Chapter 5: Naqueada
Thundersdawn: Pilots Briefing Room
The pilots briefing room was Spartan even by Thundersdawn's standard, rows of comfortable chairs facing a blank wall onto which various information could be projected, a computer to control the projector with and nothing else. The room stank of new paint and many of the chairs were still covered with the plastic protective covering they were delivered with. Still it was the only room set up for briefings, so it would have to the captain mused as she waved Admiral Thompson RSS and General Hammond USAF into the room. Hammond had arrived by ring transporter only 15 minutes ago, becoming only the second person to use the recently completed ring network linking Ground Control RSS/RAF ST Athan, SGC, RSS Thundersdawn and the asteroid mining facility, RSS Coalmine.
"Sorry about the state of this room gentlemen, tidying rooms that aren't in use hasn't exactly been a priority"
Hammond and Thompson sighed and nodded. Their stars made them used to having rooms prepared for them in advance whenever they went to briefings, but both were good CO's who understood the situation and weren't going to complain. The three quickly stripped the plastic off of 3 front-row seats, and sat down.
"Gentlemen, as you know we have a naqueada shortage. We only have a limited supply, and right now its being used faster than it's arriving through the gate. The Zero-point generators have greatly reduced the SGC and our off-planet installations use of naqueada, but its not going to be enough to allow us to construct more Prometheus class vessels for the time being, so the construction contract is currently on hold. According to information gleaned from the computer cores of 1 of the Hatak's that recently met their demise here, Ra had a naqueada mining operation going on in this system, but not on earth"
Peters and Thompson exchanged slightly shocked glances, this was not what they had been expecting, but they could both see where this was likely to be going. All the Prometheus class vessels save Prometheus herself, where, to put it mildly, busy, and unless the SGC got word of that a hostile force was inbound to earth, could not leave their current missions. Prometheus herself was in dry-dock, with about a weeks worth of repairs left before it would be safe for her to leave spacedock, and a full fortnight before she would be fully operational. That left the RSS with the only ships free to search for any remains of Ra's naqueada mine, and more importantly, any naqueada.
"Did the computers cores give any clues as to where the mine might have been?"
"From what Carter could gather, it could be in the asteroid belt, or in any of the ring systems surrounding several of the planets"
Peters winced; she had a good idea of the space to search, which considering the weak sensors on the 1-4 and 1-5 vessels would make the search a logistical nightmare. The arrival of several 1-6 craft and a squadron of Lancer class starfighters would help, both having a set of targeting quality sensors, not just the basic navigational sensors used by the 1-4 and 1-5's.
"Peters, is it doable?"
Peters thought about it, then shook her head, "As it stands, no, but we could rig Shunter 1-5-11 with an upgraded sensor array, she already has additional sensor hook-ups set to connect to an underslung sensor platform" Peters turned to Hammond and explained "as well as being used as a tug, 1-5-11 was modified during construction to allow use a sensor test bed"
Hammond nodded, "Use the shunter as an Awacs basically, it should work"
"Do we have a sensor array available for that?" Thompson added, mulling over the possibilities.
"No, but we do have Prometheus's old sensor array. We were going to break it up for parts but we could rebuild it for this, however it would be helpful to have all the sensor data you have on naqueada"
"I'll have it couriered up to you ASAP" Hammond stood, the meeting over.