Destiny's Child
Chapter Fourteen
Transporter Room One
U.S.S Resolution
Next Morning
Captain Darien Parker came into the Resolution's main transporter room self consciously adjusting the top of his dress uniform. He always hated wearing these damned things – though the current dress uniform, white top with gold braid and black trousers was much more comfortable than the old ones. Wearing it was no different really to wearing his day to day uniform except the dress uniform – which was a must for diplomatic talks – felt less comfortable maybe because it was so formal even though it fit perfectly.
Waiting in the transporter room for him looking immaculate in her dress uniform was Commander Urlet and off to the side stood Dr Daniel Jackson – dressed in a freshly replicated two peace suit complete with shirt and tie. He'd asked Doctor Jackson to join them since Jackson had had prior experience dealing with the Asgard on a personal level. Daniel hadn't minded lending a hand in this instance – he knew how vital to the Asgard these negotiations were – though part of him would much rather be with Sarah providing emotional support while she was in her counselling session with Councillor Dalara.
"Status," Darien ordered as he came into the room.
"The Valkastner has just hailed us with coordinates sir," the transporter operator a Tellerite – whose name Darien could never remember – responded. "Commander Thor is ready to transport aboard." Attempts to synchronise the Valkastner's transporter array with the Resolution's had proven to difficult – Asgard and Federation transporter beams seemed to operate completely differently though the basic principles were the same, it had therefore been decided by both sides that the Resolution would transport Thor and any other Asgard representatives back and forth between the two ships.
"Very well. Energise," Darien ordered. The transporter activated and in a shimmer of silver and blue light Commander Thor materialised on the transporter pad and Darien finally saw an Asgard face to face. One thing that immediately struck him was how short Thor was – the Asgard was only about three feet tall if that and very thin and delicate looking. The head was slightly larger than one would expect and the large pure black eyes gazed at him with great intelligence and great age. He only paused for a moment before stepping forward to greet his guest. "Commander Thor welcome aboard the Federation starship Resolution," he said politely.
"Thank you Captain Parker I am pleased to be here," Thor responded and to Darien's surprise Thor extended his hand. Carefully he took Thor's small hand in his own and they shook hands gently. Just as carefully Darien released Thor's hand – he didn't want to take a risk of hurting the Asgard.
"This is my first officer Commander Urlet you spoke briefly when you helped deliver the initial shipment of relief supplies to the Tollan." Urlet bowed her head slightly in greeting. "And I believe you already know Doctor Jackson."
"Hello Thor," Daniel said warmly.
"Hello Dr Jackson," Thor replied reflexively inclining his head to meet Daniel's eyes. He was so used to doing it with Humans by now. "I am surprised to see you here. I was not aware until yesterday that you were here. Is the rest of SG-1 here?"
"No," Daniel replied knowing what Thor was really asking. Thor was asking if Jack was here. "No they're back on Earth taking part in training simulations for a group of new SGC officers. They'll be at it all week."
"I see then why are you here?"
"I came at the request of a friend," Daniel replied. "Since I've had experience dealing with both the Replicators and the Asgard Captain Parker asked if I would mind assisting in these negotiations."
"I understand." Thor looked at Captain Parker. "Speaking of negotiations Captain Parker I believe that we had best get started. It is my peoples hope that they bear fruit." In fact we desperately need them to succeed, Thor thought to himself, for this ship may hold the weapon that could be our only chance of defeating the Replicators.
"This way," Darien said leading Thor out of the transporter room deliberately keeping his pace short to avoid making the Asgard run to keep up with him. Urlet and Daniel followed. Daniel pulled up besides Thor and for a couple of minutes the two spoke quietly amongst themselves – it seemed to Darien that Daniel was giving Thor more information on what he was doing here away from the rest of his team.
After a couple of moments they reached the turbolift.
"Conference room one," Darien ordered the lift computer as they climbed in. The turbolift doors closed behind them and the lift started its journey through the ship.
"Engineering to Captain Parker," Lieutenant Barrett's voice said over the intercom. Darien tapped his combadge.
"Yes lieutenant?"
"Sir the modifications to the engines on one of the Scimitars have been completed," Barrett reported.
"Very well have the crew of that particular fighter take it out on a trial run. Remind them to be careful about the Goa'uld. Their motherships might not be a match for the Resolution but they could be a serious opponent for an attack fighter."
"Aye sir." Barrett signed off at that point.
Thor had watched the whole exchange with great interest. So those badges that they wore were not just ornamental insignia as he'd first thought but communications devices as well. He'd noticed in the transporter room that Doctor Jackson was wearing one of those badges as well – which had confused him since Daniel Jackson wasn't a member of Starfleet. Though the fact that the badges were communicators as well as Starfleet insignia made seeing Daniel wearing one make sense. He was also intrigued by the revelation that the Resolution's engineers had been doing some modifications to one of their attack fighters – the Valkastner's sensors had revealed the presence of six small but heavily armed ships vessel of Federation design docked in the largest of the three hanger facilities detected on board the Resolution.
"Captain Parker may I ask why you have been modifying the engines on one of your fighters," Thor asked calmly.
"As you maybe aware we do not have hyperspace technology," Darien replied. "But instead use another form of subspace propulsion to travel faster than light."
"Yes the Valkastner's sensors didn't detect any evidence of hyperdrives on board this ship. Which did confuse us as most species with your level of technology possess hyperdrives."
"Yes well when Tanneth escaped us after our first encounter we monitored the means by which he escaped and discovered that hyperspace propulsion was superior to our current methods. We have since been modifying our warp engines to allow us to travel in hyperspace as well – those alterations have now been completed. However we do not want to take unnecessary chances – our experiences with transwarp corridors, soliton waves and quantum slipstream drives have shown us that any new propulsion technology should be rigorously tested. So to avoid risking the Resolution unnecessarily we've also modified the warp engines on one of our Scimitar-class fighters and are going to use that ship for our initial test runs."
"Ah I see a wise precaution," Thor replied.
The turbolift stopped at that moment and the doors opened to the short corridor that connected the turbolift to one of the two access points to conference room one. The other was located on the bridge itself.
"This way," Darien instructed leading Thor along the short corridor to the conference room.
Thor was impressed with the conference room once he was inside it. The most startling feature of the room was the windows that took up the whole of one wall. Through them it was possible to see part of Tollana as it rotated lazily around it axis while floating silent in the star dappled blackness of space. The other main features of the room were the large conference table that filled the room surrounded by comfortable Human-style chairs and one custom replicated Asgard style seat, and a large glass case along the wall opposite the windows. The case contained a large gold-coloured incredibly detailed model of the ship.
"Please be seated," Darien said moving to his normal place at the head of the table. Commander Urlet also moved to her customary place on the right hand side of her captain. Thor moved to the Asgard seat on Darien's immediate left, Daniel moved to the chair immediately next to Thor.
Once everyone was seated comfortably Darien called the meeting to order.
"Well then Thor let us get down to business," he said to the Asgard fleet commander. "What exactly do your people want from us."
*****
Fighter Rapier
Twelve Minutes Later
Lieutenant Peter Buchannan gently eased the Scimitar-class attack fighter clear of the Resolution's main shuttle bay. Once clear he increased to two-thirds impulse power and the powerful brand new fighter shot clear of its mother vessel. He was exhilarated to be back out in space in the pilot's seat of a fighter – all of the fighter's three crew members were. True none of them minded their duties on the Resolution herself – nor did anyone else in their squadron – it was just good to be back out in open space.
Quickly he swung the Rapier around and did a flyby of the huge Sovereign-class starship that was their home base. As the powerful Scimitar fighter skimmed past one of the two massive engine nacelles – glowing with blue plasma energy – he couldn't help but think of how graceful the starship looked from out here – yet also how intimidatingly big she looked as well, especially from the perspective of a fighter pilot.
Then they were passed the Resolution and the Asgard battlecruiser Valkastner hung in space before them. Now that is one hell of a big ship, Peter thought as he also did a flyby on the Asgard warship. In terms of size and mass the O'Neill-class battlecruiser was roughly equal to a Romulan D'deridex-class Warbird though her firepower was considerably greater and her weapons were not as vulnerable to pinpoint targeting as Romulan disruptor arrays or plasma torpedo banks were. Peter wondered idly how the Dominion war would have gone if the Asgard of their universe – if they existed in their universe – had been at the Federations side. One thing was for certain it would have ended much sooner with a far smaller death toll – as it was a total of twelve billion had died on both sides in that war and the Cardassian homeworld had been reduced to a burnt cinder.
The communications channel came to life.
"Lieutenant Buchannan what are you doing," Lieutenant Commander Beech's voice said. With both Captain Parker and Commander Urlet busy in trade negotiations with Fleet Commander Thor he currently had command of the Resolution. "You are supposed to be testing the hyperdrive systems not performing flybys. This isn't a show for the brass."
"I know sir I'm sorry," Peter responded feeling his ears flame at the rebuke evident in Beech's tone. It was known that Christopher Beech was an officer who believed very much in following the rules and strict obedience to ones orders – it was partially due to his families military service heritage that dated back centuries to their service in the British Royal Navy and the sense of obligation and honour that came with such heritage. Peter on the other hand was the complete opposite – although a good pilot he came from a freethinking background that sometimes clashed with his Starfleet training.
"Good now get on with the job," Beech responded. "Before I have you put on report." Yikes, Peter thought he'd already been on report twice during his service on the Resolution – which was incidentally his first posting out of the academy – if he was put on report a third time then it wouldn't be Commander Urlet he would be dealing with, it would be Captain Parker. Darien Parker was a great guy but like all captains he didn't tolerate insubordination and could be very harsh to those officers who consistently showed that they couldn't follow orders. Peter didn't fancy being assigned menial duties – like cleaning the warp core plasma injectors or the impulse manifolds – and having his holodeck access blocked, it was limited as it was since he was a junior officer on a crew of eight hundred and fifty-five officers and enlisted personnel.
"Aye sir we'll go now."
"Good. I will keep this matter between us lieutenant I see no reason to bother Commander Urlet or Captain Parker with it – but I will speak with you later." Peter almost cringed knowing he was going to be in for a lecture when he got back. Before he could reply the channel closed with a beep.
"I guess you're going to get it," Lieutenant Shirr commented from the weapons console. Peter turned and glared at the insect-like humanoid.
"Shut up and check the weapons systems," Peter barked. "We could run into the Goa'uld and I would like us to be prepared to defend ourselves if we have to."
"I've already done so. Phasers are fully functional, ablative armour generators are fully operational so are the shield generators, and our battery of quantum torpedoes is ready should we need it."
"Okay." Peter turned to the Yuridian engineer Tark. "Are the modifications on line?"
"Yes." Peter turned back to the helm console and pulled up the first set of destination coordinates that had been provided by Lieutenant Rakan. It was for a barren, uninhabited system forty light years from their location. In hyperspace it should theoretically take them about ten minutes to get there.
"Then lets get this done," he said to the air. "Course for test system laid in. Engaging hyperdrive." Their was a flare of sound from the warp core but instead of leaping to warp speed a hyperspace window opened directly in front of the Rapier and immediately they disappeared inside the window closing behind them.
*****
Conference Room One
U.S.S Resolution
Ten Minutes Later
"Then we have an agreement," Thor said to Captain Parker. The negotiations for the plans for the energy dissipater weapon had gone remarkably smoothly. What Captain Parker wanted in return was quiet reasonable – and that was Asgard help in finding away to get his ship back to its proper universe and time. It would be a challenge to his peoples astrophysicists Thor knew but it was a reasonable price to pay for being given the plans for the weapon that could give the Asgard victory in the Replicator War – a war that they were currently losing. "In exchange for the plans for the energy dissipater cannon our scientists will work on finding away to return your ship to its proper universe and time," he continued.
"Yes Thor we have an agreement," Darien Parker replied with a warm smile. "I will have Lieutenant Wu transmit the plans for the energy dissipater to your ship along with all the information we have on the quantum fissure that brought us here."
"Very well then," Thor replied. "If we have no other business then I request that you return me to the Valkastner immediately. It is imperative that I take the plans for the dissipater weapon to the High Council immediately."
"Of course Thor I understand that Dr Jackson did explain the details of the Replicator/Asgard war to me." Daniel inclined his head in acknowledgement as Captain Parker spoke. "Commander Urlet will take you back to the transporter room." Thor stood up from his chair and Commander Urlet did the same. Thor bowed his head to Captain Parker – he was really coming to like the Federation captain just like he liked Colonel O'Neill. Then he turned and followed Commander Urlet out of the room.
Daniel Jackson watched Thor leave the room. He was glad to see the Asgard so happy – the acquiring of the energy dissipater weapons could be the single greatest acquisition that the Asgard had ever made. For it was an acquisition that could save them and the rest of the universe from the mechanical terror of the Replicators.
"That went well," Darien commented. Daniel looked over at the Teal'c sized Starfleet captain.
"I expected it to," Daniel replied. "You do not know how desperate the Asgard war against the Replicators has become. So far all their attempts to stop the Replicators have failed. But now you've given them access to a form of weapons technology that is as lethal to the Replicators as neutron bombs are to organic beings."
"The Asgard were starting to become desperate?" Darien asked suddenly worried that the Asgard might not keep their word about having their scientists help his people find away home.
"I wouldn't exactly say desperate," Daniel replied. "But they were starting to get seriously worried and so were we. For if the Asgard go then so does the Protected Planets Treaty which protects Earth and a number of other planets from attack by the Goa'uld. If the Asgard were to be defeated by the Replicators and the System Lords learned of it then they wouldn't hesitate to attack and either annex or destroy us all."
"Will the Asgard keep their word about helping my people Daniel," Darien asked.
"Of course they will," Daniel replied. "When the Asgard make a promise to someone then they honour it no matter what it costs them. Thor has promised you his peoples help in finding away back to your own time and universe – the Asgard will honour that promise. And if anyone can help you get back to your home then the Asgard can they are after all a very ancient, wise and powerful race." Darien leaned back in his chair.
"I hope your right," he said softly.
"I know that I am," Daniel replied.
Ten minutes later the Asgard cruiser Valkastner left orbit of Tollana and went into hyperspace on a direct course for the Asgard homeworld.