Destiny's Child
Chapter Sixteen
Royal Palace
Anubis Homeworld
Anubis sat on his throne in his private chambers trying to work out someway of dealing with the Federation warship that sat in orbit of Tollana. Direct assault didn't work - the Resolution's weapons were way to powerful and her shields impregnable - at least as far as he knew, and then their was the retractable armour that covered her hull in times of battle. Scans had indicated that it was almost indestructible. No direct assault was a bad idea - it had already cost him five motherships and with another being crippled. To send more would be just inviting Captain Parker to destroy them as well. And destroy them he could with even less effort than Anubis would expend swatting a fly. So he had to find another - less direct - way of dealing with that warship. He had to deal with her, before he revealed that he was back to the System Lords - when they found out Anubis knew there would be hell to pay. He would need every ship in his fleet to get them to accept his power and give him back his rank as System Lord and not send a combined armada to destroy him once and for all. But how?
A loud knock on the door to his private sanctum jolted him out of his thoughts. Anubis growled in irritation and behind his mask his eyes glowed in anger. He had given orders that he was not to be disturbed.
[Enter,] he called putting anger into the word, anger that would make any Jaffa or slave quiver in fear. In fact anyone in his court knew not to get on the wrong side of his temper, so no one provoked him.
The door opened and a terrified looking Jaffa came through, walked up to the foot of his gods throne and dropped to one knee, head bowed.
[What is it? And I warn you it had better be good,] Anubis growled angrily.
"Forgive me my lord for disturbing you but we have received an important message from Lord Zipacna."
[Well what is it?] This had better be good Zipacna, Anubis thought, or else your going to feel my wrath.
"My lord, Zipacna reports encountering, engaging and capturing a small craft of probably Federation origin." At the mention of the word Federation Anubis sat up more interested in the report.
[Go on.]
"The small Federation craft apparently put up considerable resistance. One of Lord Zipacna's two hatac-class motherships was destroyed by some sort of energy torpedo fired from the Federation vessel. His Shalkra-class mothership has been disabled by an identical weapon. However they succeeded in capturing the small vessel and its crew of three."
[Three.]
"Yes my lord. One Human, two unknown alien species. Lord Zipacna went on to say that he has begun an analysis of the captured vessel."
[Dispatch a mothership to Lord Zipacna's coordinates with repair equipment and supplies. They are to bring the captured Federation vessel and its crew to me immediately.]
"Yes my lord."
[Is their anything else?]
"There are two potential problems my lord. Just before it was captured the Federation vessel sent out a distress call on a very high subspace band - Lord Zipacna was barely able to detect it and hand no chance of jamming it. Also our long range scouts have just reported two Rashka-class motherships leaving the region of space controlled by Lord Yu on course for Zipacna's general area." Behind his mask Anubis grimaced slightly. Damn it that was the last thing he wanted. Not only did he have the potential for a Federation warship to show up and pound Zipacna's ships out of the sky, but he could have Lord Yu to deal with as well. What else can go wrong, Anubis thought, are the Asgard going to show up as well. An alliance between the Asgard and the Federation would be a nightmare for all Goa'uld. Their bad enough on their own. Together they'd be unstoppable.
[Dispatch three motherships to Lord Zipacna's position. Same orders as before. Dismissed.] The Jaffa stood and bowed.
"As you command my lord." With that the Jaffa left the chamber. Anubis leaned back in his throne and was intrigued by all the new possibilities he could see opening up, while simultaneously being worried by some of them as well.
*****
U.S.S Resolution
Orbiting Tollana, That Same Time
Daniel Jackson sat besides Sarah Gardner around the small table in the captain's private dining room off the main mess hall. Sitting across from them was Darien Parker and arranged on the table were a number of delicacies from a number of planets in Darien's home dimension. All three had full plates as they sat eating dinner and exchanging light conversation.
"So captain what's Earth like in your universe," Daniel asked taking a sip of replicated Romulan ale - like all replicated drinks it had no real alcohol in it instead it had synthohol - an artificial substitute that was almost impossible to distinguish in taste from normal alcohol. The only difference with synthohol was that you could drink until the cows came home and not get intoxicated.
"Darien please. I'm not on duty at the moment so theirs no need for you to use my rank," Darien replied with a smile. "To answer your question Earth in my universe is a paradise. There is no crime, no poverty, no war they were eliminated centuries ago. The weather control grid makes sure we don't get any of what you would term 'extreme' weather. We could interfere more with the planets natural weather patterns but we chose not to - we only interfere when the weather becomes dangerous. Such as if a tornado is forming the weather control satellites will immediately dissipate it. Other than that we don't interfere, so you still get snow in winter time and so on. Not that I've seen much of Earth."
"Your not from Earth?" Sarah asked.
"No. I was born on colony world; Malora II. The first time I saw Earth was when I was eighteen and going to Starfleet Academy in San Francisco."
"Oh. So what's your colony world like," Daniel asked.
"Malora II is a lovely planet. Like most Terran colonised worlds its an M-class planet. Located approximately a hundred light years from the Neutral Zone."
"Neutral Zone?"
"A one light year wide region of space. It's a kind of buffer in space between the Romulan Empire and the Federation. It was established over two centuries ago by the Treaty of Algeron that ended a war between Earth and Romulus. That war was one of the pivotal moments in our history - for shortly after the war ended Earth, Vulcan, Andoria and a couple of other worlds signed the treaty that created the Federation."
"So in essence the Federation was born out of the war between Earth and Romulus. Just like the United Nations was born out of the Second World War on Earth," Sarah said.
"Exactly. Initially the Federation was formed as a means of defence against aggressive species like the Romulans and Klingons. But it soon changed into the unique political, cultural, scientific and military alliance that it is today." Daniel looked a little thoughtful.
"You know something similar used to exist in this galaxy," he said. Both Darien and Sarah looked at Daniel inviting him to explain. "Eons ago their was an alliance of four great races in the galaxy, the Asgard, the Nox, the Furlings and the Ancients."
"Ancients who were they Daniel," Sarah asked interested.
"We don't know much about the Ancients," Daniel replied. "They vanished so long ago. What we do know is limited to aspects of their technology and knowledge. For example we know that it was the Ancients who built the Stargates despite Goa'uld claims to the contrary."
"The Goa'uld are scavengers," Sarah explained to Darien. "They invent little or nothing for themselves. They just take it from other races by force in the belief that they are gods. When their nothing but parasites." Before Darien could reply his combadge interrupted.
"Bridge to Captain Parker," Commander Urlet's voice said. Darien tapped his combadge.
"Yes commander?"
"Sir we've just received a distress call from the Rapier. It's badly garbled but from what we can make out they were under attack by the Goa'uld." Ugh oh, Daniel and Sarah thought simultaneously, if the Goa'uld - Anubis especially - have gotten their hands on the Rapier's technology then were all in trouble. Even the Asgard and they have enough on their plate dealing with the Replicators. All of this passed through their heads in the moment before Darien Parker responded to the news of the Goa'uld attack on the Rapier.
"Red alert," Darien ordered. "All hands to battle stations. Have Ensign Mills lay in a course for the origin of the distress call and bring the hyperdrive modifications online but have Lieutenant Barrett keep an eye on them. Launch the remaining five Scimitars and all our Runabouts they will remain here to protect Tollana. Advise High Chancellor Travell of what were doing."
"Aye sir." Darien turned to his two dinner guests as Commander Urlet signed off.
"Looks like were going to have to cut our dinner short," he said in a quiet ominous tone of voice. A tone of voice that heralded trouble for the Goa'uld. "I thought I'd implied to the Goa'uld that if they left me and my ships alone then I would leave them alone. It appears that I will have to teach them that lesson again. Excuse me." Then he stood up and left the room as klaxons began to wail throughout the ship and previously black status bars began to flash with crimson light.
"Looks like some Goa'uld is just going to landed with a mountain full of trouble," Daniel commented.
"Yes," Sarah agreed not hiding her glee at the prospect of yet another Goa'uld feeling the overwhelming might of Federation weapons fired in anger. It would be one less 'god' to pillage, enslave and generally be a plague on the universe. Daniel - although he generally disliked violence - nodded in agreement.
Barely five minutes later the Resolution veered out of orbit of Tollana and jumped into hyperspace on a direct course for the source of the Rapier's distress call, intent of rescuing any survivors from the Rapier and exacting retribution upon the Goa'uld behind the attack.