7: Alpha Centauri

Author: Chaoseternus

Chapter 15: Escape Part 3

Teal'c frantically spun the recessed airlock on the manhole open as a bright flash behind him announced the last of the miners escaping to the surface. The air was thick, foul and smoky making it difficult to see through, and the hefty bulk of the oxygen tank on his back didn't help, but now at least there was only three people left alive, that he knew off, in this hell hole of a mine.

Finally, the door clicked, and with a heave he was able to pull it open, Angharad walking into the room before he had even finished opening the door,

"She's down, we'll need to carry her out" Angharad shouted.

Nodding he strode into the room, and grabbed both women, throwing one overreach shoulder as he raced from the room. Instinct told him it was time to leave and fast, and Angharad was no longer fit to run.

A rumble shook the mine, almost knocking Teal'c from his feet as he reached the point where the rings had been appearing for the last four hours. He stood, waiting patiently. He knew it would be another minute at least before the rings came to claim them. Another rumble shook him, and his bundle, then the air began to move, being pulled in a swift breeze from the room.

"Oh shit!" Angharad cursed weakly from her perch.

Teal'c looked down the shaft towards the depths of the mine, and fervently seconded that comment inwardly as a bright yellow glow appeared, swiftly expanding and racing towards their position.

Just seconds before the flames hit, the rings came to claim them, delivering them safely from the mine.

"General, we need to evacuate RSG-1 and their mining crew now"

"We cant, biohazards remember?" O'Neill replied, his tone sarcastic.

"Yes, and they are showing symptoms already, but if we don't get them out now it wont matter, the explosions below are weakening the cavern, we're talking minutes now, not weeks as we were before" Major Franco replied.

"That's the deal?"

"That's the deal" Franco confirmed.

"Shit. Okay, get them ringed straight into confinement"

"Sir…" Franco hesitated, "Fraiser's latest reports indicate whatever is down in that cavern has an airborne and rather long lasting component, she says if that cavern is going to collapse we need to… ensure the bug is destroyed, before it gets into the atmosphere"

O'Neill sat back in his chair, shocked, "she mean nukes?"

"Yes Sir" Fraisers voice interrupted, as the doctor strode into the room, "she means Nukes and she means it now, this microbe is not only designed to survive in the atmosphere for months, but it is already escaping into the atmosphere through the breech RSG-1 created into the cavern. We've already started to detect it in the air at the monitoring station 3 miles downwind, we need to kill it and we need to kill it now"

"How sure?"

"I would not even think about nukes unless I felt it was absolutely necessary General"

"Franco, get RSG-1 and their mining crew out of their, straight into containment, and issue a radiological alert"

"Yes Sir!" Franco ran, cursing from the room into the command centre, were he began rapidly barking orders, followed by General O'Neill and Doctor Fraiser.

The three, Franco, O'Neill and Fraiser walked to a small, unremarkable looking panel at the rear of the room, and turned it on, flicking buttons in sequence.

"Doctor Fraiser, Chief Medical Officer SGC, Authorising Nuclear deployment under Biohazard Containment Protocol Alpha Dash Five Five Six Gamma, Authorisation Two Sierra Sierra Twelve Eight"

O'Neill turned around as he felt the gaze of many startled officers on his back.

"General O'Neill, Commander Alpha Centauri, confirming Nuclear Deployment, Authorisation Eight Delta Lambda One Four"

"Major Franco, Commander Ravenbright, confirming Nuclear Deployment, Authorisation Seven Delta Omega Nine Five"

" The cavern is starting to collapse!" a voice in the background shouted as O'Neill typed the co-ordinates for the nuke in; grateful he didn't have to do this for ship killers. They at least were clean devices.

With a final tap, O'Neill turned from the panel and watched the main monitor, as a small patch of light erupted from the station, and sped downwards, racing rapidly towards the planets surface. It blazed a red trail of fire as its outer protective shell slowly burned away under re-entry, then the monitor flicked off, momentarily showing a bright pulse of light before the computer acted to save human eyesight.

"Shit, but there's going to be a lot of paperwork over this" O'Neill muttered.