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.