6 – Two Days Later
(Stargate Command – Briefing Room – 11.02.2022, 0800)
The table was full. President Quinn sat at the head of the table, with Brigadier Kersey and Colonel Cameron representing Stargate Command. They were in deep trouble, so the five negotiators from Hope Base were here. ~The last thing we need right now, is red tape.~ They needed common sense. Completing the group were Eli Wallace and Doctor Nicholas Rush. In front of them was pile of reports.
One written by Beckett, one by Zelenka, one from Lorne and one from Doctor Silva. Doctor Pamela Silva was from Brazil, where she had been a dentist. She had then become the mayor of several towns, each slightly bigger then the last one. It was from one of these posts that she had been recruited to become the head of the Pegasus Beta Site's civilian complement.
"Okay, people," Quinn began. "You've all read the reports. So, why have the Terrans not made another move ?"
"Frankly, sir," Kersey said. "We don't know. Both sites and all our allies have their ears to the ground. But things have gone eerily silent."
"What about Spera ?"
"Sergeant T'Zalo and Mister Colson earned their pay for the year, sir," Mitchell began. "They were able to shave a considerable chunk off their transit time, Mister President. She'll arrive at the Alpha Site around oh-nine-hundred hours tomorrow. But she will enter the Pegasus Galaxy in eight hours, boss."
"Good," Quinn said. "So, what else can we do ?"
"Nothing at the moment," Reginald Jones said. "But the Orpheus is going over the debris with a fine toothed comb. Once we have their report, we'll know more."
"So it's a waiting game for now ?"
"Actually," Eli began. "I have an idea."
"Let's hear it, Mister Wallace," Kersey said.
Eli smiled and then began explaining his plan.
(New Asuran Ship Orpheus – Bridge - 11.02.2022, 0804)
The debris field made zero sense. All the ships that made up Screen One had advanced shields. The Wraith should not have been able to get through them. And the Ori warship had basically made a suicide run against Atlantis. But then why had it fired on the Wraith before it took out the city ? Alexander hoped that his science officer – a female Asuran called Regina – would have some answers for him. Regina was scanning the debris and running an analysis. After a couple of minutes, there was a beep from her console.
"Regina ?" He paused. "Tell me you have something."
"I do, sir," Regina began. "I went through the last few seconds of telemetry and I've found a correlation. Many Wraith went into hibernation after the peace treaty was signed back in 2009. So the ships had far from a full crew. In fact, some of these ships were running with skeleton crews. So on a hunch…"
"You counted the crews of the vessels."
"And the five ships with the most complete crews…."
"…Are the ships that the Ori warship blew up ?"
"Yes, sir," Regina said. "And then it attacked the city. Based on the buffer, it fired five shots. Which should have not been enough to destroy the city. The shields should have held. Yet, the shields collapsed after two and then the ship was able to annihilate with just three shots."
"That should be impossible. So, please tell me you have a theory."
"I do, but you're not going to like it," He gave her a look that told her to tell him anyway. "The shield didn't collapse. They knew the frequency and set weapons to match. So when they fired, the energy went into the system and caused an overload. Then they targeted sections of the city that they would knew would create large secondary explosions."
"The drone storage room, the power control room, places like that ?"
"Yes, Captain," Regina said with a nod. "Places like that. And that's not all I've figured out. I've been running multiple scenarios on how a fight between the Wraith and Screen One would have gone down. And the computer keeps saying that the Wraith would have been unable to blast through the shields. Despite their numerical advantage, the Wraith should have been wiped out."
"This, I already know."
"True, but the new part is I've identified the weapons' signature. Both fleets were destroyed by the Terrans, as was the Ori vessel," She paused. "And before you ask how, the answer is drones. The same kind we and the city use. They probably did the same thing the Ori ship did when attacking Atlantis, targeting places that create secondary explosions. And if they used their entire supply of drones in this attack…"
"Then they wouldn't have any left for the attack on Sateda, which is why the local defenses wiped them out," Alex paused. "It also shows a level of arrogance. They presumed that would be able to wipe out the Satedans without drones. That they were the apex predators, even without them. Which might explain why they haven't made a move yet."
"They have, as the Tau'ri would say, taken a kick in the teeth. So they need to reevaluate their tactics."
"Which means that when they come back, they will hit us hard. This is bad."
"We need to report all this to our allies right away," He turned to Henry – a male with brown eyes and black hair - who was at the flight control console. "Henry, set course for Sateda at maximum speed. Regina, send our report to the Genii, Vanir and both Tau'ri sites."
"Yes, sir," Henry and Regina replied in unison.
Seconds later, Orpheus entered hyperspace and raced towards Sateda. As soon as she was gone, a Terran cargo ship decloaked above the surface of the Frozen Planet. There was a pause and then space rippled and the ship vanished.
(Stargate Command – Briefing Room – 11.02.2022, 0815)
While reading the reports, Eli had realized that they had a major problem. The only Ancient Communications Stones in Pegasus had been aboard Atlantis. And the city-ship had contained the only Stargate capable of connecting to the Milky Way Galaxy as well. Which had been why Spera had been sent there. Her Stargate had long-range dialing capacity. And once she was in place, they would be able to use her Gate to send people between the two galaxies again. So they would had needed to get creative. And it was then that Eli had remembered the city of Vanaheimr.
The city was a hybrid Ancient-Asgard design, but that didn't matter for Eli's plan. He was currently contacting the Orpheus and asked them if they could refit the city-ship with what it needed to do long-range dialing. They would then send a team to the Vanir capital. From there, they would dial to the Beta Site, since Spera already had the Alpha Site covered. While Eli was placing the call, Rush and the others were working on selecting the team.
"Captain Johansson for medical, Ginn for her knowledge of Ancient technology and Volker as team engineer," Valluy began. "Does SG-1 have any missions on their schedule for the next couple of days ?"
"Not anymore," Kersey said. "Colonel Mitchell, tell your team to gear up."
"Yes, sir," Mitchell said with a nod.
Mitchell walked out the briefing room to go find his team. He just hoped that Eli would get the answer they were hoping for. And they would be able to get to the Beta Site in time to do any good. ~Or else this will end up turning really nasty.~ Fortunately, he found the rest of SG-1 in Daniel's laboratory. So he began briefing them on the plan.
(Terran Warship – Cell - 11.02.2022, 0815)
Todd had been taken out of the cell several minutes after Sheppard had woken up. In the two days since, Sheppard and Banks had figured a few things about their situation. To begin with, Sheppard had gotten a glance at their captors when they had come to collect Todd. They were human, but not quite. The people who had taken Todd had worn black jumpsuits. There had been two of them and they had clearly been soldiers. But the odd thing was that they were both wearing one glove, as if to hide something.
The second piece of the puzzle had been Zara. Zara was a female slave, wearing a white jumpsuit with her name on her chest. She had gotten the task of providing Sheppard and Banks with food. But the enlightening part of her story was the fact that she was Wraith. And an adult one at that. It was when she had put down their food that Zara had provided them with their next clue. She lacked a feeding hand. And when she had left the cell, Banks had gotten a good look at what was outside. It had appeared to be a general corridor, until she had spotted a window. And beyond that window had been space. The view had also made it clear that the ship was moving at faster-then-light speed.
The fact that they were on a ship, had not stopped them from trying to escape. There was a small window near the top of the cell. Using the knives and one of the forks that came with their food, Banks had managed to pop the window out. The bad news was that it didn't bring them any closer to escaping. The good news was that it had allowed them to access another locked cell. And inside that cell, they had found the remains of a soldier. The man had been executed with some kind of energy weapon. Banks had taken off his glove to reveal that he had a feeding hand.
They had also studied his uniform. It was at this point that they had discovered that he was a Terran. The soldiers that had removed Todd, had apparently removed several patches and insignia from their uniforms. But the dead soldier was wearing his full uniform. And between them, Banks and Sheppard knew enough Latin to figure it out. Banks had just put the window back and hopped down when they heard the door open and the body being removed.
"That was close," Banks said.
"Or somebody is playing games," Sheppard said.
"So, what's our next move ?"
"We wait for breakfast."
Banks gave him a look, but Sheppard had a plan. When Zara had served them before, he had gotten the impression that she had been afraid of them. And now that he knew why she was afraid, he figured that he had a way in.
(USS Spera – Science Lab Two – 11.02.2022, 1133)
Laura Cadman had read the latest reports from Stargate Command and the Orpheus. The New Asurans had send their information on the debris field to the Alpha Site, which had then send it to Stargate Command. And the SGC had then send it to Spera. As soon as Cadman had read it, the report had set off alarm bells in her head. Orpheus had arrived two days after the attack. And yet, they had been able to get full and detailed scans. She was sitting at one of the workstations, going over the report.
"You wanted to see me, Colonel Cadman ?" Claus said as he came in.
"Yes, you're our expert on New Asuran sensors," Cadman paused. "The thing about this report that bugs me, is that this examination was done two days after the actual battle. Shouldn't all of this signatures have faded long before the ship got there ?"
"Good question," Claus began. "But in this case these are not particle signatures. Those do indeed fade within hours. Drones, however, drill through the shields and the hull of the target. And if you fire them in single shot mode, they leave a very distinctive hole in the hull. And those can be detected as long as the debris doesn't burn up in the atmosphere of the planet."
"And the Ori ship ? How do they know how many shots it fired ?"
"When an Ori warship fires it main weapon, it creates exotic particles. These particles are dangerous, so the weapon includes a buffer to contain them. We know how much charge there is in the buffer and how many particles a single shot creates. So then it's just a matter of dividing."
"Right. Say twenty percent charges, two percent per shot, means ten shots," Cadman paused. "What happens when the buffer is full ?"
"There's a converter. It turns the exotic particles into harmless neutrinos. The converter is the most advance piece of technology on the ship, but it requires a lot of power. Which is why they only use it when the buffer is full."
"So, Claus," Cadman said, while turning away from the workstation. "How do you know this much about Ori technology ?"
"Galaxy to galaxy crossings are LONG. Even New Asurans get bored," This made Cadman chuckle. "Reading the Stargate Command database was a good way to pass the time."
"Glad to hear that I didn't write all my reports for nothing. Speaking of reports, can you please write this up for Stargate Command. I'm going to bring Colonel Vale up to speed."
"Yes, ma'am."
Cadman left the lab, while Claus sat down at the workstation and got busy writing up the report. The report on the debris field had only been one of the reports the Orpheus had send. The New Asuran ship had arrived at Vanaheimr several hours ago and completed the modifications that Eli had asked them for. They had then calculated the Gate address, while had been transmitted to the Milky Way Galaxy Beta Site. The MW Beta Site had then dialed Vanaheimr. From there, Eli's team had then made their way to the Pegasus Beta Site.
She found Vale in his quarters, reading Claus' report. ~I forgot how fast New Asurans can work.~ The Colonel looked up as she came in. He had commanded the first shift, so he was now catching up on his paperwork. But that was not what Cadman noticed first. What she did notice was the fact that he had traded his Airman Battle Uniform for the tunic that came with his centurion uniform.
"Enjoying some down time, sir ?"
"One of the perks of being several million lightyears away from the brass, you can bend the rules a little." Vale said. "So, what brings you here ?"
"I see you got Claus report," Cadman said while sitting down on the bed. "So, what do you think ?"
"I think it's a good piece of clarification, but I still have plenty of questions," Vale said as he turned his chair to face Cadman. "We need to come up with a plan, so that we can get straight to work. What are SG-1 and company doing ?"
"The team arrived at the Pegasus Beta Site twenty-three minutes ago. They're brewing up a plan right now."
"Good, sounds like we're on the same page. Let's get to work."
Cadman nodded and that was exactly what they did.