Rating:PG-13

Chapter 12 - Countdown

December 2004, Verona

Dawn watched as the detonations of naquadah spread to all directions from the stargate and ran to the ship's communication panel."Activate the shield!"

"What's going on?" asked the technician who was currently on duty in the mine's control room.

"Don't ask and do it!" Dawn yelled.

The man did what he was told and a golden Goa'uld shield established around the Veronian city.

"Will it hold?" Xander wanted to know.

"I have no idea." Dawn answered. "It's the same type of shield Gulnar installed on Antara to protect his bases. We just copied it and never tested how much it can withstand. Another problem is the shield reaches only hundred meters under the surface. Let's hope it's enough. The most naquadah is on the first continent so the effect shouldn't be so strong near the city but the villages are not under the shield and the people in there have no chance to survive the radiation. Fortunatelly most Veronians are in the city because of the Autumn Festival." Dawn stopped her estimations when she realized that Kalim went to visit his parents that morning.

Xander realized the same thing and hug Dawn."I'm sorry. I know he is in one of the villages."

"The energy wave is reaching the shield now." Vi informed the others. "Sixty percent energy loss but the shield is intact and the sensors show only a slight increase of radiation inside the covered area."

Everybody fetched a sight of relief but their feelings soon changed to anger when they realized that over three hundred people in the villages were dead. "We have to get the Veronians away from the planet as soon as possible. We don't know how long the shield will hold." Vi informed the others.

"Let's use the rings to transport them to the ships." Kennedy suggested.

"We can't." Dawn shook her head. "It would take hundreds of transports and the shield would have to deactivate every time. Even though it would be turned off only for several microseconds the time would be enough to let a deadly dose of radiation inside. We need another solution."

"OK." Kennedy nodded. "You'll try whatever is necessary to save the Veronians while we will take care of the other thing."

"The other thing?" Xander asked.

"Tauri."

January 2005, Colorado Springs, SGC, Earth (Tauri), follows the prologue

Jack was the first one to wake up in the conference room and looked around. The last thing he remembered was the Iris blowing up. He couldn't see any signs of their attackers so he tried to stand up but he realized he was tied to a chair with his arms behind his back. The other members of his team and General Hammond were tied next to him but other then that everything looked perfectly normal. No burning fires or damaged equipment. Jack wondered why the attackers left the base and didn't kill the personnel.

Computer voice: Three minutes to the auto-destruction of the base. You have three minutes to cancel the countdown.

'That's why'. Jack realized and strained his muscles to get rid of the ropes without success."Carter! Teal'c! Daniel !" He yelled at his team .

Carter and Teal'c seemed to be slowly regaining consciousness and Sam turned to her CO. "What happened Sir?"

"We have a little problem." Jack explained turning his head towards the computer.

Sam saw the time on one of the screens."We need two officers to cancel the countdown but these computers don't have a voice recognition module so we have to enter our codes manually." Carter informed the others.

"Which means we have to get out of these chairs." Jack added and tried to break the ropes once more. "Teal'c! Are you and junior strong enough to get rid of the rope?"

Teal'c closed his eyes and concentrated. He yank on the rope but it stayed intact. " I'm afraid I'm unable to free myself O'Neill."

Computer voice: Two minutes to the auto-destruction of the base. People from your planet are responsible for the death of two our soldiers. Their names were Lin and Tsu. You killed them to acquire technology you have no right to possess. You have two minutes to cancel the countdown.

Various pictures of two dead women started to appear on the computer screens as well as pictures of bullets they were killed with. Jack immediately recognized the ammunition for MP5.

Jack tried to jerk himself so he could move the chair towards the table and he managed to get to it but his hands were to low to reach the keyboard. Daniel and General Hammond woke up and started trying to free themselves.

Teal'c yank on the rope once more. The rope didn't break however the chair proved weaker then expected and it's back cracked. Teal'c stood up and backed to a drawer where he knew was a knife. He picked it up ,used it to cut the rope and ran to free the others.

After Teal'c helped them General Hammond and Carter rushed to the controls to enter their codes. They both wrote them and expected the countdown to end but nothing happened.

"They must have changed the codes Sir." Carter informed the General. "And the system is not responding to my commands. I can try something but it will take time which we don't have."

Computer voice: One minute to the auto-destruction of the base. Your people are responsible for the death of three hundred and twenty-one people on the planet Verona. The bomb you sent there ruined the most of the surface on the planet and almost destroyed the whole civilization. You have one minute to ... No. You don't have a chance to stop it. You don't even deserve the chance.

Pictures of Lin and Tsu disappeared and were replaced by photos from Verona before and after the explosion.

"Jack, Teal'c and Daniel go to the bomb and try to disable it manually." Hammond ordered. "Major? Will you be able to cancel the countdown?"

Carter was desperately entering one override code after another. "I'm afraid no Sir. Whoever modified our programs knew exactly what he was doing."

Hammond looked at the pictures on their screens. Destroyed villages, burning forests and fields. 'You don't even deserve the chance.' echoed in his mind. More then three hundred people.'If there is a God he definitely isn't on our side now.'

Jack, Teal'c and Daniel ran towards the room where the bomb was situated meeting a lot of unconscious soldiers who were tied up more or less the same way as SG-1 used to be two minutes ago. They would take care of their injuries later, now they had to stop the auto-destruction. Jack was the first to reach the door and stopped two meters in front of it, staring at it. His face reflected his feelings when he realized it was over. They had no chance to pass the massive steel door because it was melted together with the casing.

Computer voice: Four.

"We can't get to the bomb!" Jack yelled into his transmitter.

Computer voice: Three.

Carter tried another code without success.

Computer voice: Two.

General Hammond looked at the pictures again. 'You don't even deserve the chance.'

Computer voice: One.

Everybody held their breath expecting a fast death. The computer finished the countdown but nothing followed. After a few seconds Carter opened her eyes and looked at the computer.

"Major? What happened?" Hammond asked surprised he was still alive.

"I don't know Sir. The system is restarting. It's the standard boot sequence and all parameters seem to be normal." Carter frowned studying the screen.

"Carter!" Jack ran to the control room and hug her. "That's what I call good timing!"

"Uh. Thanks Sir but that wasn't me. I didn't do that and I'm not sure what saved us but it seems the detonation was programmed to stop."

"Programmed to stop?" Jack wondered. "Then what was this all about?"

General Hammond went to the window that separated the control room from the gateroom looking at the stargate and nodded. "I got the message."

End Chapter.

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