Section 18: Change in Down
************************************************************************ ************************************************************************
"So now what?" Daniel asked at large. The six of them stood stupidly in front of the ship just staring at it as if they were staring at a piece of art in a museum. Or, Daniel amended, as if by looking at it, they could glare the force field down. If looks could kill sort of thing. Unfortunately it wasn't working.
They had tried everything they could think of so far. Jack had gotten himself a nasty shock testing the effectiveness of the shield. The DRD D'argo had sent in was sitting fried on the other side of the barrier. Sam had gone on for a minute after that about repulsive electromagnetic fields until Jack made her explain in English that nothing electronic or biologic was getting through without dying a horrible death. John had suggested they test her theory on Rygel.
"Well," the question stirred Sam from the stillness that had come over the group. She moved closer to shield, studying the ship from all angles. "We know that insulators can pass through the shielding." She demonstrated with the cloth she still held in her hand from the previous test. "We might be able to make a shield of our own that will protect us from the electricity."
"We don't have any lead on board," said John.
"Surly you must have something for your own systems," Daniel countered. "Insulation of some sort . . ."
"Anything," Sam turned to them again. "Casing, bundle wire insulation, large surge protectors, anything." Her eyes pleaded with John for an idea.
But the black clad man simply shook his head. "Almost all that stuff is tied up either in Moya's nervous system or systems that keep her running. We can't use it."
"All we need is a little, enough to wrap around a person to get in. We can take it from different places or places where she has excess insulation so there's no danger," said Sam.
"When he said, we can't use it, he meant we can't use it," D'argo snapped. "The insulation we could use would be impossible to make into a cloak or shield of any kind and the stuff that might work we can't take away from Moya."
"Don't you think the ship not exploding is a little more important than a few exposed circuits?" Jack bit out at his sarcastic best.
"Those exposed circuits are her nervous system!" John shouted back. "It'd be like ripping off your skin with a dull knife! If we had an anesthetic, maybe. But we don't." The glare he leveled at Jack rivaled the colonel's best. "Moya would probably pass out, and with their weakened connection, Pilot would probably die."
"And if Pilot dies, we all die, including Moya," D'argo finished in a deadly quiet voice.
Suddenly Daniel felt the mortality of the ship and the gentle creature that guided her as he hadn't since they came aboard. It was one thing to learn that the vessel they were in was alive, another to hear the love and fierce protection of her friends at any mention of harm to her. "I guess we'll have to find another way then," Daniel offered in truce. One glance at the way Jack's eyes shifted over the surrounding walls told him his friend was also feeling it. As the Colonel met his own gaze, Daniel knew that Moya had suddenly landed in the category of 'innocent we'll die fighting to protect.'
"What other ways are there to expel the ship?" asked Teal'c. "Its shield and size prevents us from moving it physically, therefore we must endeavor to find a way to take down the shield and get inside."
And that about summed it up. Okay, time to start thinking. Work your way up. "What about a control device on one of the dead guys," Daniel suggested the simplest thing he could come up with.
"And that would look like what?" John asked turning toward the remains from the C4 and subsequent shoot out lay scattered among the debris.
"I don't know, anything," Daniel followed. "Something on their wrist like a small remote control, probably the same color as the ship.
"O'Neill." Teal's voice, though not directed at them nevertheless stopped them in their tracks. The Jaffa looked intense, staring blankly at the ship the way one does when listening with other senses.
"What is it?"
"I believe the countdown has begun."
They all turned to stare at the ship that held their collective fate in its hand. Jack summed it up nicely, "Crap!" Yeah, Daniel agreed. "Alright," Jack snapped into motion, moving swiftly to join Daniel and John. "Let's find something to get that shield down so we can throw that thing out!" The others followed his lead and soon all of them were searching bodies. It was unpleasant but Daniel found that if he avoided looking at the their faces, he could go through pockets without feeling too bad about it. He was an archeologist after all - going through a dead man's things was his job.
Daniel crashed into someone before he could follow up on that thought. Startled, he looked up at John who was absently steadying him even as he stared at the ship behind him. "I got an idea," was all he said.
"What?" "Crichton?" Jack and D'argo's surprise overlapped each others.
"You said 'throw it out,'" John shot at Jack who looked as bewildered as everyone else felt. "We can do that. Pilot?" he called out without any further explanation.
Pilot answered briefly in acknowledgement.
"Can you get Moya to turn on her side so that the hangar door is toward the planet?"
There was a pause and in that pause Daniel's eyes met Sam's in mutual enlightenment. By turning Moya, John was going to get gravity to pull the ship out.
When Pilot answered this time, a smile broke out on John's face.
"John," Aeryn's voice continued in English. "We'll have to flood the whole hangar and turn off Moya's artificial gravity so you better get my prowler out of there now!"
John grinned at her request and turned to Jack. "You guys don't happen to be Air Force do you?" he asked hopefully.
Jack just smiled. "What do you want me to fly?"
The next few minutes were spent in a flurry of activity. John had Jack fly his small Earth-made ship while he took Aeryn's black fighter out of the hangar. The three of them, completed by D'argo in his own craft, were going to circle overhead while Pilot flooded the hangar to get the ship on its side. Since Moya's gravity would be dropped once they were in position, Daniel, Sam, and Teal'c, shortly joined by Aeryn were stowing as much of the mess of tools and equipment in the maintenance bay as possible. When asked why this room, Aeryn told him that repair supplies were hard to come by and vital for survival. There was nothing else of value that could be damaged by a sudden change in down.
"Looks like were getting close," said Sam when they had finally done as much as they could. She nodded toward the ship in the hangar that had started to glow purple. At the far end of the hangar, Daniel could see the water rushing in diagonally. It was a disconcerting sight even if he could feel the effects of planet's gravity starting to pull him in that direction.
"Let's get out of here," said Aeryn. With stilted steps that had her body at an impossible angle with the floor, she crossed to close the inner hangar door before retreating with the rest of them into the hallway, the bay door closing and sealing behind them.
"We should lean against the door so we don't fall and kill ourselves when it's time," said Sam putting words to action, and since it was a very sensible idea, they all followed suit. Aeryn briefly advised the others on the ship to do the same before falling silent with the rest of them. Daniel could hear the moving water through the door.
"This is a crazy idea," he commented.
Teal'c raised an eyebrow, and Sam and Aeryn said in perfect unison, "Aren't they all?" Teal'c's other eyebrow rose as he turned his attention to the two women who just looked at each other before smiling self-consciously.
"Aeryn, Moya's almost there," said John over the communications system.
"Alright, Pilot?" the raven haired woman respond. "We're ready whenever you are."
Pilot replied, and even though he couldn't understand it, Daniel knew it was the signal. A moment later he felt the ship let them go, his weight relaxing completely against the door with the clang of metal on metal as objects on the other side of the door fell too. And then he heard the muted sounds of what only could be the ship knocking against the walls as it fell into the ocean.
"Pilot?" Aeryn's voice was tense.
He answered at length and Aeryn's expression never wavered to give any indication of what he was telling her. That is, until Pilot's own voice suddenly changed.
"Brace for impact!" Aeryn shouted. A second later a shock waved hit them, jolting them into the air only to land painfully back on the door.
"Pilot! Aeryn! Are you alright?" D'argo demanded as Jack's own, "Carter what happened? You okay?" filtered through the radio.
"Fine, sir," Sam replied, sitting up painfully. "The ship must have exploded, but it was in the ocean. The water was a pretty good buffer."
"D'argo," Aeryn addressed her own captain. "Pilot's cycling the water out of the airlocks now but it will be a while before Moya's righted. Once we're less vertical, he'll reengage the gravity."
"Understood. We'll keep an eye out for any more attacks."
Aeryn looked at her three companions after D'argo signed off. They were stuck on a sideways ship then with nothing to do but wait. "So you hungry?" she asked.
With a quick glance at his teammates at this non sequitor, Daniel shrugged. "Yeah."
"Good, I'm starved." And with that Aeryn got up and led them toward the center chamber. Walking on the walls.
************************************************************************
I must say, I am proud of this part! I think I'm going to write Daniel more often. Sorry it took so long to update, but I only got this satisfying answer to their dilemma last night and I think it was worth the wait.
Thanks for sticking with the story and writing encouraging reviews. I can tell you now that this story, due to an evil plot bunny Alynna let loose, is less than half done. So much for a short summer fic. So much for homework.
*
************************************************************************ ************************************************************************
"So now what?" Daniel asked at large. The six of them stood stupidly in front of the ship just staring at it as if they were staring at a piece of art in a museum. Or, Daniel amended, as if by looking at it, they could glare the force field down. If looks could kill sort of thing. Unfortunately it wasn't working.
They had tried everything they could think of so far. Jack had gotten himself a nasty shock testing the effectiveness of the shield. The DRD D'argo had sent in was sitting fried on the other side of the barrier. Sam had gone on for a minute after that about repulsive electromagnetic fields until Jack made her explain in English that nothing electronic or biologic was getting through without dying a horrible death. John had suggested they test her theory on Rygel.
"Well," the question stirred Sam from the stillness that had come over the group. She moved closer to shield, studying the ship from all angles. "We know that insulators can pass through the shielding." She demonstrated with the cloth she still held in her hand from the previous test. "We might be able to make a shield of our own that will protect us from the electricity."
"We don't have any lead on board," said John.
"Surly you must have something for your own systems," Daniel countered. "Insulation of some sort . . ."
"Anything," Sam turned to them again. "Casing, bundle wire insulation, large surge protectors, anything." Her eyes pleaded with John for an idea.
But the black clad man simply shook his head. "Almost all that stuff is tied up either in Moya's nervous system or systems that keep her running. We can't use it."
"All we need is a little, enough to wrap around a person to get in. We can take it from different places or places where she has excess insulation so there's no danger," said Sam.
"When he said, we can't use it, he meant we can't use it," D'argo snapped. "The insulation we could use would be impossible to make into a cloak or shield of any kind and the stuff that might work we can't take away from Moya."
"Don't you think the ship not exploding is a little more important than a few exposed circuits?" Jack bit out at his sarcastic best.
"Those exposed circuits are her nervous system!" John shouted back. "It'd be like ripping off your skin with a dull knife! If we had an anesthetic, maybe. But we don't." The glare he leveled at Jack rivaled the colonel's best. "Moya would probably pass out, and with their weakened connection, Pilot would probably die."
"And if Pilot dies, we all die, including Moya," D'argo finished in a deadly quiet voice.
Suddenly Daniel felt the mortality of the ship and the gentle creature that guided her as he hadn't since they came aboard. It was one thing to learn that the vessel they were in was alive, another to hear the love and fierce protection of her friends at any mention of harm to her. "I guess we'll have to find another way then," Daniel offered in truce. One glance at the way Jack's eyes shifted over the surrounding walls told him his friend was also feeling it. As the Colonel met his own gaze, Daniel knew that Moya had suddenly landed in the category of 'innocent we'll die fighting to protect.'
"What other ways are there to expel the ship?" asked Teal'c. "Its shield and size prevents us from moving it physically, therefore we must endeavor to find a way to take down the shield and get inside."
And that about summed it up. Okay, time to start thinking. Work your way up. "What about a control device on one of the dead guys," Daniel suggested the simplest thing he could come up with.
"And that would look like what?" John asked turning toward the remains from the C4 and subsequent shoot out lay scattered among the debris.
"I don't know, anything," Daniel followed. "Something on their wrist like a small remote control, probably the same color as the ship.
"O'Neill." Teal's voice, though not directed at them nevertheless stopped them in their tracks. The Jaffa looked intense, staring blankly at the ship the way one does when listening with other senses.
"What is it?"
"I believe the countdown has begun."
They all turned to stare at the ship that held their collective fate in its hand. Jack summed it up nicely, "Crap!" Yeah, Daniel agreed. "Alright," Jack snapped into motion, moving swiftly to join Daniel and John. "Let's find something to get that shield down so we can throw that thing out!" The others followed his lead and soon all of them were searching bodies. It was unpleasant but Daniel found that if he avoided looking at the their faces, he could go through pockets without feeling too bad about it. He was an archeologist after all - going through a dead man's things was his job.
Daniel crashed into someone before he could follow up on that thought. Startled, he looked up at John who was absently steadying him even as he stared at the ship behind him. "I got an idea," was all he said.
"What?" "Crichton?" Jack and D'argo's surprise overlapped each others.
"You said 'throw it out,'" John shot at Jack who looked as bewildered as everyone else felt. "We can do that. Pilot?" he called out without any further explanation.
Pilot answered briefly in acknowledgement.
"Can you get Moya to turn on her side so that the hangar door is toward the planet?"
There was a pause and in that pause Daniel's eyes met Sam's in mutual enlightenment. By turning Moya, John was going to get gravity to pull the ship out.
When Pilot answered this time, a smile broke out on John's face.
"John," Aeryn's voice continued in English. "We'll have to flood the whole hangar and turn off Moya's artificial gravity so you better get my prowler out of there now!"
John grinned at her request and turned to Jack. "You guys don't happen to be Air Force do you?" he asked hopefully.
Jack just smiled. "What do you want me to fly?"
The next few minutes were spent in a flurry of activity. John had Jack fly his small Earth-made ship while he took Aeryn's black fighter out of the hangar. The three of them, completed by D'argo in his own craft, were going to circle overhead while Pilot flooded the hangar to get the ship on its side. Since Moya's gravity would be dropped once they were in position, Daniel, Sam, and Teal'c, shortly joined by Aeryn were stowing as much of the mess of tools and equipment in the maintenance bay as possible. When asked why this room, Aeryn told him that repair supplies were hard to come by and vital for survival. There was nothing else of value that could be damaged by a sudden change in down.
"Looks like were getting close," said Sam when they had finally done as much as they could. She nodded toward the ship in the hangar that had started to glow purple. At the far end of the hangar, Daniel could see the water rushing in diagonally. It was a disconcerting sight even if he could feel the effects of planet's gravity starting to pull him in that direction.
"Let's get out of here," said Aeryn. With stilted steps that had her body at an impossible angle with the floor, she crossed to close the inner hangar door before retreating with the rest of them into the hallway, the bay door closing and sealing behind them.
"We should lean against the door so we don't fall and kill ourselves when it's time," said Sam putting words to action, and since it was a very sensible idea, they all followed suit. Aeryn briefly advised the others on the ship to do the same before falling silent with the rest of them. Daniel could hear the moving water through the door.
"This is a crazy idea," he commented.
Teal'c raised an eyebrow, and Sam and Aeryn said in perfect unison, "Aren't they all?" Teal'c's other eyebrow rose as he turned his attention to the two women who just looked at each other before smiling self-consciously.
"Aeryn, Moya's almost there," said John over the communications system.
"Alright, Pilot?" the raven haired woman respond. "We're ready whenever you are."
Pilot replied, and even though he couldn't understand it, Daniel knew it was the signal. A moment later he felt the ship let them go, his weight relaxing completely against the door with the clang of metal on metal as objects on the other side of the door fell too. And then he heard the muted sounds of what only could be the ship knocking against the walls as it fell into the ocean.
"Pilot?" Aeryn's voice was tense.
He answered at length and Aeryn's expression never wavered to give any indication of what he was telling her. That is, until Pilot's own voice suddenly changed.
"Brace for impact!" Aeryn shouted. A second later a shock waved hit them, jolting them into the air only to land painfully back on the door.
"Pilot! Aeryn! Are you alright?" D'argo demanded as Jack's own, "Carter what happened? You okay?" filtered through the radio.
"Fine, sir," Sam replied, sitting up painfully. "The ship must have exploded, but it was in the ocean. The water was a pretty good buffer."
"D'argo," Aeryn addressed her own captain. "Pilot's cycling the water out of the airlocks now but it will be a while before Moya's righted. Once we're less vertical, he'll reengage the gravity."
"Understood. We'll keep an eye out for any more attacks."
Aeryn looked at her three companions after D'argo signed off. They were stuck on a sideways ship then with nothing to do but wait. "So you hungry?" she asked.
With a quick glance at his teammates at this non sequitor, Daniel shrugged. "Yeah."
"Good, I'm starved." And with that Aeryn got up and led them toward the center chamber. Walking on the walls.
************************************************************************
I must say, I am proud of this part! I think I'm going to write Daniel more often. Sorry it took so long to update, but I only got this satisfying answer to their dilemma last night and I think it was worth the wait.
Thanks for sticking with the story and writing encouraging reviews. I can tell you now that this story, due to an evil plot bunny Alynna let loose, is less than half done. So much for a short summer fic. So much for homework.
*