Chapter Twelve:
Very Close Encounters
On board the Peacekeeper Command Carrier, the bridge Tactical
Officer studied his console in concentration. He adjusted the
setting on his monitor before finally looking up.
Yes, Lieutenant. The Captain rose from his command
chair to approach his Tactical Officer's station.
Sir, I'm detecting an anomaly in sector 34 by 78 and
it is closing.
Can you identify it? the Captain queried.
Small signature, barely detectable. The Tactical Officer
reported as he tried to decipher what his sensor array was trying
to tell him. It has changed course twice since I first located
it. It could be a ship with stealth capability, but the energy
readings are familiar... It's Goa'uld!
That's all the Captain needed to hear. All stations
alert! Tactical, lock the co-ordinates of the Goa'uld ship
into our weapons station and prepare Tak charges for disruption
only. If they're Goa'uld, Scorpius might want them alive.
***
Now I know the secret of how the Peacekeepers are kicking
the crap out of the Goa'uld, O'Neill commented,
eyeing the Command Carrier looming large in their shuttle view
port.
Their cannon barrels are big enough to swallow my whole
house!
I'll say, Daniel agreed. Hmmm...
Anise, don't you think that we're getting a little too
close?
It has been an hour and they still haven't detected
us. Obviously our new cloaking screen is effective.
Yes, but we've scanned the base and their ship, so
why are you still moving towards it? Daniel asked.
This will be our first chance to get a good look at one
of their capital ships, Anise explained.
Hello? We're getting closer to a ship with cannon muzzles
the size of my house, O'Neill informed sarcastically.
Lets back away a little.
Anise frowned in disappointment. Very well.
She hated to pass up such an opportunity to thoroughly study a
Peacekeeper Command Carrier, but she finally started to reverse
course. At that moment a light flashed on her pilot's station
console accompanied by an eerie dull beeping sound. It quickly
gained everyone's attention.
What's that? A concerned Hailey asked.
Teal'c knew that sound. We are being targeted, Lt.
Hailey.
The space about their ship erupted in a multitude of explosions,
rocking the tiny craft. Anyone not seated was thrown about in
the interior of the Tok'ra shuttle.
I think they found us! O'Neill shouted, almost
being tossed into the pilot's console. Get us out of
here, Anise!
Anise struggled to remain seated as she brought the shuttle around
and sped away at maximum thrust, just clearing the detonating
Tak charges being fired at them.
O'Neill looked at his team who were scattered across the
floor in the shuttle like fallen chess pieces. Is everyone
okay?
Hailey held up her hand as she sat up wincing a little. In
one piece, I think.
I am well, O'Neill. Teal'c said, moving
to his feet before offering a hand to help Hailey up.
Daniel picked himself off the floor, straightening his glasses.
Anise, may I ask again, why did we have to get so close?
Knowing his people were uninjured, O'Neill turned to Anise,
Do you think we'd better jump to hyperspace and put
some distance between us and them?
I wish I could, Colonel O'Neill but we've lost
main power and are operating on reserves. We can't use the
hyperdrive.
Got anymore bad news? O'Neill asked.
The cloak has failed and several Peacekeeper ships are
in pursuit.
O'Neill paused for a moment, and then inquired. Any
good news?
We have perhaps six minutes before they overtake us.
O'Neill accepted the information and nodded.
***
During her active service as a Peacekeeper, Aeryn had flown just
about every sort of Peacekeeper spacecraft there was, but nothing
compared to flying a Colonial Viper. The entire design and control
layout was simple and straightforward. As John Crichton would
say, it was a no thrills vehicle. It was very user friendly'
and built to do one thing. Fight. Needless to say, it fulfilled
that function extremely well.
As for its speed, it was almost untouchable by any craft of equal
size. Apollo gave Aeryn plenty of time to get fully acquainted
with the fighter while on Talyn. She'd proven herself in
the simulators and her time with Sheba had allowed her to hear
every single micro detail about the Viper's virtues and nearly
non-existent flaws, while she was still aboard Moya.
When Apollo, Starbuck, Sheba and Aeryn finally departed from Talyn,
Aeryn soared right along with them as if she had done it a hundred
times before.
Apollo and Starbuck were slightly taken aback how fast Aeryn caught
on to handling her Viper. Meanwhile Sheba was smugly pleased by
the way Aeryn's performance left the male warriors rather
speechless. Her confidence in her Sebacean friend was never unjustified
for even a micron. Aeryn was indeed a natural pilot and warrior.
As they approached the system, the plan was for Apollo and Starbuck
to break off quietly to scan and sweep the left side of the system
in search of Peacekeeper forces and positions. At the same time,
Sheba and Aeryn would do likewise on the opposite side. Together
they'd converge on the planet Tobin. If all went according
to plan, they'd reverse course and rendezvous outside of
the system in two centars then head quietly back to Talyn with
all the intelligence they could possibly gather.
Captain Apollo was leading his four Viper force and was preparing
to order them to execute their assigned recon missions when his
sensor beeped an alert. It was detecting weapons fire just at
the outer edge of his scanner range.
He decided to get confirmation. Starbuck, Sheba and Aeryn.
Check you sensors. I'm detecting weapon fire directly ahead.
I'm reading it too. Starbuck replied.
Sheba's sensors showed the same thing. There's
definitely something going on in that system.
Aeryn was studying her cockpit monitor when several targets entered
into sensor range. I'm now registering several ships
exiting the system, she reported.
I see them, Aeryn, Apollo answered. I'm
reading four Marauders and six Prowlers and... he groaned.
You have to be kidding me!
***
The Peacekeeper ships were slowly running them down. Teal'c
was piloting the shuttle while Anise tried to stretch out their
meager power reserves to engines and shields. Between them they
were trying their best to fend off their pursuers. The good news
was that the Peacekeepers weren't trying to blow them out
of the sky; the bad news was that they were gaining and getting
close to boxing them in. They wanted them alive.
O'Neill left the
shuttle cockpit area and hurried back to the stern engineering
compartment. Hailey was busy trying to make repairs and get main
power working again, Daniel was doing all that he could to give
her a hand.
How are you doing? O'Neill asked with an edge
of urgency in his voice.
Hailey looked frustrated as she worked feverishly in an open panel
with several glowing and burnt out control crystals. Not
very well, sir.
Can you fix it?
I'm trying, was the only honest answer that Hailey
could give at the moment.
Here's a suggestion, O'Neill replied. Try
harder.
Daniel looked up to O'Neill. Jack, she's doing
her best.
The shuttle rocked again with another hit. Daniel could see the
growing frustration in the Colonel's face, as he faced the
stark possibility of loosing his entire team.
I know she is, O'Neill finally said. Just
keep at it. Beat it with a hammer if you have to.
Hailey couldn't agree more. She stared at the burnt out power
system, desperately trying to make heads or tails of it, in an
effort to fix something that appeared to be hopelessly broken.
She would probably have started beating it with a hammer quite
a while ago, had she bothered to pack one in their gear bag.
It was then they heard Teal'c shouting.
Now, what? O'Neill murmured racing forward again.
Reaching the cockpit area, O'Neill hurried to Teal'c's
station. What is it?
We have four incoming fighters directly ahead, the
Jaffa answered.
They have us, Anise said in defeat, then looked
puzzled. Wait...those are not Peacekeeper craft!
***
I can't believe that we're rescuing the Goa'uld!
Starbuck muttered over the comm.
The four of them were charging headlong at full turbo thrust towards
the Peacekeeper ships that were chasing the lone Goa'uld
shuttle.
Don't feel bad, Starbuck, Sheba replied. We're
only rescuing them so we can make them our prisoners later.
Besides, it's the only option that we have left,
Aeryn added. The Peacekeepers will be on heightened state
of alert now. Getting in and out of the inner Tobin system would
require better luck than ours. Let's just hope that those
Goa'uld in that shuttle were doing their own recon job so
we steal their information for ourselves.
It was a good plan and the only one they had left if they hoped
to salvage their mission, Apollo thought before saying, Everyone
lock a solonite missile on an opposing Marauder and take them
out first. Protect that Goa'uld shuttle! Aeryn, after we
take them out, you go after that shuttle and don't let those
daggits get away.
Yes, Captain! Aeryn replied crispy over the comm.
Apollo smiled at Aeryn's eagerness to prove herself to him
and earn the right to wear their uniform. Much of it was unnecessary;
tight military discipline was not Apollo's command style.
She was doing her job very well so far and that's all that
he required from his people. He'd talk to her about dropping
some of her military formalities later.
He continued, The rest of us will engage the Prowlers and
keep them off of your back. All right everyone, engage the Peacekeepers
as we come into range.
***
Anise couldn't believe what the four approaching alien fighters
were doing. She looked up from her console.
They're targeting the Peackeepers, not us!
O'Neill couldn't believe it either, but he wasn't
about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Someone was smiling down
on them after all. Give them some room, get us out of their
line of fire!
Teal'c pushed the shuttle straight into a power dive just
as four missiles streaked by, each one striking one of the four
closing Marauders dead on. All four craft disintegrated in the
fierce all consuming explosions.
Three seconds later, the four alien fighters flew past to engage
the six rapidly approaching Prowlers. Watching the battle develop,
O'Neill suddenly felt like he was right in the middle of
the movie, Airforce One. In the scene where the President's
plane was being threatened with a shoot down by several MIGs,
and a squadron of F-15's came charging to the rescue (Go
Airforce!). Unfortunately, O'Neill wasn't too sure if
he could call their apparent saviours the good guys yet, but hopefully
they could make use of this and escape in the confusion.
Teal'c checked his console sensor board and reported, One
of the four alien craft has broken off from the others and is
turning to pursue us.
O'Neill sighed in frustration. I knew it was too good
to be true. Can we shake him?
I don't believe so O'Neill, Teal'c
replied. These ships are much faster than the Peacekeeper
fighters.
***
Not so fast." Aeryn muttered as she dropped behind
the Goa'uld shuttle at full turbo thrust. She locked her
targeting computer onto it.
It was a big fat slow moving target compared to her agile Viper.
It would be so easy to destroy them.
Aeryn remembered what the Goa'uld had done to her, and to
her friends. She'd almost died because of them. She had little
love for those aliens.
***
In the Tok'ra shuttle, their computer sounded the familiar
and deadly alert of a hostile enemy targeting sensor tracking
their craft.
Anise breathed nervously, not sure of their new pursuer's
exact intentions. He has us.
O'Neill couldn't argue with her assessment. He could
see the sensor display in front of Anise and could read it well
enough to know that bogie behind them was on an attack vector.
He couldn't believe the speed with which it was overtaking
them. They were sitting ducks.
***
Aeryn's thumb pressed down on the firing button as she unleashed
her Viper's weapons load on the Goa'uld shuttle.
***
He's firing! Teal'c warned aloud.
O'Neill cursed. Oh, hell!
Not exactly the famous last words that the Colonel was thinking
of...
Then there was a blinding white flash and O'Neill barely
remembered his feet being knocked out from under him as his back
slammed against the shuttle deck.
And his world faded to black.
