Ba'al's Mothership, four minutes ago.
As Ba'al slowly got off the debris covered floor of his bridge, he pulled himself up to his feet by grabbing a side of one of the consoles. He looked around as he got to his feet and saw that his bridge crew, his Jaffa, were killed. He rushed to another console which was blinking on and off, and pressed down on a couple of buttons. He coughed from the dust that kicked up along with the showers of sparks that were falling down from the ceiling and out of several other consoles.
He had been so close to having everything he wanted. So very close.
Ba'al stared at the hologram depicting his ship a few inches above his console, and slammed his fist down on the hard metal surface in anger. His ship was virtually destroyed, and as he looked round at the destruction around him on the bridge, he saw that his Jaffa lay dead. He looked back a the hologram and saw he had no more weapons, his shield generators were destroyed, he lost nearly all of his Jaffa and Kull Warriors throughout the ship to either explosions or the vacuum of space. Screaming in anger after moving to another hologram, Ba'al discovered that his escape ship had also been damaged, as was the main weapon powered by the Eyes of the Gods; in fact, the main weapon was floating in space after having been sheared off by the drone weapons from Atlantis.
He didn't know how the Tau'ri had gotten so many ships ready in so short of a time; but that didn't matter. It was a thought that he pushed back to the back of his mind as he limped to another console while his ship shook again from weapons impacts. He heard a groan throughout the ship and simply knew that more sections of the ship were being destroyed by the combined Pegasus Alliance fleet.
Reaching another console, the injured Ba'al… his left leg bleeding profusely from several cuts, limped to the controls. Once at the controls, he pressed down on a control dome and watched as a holographic interface popped up. He stared at the anti-beaming technology being deactivated in various areas of the ship before he switched the interface to one showing the Earth's sun.
It was a back-up solution he hoped never would have to be used. Ba'al really did want to have the population of Earth kept alive. He wanted to be a benevolent emperor who ruled the entire galaxy. And he wanted Quetesh by his side. But now? Now there was no hope of that happening. No galactic wide empire for Ba'al. No Earth, the planet he desired, and the people on that planet he grudgingly admired.
'They have made their peace with this rebellion,' Ba'al thought to himself as he pressed in a code known only to him at a numeric panel, 'I offered them a choice to be ruled by me. A rule where they would live ordered lives…. Yes, they would be slaves… but an ordered life, but they refused. So now…" Ba'al stared out the viewport at Earth, and then back down at the console in front of him. 'They chose to fight. So Earth will be taught a lesson. I would rather burn the atmosphere of the planet… I would rather burn every human on the planet than let it be free without me at the helm.' He pressed a few more buttons just as a weapons platform in orbit of the sun decloaked.
Just then, there were screeching sounds all around him while Ba'al's hand hovering over the button that would fire a beam of energy from the shielded weapon into the sun. When there were flashes of lights all around him, Ba'al pressed down on the button. With a sense of accomplishment, Ba'al looked up from the console after the light faded to see a face he didn't think he would see again.
"General Jack O'Neill," Ba'al smirked before his eyes shifted to Daniel, "Dr Daniel Jackson", both of whom raised their weapons at him. Ba'al then stared at the three other males and one woman who were in reverse engineered Kull armour with weapons trained on him. Ba'al managed to glimpse 'SG-1' etched on their upper arm armour plates before looking away at the six young women who had weapons aimed at him too. The primary difference with these women were the long cylindrical devices on their hips. Ba'al sights shifted back to the General and tilted his head slightly, "I have to say that I am surprised to find you still alive after so long."
"Oh you know, Bacchii," quipped the General using his favourite insult as he took a step forward, weapon aimed at the Goa'uld's chest, "I eat heathy, exercise.. oh, and I do yoga too."
"Really?" Daniel asked while his weapon was aimed at Ba'al's chest. The Colonel then shrugged while Daniel rolled his eyes upwards. Turning their attention back to Ba'al, General O'Neill ordered SG-1 to begin copying the ship's specifications and data while Daniel asked the Slayers to give them cover in case there were Kull warriors on the way to the bridge. The entire time, Ba'al had a grin on his face as he stared at the General, the man he had tortured for days on end hundreds of years ago. General O'Neill noticed the smile just as there was a flash of light that creeped into the bridge of the ship from outside.
The group turned and stared out the window only to see the Persephone entering hyperspace. And then Ba'al chuckled. The group turned back towards him with the General rushing at him with teeth gritted. For his old age, the General was still spry thanks to the nanites in his bloodstream that retarded his aging. And the General knew Ba'al, all of them did; the Goa'uld wouldn't be laughing, with his fleet destroyed and his ship nearly disabled, unless he had some sort of back-up plan. The General grabbed the man by his collars, and then pushed him down and held him against the console, "what did you do?"
"Earth refused my guidance and rule," Ba'al whispered as Jon's voice crackled over the radio. Everyone stared at each other in stunned silence upon hearing of the prominence rising on the surface of the sun, causing a possible Coronal Mass Ejection that would be heading their way. Ba'al stared at the stunned faces and then laughed hysterically before he kicked the distracted General's knee.
General O'Neill yelped as he let go of Ba'al's collars, who then raised his leg and kicked out at the General, pushing him away. The Goa'uld then heard rounds being chambered in the weapons behind him. He saw the General stumbled back before looking over his shoulder; Ba'al then saw the General crumble onto the floor as time started to slow down.
Ba'al was about to turn around when one shot rang through the bridge, followed by a searing pain in his shoulder as a bullet tore through the flesh and bone. Ba'al turned and glared at the weapon, while his hand covered the bullet would, that Daniel was holding up. It aimed at him while the other members of SG-1 were preparing to fire. The other women were holding up blades of light as they surrounded him. He glared at the group around him and knew that their end was coming. With the Fall of Earth, the lynchpin of the Federation would be gone… the Tau'ri homeworld would be destroyed.
And Ba'al would live to pick up the pieces.
All calculations were made before the attack on Earth; the weapon placed in orbit around the sun was aimed at a specific set of coordinates that would ensure the resulting Mass Coronal Ejection shot at the planet and the immediate space around it. He and Quetesh had already simulated the stripping away of the atmosphere, the irradiation of the surrounding space, and the death of all life on the planet. The two of them were so sure of the destruction zone that the mothership was placed in a safezone.
But it was a fall back plan. Until now.
"Bastard!" the General punched Ba'al who stumbled back into the console while Daniel ordered SG-1 to tap into the crystals and download all information about the improvements made to the technology on the Mothership. In the meantime, Ba'al crumbled to the floor of the ship after General O'Neill shot him with a stun weapon. Taking a deep breath, the General turned to one member of SG-1, Lieutenant Lim, and ordered him to access the hyperdrive schematics for the ship before turning to the Slayers and telling them to take out any Kull Warriors that were coming their way. "Once it's all done, delete all the information, and activate the hyperdrive's self-destruct."
"How about the power source, Jack?" asked Daniel before mentioning he was sure Starfleet would want their people to comb through the computers.
"Copy all information on the power core, and then delete it" the General said nodding his head, "we'll leave…" The General looked over Daniel's shoulder with his eyes narrowed. It was then that Daniel and the others turned towards the viewport and saw Atlantis leaving Earth's atmosphere and heading for the Sun. Shaking his head, the General then continued in a whisper, "Get to work people."
New Terra, hundreds of years ago; Lisa aged Seven years.
Ever since Lisa could talk, she had dreams of what she wanted to be when she grew up. One time she wanted to be a teacher, an engineer, an actor, and even a writer. She even wanted to command a starship. And that was her dream ever since Willow took her Goddaughter on a tour of the Talon. But it was after Buffy and Xander told her about her potential as a Slayer that Lisa really knew what she wanted to be when she grew up.
Two years after the ball of light had darted into her, identifying her as a Potential Slayer, Lisa learned the truth about Buffy. That's when she learned about the Slayer and her responsibilities, and Lisa listened in awe to every Buffy said as she sat on Buffy's lap. Lisa listened in silence as Xander told her about how her grandpa Giles, Aunt Willow, himself, and Buffy saved Earth numerous times when they were in High School. Lisa listened in stunned silence as Buffy and Xander told her about how Angel and Cordelia helped out in their early days.
Ever since then, Lisa wanted to hear stories of Buffy's adventures as bedtime stories. Buffy and Xander would chuckle when Lisa would pout after being told that Slayer stories weren't meant for bedtime. However, they gave in and told Lisa sanitized stories about their adventures.
It would be on her tenth birthday that Lisa told Buffy and Xander that she wanted to be a Slayer. However, the reacts of the two adults reaction were different than what Lisa thought it would be. There wasn't pride in Buffy's eyes while she stood stunned at the revelation Lisa's dream request, there was fear. While Xander walked over to his daughter, who was seated at the table and ready to eat dinner, Buffy shook her head and then grabbed the pan of roasted beef and brought it to the table.
"It's not a fun life, Lisa," Buffy whispered as she glanced at her daughter while placing the pan on the table, "it may seem like fun and games now but…." Buffy stood up and walked over to Lisa and placed her hand on the back of the little girl's head as she sat on her chair, "but I remember the nightmares of…" Buffy then closed her eyes and took a deep breath before shaking her head, "I still have nightmares."
"But…"
"I thought you wanted to command a starship," Xander added as he placed the plates on the table while Lisa swung her legs off the edge of her seat, "like Willow? Wasn't that your dream job when she took you to see her old ship for your birthday."
"I want to do both," Lisa whined looking at Xander, and then at Buffy, and back to Xander, "please, Daddy? Mommy? Daddy?"
"You have time, kiddo," Xander said while he and Buffy sat down to eat, "you have plenty of time. And who knows, maybe you'll become a writer like your old man."
Eventually Lisa became both; a Slayer and the commander of her own ship. But Buffy and Xander wanted her to have a normal childhood, not one where she would be taught about demons, vampires, monsters, magic, and various other aspects of the supernatural in addition to the normal Elementary, Middle, and High school subjects at the Slayer Academy.
Instead, Buffy put Lisa into New Sunnydale Elementary with the latter going up to, and then graduating New Sunnydale High. The eighteen-year own Lisa was then given the option to have the nanites injected into her body so that her aging would be slowed down, in addition to the other welcome benefits, and she agreed. After the nanite injection, Willow sponsored her application into the Fleet Academy- the Pegasus version of the former Air Force Academy on Earth.
After graduating with her Masters degree, Second Lieutenant Lisa Harris-Summers talked to Buffy about being activated as a Slayer. This time, Buffy agreed. It would be a year later that Lisa was activated as a Slayer and sent to the Slayer Academy for training.
It would be hundreds of years later that the time dilation devices were deactivate, and the war against the Wraith began anew. Lisa was a part of the reformed SG-1 led by the Senior Slayer, Faith. SG-1, SG-1, SG-3 and three squads of five Slayers in Kull armour were sent through the Stargate to a world that was known to be a Wraith cloning facility. Ships had already launched throughout the galaxy for the former Milky Way humans to reintroduce themselves to the humans in Pegasus, but the first strike… the first blood spilled in the renewed war was at the cloning facility.
It was at that first battle that Lisa understood the difference between training lifetimes for battle, and actually doing it in real life. That day three Slayers died, as did three from SG-2 and SG-3. It was the day that Lisa understood that the Krull Armour and the facial shields would prevent the energy weapons from affecting them but that didn't help against the Wraith feeding on them. Lisa's heart was racing that day as she took cover alongside Faith in the cloning facility; she was there when news came in that the three Slayers and the three SG personnel died.
"All Slayer," Faith said through her radio as Lisa, her Kinetic Energy Weapon in hand, turned and shot at the Wraith coming towards them through the dimly lit hallway, "I know you're scared. I know this is the real thing. We can mourn the losses of our sisters later, we can bring this whole place down in their memory. Push aside that fear." Lisa looked at Faith who was encouraging the Slayers not to give in to their fear of the Wraith. That they needed to be calm, to push their fear to one side and be who they were supposed to be; Slayers. Lisa listened to Faith, and then she stared at the more than nine Wraith coming towards them from all sides.
"Major," Lisa said as she looked towards another hallway where the second in command of SG-1, Curt Halsey, was firing at the Wraith coming from the opposite Hallway. The young man looked over at Lisa who said, "Cover me?"
The Major nodded his head as he and the rest of SG-1 continued to open fire. Lisa then turned to Faith who was smiling back at her while holstering her weapon, and taking out the cylindrical weapons. Faith nodded her head before ordering Major Halsey, "you, Lisa, and Mags take the ones on the south, and the rest of us take the ones coming from the North." Halsey nodded his head after taking cover once again as Lisa and Faith rushed into either side of the hallway. They activated their light blades, Faith holding onto one that shone blue… her favourite colour, and Lisa held onto two that shone yellow.
As each Wraith fell that first day, Lisa's confidence grew. The confidence of the other Slayers grew, as did the confidence of the other soldiers and ship crews. That day, the first Wraith cloning facility fell to the Pegasus Alliance. But there were hundreds more throughout the Galaxy.
Soon, the Wraith pushback began.
Willow, Buffy, General Carter, O'Neill, Daniel, Thor, Xander, Anya – they were all on the front line together with Lisa and the others as the war continued. And only a few days ago, the Alliance finally won. The Wraith threat was neutralised.
The Persephone, present day, three minutes earlier.
The Aurora-class Persephone, a class slightly modified from the one the Ancients used thousands of years ago in Pegasus, came out of hyperspace and immediately raised her shields. Lisa was on the activated command chair, the back of the chair angled at forty-five degrees with the bottom pedestal glowing, as she mentally rerouted the power from the hyperdrive adding to the power already transferred from all weapons, life support from every deck except the bridge, and the internal shielding system to the exterior shields. Only communications were still active with the shields running at sixty five percent, and still increasing. Lisa hoped that by the time the particle stream hit, the shields would be at least eighty percent.
Even then, Lisa didn't know how long the shields, which were not designed to handle and energy blast of this magnitude, could last under the bombardment of the particle stream that she knew was coming; she saw the superheated plasma arch up from the surface of the sun… at least that's the last thing she saw before the tactical hologram that had been covering the forward viewport vanished due to the power transfer. Now, all she could do was mentally do an approximate count down to the collapse of the prominence just below her ship. Once the power was transferred to the shields, and the ship stopped at the set of coordinates provided by the computer, Lisa sat back upright and looked away from the harsh light coming through the forward viewport.
The Persephone was parked at an angle with the hope that once the stream hit the shields, it would be diverted away from Earth. Hopeful that the ship would divert the stream, Lisa jumped off the chair and felt the air around her starting to heat up. She ran to the bulkhead behind her and placed her palm on a panel with the words 'Authorised Personnel only' inked above it. She wanted to retrieve her weapons, the very ones that identified her as a Slayer, and then she was going to rush into one of the twelve life pods that were accessible from the bridge- one for each bridge crew. The life-pod had independent power supplies that would be able to launch her into space, and then she could use the short range hyperdrive to get to Earth.
At least that was the plan. Lisa knew that the Persephone was going to be destroyed no matter what happened. It was just a matter of delaying the inevitable in the hope that Atlantis would be able to encircle the Earth with its shield.
Once her hand was on the panel, Lisa watched it flash red, and then a steady green a second later. Then, with a 'hiss', another panel to the left opened up to reveal a recess containing two silver cylindrical objects; both had a red button near the top of each cylinder. Lisa reached in, grabbed the two cylinders before she looked over her shoulder at the forward viewport, and her eyes widened at the collapsing prominence.
It was then that Lisa heard Dawn yelling at her through the communication system, "Lisa, do you hear me!"
Lisa knew she underestimated the time it would take for the prominence to collapse. She thought she would have a few more seconds before she could exit the ship. Lisa remembered reading up on the Daedalus incident hundreds of years ago when it too was sent to divert a Coronal Mass Ejection poised to hit Lantea from the Lantean sun. She knew the crew was lucky then, they not only had a ZPM powering the shield…. Just as she did… but the stream lasted for two minutes, and they had a fully powered shield. And even with the ZPM powered Asgard shields, the Daedalus was considerably damaged.
Back on the Persephone in the present day, Lisa hooked the cylinders to her belt on either side of her waist before being pushed back slightly and impacting her shoulder against the bulkhead as the panel that opened earlier went back down with a 'hiss'.
Alarms started to go off as the ship groaned and shuddered. The ship then had a violent jolt as the stream continued to impact the shield while Lisa stumbled forward and grabbed the back of the command chair. She glanced briefly out the forward viewport and saw the shields flaring as the particle stream impacted against it.
"Lisa!" Dawn's voice echoed through the bridge, her voice cracking up as Lisa rushed to a console while praying that there was power. She pressed a few buttons, but the console didn't activate so that she could run diagnostics. All Lisa heard as she looked up and away from the brilliant orange light coming in from the forward viewport was Dawn yelling her name through the speakers. "Lisa!"
"Aunt Dawn!" yelled Lisa as she activated a subspace connection to Atlantis, "do you hear me?"
"Lisa!" Dawn yelled, "I don't know if you can hear me, but Atlantis is on the way. We'll be there in three minutes and… stand by… Lisa? We're launching."
Lisa's heart was racing as she raced to another side of the port side of the bridge while, unknown to her, there were several hull breaches as large sections of the hull shredded off the ship's frame due to the rising temperature behind inside the shield. The temperature continued to rise as several more hull breaches formed- including near the locations of the engine and power rooms. With large sections of the external hull shredded away and the temperature continuing to rise, along with the depleting shield, the interior bulkheads in those unprotected sections started to melt away.
Lisa was at the port wall when the ship violently jerked, and she fell backwards onto the increasingly hot floor. She hissed in pain as her hands touched the floor, pushing herself back up before she could wave her arms about to cool down her palms.
Her face was scrunched in pain as she stumbled towards the wall while wondering what was going on. Unknown to her, the interior bulkheads melted away and whatever atmosphere remained was sucked out into space. The metal then started to break up and melt as its temperature started to rise. Eventually the external sensors and the communications array were destroyed with the antennae having melted off.
The oppressive heat travelled through the metal and plastic, melting the interior of the ship as Lisa, on the bridge, heard several loud groans. The intense heat travelled faster as the shield depleted even more; it was now at thirty percent. Door and walls started to melt while power conduits burned and then melted off, resulting in areas of the ship losing internal power while losing structural integrity. The heat increased in the ship to such an extent that the doors to the engine room and power rooms started to melt off.
The heat was rising in several other areas, even those that were closer to the bridge. The bridge had started to get hotter and hotter, and Lisa felt the air burning as she gasped and fell onto her knees as sweat covered her forehead… streaming down her face and onto the floor where the droplets instantly evaporated.
Lisa's mouth went dry as she pushed herself off the burning floor back to her feet. Lisa wasn't thinking anymore, she knew she needed to get off the bridge. She knew she needed to get off the ship.
'One and a half minutes,' Lisa thought to herself while images of her family and friends rushed through her head. Lisa gasped for air as she got up… her face scrunching on pain. Her body felt as it was being cooked from the outside in, as she leaned against the bulkhead. It was then that she placed a palm on a glass panel. But it didn't work… the panel slightly burned her hand as she pulled back with a 'hiss' escaping her lips. Lisa saw the glass on the palm scanner crack from the heat, and then there was another groan from the ship followed by the sound of another crack.
The sound came from behind her. But Lisa didn't want to look… she was afraid that her racing heart would burst out of her chest if she did. All she could concentrate on as she tried to breathe while sweating buckets was crouch down and pull another panel near the floor. The the skin on her fingers burned, and she screamed in pain, as she tore a maintenance panel off using her strength. She then reached in and pulled some of the crystals that were immediately heating up; after pulling the crystals, she inserted them into other slots in the same recess… stopping when she heard another hiss.
Getting back to her feet, she shook her head and then fell onto her knees. The heat seemed more oppressive than before as her vision started to cloud. Lisa felt the ship jerk and then groan; the result of more hull breaches. The doors to the engine room and power room were starting to melt, and the air inside those rooms were starting to heat up at a rapid rate. As Lisa willed herself, using all her strength, up to her feet, she dashed towards a panel that opened up to reveal a lifepod- a cylindrical tube that had its own life-support system.
She stumbled towards it- her mind now having one simple goal- to get off the ship before it's destroyed.
"Atlantis is on the way," Lisa whispered as she headed for the pod which was already opening its glass cover. Unknown to Lisa, the shields were already at ten percent. The Control Chair on the bridge started to spark, as did the consoles while Lisa panted as she got into the life pod. The ship shook as Lisa quickly closed the glass cover. Just then, the doors to the power and engine rooms were melted away, and the hot air rushed out into the vacuum beyond. It was a few seconds later that the temperature rose to oppressive levels as consoles in the power and engine rooms started to melt. AS they melted, sparks erupted and steam escaped from pipes all over the ship thanks to the intense heat.
'One minute away,' Lisa thought as she strapped herself into the seat. Once she strapped in, Lisa pressed a button a panel to the left of the glass cover. She started to get sensor readings from the life pod as cool air circulated within the pod from the life support system. But Lisa knew it wouldn't last long; she needed to eject the pod out into space and head for Atlantis. However, the sensors in the pod were showing her that once she was out in space, she would be irradiated thanks to the plasma stream from the sun.
'The shield, whatever remains at least, is protecting me from radiation,' Lisa thought as she looked out the glass viewport, and then her eyes shifted back to the panel, 'this thing doesn't have shields strong enough against this much radiation. Ok… so no going out into space which means… ummm…'
"Aunt Dawn? Aunt Dawn, do you hear me?"
There was nothing.
"Aunt Dawn?"
Nothing again as Lisa pressed a few more button to prepare for launch, 'the particle stream must be blocking subspace comms, or the array melted off… either way, Atlantis can't hear me.' Lisa frowned as she swiped panel's screen and spoke to herself, "Aunt Dawn, if you can hear this then I am manually overriding the safeties on the life-pod hyperdrive. I'm opening a window from inside the ejection tube that'll take me straight to Earth. I can't go out since... well… if I did that, then I'll start glowing in the dark. I'll see you soon. Love you."
Lisa tapped on the panel screen while she was talking while sensing the air around her starting to heat up as various sections of the bridge started to explode. It was at that same time that the engine control systems started to melt, as did the primary power conduits. The Naquada generators exploded, causing damage to the ZPM containment unit which was already partly melted away. And then the ZPM itself started to blink as the power being sent to the shields through the main conduits was interrupted.
And then the ZPM stopped glowing, and since the containment unit melted away, the device fell onto the superhot floor with a thud.
Lisa stared out of the pod's glass cover at the bridge of the ship she commanded and whispered, "goodbye."
"Activating hyperdrive," whispered Lisa just as the Zpm landed onto the floor. The entire ship violently jerked after she pressed the screen. The ejection tube where the pod was located started to tear apart as a hyperspace window was opened just beneath the life-pod. Just as Lisa was about to pressed the screen once again to launch the pod, she looked out the front window… and her eyes opened wide as the shield flared once again before it failed. Pressing on the screen, Lisa felt the pod drop into the hyperspace window just as the particle stream from the sun tore through the bridge.
The Persephone had no chance against the particle stream which destroyed the entire ship. Everything from the control chair, to the ZPM, to the Neutrino-Ion fusion engines were melted away. The stream continued on for thirty seconds when it hit Atlantis' shields, just before it started to fan out. The powerful Atlantis shields diverted the stream away from Earth while Dawn was staring stunned at the one of the screens.
The Persephone was destroyed… and her heart fell.
"Someone tell me something!" yelled Dawn while she continued staring at the screen which was telling her that the Atlantis shields were holding steady at ninety nine percent.
"ZPM power level are steady at ninety nine percent, ma'am," said a technician, "we'll be able to handle the…"
"About Lisa, I want to know…."
"Miss Dawn!" yelled another young woman who was looking at another console, interrupting Dawn, "there was an energy burst just before the ship was destroyed."
"What energy?" Dawn demanded as she rushed to the young woman at the console.
"A hyperspace window," she replied as Dawn stood next to her; the latter having a look of relief on her face.
"Contact the Vantage, have them scan Earth for the pod."
TBC.