Chapter 8 – Heat

Jocelyn Stevens had been expecting a protest from O'Neill after her unilateral decision to proceed with the next stage of the journey, and was surprised when he didn't immediately intercede. However she was taken by surprise with his tactics.

"Take the same stations you had in the first run." she commanded to the five crew members, all strapped in at their flight deck positions. "We can do this: the tasks will be easier the second time round. There's no reason why we can't accomplish what we need to do in seven days instead of fifteen."

"Before we go there..... "said Jack, using the tone of voice that left no- one in doubt that he was the decision-maker of the moment, "As Safety Officer I'm calling a sixty-minute hold to review our priorities for the next seven days. Also we'll decide what additional safety measures will be mandatory as a result of working under pressure to this degree."

"That will not be necessary, O'Neill." Stevens came back at him. "We scientists understand the tasks at hand better than you. I'll not have us waste a whole hour getting under way. We shall proceed."

"So who do you think will be first to die in the rush to get things done?" asked O'Neill. "And how many others might that person take with him or her in consequence?"

The rest of the crew sat in stasis, all knowing that an open confrontation between the two had been brewing for a while. Everyone recognised that in the unspoken but unmistakeable way that these things happen, sides had already been taken. Stevens could count on Vittorio and Sonja – he because of his drive for the fame of completing a successful expedition and having his name associated with a significant scientific discovery: she because science was her all-consuming passion and her inbuilt regard for anyone in authority.

Jack had not sought but had gained the respect of Mohammad, who had come to see in the former military man a world-weary soul who used his experience to make sensible decisions, and who conducted himself with dignified self- assuredness. Celia on the other hand was openly in awe of the man, probably to the point of being in love with him, although her strict self-discipline would never permit her to confess the fact. Whether that love was for a father-figure who treated her with the kind of respect that she had never received in her adult life, or whether it was merely a crush on the person she worked alongside, no-one could determine, least of all the woman herself.

"Don't be overly dramatic." Stevens practically spat back at him. "You are wasting valuable time....."

"Nobody moves from this deck without having a clear understanding of the revised work plan for the next seven days." Jack stated calmly but firmly. "I have the right to enforce this according to our standing orders."

"Don't quote standing orders to me!" replied the captain, twisting round in her seat to stare at him. "This isn't one of your military escapades!"

"That's not the reason for doing it." continued Jack, unperturbed. "We're doing it because it's common sense and it will make us more productive. But most of all, we'll do it because I'm sure everyone wants to succeed with the scientific objectives and live to reap the rewards. Is there anyone here who doesn't agree with that?"

Stevens knew she couldn't go against that statement, and fumed at the way Jack had manoeuvred her into an impasse. The loud silence that ticked away was broken by Vittorio. "Actually, captain, the revised work plan that we discussed some time ago for this kind of eventuality can be put into operation."

Taking up the lifeline that he had thrown, she uttered "Agreed, Vittorio." After a short pause, she continued in a firmer voice "O'Neill, maintain station here in the flight cabin. Scientists, bring your laptops to the conference table and we'll make the revisions. But I want us under way asap, is that clear? It's costing nigh on a million dollars an hour for this voyage."

Jack caught sight of Celia Chen opening her mouth as if to make a protest, judging by the intense expression on her normally placid face, and said softly "Bi zuie, mei-mei."

She glanced sharply at him, but kept quiet as he'd requested.

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Elapsed time on board (ETOB): LD Plus 20. Elapsed time at origin (ETAO): LD Plus 22 days 14 hours

Jack's sleep patterns were developing into regular 'nights' of deep relaxation that lasted only three or four hours before he woke, unable to return to a state of unconsciousness however shallow. Each time his first waking thoughts were the same jumble of personal priorities: is the crew safe? Is everything functioning normally? What can I say to Carter in the next message? Can I keep my cool with Stevens? Then clarity of mind took over and while his Blue Shift colleagues Mohammad and Celia slept on for two or three more hours, he kept himself to himself, sometimes setting up his telescope and surreptitiously making a few of the recordings that he wasn't supposed to, merely logging the data on his personal computer instead of uploading them to the Prometheus' mainframe.

But he also took the time to simply look at the panorama outside the view port, either letting his eyes roam over the beauty of light patterns on the jet black canvas before him, or directing his telescope to one point or another that took his interest. In particular, the Andromeda spiral galaxy was visible to the naked eye in the kind of detail never seen from Earth, and it's mesmeric form held him in its sway. At moments like these, he knew just why he'd jumped at the chance to participate in this crazy adventure: the one constant comfort in his adult life had been his fascination with astronomy, a steadfast passion that had seen him through times of physical or emotional pain, as well as something to become absorbed in as a counterfoil to work-related pressures. Any number of amateur and professional astronomers would give anything to be where he was right now, regardless of the consequences.

'Regardless of the consequences.' he mused. How much had his despair at having loved and lost Carter contributed to his decision to come on this one-way trip? There was time enough for honesty now, and he had come to admit that it had been no small factor in making up his mind. But since it was also a time for absolute truth, he realised that it had not been the overwhelming reason. There was, he admitted to himself, the urgent desire not to retire gracefully to live a genteel life of fishing and drinking and getting fat. The wish that he could somehow re-live the exhilaration of the days of his SG-1 missions, when stepping into the unknown generated a feeling like no other, still lived within him like an everlasting ember. Promotion to the rank of General had robbed him of that way of life, replacing it with the gut-gnawing onus of responsibility for those following in his footsteps. Knowing too that his team had felt the same way: without thinking twice, they would live and die for each other. An adrenalin high? Better than sex? All those things, and yet none of them. It was the unique thrill of adventure that had lured certain people throughout history, the drug that he had been addicted to.

Since Stevens had ruled out any non-essential tasks as part of the work plan on this leg of the trip – including his own observations of stellar luminosity as part of the amateur astronomers' project – his own daily routine now consisted solely of housekeeping duties, assisting the others in their experiments when requested and of course, his routine safety inspections.

The sounds from Chen waking to start her own morning routine brought Jack's mind back to the present. The two of them were sleeping in the Bio-pod, while Mohammad preferred to rest on board Prometheus. He secured the telescope and made his way down to the growing decks to gather ripe strawberries and soya beans to transport back to the mother ship to augment the communal meal: breakfast for Blue Shift, supper for Red Shift. A challenge to an unconventional cook, with Vittorio being voted the most adept at making the most of the ingredients.

By the time he returned to the domestic and observation area of the Bio- pod, Chen was seated at the communications console and turned to greet him with a warm smile. "Sonja's on her way in the mini-pod." she said. "ETA in about twenty minutes." The mini-pod could complete the forty kilometre journey from Prometheus in less time than that if required, but to conserve fuel in its thruster jets and to avoid accidents if the Mylar plastic of the Bio-pod hull were to be approached and impacted at too high a speed, a sedate journey was the norm. Chen pushed the button to light up their flashing nav beacons, so that its position was more obvious to the approaching pilot.

Forty minutes later, Meyer had successfully docked the mini-pod and sealed the interconnecting airlock, having spent fifteen minutes after arrival conducting the daily inspection of the ice nose cone with the mini-pod's surveillance camera and spectrograph. The camera could show up any impact tracks better than the human eye and the spectrograph was the tell-tale if any residual foreign elements had been deposited on the shield from the ultra-thin debris of outer space.

"So, how are things in Red Shift?" asked Jack as Chen helped Sonja remove her space-suit helmet. "Coffee?"

Her reply took him slightly by surprise, as Meyer was normally the most predictable of people, her constant self-discipline rarely giving others an insight into her feelings. Yet now, she was a little hesitant in replying.

"Ya, they are as OK as one could expect on such a voyage." she said, reaching for the proffered cup. Even Celia looked up at her response.

Jack hesitated before probing further. "Er, anything unusual?" Seeing her instinctive reaction to clam up, he knew immediately that Chen was the more likely to elicit any information from her colleague. He turned his head to look at the entry hatch to the growing decks, and feigned realisation that he had to go back for something important. "Never mind. I've left something back in the hydroponics beds. You carry on. I won't be long." He loped away in the reduced gravity and closed the hatch behind him, raising his eyebrow at Chen as he went, and seeing in return her understanding of the situation.

"Sonja, what's wrong? Anything you can tell me?" said Chen softly.

Meyer stared into her coffee cup. "This goes no further, OK Celia? I don't want to stir things up with Jos."

Chen nodded in replying, hoping that Meyer would not notice the open intercom channel where Jack would be listening from the other deck.

"There's something going on between Jos and Vittorio." Sonja continued. "No, not like that!" she smiled at Celia's momentarily raised eyebrows. "Though God knows, he'll be trying it on with her after you and I both told him to go to hell. No, this is stranger than that. I was monitoring the life-support systems and noticed that the CO2 absorption unit has fluctuated in efficiency since we started this run in normal space-time. I traced the cause back to the power input and that was the big surprise."

"Has the atmosphere quality declined because the unit is performing irregularly?" asked Chen.

"Not noticeably." replied Meyer. "But when I started to interrogate the data stream on generator output, I noticed that the naquadria reactor has been running hotter than the design temperature. I started to look back at data from the first normal-space run when Vittorio and Jos came in and stopped me from continuing the trace. They said that they knew all about the temperature variations and that it was well inside the design limits of the reactor. Well, I would have left it like that, but the captain said it would be better if I didn't mention this to O'Neill, because she didn't want any more delays from taking excessive precautions, and Vittorio agreed with her."

"Well, we know she doesn't like Jack." said Celia. "But she wouldn't do anything to put the mission at risk, would she? They must know that it is operating normally."

"My first inclination as to believe them, and so I discontinued the trace and got on with my work." said Sonja. "But later, I started to think that this is not the correct way. We all know that Jos wants success more than anything, so maybe her attitude towards Jack is natural. But that data..... I saw that someone had modified the monitoring program to highlight abnormal temperatures. They have been aware of this anomaly for at least a week now, and are not sharing this knowledge with the rest of us. Why would that be?"

"As you say, it is probably to avoid further debate about safety restrictions." Chen mused. She looked closely at her friend, who seemed less composed than normal. "But is that the only reason for your concern, Sonja? You seem distracted about something else."

Meyer took a deep breath. "It's my mother." she sighed. "Her daily messages to me are getting more emotional. At first, she wanted only to support my success in getting accepted for this mission. But now, she seems sad and anxious about the fact that we could be gone for twenty years of Earth time. She keeps repeating how she may die before we meet again. I too am considering whether it will be worth such a price. I may decide to exercise my right to be taken off the ship before we make the final high-speed jumps with extreme time dilation. We all have that option, don't we? Are you going through with it in full, including the time dilation?"

Celia 'accidentally' turned off the intercom with her elbow. "If Jack does, then yes, I am too."

"Ah!" breathed Sonja, a smile creeping across her face.

In the warm, humid atmosphere of the growing decks, Jack realised just what he had to talk to Sam about on his next personal recording. After all, she had designed the reactor originally, hadn't she?

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The surprise news in Jack's personal recording had caused Sam to play it through twice, and not for the usual reason of just being able to see and hear him. His final warning not to disclose the fact of the higher reactor temperature to the mission directors until they had exchanged messages about it had been unexpected, but was in line with her own desire to check the details and hypotheses for herself.

That was the puzzle, she thought. The current design of naquadria reactor had overcome the known hazards of this highly unstable extra-terrestrial element. Dampening fields contained within the trinium-lined inner casing had eliminated temperature and broad-band energy output fluctuations under extreme loadings, whether it was powering a single light bulb or an aircraft carrier. At present the Prometheus' generator was running at only ten percent of its full capacity, and the temperature should have been rock steady. But zero point two degrees on the last run and an average of two degrees above normal on this run should just not be happening.

Instead of retiring to bed, she booted up her home pc and settled in for an unscheduled night of number-crunching. Jack had talked in his previous message about the thrill of exploring the unknown, and she had begun to glimpse just from his few phrases his deep love affair with the stars. And it had only made matters worse for her. Having taken the plunge and confessed her love for him, only to be shaken up by his enigmatic acceptance of it and simultaneous rejection of the possibilities of getting together, she found that she now longed for him in a manner that bordered on obsession. Unhealthy obsession, as she had actually been contemplating what it would be like to wait twenty years, and wondering whether she had any alternative – whether, indeed, she wanted any alternative if she couldn't find a way of joining him on board before the asymmetric aging effects took hold to any serious degree.

Loading old files that she'd worked on in developing the naquadria reactor from her backup data CD's, she commenced her study by listing the known relevant facts concerning the Prometheus reactor and their attendant consequences if found to be (a) true or (b) false, and attached probability factors to them. Then by the second pot of coffee, she had assembled the various theories into groups and began to study each in detail. Dawn had broken and the sounds of the morning rush hour had failed to penetrate her concentrated study when the first inklings of the unimaginable stirred within her conscience.

A theory, no a possibility – hell, a probability that something so fundamental could have been overlooked by her, by McKay, by everyone, and yet was so apparent to anyone who understood Einstein's masterpiece: e equals m c squared. Energy is mass multiplied by the speed of light twice.

The Prometheus astronauts were carrying a time bomb. The irony and double meaning of the words made her blood rush. But that steadied her, and she recalled the feeling from her SG-1 days when imminent catastrophe had so clearly brought out the characteristics and actions that she and her team- mates had been chosen for. She was instantly at one with the understanding of why Jack had accepted this mission, and unknowingly reached the same conclusions that he had about the truth of their lives together: they were a synergetic couple, and nothing would stand in the way of her attempts to get back to him.

If he and the rest of the crew lived long enough.

She forced herself to record a personal message back to him before rushing off to the SGC, her sole objective being to make contact with the Asgard.

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