, even at 400 rounds per minute you could visibly see the 2 attacking ships being pushed back from the incoming fire for a moment.
I looked down at the sensors which I had trained on the enemy shields, they were taking a hell of a beating.
"Sir sensors indicate enemy shields are down 25 percent and falling rapidly, I would recommend sending a few Talons in to see how they fare against an enemy of this strength".
Ronson was a little floored at how easily the Prometheus was handling this situation, not only were the shields holding, but they had only been firing at the enemy for 20 seconds or so the enemies shield strength was down nearly 30 percent! These new plasma repeaters were really something else, how would the missiles fare, 'well only one way to find out' he thought.
"Weps, prep a spread of Talons, naquadah/potassium load outs, lets see what our new missiles can do."
"Yes sir! Weapons ready, targets locked" replied the weapons officer.
"Fire!" and the order was given.
Ten angry orange glowing objects zoomed out of the launch tubes, faster then any previous missiles system employed by Earth, they moved like a man possessed, easily evading enemy fire and seconds later they struck their targets, five missiles each impacted the enemy Ha'tak, three struck the shields causing massive damage to the left flanking ship, two of the missiles bypassing the shields altogether, striking amidships, the vessel taking massive damage from the naquadah-potassium warheads, the shield collapsed, secondary explosions were seen and then the Goa'uld ship went up in an impressive fireball, the right flanking Ha'tak fared a similar death around the same moment, but this time three of the missiles went through the shields, the resulting fireball was just as impressive as the first, both ships were destroyed, and the Prometheus victorious.
Silence filled the bridge, although I couldn't really tell, I was looking over the diagnostics of the weapons, shields as well as the data from the missiles we launched, all showing me there could be improvements here and there, I also was frowning a bit, something was bothering me.
"Doctor Felger – that got my attention – it would appear that your weapons and enhancements performed far above what you advertized, and I will be endorsing these weapons to be added to the 304s design immediately as well as requesting the Prometheus gets a full refit for the rest of the emplacements, congratulations doctor!" There was actual clapping and cheering, wait was I getting a standing ovasion? Oh my god I was!
"Thank you sir, thank you all and I appreciate the endorsement sir, I am sure our ships will be getting a reputation with our enemies soon, one they will be afraid of." "Hear hear!" said someone off to the side, the crew got back to their stations and went about their business of scanning the area for more hostiles as well as searching the debris field for anything useful, I was still frowning, a thought digging into my head a bit, so much so that I hadn't noticed Colonel Ronson approaching me.
"You know, that's not the face of a happy man, although for the life of me I can't see why, especially after what you have accomplished here today, whats on your mind Doctor?" I looked at the Colonel, I couldn't really help myself, it was really bothering me since the encounter with the two Ha'taks ended.
"Well sir, its just, it took too long." His confusion was easy to see and he asked what I had meant by that, my response floored and confused him even more. "The fight with those to ships – I shrugged – it just took to long."
After we returned to Earth several hours earlier then we should have from our mission, as our tests were supposed to take a full day of reviewing the weapons systems, we were brought before the Area 51 base commander a General David Walsh as well as General George Hammond and his second in command Colonel Jack O'niell, others in the room included the rest of SG-1 and Colonels Ronson, Caldwell as well as Lionel Pendergast which was a surprise of course, no more then the Secretary of Defense, after it was heard that we had an encounter with not one but two Ha'tak class ships and returned unscathed, well a full debrief was always in the cards at that point.
Colonel Ronson had just finished summarizing his report on the encounter, but it was easy to see everyone was having trouble wrapping there heads around the situation, this was verbalized by General Hammond himself.
"Let me get this straight Colonel, not only did you encounter two Goa'uld Ha'tak class ships, but you determined that both vessels were in fact of the more powerful variety, Sokar level if you report is accurate and not only did you not sustain any damage but you in fact destroyed both vessels within the span of only a minute?!"
"Yes, sir that is exactly what I am saying, more over, if you and all those here would allow, Doctor Felger has accessed the telemetry for the battle which we would like to play for you now", answered Ronson.
Surprise and curiosity from all those present except from myself and the Prometheus' Captain, the General took a moment to confer with the SecDef as well as O'niell and the other Colonels, both indicating their mutual curiosity, I could also see Teal'c, Daniel and Major Carter with similar signs of interest, but they were all curious about what the video would show, they had heard about what happened but hadn't actually read the reports for themselves, I am sure some of the others who had read them thought there was more then a little embellishment, which was the main reason for pulling the telemetry for that battle as quickly as I did.
Receiving a nod of agreement from the group Colonel Ronson turned to me and said, "whenever you're ready Doctor" to which my response was only a nod and then I pressed play. What came next was a master class of multiple expressions of surprise, shock, confusion, excitement and hope. The video wasn't very long only a few minutes but they got the full view of the battle, they heard all the dialogue from the bridge and everything we did in the heat of the battle, they were all quite impressed to say the least.
"Well I think I can say for all those here that that was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen, I had read up on some of the things that you had come up with Doctor Felger, and I am sorry to say I thought it was just a bit to much to hope for, but you sir have proved me wrong, and I have never been happier to say that in my life, thank you for everything you have done so far son" said the Secretary of defense.
"No thanks necessary sir, there is still plenty to do, I have quite a few more ideas rolling around up here, and if you will allow me, I think our country and our world will be in for a safer time out there then we have currently had."
The SecDef was nodding his head and smiling up a storm, he mentioned wanting to show the president the video and telling him of me and the progress I had made in the defense of Earth and our interests, I thanked him and said I would have a copy of the video made before he left for the White House later today, he was very thankful, I think I just made a new friend, I like making friends.
Teal'c was thoroughly impressed with the weapons Doctor Felger had created, he had not heard or seen Ha'tak class ships destroyed with such ease before, not counting Anubis' super weapon, an Asgard ship or a supernova, he was a little curious as to why the good doctor was only now showing his capabilities with these new ideas, but he decided it as it was not necessary to think about, but he did believe he had seen a great step in the right direction for the Tau'ri and his peoples eventual freedom.
Samantha Carter was confused, she was elated about the prospects these new weapons and technologies would do for Earth and its defense, but also wildly confused at the source of the changes, had she misjudged Jay Felger so harshly before? Perhaps, she was old enough to know that first impressions didn't always show a persons true self but in the end she just decided to be happy about the situation, she was also thinking about the F-302s and their useless hyperdrives, could these new powercores be the answer to that problem, something to look into.
Daniel Jackson had only recently returned to this plane of existence and already so much had changed, could Earth finally be getting something they could effectively use to end Goa'uld supremacy in the galaxy, if the video was to be believed the answer to that was yes, sure he wasn't naive enough to believe that all their problems were solved now, but if they could establish a proper presence in the galaxy, maybe the Jaffa would jump at the chance for freedom knowing that there was a world out there with the effective mean of defending themselves from their so called gods, thankfully he never had an opinion on Doctor Felger and so took him at face value as he was now.
Jack O'niell was a simple man, give him a gun and point him at the enemy and he'll beat that enemy to death with it, maybe shoot him first, whatever works. His first opinion of Felger was not a good one, he honestly thought the man incompetent although there was that one time where Sg-1's mission went down the toilet and Felger and Coombs of all people turned up dressed, very poorly he might add, as Jaffa and got them out of that situation, sure O'niell, regrettably, owed the bumbling doctor a solid for that one but, but it would seem the Doc had an attitude adjustment of some kind and had pulled out some decent space guns! Sure not big honking ones but from what the video showed they did the trick just as well, things were looking up, and his opinion of Felger went up several notches and he couldn't wait to see what the future could bring.
Major General George Hammond reviewed the video telemetry a few more times on a tablet laptop he had in his hands, after all the struggles and hardships, Earth final seemed to have a chance against this relentless enemy of theirs, his family, especially his granddaughters where always in his thoughts when they fought back every incursion, every attack and what ever horrors the galaxy threw at them, he did this all for them in the end, to keep them safe, well tonight he would sleep a little easier knowing that the Earth was finally getting a more effective means of protection for his family, his people, his world, if Doctor Felger could accomplish this then whatever other ideas he had he would back wholeheartedly.
The debriefing was finished, and we all began leaving the room, Colonel Caldwell came by the congratulate me on a job well done and to tell me that my new team was ready and waiting for me when I was done with Prometheus, I once again told the Colonel at least two weeks for the refit to be complete but once I was done I would head over to the 304 design rooms, Caldwell accepted this with ease once again and told me that he was excited to see what I came up with in the future.
One week later down in construction lab three, Vizeer and I were having one of our many long conversations about what ever took our fancy as we worked, already we had the rest of the weapon emplacements ready for installation as well as a large bank of Talon missiles ready to fit into the magazines, I was watching the dock workers putting the equipment on travel beds and taking them to the Prometheus launch bay as well as tinkering with new designs on my laptop, three of which were very important designs that would help leapfrog our technology base several generations in a stretch, but I will come back to these in a bit.
In talking to Vizeer, I asked questions about old Asgard technologies, as one of the foremost technologists of his people he was happy to talk about some of the oldest and interesting tech aspects his people developed on their journey to where they were now, one of those questions I asked was what did the Asgard use as FTL before hyperspace if any, the answer was very interesting.
"We used a spatial distortion drive to reach faster then light velocities, they were not particularly fast in the early days of their creation but they allowed us to begin exploring the stars, we even used spatial catapults to send off supplies to distant colonies instead of using whole ships, which were a rare commodity at that point in time, the only things the cargo containers needed were a set of subspace field stabilizers which would allow the containers to continue its journey to the target system which would then be retrieved by the colonies sublight craft."
"Wow" I said. "That's some pretty impressive stuff Viz -I call him Viz now- what about construction? I know the Asgard now use complete virtual creation and materialization for the construction of you ships, but what did you use before that?"
"Ah an interesting question, we used autonomous construction drones which would build our vessels quickly, a vessel, let us say a Bilisner class ship would take approximately 12 weeks of construction time, which is quite impressive even with our current technological advancement" answered Vizeer.
Some very interesting pieces of information, why you may ask, well Viz had allowed me limited access to the Asgard terminal for design and simulation purposes, and I took to it like a house on fire, but I focused on one specific thing, something I had been designing in secret for a while, almost since I had arrived in this world, of course thanks to the Asgard terminal I had a far better chance to succeed in my endeavor then before, especially if what the simulator was showing me was accurate, I had no way to test equipment, I couldn't quite create it myself without someone making inquires about what the purpose of this device was, I am of course talking about the AR weapon, or Anti-Replicator weapon.
I knew it was a programmable energy wave generator capable of targeting the specific subatomic frequency the bonds between nanites functioned at and with my work on high energy projection of the plasma repeaters as well as the phase generators, I found i could program energy fields for specific tasks, with that in mind and with the harmonic amplification technologies use of targeted subatomic energy I had all I needed to make a working device, and according to the Asgard computer terminal, all simulations were positive, my plan to bargain directly with the Asgard was about to begin.
I had asked for a week break after the refit of Prometheus which was out on trial runs playing with its new toys, Colonel Ronson was like a figurative cat the caught the canary walking around with a big smile and a skip in his step when he saw his ship fully kitted out with the new weapon systems, I could hear Caldwell mutter under his breath "Lucky bastard" which was amusing, but he'll get his ship soon enough and much sooner then he did in the canon timeline if I had anything to say about it.
With the week free approved so I could come back in fresh faced and ready to jump on the BC-304 designs, I walked into construction lab 3, finding Vizeer once again at the terminal doing, something or other I decided to say hello and ask my question, one that could very well be the biggest step in the way Earth moves forward into the universe.
"Viz" I called out my presence,
"Jay? I had thought you were given time off for rest, have you forgotten something?" asked the Asgard, it was now or never.
"Viz can I ask you something? -Receiving a nod I continued- I was was wondering what are the Asgards plans for when the Replicators break free of the time dialation device?"
I could tell I surprised him with that. "W-well we believe we have plenty of time to come up with a solution, many thousands of years will go by before that happens though, although it makes my people nervous to think about, still, we are...optimistic that we will find a favorable solution". I could already tell this line of questioning is bothering him greatly for more then one reason, we had spoken on the horrors his people had suffered at the mechanical hands or legs of the Replicators, the racial scars ran very deep with them, I hope my plan will help I truly did.
I pull a chair to me and sit down in front of the diminutive Asgard and I place a hand on his shoulder. "Vizeer, I can already tell there's something wrong, they'll break out sooner then you first thought, wont they." it was a statement, I already knew they knew, still his surprise was evident.
"H-how did...Yes my friend we are quickly running out time, most likely by the end of the year they will have found away, we have a plan to destabilize the star in the system to create a black hole to crush them it is our hope that this will finally destroy them for good." Vizeer's hope was palpable, his peoples cloned bodies may no longer be as expressive as they originally were but you could still hear the hope in his voice, I really wanted to give the little guy a hug.
"Viz, what if I told you I may have a way for your people to end the Replicator threat once and for all, would that be worth something to your people?" I was being a dick, I knew it, you know it but I had to do this for the sake of the Earth and her people as well, if, no when O'niell hears I bargained on the Asgard's fear of the Replicators I knew I was gonna get a sock to the jaw but I knew it would be worth it.
Vizeer took a long measured look at me and said. "What did you have in mind Jay?" I continued on from his question
"Lets suppose I have developed something, something that could target the Replicators in such a specific way that you could be done with them in a single moment, would the Asgard high council be interested in such technology?"
Vizeer paused for a moment, then to my surprise he turned around quickly and pressed a few commands on the terminal console and before I could ask what was going on I heard the tale tale hum of an Asgard transporter, and he and I were transported to his ship which remained in orbit above the Earth. "A little warning next time Viz, please" I said in jest hoping to alleviate some on the tension I think had just brewed between us.
"Jay is what you say true? Do you have a way to end this scourge once and for all?"
"I do believe so my friend, but I need to bargain with the high council for some things first, its only fair" I said. Please buy it, please buy it, please buy it!
"You are correct of course, this is an opportunity for both our peoples, you were right to not squander it, I shall send a transmission to the Asgard high council, they should convene immediately to hear you proposal".
Well thank space christ I was wearing smart casual, little guy works fast, I was just about to ask how long it would take as I saw him hunched over his console when all of a sudden the room went dark and a white circle appeared beneath me, I was about to ask Vizeer what was going on when I heard the sounds of Asgard chatter in their native language, I looked up and I found myself in a massive auditorium surrounded by a several hundred Asgard.
In front of me sat several more all with some form of adornment, most likely indicating status, I made sure to stand respectfully but casually, I was no O'niell after all, there would be no name calling from me if I didn't get my way.
The central Asgard spoke, his voice a few octaves deeper the Vizeer's, must be the high chancellor I thought to myself. "Doctor James Felger, I am Odin high chancellor of the Asgard we have been contacted by Vizeer and informed of a proposal you wish to make to the Asgard people with a possible solution to our Replicator issue, please speak and we will listen."
Time to shine, I bowed then straightened myself looking to all of the counselors but paying more direct attention to Odin himself. "High chancellor, counselors I would like to thank you all on agreeing to this meeting at such short notice and if it has inconvenienced any of you in someway I offer my apologies, with that out of the way, what I offer is the end of the replicator problem, now I understand that in the thousands of years of your war with this technological terror you have probably heard such a statement time and time again, all to be for not, what I have created will end them and I offer a preliminary look at the weapon I have designed." I access my laptop in tablet form which I brought with me and I sent to Vizeer the preview look of the AR emitter, he in turn forwarded it to the Asgard high council, in moments I was seeing my design floating as a holographic image in front of me, I could hear many an Asgard chattering about what they could see.
I continued on, "As you can see, my work on energetic amplification and high energy projection has brought about this design, to put it simply it is a programmable energy wave emitter, capable to targeting the specific subatomic frequency of the bonds that bind all replicator cells together, and disrupts them permanently, they will be for lack of a better word dead. -more chattering- I am willing to give the Asgard the full design, for a price."
Odin and the other counselors were looking at the design with keen eyes, had this human actually solved the one thing that has plagued them for so long, perhaps he should ask his son's council, opening up a transmission to Thor's vessel he appeared before him as well as everyone as a large 2d image floating ahead of him in the space between himself and the human."Supreme commander Thor I assume you have been listening?"
"I have High chancellor, it is a very intriguing design, I am curious as to why O'niell or Daniel Jackson are not the ones making this offer, or taking part in these negotiations" commented Thor.
"A sound question supreme commander, what say you James Felger?" was the question Odin returned to me.
So this was the legendary Thor, I had always wanted to meet the guy, hopefully I could get him on my good side. "First let me say it is a pleasure to finally meet you Supreme commander, Colonel O'niell speaks very highly of you –Thor gave a short nod- as to an answer to the question posed, this deal is not with my government or my world specifically, but between the Asgard people and myself as an individual, if the negotiations are a success I shall inform my superiors personally, if they are not, well they need not know, it is better that the relationship between the Asgard and Earth remain as is rather then any possible issues caused by myself, although I do not in anyway see such things happening it was what I thought best at the time" I finished.
Thor hummed curiously, this human was intriguing, even O'niell hesitated a bit when he was face to face with the council, yet this human did not, in fact he was taking this all in stride, very interesting indeed, he nodded to his father, let us see where these talks go.
Odin speaks once more "We appear to be in agreement, we are interested in this technology, now James Felger, what is it you want for this, what can the Asgard offer you?"
I looked up at the council, and then Thor, this was it, the moment that causes the greatest change for our world, no hesitation, you know what to do. " The answer to that is simple High chancellor Odin, what I want. Is half.